Electronic lab notebook integration (e.g. elabFTW)

[BenediktBurger]

Reasoning

As PyMoDAQ is used for data acquisition, there is typically (a lot) more to the data than the values saved by PyMoDAQ and a lab notebook is a place for such data.
I think, it is good, if there is some integration between PyMoDAQ and an (electronic) lab notebook. For example saving the filename of a measurement result in the notebook (or some parameters) or even a small "note-taking" area for free floating text, which will be written to the notebook.

General idea

As elabFTW is widely used and I know it, I will use it as an example.

Notebook integration

The first element is a PyMoDAQ extension (or some other plugin type), which allows to

• configure the elab connection (e.g. server name, API key)
• select the current experiment entry (details based on elabFTW API access)
  • maybe showing the last ten experiments with name, to choose from
  • maybe allowing to create a new experiment (from a template?)
• offer a handle_save method to consumers (defined later). This method will accept the safe name (with some parameters?) and add this information to the lab notebook (in case of elabftw, to the currently selected experiment
• maybe offer a small area for taking notes

Normal Plugins

Whenever they save something, they call a global "save" method, which will in turn call the handle_save method(s) defined by the notebook integration plugins.

Comments

• This setup allows for different notebook extensions for different notebook providers. A saving module (e.g. scan) does not know which one is used, if any at all.