Version 1.0#

DataLab Version 1.0.2 (2025-12-03)#

🛠️ Bug Fixes#

Signal axis calibration - Replace X by other signal’s Y:

  • Added new “Replace X by other signal’s Y” operation in Processing > Axis transformation menu for signal calibration workflows

  • Addresses critical missing functionality reported by users who needed to apply wavelength calibration or similar transformations to spectroscopy data

  • The operation combines two signals: uses Y values from one signal as the new X coordinates for another signal’s Y values

  • Unlike X-Y mode (which resamples and interpolates), this operation directly uses Y arrays without interpolation, preserving exact calibration values

  • Requires both signals to have the same number of points - raises clear error message if sizes don’t match

  • Automatically transfers metadata: X axis label/unit taken from calibration signal’s Y label/unit

  • Menu location: Processing > Axis transformation > “Replace X by other signal’s Y”

  • This closes Issue #273 - Missing signal axis calibration: no way to replace X with Y from another signal

X-Y mode:

  • The X-Y mode processing operation for signals has been moved to Processing > Axis transformation > “X-Y mode” for better discoverability

  • The nuance between X-Y mode (which resamples/interpolates) and the new “Replace X by other signal’s Y” operation has been clarified in documentation

Lock LUT setting persistence:

  • Fixed “Lock LUT range when updating data” setting not persisting in Settings > Visualization > Images > Default Image visualization settings

  • The keep_lut_range parameter was not being saved to configuration, causing the checkbox to systematically uncheck itself after validation (added missing ima_def_keep_lut_range option in configuration)

  • This closes Issue #270 - Lock LUT setting not persisting in image visualization defaults

Custom signal creation:

  • Fixed AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'T' error when creating a custom signal from the menu

  • This closes Issue #269 - Custom Signal Creation: AttributeError when creating signal from menu

Macro execution:

  • Fixed UnicodeEncodeError when executing macros that print Unicode characters (e.g., arrows →) on Windows systems with certain locales, e.g. cp1252 (closes Issue #263)

  • The macro subprocess now automatically uses UTF-8 encoding for stdout and stderr, eliminating the need to manually add sys.stdout.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8') at the beginning of each macro.

ROI coordinate precision:

  • ROI coordinates are now automatically rounded to appropriate precision when defining ROIs interactively from geometrical shapes, avoiding excessive decimal places while maintaining reasonable precision relative to data sampling (1/10th of sampling period for signals, 1/10th of pixel spacing for images)

  • ROI coordinates are also rounded when displaying them in the “Edit numerically” dialog, preventing floating-point arithmetic errors from showing excessive decimal places (e.g., 172.29999999999995 is now displayed as 172.3)

  • This closes Issue #266 - Excessive decimal places in ROI coordinates

Polygonal ROI handling:

  • Fixed ValueError: Buffer has wrong number of dimensions error when creating masks from polygonal ROIs in the ROI editor

  • The PolygonalTool was incorrectly initializing ROI coordinates as a nested list instead of a flat list, causing mask computation to fail

HDF5 file opening dialog:

  • Fixed bug where user’s choice in the “clear workspace” confirmation dialog was ignored when opening HDF5 files

  • When the user clicked “No” in the dialog, the default configuration setting was applied instead of respecting the user’s choice

  • This closes Issue #267 - HDF5 file opening dialog ignores user’s choice

Creation tab axis update:

  • Fixed plot not updating when modifying only xmin/xmax parameters for distribution signals (Zero, Normal, Poisson, Uniform) in the Creation tab

  • The issue occurred because the data hash calculation only considered Y values, so changes to X axis bounds were not detected

  • Plot now properly refreshes when any axis parameter changes, even if Y values remain identical

  • This closes Issue #268 - Creation tab axis not updating for distribution signals

ROI statistics with out-of-bounds ROI:

  • Fixed ValueError: zero-size array to reduction operation minimum which has no identity error when computing statistics on images with ROI extending beyond canvas boundaries

  • The issue occurred when a ROI partially or completely extended outside the image bounds, resulting in empty array slices during statistics computation

  • ROI bounding boxes are now properly clipped to image boundaries, and fully out-of-bounds ROIs return NaN statistics values

  • This fix is implemented in Sigima library (see Issue #1 - ValueError when computing statistics on ROI extending beyond image boundaries)

Object property panel tab selection:

  • Fixed tab selection behavior in object properties panel to be more predictable and user-friendly

  • Properties tab is now always shown by default when switching between objects, providing consistent navigation

  • Creation, Processing, and Analysis tabs now appear automatically only once after their respective triggering events (object creation, 1-to-1 processing, or analysis computation), then revert to Properties tab for subsequent selections

  • This eliminates the confusing behavior where the tab would arbitrarily persist or change based on previous selections

  • This closes Issue #271 - Improve object property panel tab selection behavior

DataLab Version 1.0.1 (2025-11-18)#

This major release represents a significant milestone for DataLab with numerous enhancements across all areas. The changes are organized by category for easier navigation.

