0.0 Basic Rodan maneuverability
Note
This wiki is under construction, and more information will be added over the coming months and throughout the Winter 2024-Summer 2024 semesters. Please check back in over time. Until then, for specific explanations and details about jobs in Rodan, please visit the following site: https://ddmal.music.mcgill.ca/e2e-omr-documentation/tutorial/getting-started.html . Be sure to read the overview fully as well, and the section labelled 'tips'. The information contained here is in depth, along with some directions- for most cases a basic user seeking to learn and use Rodan for the first time will not need to know some of this information, but if you are curious it is available.
This document is to supplement and expand the existing documentation which can be found at the E2E documentation page.
This document is still in its creation and editing phase. Priority is clarity. There are undoubtedly some formatting and spelling issues, which are being reviewed and flagged as the work progresses. If anything is unclear, or egregiously misspelled (etc.), please don't hesitate to raise an issue. Thank you! (2024-03-04).
Welcome to Rodan! This section will detail everything you see on the landing page once you have made an account. As of 2024-02-22, make sure you're using the rodan2.simssa.ca URL.
Once you've logged in, the first thing you'll see is the following image:
As you can see, this page currently has an existing project, but for making a new project (or your first one), you'll want to click on the Create new Project button in the top right corner. This will automatically populate an untitled project onto your screen. Double click onto the row, and you'll be taken to your project page.
Your project page is where the bulk of your resources, notes, and workflows will be found. You can rename your project in the top right corner, under the 'Project Details' box, and leave a description if you like. This is useful as a 'note to self' space to keep track of run projects, failures, and things to remember for next time.
It is strongly recommended to keep a notes tab or some other separate space to keep track of what you're doing, what you did, and what you're doing next. Eventually your window will fill up enormously and it's easy for the screen to get very busy. Label everything clearly.
Once you've created your new project, it'll appear on your main project list:
Clicking on the project will open its landing page:
Here is the same landing page, with the project description filled out:
Rodan's magic is that it contains all the jobs needed to convert a musical score into a searchable symbolic format. Since everything is in the same place, the user (you) can string these "jobs" together in what is called a "workflow." Rodan can then run each job in sequence, without any user input. The following section details how those basic functions look and work.
Once you've opened your project page, you can navigate around it using the four main tabs at the top of the landing page: 'Resources', 'Workflows', 'Workflow Runs', and 'Run Jobs'.
Resources: Here is where all the resources uploaded to and produced by rodan are listed. Any files you plan to use within rodan, like manuscript images that you plan to run an OMR on, will have to be uploaded here. Run jobs will populate further resources, including ZIP files, and those resources will appear on this page as they are created.
Workflows: Here is a list of the workflows you've created.
Workflow runs: As the name implies, all the workflows you run will populate here in a list. This page looks very much like the "Workflows" page above, except that the list of workflows is replaced with a list of individual workflow runs; if the workflow is the recipe, the workflow run is a specific instance of you using that recipe. Double-clicking on a workflow run leads to that specific run's page, detailing the resources input and output and the jobs run:
Run jobs: Jobs run within a workflow will show up here. As in the workflow run page above, if there is a download affiliated with what job or workflow you ran, you can see it here. Also as above, clicking on a job makes the "Job Details" box appear in the bottom right corner.
Important
After you have run several workflows, it may take a moment for information to populate. Give it a few seconds, and if nothing is showing up after a minute, refresh the page.
Before running a workflow, you'll need to upload (or import) the files you want to work on to rodan. To do so, navigate to the "Resources" tab and click on Upload Resources. A dialog box will pop up allowing you to select the file(s) you would like to upload. You can upload multiple files at once, including zip files. Once you've selected all the files you would like to use, click open, and they will begin uploading. Rodan will automatically identify the file type of the resources you've uploaded.
Once all of your resources are uploaded, it's time to make your first workflow.
When you create a workflow within a project, you're doing exactly what the label implies: designing the building blocks along which your--and the machine's--work will flow to a defined end goal (the training, classification, and transcription of a music manuscript image).
To create a new workflow, navigate to the "Workflows" tab and click on Create New Workflow. A blank row will appear in the workflows list with "untitled" as its name. If you single click on that row, you'll see the 'Workflow Details' box appear in the bottom right corner; from there you can change the workflow's name to something that will distinguish it from later versions, and will be easily findable at a later date. You can also add notes in the 'Description' field. Make sure to save your changes!
Double-click on your freshly renamed workflow to open its landing page. Since the workflow is new, its graph-like background is empty--you need to add jobs to it.
To add a job to a workflow, double-click anywhere on the graph background. A menu will appear--click on "Add Job." (You can also access this menu by clicking on "Workflow" at the top of the page.) A dialog box will appear listing all of rodan's jobs. To search for a specific title, click on the small icon near the top right corner: the search filters will appear and you can type the name of the job you want in the 'Name' search box. Once you see the job appear, double-click on it to add it to your workflow. You can then close the dialog box. The job will have appeared (or appear shortly) on your workflow background.
Here's what that looks like, using a job that converts images to PNG format as an example:
rodan.adding.job.mov
Most workflows involve more than one job. That's the point of rodan; you can string jobs together so that they automatically happen one after the other without any interference from you. Once you have two or more jobs in your workflow, you have to link them together. All jobs have little green or red squares on the top and bottom of them; those squares are ports. The ports on the top are input ports, indicating the resources flowing into the job. The output ports on the bottom indicate the resources flowing out of the job. When a input port is red, it hasn't yet been assigned a resource. To connect jobs, click on the output port of the first job and drag the line to the input port of the next job. This means that whatever resource is produced by the first job will directly become the input of the next job. You can also move jobs in the correct order by clicking and dragging.
For example, if you want to convert an image to black and white, you have to string together a PNG conversion job and a black and white conversion job, like so (as you can see, the connecting line may take a moment to appear; give it a few seconds!):
rodan.connecting.jobs.mov
Double-clicking on a job makes a menu appear that allows you to delete it or change its settings. Specific roles and settings of jobs are covered in section 1.0.
Once all your jobs are in your workflow and connected, you can individual job settings as needed add your input resources where required. The different workflows and the resources they require are also detailed in section 1.0.
When the workflow is ready, right-click anywhere on the background (or click on the "Workflow" dropdown menu at the top) and click on "Run." Rodan will automatically bring you to the "Workflow runs" page, where you'll see your latest workflow run appear.
Tip
Naming your resources something clear like "MS 73" is good, but you are eventually going to have hundreds of these. Ideally you want something that identifies not only the manuscript, but its page and any other relevant information. "MS 073 fol.1r" is clearer, and if searched will immediately take you to the relevant page you are looking for.
If you are hesitant to edit the title, no worries: you can add LABELS. This is similarly an area where you can add relevant manuscript, project, page, or folio information.
Warning
Use label names you will remember.