NWB Zarr Format

A Record Engine plugin for the Open Ephys GUI based on the Neurodata Without Borders 2.X specification. It stores data in Zarr files instead of HDF5.

Disclaimer: This plugin is still under development, and should not be used for experiments.

Building from source

First, follow the instructions on this page to build the Open Ephys GUI.

This plugin depends on the OpenEphysZarrLib common library. Make sure you build and install that first before you proceed with building this plugin.

Then, clone this repository into a directory at the same level as the plugin-GUI, e.g.:

Code
├── plugin-GUI
│   ├── Build
│   ├── Source
│   └── ...
├── OEPlugins
│   └── nwb-zarr-format
│       ├── Build
│       ├── Source
│       └── ...

Windows

Requirements: Visual Studio and CMake

From the Build directory, enter:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 ..

Next, launch Visual Studio and open the OE_PLUGIN_nwb-zarr-format.sln file that was just created. Select the appropriate configuration (Debug/Release) and build the solution.

Selecting the INSTALL project and manually building it will copy the .dll and any other required files into the GUI's plugins directory. The next time you launch the GUI from Visual Studio, NWB-ZARR should appear as an data format option in the Record Node.

Linux

Requirements: CMake

From the Build directory, enter:

cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" ..
cd Debug
make -j
make install

This will build the plugin and copy the .so file into the GUI's plugins directory. The next time you launch the compiled version of the GUI, NWB-ZARR should appear as an data format option in the Record Node.

macOS

Requirements: Xcode and CMake

From the Build directory, enter:

cmake -G "Xcode" ..

Next, launch Xcode and open the nwb-format.xcodeproj file that now lives in the “Build” directory.

Running the ALL_BUILD scheme will compile the plugin; running the INSTALL scheme will install the .bundle file to /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/open-ephys/plugins-api8. NWB-ZARR should now appear as an data format option in the Record Node.