User

TVB Settings

Once started, TheVirtualBrain should automatically open your default browser and start on the default http://127.0.0.1:8080/settings/settings. If not, you should manually open your favorite browser from our list of supported browsers and open the before mentioned URL. This should open up the following settings page:

Settings Page

These are the configurable settings for TheVirtualBrain. Note that the Name of the administrator is the only one that cannot be changed later on. The others will be accessible afterward from the profile page of the administrator. These settings are:

Administrator User Name:

the name of the administrator. Default value here is admin. Remember it, as you will need this account for validating other accounts created with Register function.

Password:

the password of the administrator. Default value here is pass. Remember it, as you will need it at a first login. This password can be changed later by clicking the Change password link, from the profile page (available only after a login).

Administrator Email:

the email of the administrator. Emails requesting validations for new users will be sent to this address. This can be changed by clicking the edit link from the profile page.

Root folder for all projects:

this is the root storage for TheVirtualBrain. All your projects will be stored here, as well as the logging file and the files used as input and output for the backend server. Please provide here a valid folder path, on a drive which has enough space for storing TVB data. This field will be present on the settings page later on, but you won’t be able to change it. In case you are forced to change this path/folder, we recommend that you export your existing projects, stop TheVirtualBrain, start it with the clean option (and configure new folder) and then import your projects back into the system.

Max Disk Size (in MB):

Is the amount of disk space that you (as administrator) can specify as the limit for each user, to occupy with TheVirtualBrain data. When a user exceeds this limit, they are no longer allowed to run simulations or other operations producing data. When this limit is exceeded, the user will still be able to visualize their previously created data, and, if desired, to remove data for making space for new results. For instance:

• A default region level simulation with length 1000 ms takes approximatively 1 MB of disk space.
• A surface level simulation, with Local Connectivity pre-computed, Raw monitor and length of 10 ms takes 280 MB.

Default value here is 5GB. We validate upon setup that a value not greater than the available physical disk free space is specified. In case you later get errors when running simulations (with disk full messages), but you still have free space on your hard-drive, feel free to come on this settings page and increase this value of space allocated to TheVirtualBrain.

DB engine:

For benchmarking purposes currently supported are sqlite and postgresql databases. You will need to provide a valid database URL in case you choose postgresql. In the case of sqlite a default tvb-database.db will always be used. Please take into consideration that when switching to a new database your existing data will be lost.

Server name:

usually the IP of the server that will run TheVirtualBrain. You can also leave it as the default if you are just running TheVirtualBrain locally.

Cherrypy port:

the port used by cherrypy. You need to make sure this port is not used by some other application otherwise TheVirtualBrain will not start.

Deploy on cluster:

set true if you want to run TheVirtualBrain on a cluster environment.

RPC server:

if you are not running on a cluster, this will be the port used by the backend server. If Deploy on cluster is checked this will not be used.

Maximum number of vertices:

maximum number of vertices for a surface.

After selecting your desired settings press the Apply button. This will restart TheVirtualBrain with the new settings. The restart could take a few minutes.

Login

In order to access TheVirtualBrain, you need to have a user account.

There is a single Administrator account in TVB (created when installing the application). Its default user-name and password are admin and pass (exactly these words). These are the default values, but when you setup TheVirtualBrain for the first time (section Settings from above) you can specify different values, if wanted. Please remember what you specify for this Administrator account, as you are the sole responsible for it (TheVirtualBrain being installed in your own environment we have no control of your storage). With the Administrator account you will be able to later validate other TVB accounts.

TheVirtualBrain login page

Register

If you want to create a new user in TheVirtualBrain, you should register using the corresponding link (available on the User Login page), which takes you further to the following form:

TheVirtualBrain register page

When the register button is clicked (on the right), an email is sent to ADMINISTRATOR_EMAIL address. It is the administrator’s task to validate the new account. The administrator needs to be logged in to validate an account. Without validation from the administrator, you will not be able to use the new accounts. For details on how validation is done, see the User Profile section.

User Profile

This area is available after you login and gives you some basic information, such as:

• current logged user-name, and his role (left column)
• how much disk space is occupied with TVB Data created by current user (left column, Data field)
• what version of TheVirtualBrain you are currently running (top of the right column)
• a summary of recent changes to TheVirtualBrain software (right column)
• availability of updated versions of TheVirtualBrain (when a new version is available, a tooltip will appear on the top of the User-pages).

The User details page (also called User Profile)

You have also functionality on this page:

• Manage other users (available on the left column, only when logged with Administrator account), takes you to a page for validating or invalidating other user accounts (accounts created with the register function)

• access TVB Settings (same settings as in the first setup of TVB; although some of the fields become read-only after the first setup)

• change the password and the email address for current logged user (also links on the left column)

• enable or disable Online Help for current user. By Online Help we mean a bunch of question marks spread all over the application which can display a tooltip when clicked). In case you find the question marks annoying, feel free to disable them for your user from this page. Some pages will take longer to load when Online Help is on. You might want to disable it once you feel confident with the interface.

• logout function (button on the right side)

  

  User’s Management Page (available for admin only)

Tip

TVB is a web application, which gets deployed on every computer where TVB_Distribution is downloaded and tvb_start command is executed. This happens usually in a local environment; which means that the user and resource management will be done locally, in that instance, and not in a centralised manner.

When TVB is started for the first time, you will see a settings page, where you can define the administrator account of that TVB instance. Default that is: admin / pass (exactly these words).

If you are using TVB in a single-user manner (not shared with other colleagues), feel free to use only this user while working with TVB; you do not need to bother with creating/registering other accounts. It is although recommended for you to change the password and the email address for this administrator account, especially if you are working in a LAN and your computer is not having a strong firewall.

Changing current user’s email address and password

If you are using TVB in a shared environment (e.g. installed on a server and accessed from remote by multiple people), you could follow the following steps:

• register accounts (optional)
• login with administrator
• check admin’s profile page, link Manage other users
• in case you haven’t registered accounts (step 1) you can now create new accounts using the button on the right
• check the validate checkbox for new users that you want active, and click Save to apply (see figure from previous page)
• from this very same page you can also invalidate some old users which you want to no longer be able to use TVB