This function checks and add columns to DAMS metadata. This way, it can subsequently be loaded (via load_dam).
link_dam_metadata(x, result_dir)object such as a data.frame, or the name of a file (see detail)
the root directory where all daily data are saved
a data.table::data.table with the same rows as x, and extra columns used for further data loading
These function will augment metadata from two different types of inputs:
A data.frame (recommended)
In this case, the function will try to match requested data with data available on result_dir.
The provided data.frame or data.table has typically one row per requested individual and the columns
(not necessarily in this order):
file -- the name of a data file (e.g. "Monitor3.txt"), it has to exists in result_dir.
start_datetime -- the first day and time of the requested experiment (e.g. "2014-12-28 18:00:00").
stop_datetime -- the last day and time of the requested experiment (e.g. "2014-12-30 19:00:00" or simply "2014-12-30").
region_id -- the channel (between 1 and 32) in which the animal was in (e.g. 20).
region_id is optional. If not provided, all 32 channels are loaded with the same conditions.
??? any number of arbitrary columns to associate conditions/treatments/genotypes/... to the previous columns.
The name of a CSV file that contains a table as described in 1.
The time in data is expressed relatively to start_date.
In other words, if you do circadian analysis, and your D -> L transitions are at 09:00:00,
you want to set start_datetime = "YYY-MM-DD 09:00:00".
The result_directory`` is the folder conraining all result (.txt) files (for instance, result_dir = "C:/where/I/Store/my/txt/files/"`)
the rethomics workflow -- on the concept of "linking"
metadata tutorial -- how to work with metadata
load_dam -- to subsequently load the actual data