[ome-users] script repository

[Martin Spitaler]

Dear all,

   following up on our discussion in Paris, where a request was made to 
have an online script repository, where all the exciting developments 
can be exchanged: The OMERO team pointed out that there was a place 
somewhere on the website for this purpose, with only one submission over 
the last 4 years, and I remembered having seen it before, but when I 
checked today, it confirmed why I had forgotten about it, and why I'm 
clearly not the only one: From the main website, I couldn't find my way 
back, checking all the obvious links:
- PRODUCTS / OMERO - no scripts
- PRODUCTS / OMERO / DOWNLOADS - no scripts
- COMMUNITY / FORUMS - no scripts
- SITE MAP - no scripts

Only when I remembered that it was called something with 'code', I 
discovered it at the bottom of community forums (although on the site 
map, even searching for code wasn't successful).

  I think what users really meant yesterday when they were saying 
'something like ImageJ plugins' is that when we need a new functionality 
for ImageJ, we go to the main website, and right it's right there, the 
PLUGIN folder, just after the downloads, with all the detailed 
information for each.

  So I suggest to do exactly that: Make a menu entry on the main OMERO 
page called 'scripts', which links to all available scripts, whether 
they come from the OMERO team or other users. Please do NOT call it 
anything like 'code sharing', because that's the best way to stop any 
non-programmer from going there. What a biologist wants is a solution to 
a problem, WITHOUT any knowledge of the code behind. 'Plugin' would be 
best name, a familiar term (with a note that it needs to be installed by 
the system administrator), but if you feel that's not appropriate, 
'script' will do. Once that's sorted, I think an appeal on the 
Confocallist for script uploads would be appropriate. Maybe an 
additional link COMMUNITY / SCRIPTS (to the same page) wouldn't do any harm.

   I know many scripts won't work straight away without tweaking on a 
different installation, but that's not any different from the pre-FIJI 
days of ImageJ plugins. I'm sure requests by interested users from 
across the world will encourage the original authors to make it work.

   Remember: If the user can't find the information, no matter how good 
it is and how good the intention and hard work of the people behind it, 
it's just as if it didn't exist.

Good luck,

Martin
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Martin Spitaler, PhD*

*FILM - Facility for Imaging by Light Microscopy*
- Facility Manager -
Sir Alexander Fleming Building, desk 401
Imperial College London / South Kensington
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2AZ
UK

Tel. +44-(0)20-759-42023
E-mail m.spitaler at imperial.ac.uk <mailto:m.spitaler at imperial.ac.uk>
Website: http://imperial.ac.uk/imagingfacility

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