Project Items

Project items in the Design view and the connections between them make up the graph (Directed Acyclic Graph, DAG) that is executed when the execute or execute-selected buttons are pressed.

See Executing Projects for more information on how a DAG is processed by Spine Toolbox. Those interested in looking under the hood can check the Project item development section.

Project Item Properties

Each project item has its own set of Properties. You can view and edit them by selecting a project item on the Design View. The Properties are displayed in the Properties dock widget on the main window. Project item properties are saved into the project save file (project.json), which can be found in <proj_dir>/.spinetoolbox/ directory, where <proj_dir> is your current project directory.

In addition, each project item has it’s own directory in the <proj_dir>/.spinetoolbox/items/ directory. You can quickly open the project item directory in a file explorer by clicking on the folder-open button located in the lower right corner of each Properties form.

Project Item Descriptions

The following items are currently available:

Data Store data_store

A Data store item represents a connection to a (Spine) database. Currently, the item supports sqlite and mysql dialects. The database can be accessed and modified in Spine db editor available from the item’s properties or from a right-click context menu.

Data Connection data_connection

A Data connection item provides access to data files. It also provides access to the Datapackage editor.

Tool tool

Tool is the heart of a DAG. It is usually the actual model to be executed in Spine Toolbox but can be an arbitrary script or executable as well. A tool is specified by its specification.

Gimlet gimlet

While being able to run most scripts and copyable executables, Tool cannot handle system commands or executables meant to run from system’s path. This is a job for Gimlet. A Gimlet can execute an arbitrary system command with given command line arguments, input files and work directory.

View view

A View item is meant for inspecting data from multiple sources using the Spine db editor. Note that the data is opened in read-only mode so modifications are not possible from the View item.

Combiner combiner

A Combiner item can be used to combine two or more databases into one.

Importer importer

This item provides the user a chance to define a mapping from tabulated data such as comma separated values or Excel to the Spine data model. See Importing and exporting data for more information.

Exporter exporter

This item exports databases contained in a Data Store into .gdx format for GAMS Tools. See Importing and exporting data for more information.