Installation

fw-heudiconv can be run in the Flywheel GUI as a gear, or locally using the Command Line Interface distributed using pip. flaudit can only be run in the Flywheel GUI.

Note

FlywheelTools are intended for use with a Flywheel site. At the University of Pennsylvania, our site is available at upenn.flywheel.io.

To use locally, follow instructions below to set up your system for using fw-heudiconv on your machine:

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Install & start up Miniconda

First, get a package management system. Recommended is miniconda (conda): Conda quickly installs, runs and updates packages and their dependencies.

https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html.

You can check if you have this successfully by going to the terminal and doing:

$ which conda [macOS]

Start a virtual environment

Use miniconda to create a virtual environment, a restricted workspace where your programs and processes can operate without affecting everything on your computer. Create an environment called flywheel, in the terminal:

$ conda create -n flywheel anaconda python=3

At the prompt for which packages to install, type y and hit enter. It’s better to have them all, and they will not take up a lot of space on your machine:

:
:
:
$ wurlitzer          pkgs/main/osx-64::wurlitzer-1.0.2-py37_0
$ xlrd               pkgs/main/osx-64::xlrd-1.2.0-py37_0
$ xlsxwriter         pkgs/main/noarch::xlsxwriter-1.1.8-py_0
$ xlwings            pkgs/main/osx-64::xlwings-0.15.8-py37_0
$ xlwt               pkgs/main/osx-64::xlwt-1.3.0-py37_0
$ xz                 pkgs/main/osx-64::xz-5.2.4-h1de35cc_4
$ yaml               pkgs/main/osx-64::yaml-0.1.7-hc338f04_2
$ zeromq             pkgs/main/osx-64::zeromq-4.3.1-h0a44026_3
$ zict               pkgs/main/noarch::zict-1.0.0-py_0
$ zipp               pkgs/main/noarch::zipp-0.5.1-py_0
$ zlib               pkgs/main/osx-64::zlib-1.2.11-h1de35cc_3
$ zstd               pkgs/main/osx-64::zstd-1.3.7-h5bba6e5_0


$ Proceed ([y]/n)?

Activate your environment, so that any packages you install or use stay restricted to this project:

$ source activate flywheel

Download fw-heudiconv from pip

The fw-heudiconv code is hosted on pip: pip is a standard package-management system used to install and manage software packages written in Python

Pip should be installed with your new environment, but you can ensure you have it by running:

$ which pip

Now, use pip to install fw-heudiconv:

$ pip install fw-heudiconv

Download the Flywheel SDK & CLI

You will need to download the flywheel software development kit in order to use fw-heudiconv. Follow the instructions here to install, or run:

$ pip install flywheel-sdk

The flywheel CLI allows fw-heudiconv (or any other program you write) to communicate with Flywheel’s database. Follow their instructions here to download and login.

Once installed and logged in, you should see your username when you run the following:

$ fw status
$ You are currently logged in as Tinashe Tapera to https://upenn.flywheel.io

Updating fw-heudiconv

If you already have fw-heudiconv and wish to update to the latest version, just run:

$ pip install --upgrade fw-heudiconv

Appendix — fw-heudiconv-validate

fw-heudiconv-validate is a convenience tool that wraps the official Bids Validator and pipes the output of fw-heudiconv-export to it. It’s most useful for validating Flywheel data through a gear on the GUI.

To use fw-heuduiconv-validate on your local machine, you need to install node.js. This is not necessary, however, and instead you are welcome to use fw-heudiconv-validate on your Flywheel site, or, use fw-heudiconv-export to export data first, and then use the official Bids Validator available here.