Slicer3:Remote Data Handling

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Remote I/O for Slicer3

vtkMRMLStorageNode methods for handling remote data (for loading and saving data for interactive use)

Load Scene, Import Scene, and Add Data options in Slicer all encapsulate two steps:

• locating a dataset, usually accomplished through a file browser, and
• selecting a dataset to initiate loading.

For loading remote datasets, we have options for breaking these two steps apart explicitly, or binding them together under the hood.

Breaking apart find data and load data:

Possible workflow A

• User downloads .xcat or .xml (MRML) file to disk using the HID or an XNAT web interface
• From the Load Scene file browser, user selects the .xcat or .xml archive. If no locally cached versions exist, each remote file listed in the archive is downloaded to /tmp directory (always locally cached) by the Download Manager, and then loaded into Slicer via a vtkMRMLStorageNode method when download is complete.

Possible workflow B

• User downloads .xcat or .xml (MRML) file to disk using the HID or an XNAT web interface
• From the Load Scene file browser, user selects the .xcat or .xml archive. If no locally cached versions exist, each remote file in the archive is downloaded to /tmp (only if a flag is set) by the Download Manager, and loaded directly into Slicer via a vtkMRMLStorageNode method when download is complete.

Bundlng together find data and load data:

--- just thinking here -- not cooked yet.

Possible workflow 1

• From the Load Scene file browser, user types in a uri of remote mrml file.
• MRML Scene's Connect method retrieves the remote file, caches it locallly if requested, parses the file, and

Possible workflow 2

• From a 'revised' Add Data interface, user performs remote HID query for available data