.. _introGUI:

The graphical User-Interface
==================================

A portable GUI to easily transfer cross-link data files and help users focusing on experimental work is the main idea behind CroCo.
However, usage of the modules inside Python-scripts is possible (and documented at :ref:`crocoread` and :ref:`crocowrite`).

General usage
=============

 - Download the compiled GUI from https://github.com/cschmidtlab/CroCo/releases/latest
    - If your OS is not supported you can still try `Starting the CroCo GUI from Python`_.
 - Start the programme
    - If Windows complains about the non-verified origin of the programme, acknowledge and continue
 - You should see something like the following

 .. figure:: _static/img/crocoGUI.png
    :align: center
    :alt: The CroCO GUI
	
    The CroCo GUI

 - In the ``Input`` and ``Output`` dropdown menus, choose a format and select a directory or one or multiple files.
    - the Start button will only be available once both formats are set and files are selected
 - If you selected multiple files for input you can use the ``Merge files`` and ``Same settings for all files`` checkboxes
    - ``Same settings for all files`` lets you chose only one set of options (e.g. necessary additional files) that will be used for all files. If the box is unchecked, you will get a separate prompt for each file selected.
    - ``Merge files`` concatenates the tables for all selected files and generates the output from the concatenated table
 - CroCo transfers all information found in the input files into the generated xTable files. If you want to restrict the xTable headers to the minimum columns necessary, you can choose ``Compact xTable``
 - Click on ``Start``
 - Depending on your choice of input and output formats, CroCo may require additional information. Therefore a second window may pop up.
    - Detailed information on how to enter format-specific information can be found at :ref:`crocoread` and :ref:`crocowrite`.

Starting the CroCo GUI from Python
==================================
 - Clone the CroCo repository from https://github.com/cschmidtlab/CroCo.git
    - If you're not familiar with github, download and extract the latest version of the CroCo source code from https://github.com/cschmidtlab/CroCo/archive/master.zip
 - Install Python 3+
    - The easiest way is usually to use anaconda Python (https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/)
    - Install the required python packages for CroCo (see requirements.txt in the CroCo root directory) either via ``pip install PACKAGE`` or via ``conda install PACKAGE``
 - Open a Python-aware command-line
    - On Windows, use Anaconda Prompt or cmd.exe if you exported Python to your OS PATH-Variable
 - Navigate to ``CroCo/src``
 - Start the GUI by typing ``python croco_wx.py``