Re: How to know if a file is supported by imageJ without preloading?

Posted by Glen MacDonald-2 on Feb 13, 2010; 12:00am
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/How-to-know-if-a-file-is-supported-by-imageJ-without-preloading-tp3689405p3689410.html

Thanks for this capability.  
Glen

Glen MacDonald
Core for Communication Research
Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center
Box 357923
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7923  USA
[phone]
[hidden email]








On Feb 12, 2010, at 1:30 PM, Curtis Rueden wrote:

> Hi Bill,
>
> Are these supported in the macro language?
>>
>
> The latest trunk build of the LOCI Tools (r5910) adds an "isThisTypeFast"
> macro function for calling isThisType with open set to false. Here is a
> macro demonstrating usage:
>
> run("Bio-Formats Macro Extensions");
> name = "/Users/curtis/data/101"; // an extensionless QuickTime movie
> Ext.isThisType(name, thisType);
> Ext.isThisTypeFast(name, thisTypeFast);
> print("name = " + name);
> print("thisType = " + thisType); // will print "thisType = true"
> print("thisTypeFast = " + thisTypeFast); // will print "thisTypeFast =
> false"
>
> -Curtis
>
> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 11:54 AM, Bill Mohler <[hidden email]>wrote:
>
>> Great move!
>>
>> Are these supported in the macro language?
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bill
>>
>> Curtis Rueden wrote:
>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> As others have pointed out there are methods in both ImageJ and BioFormats
>>>
>>>
>>>> to determine whether a file can be read, the problem is that they have to
>>>> read the files to determine this, and in some cases they can take a long
>>>> time to return.  I found that big compressed archive files could take
>>>> tens
>>>> of seconds to return, which is unusably long if you're only trying to
>>>> decide
>>>> what icon to use.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> It is worth mentioning that we have since improved the Bio-Formats file
>>> type
>>> recognition. You can now choose whether to allow Bio-Formats to examine
>>> the
>>> file's contents or not.
>>>
>>> If speed is paramount, call with the open flag set to false:
>>> boolean supported =  r.isThisType(filename, false);
>>>
>>> This will decide based solely on filename and possibly directory
>>> structure.
>>>
>>> If accuracy is more important, call with the default (open=true):
>>> boolean supported =  r.isThisType(filename);
>>>
>>> This will decide based on filename if possible, but examine the file
>>> contents as needed, which as Simon mentions can take more time (though we
>>> have made an effort to keep the time requirements as minimal as possible).
>>>
>>> -Curtis
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 6:32 AM, Simon Andrews <[hidden email]
>>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 08/02/2010 14:37, Juanjo Vega wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hello everybody,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm developing a new plugin and I need a way to know when a file is
>>>>> supported by imageJ.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm implementing a browser with a preview and the idea is to know when a
>>>>> file is supported or not to show one or another icon. The main idea is
>>>>> to use something like: "isASupportedFileType(): boolean", so new file
>>>>> types will return "true" when a new plugin will be added.
>>>>>
>>>>> Right now I'm filtering items by their extension and that's not cool at
>>>>> all =P
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> That may not be cool but actually it's the only practical way to do it.
>>>> I
>>>> went through this when I was developing our image browser.  As others
>>>> have
>>>> pointed out there are methods in both ImageJ and BioFormats to determine
>>>> whether a file can be read, the problem is that they have to read the
>>>> files
>>>> to determine this, and in some cases they can take a long time to return.
>>>> I
>>>> found that big compressed archive files could take tens of seconds to
>>>> return, which is unusably long if you're only trying to decide what icon
>>>> to
>>>> use.
>>>>
>>>> If you wanted to go that way you could set a timer on the call and have
>>>> an
>>>> 'unknown' icon if it look too long to determine perhaps?
>>>>
>>>> Simon.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> .
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> William A. Mohler
>> Associate Professor
>> Dept. of Genetics and Developmental Biology
>> University of Connecticut Health Center
>> MC-3301
>> 263 Farmington Ave.
>> Farmington, CT   06030-3301
>>
>> [hidden email]
>> *Mobile: [phone]*
>> alt. mobile: [phone]
>> skype: wmohler
>>
>> Office: [phone], room E2029
>> Lab: [phone], room E2032
>> Fax: [phone]
>>
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>> P Think before you print
>>