iLabber Trial

Launch

Dear all,

You will have all received a login password for iLabber.

I queried the lack of any pre-built templates with Accelrys, and received this reply "Dear Prof. Rzepa, I checked with my colleagues from support. There are no default templates in iLabber, this allows flexibility to create own templates from the sections offered. However you can ask other coordinators from the iLabber pilot to send you a PDF of a template to see what sections they are using for Computational Chemistry experiments. If you need further information please do not hesitate to contact me." I have to admit that I have not yet been "trained" in the art of creating a project template, and Richard Whitby tells me that "Given the functionality I am not sure how important pre-defiend templates will be(though we are trying to produce an excel based one to accelerate entry of safety data)".

I would like everyone on this pilot to look through the features of iLabber, and consider how they might use the functionality for their own lab work. If you find the process difficult, record that as well. It might be a good idea if we all met in person to discuss the first few weeks experience of the system. Already I find the Help pages rather minimalist. Indeed, perhaps having an expert actually demonstrate the system might be a help.

There are many ways in which we could keep a local account of experiences, hints, etc. We could start by repeating how we documented the earlier MnovaDB trial, by going to https://wiki.ch.ic.ac.uk/wiki/index.php?title=ILabber and depositing your thoughts there. I have already been asked to complete a survey of the national project, at https://www.isurvey.soton.ac.uk/4882/36830/8Q9F6A/Imperial+College+London (this survey is user specific - use the link emailed to you individually) to document how we found the start of the project

and there is also an invitation to join a Google groups forum at http://groups.google.com/group/ilabber-uk-academic-pilot/sub?s=1ednLBQAAADwPLnPNldBKZy0eNokB47rTs88g-WnFbb4C853MSmguA&hl=en-GB (which may be email specific). These requests could easily become intrusive, and so we should strive to keep them to a minimum. I hope however that this email is not quite in that category!--Rzepa 17:22, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Responses

I've had 2 attempts at using iLabber. One failed at the first step with an error message that my office PC software is not compatible with iLabber " iLabber does not run on this browser/computer combination"

My first attempt on my Mac Airbook was more successful in logging on and creating a new project and experiment. The snag here was that iLabber can't see that I have ChemDraw installed. I have the option to install MarvinDraw with the threat that I will need to upgrade to iLabber Premium in 2 weeks time. With a four day college closure during the next 2 weeks, this could be a short trial unless we can be upgraded.

Andy

___

Using the ilabber seems generally quite straight-forwards. You basically insert text boxes, image boxes and chemical reaction boxes relavent to your experiment. I tried using the Windows Client but it seems to run quite slowly and is giving me trouble with ChemDraw. Also shame there isn't a better way to insert NMR spectra.

Yoni

I have logged into both the web version of iLabber and (as this had no chemical drawing features) down-loaded and logged into the Windows client (several times). Initially I had some issues with not being able to log in, but this was resolved efficiently by their help desk. I spent some time with the PC-based version, trying to document a reaction, but every time I tried adding reagents etc. it crashed. The software was highly disappointing and rather a waste of my time. Some of my colleagues had issues with the software causing significant problems with their PCs (to do with Java, and ICT had to be called etc.) and the general opinion was that it was not fit for purpose. Little enthusiasm remained for the pilot after this.

If significant improvements have subsequently been made and these issues resolved I would be happy to look again (on behalf of William Heal)

I too have logged onto ilabber. However, the website said that I needed a new version of Java to use the ilabber. I clicked on their link to download it and subsequently could not use anything that required Java on my computer as the download failed and seemed to uninstall my old version. I contacted IT who could not resolve the issue (after several attempts!) so have had to re-install an older version of Java on my computer and therefore cannot use the ilabber on my PC as far as I can tell.

Best wishes,

Jennie

Hi Henry

Have you come across Quartzy http://www.quartzy.com as a lab management tool?

Its free to users and seems to be quite well designed, we are trialling it in my group.

Best

Tony (Prof Tony Cass)

I have been using Labguru ( labguru.com<http://labguru.com> ) alongside iLabber and I believe Labguru is far superior. It is no where near as clunky as iLabber. It is quicker, has an iPad app for an actual 'electronic' lab book, tools for managing chemicals, cell lines, rodents amongst many other features.

I am not sure how long I can maintain two electronic lab books and right now iLabber is a chore rather than a time saving tool!

Kind regards,

Ben

On 20 Apr 2012, at 07:37, "Rzepa Henry" <h.rzepa@imperial.ac.uk> wrote:

Ben,

Can labguru do chemical sub structure searches? Does it have its own structure drawing tool, or use another? Benjamin Miles

Hi Henry, no unfortunately not. I suppose personally I find it more appropriate than iLabber because I do not do classical chemistry. I do a bit of surface chemistry and protein engineering, and I believe labguru was developed mainly for applications in the life sciences which is why it does not provide that sort of advanced documentation.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Best wishes,

Ben