Configuration files

Roddy currently supports two different types of configuration files: - XML based which allows to use all configuration features - Bash based which only allows a reduced set of configuration features

Normally, Roddy workflows and projects are configured with XML files. This document will give you all the details you need to know about those special files. Don’t be afraid of messing up things in configuration files. Roddy checks at least a part (not everything) of the files, when they get loaded and will inform you about structural errors as good as possible.

Types of files

Roddy configuration files exist in three flavours:

  • Project configuration files
  • Workflow or analysis configuration files
  • Generic configuration files.

All file types may contain the same content type though analysis configuration files will normally look different than e.g. project configuration files. The main difference between the different types is their position in the configuration inheritance tree, their filename and their header.

Filenames

Roddy imposes some filename conventions to identify XML files when they are loaded from disk:

  • Project configuration files look like projects*[yourfilename]*.xml
  • Workflow configuration files use the pattern analysis*[yourfilename]*.xml

Common configuration files do not use any pattern. You can name them like you want, except for the above patterns.

Inheritance structure

Configurations and configuration files can be linked in several ways:

  1. Subconfigurations extend their parent configuration(s)
  2. Configuration files can import other configuration, this is only possible on the top-level of a configuration file, a subconfiguration cannot do this
  3. Analysis configuration files can be imported as an analysis import by a project configuration or subconfiguration
  4. An analysis can be imported by a project but not vice-versa