Note: Version 1.0.1 is a patch release that addresses Windows installer limitations in version 1.0.0 (released 2025-11-16), where it was not possible to install DataLab V1.0 alongside earlier major versions (V0.20 and earlier) despite the intended coexistence support. This release contains no new features or functional changes.

🎨 User Interface & Workflow#

Menu reorganization:

  • New “Create” menu: Separated object creation functionality from the “File” menu, placed between “File” and “Edit” menus for clearer organization

    • All “File > New […]” actions moved to “Create” menu

    • Migration note: Find signal/image creation actions in the new “Create” menu

  • New “ROI” menu: Dedicated menu for Region of Interest management, positioned between “Edit” and “Operations” menus

  • New “Annotations” submenu: Consolidated annotation operations in the “Edit” menu

  • New “Metadata” submenu: Grouped all metadata operations in the “Edit” menu

Interactive object editing:

  • Interactive object creation: Creation parameters can be modified after object creation via new “Creation” tab in properties panel

    • Apply changes without creating new objects, preserving subsequent processing

    • Available for parametric generators (Gaussian, sine, etc.)

  • Interactive 1-to-1 processing: Processing parameters can be adjusted and reapplied via new “Processing” tab

    • Update result objects in-place with modified parameters

    • Only for parametric operations (filters, morphology, etc.)

  • Recompute feature: New “Recompute” action (Ctrl+R) to quickly reprocess objects with stored parameters

    • Works with single or multiple objects

    • Automatically updates results when source data changes

  • Automatic ROI analysis update: Analysis results automatically recalculate when ROI is modified

    • Works for all analysis operations (statistics, centroid, etc.)

    • Silent background recomputation for immediate feedback

  • Select source objects: Navigate to source objects used in processing via new “Edit” menu action

    • Handles all processing patterns (1-to-1, 2-to-1, n-to-1)

    • Shows informative messages if sources no longer exist

  • Processing history: New “History” tab displays object processing lineage as hierarchical tree

    • Shows complete processing chain from creation to current state

    • Selectable text for documentation purposes

Multi-object property editing:

  • Apply property changes to multiple selected objects simultaneously

  • Only modified properties are applied, preserving unchanged individual settings

  • Typical use case: Adjust LUT boundaries or colormap for multiple images at once

Dialog sizing improvements:

  • Processing dialogs now intelligently resize based on main window size

  • Never exceed main window dimensions for better user experience

Internal console indicator:

  • Status bar indicator shows console status when hidden

  • Turns red on errors/warnings to alert users

  • Click to open console

🎬 New Object Creation Features#

Parametric signal generators:

  • Linear chirp, logistic function, Planck function

  • Generate signals with Poisson noise

Parametric image generators:

  • Checkerboard: Calibration pattern with configurable square size and light/dark values

  • Sinusoidal grating: Frequency response testing with independent X/Y spatial frequencies

  • Ring pattern: Concentric circular rings for radial analysis and PSF testing

  • Siemens star: Resolution testing with radial spokes and configurable radius

  • 2D sinc: Cardinal sine function for PSF modeling and diffraction simulation

  • 2D ramp: New ramp image generator

  • Poisson noise: Generate images with Poisson noise distribution

Signal/image creation from operations:

  • Create complex-valued signal/image from real and imaginary parts

  • Create complex-valued signal/image from magnitude and phase (closes Issue #216)

  • Extract phase (argument) information from complex signals or images

🔬 Data Processing & Analysis#

Signal processing:

  • Enhanced curve fitting: Significantly improved parameter estimation for all curve types (Gaussian, Lorentzian, Voigt, exponential, sinusoidal, Planckian, asymmetric peaks, CDF)

    • Smarter initial parameter guesses for robust convergence

    • Locked parameter support: Lock individual parameters during optimization (requires PlotPy v2.8.0)

  • X-array compatibility checking: Comprehensive validation for multi-signal operations with automatic interpolation options

    • New configuration setting: Ask user or interpolate automatically

    • Prevents unexpected results from incompatible signal arrays

  • Zero padding enhancements: Support for prepending and appending zeros, default strategy now “Next power of 2”

  • Ideal frequency domain filter: “Brick wall filter” for signals (closes Issue #215)

  • Bandwidth at -3dB: Enhanced to support passband bandwidth

  • Pulse features extraction: Comprehensive pulse analysis for step and square signals

    • Automated shape recognition and polarity detection

    • Measures amplitude, rise/fall time, FWHM, timing parameters, baseline ranges

  • Frequency domain filters: Deconvolution and Gaussian filter (closes Issue #189, Issue #205)

  • Coordinate transformations: Convert to Cartesian/polar coordinates

  • X-Y mode: Simulate oscilloscope X-Y mode (plot one signal vs. another)

  • Find operations: First abscissa at y=…, ordinate at x=…, full width at y=…

  • 1/x operation: Reciprocal operation with NaN handling for zero denominators

Image processing:

  • 2D resampling: Resample images to new coordinate grids with multiple interpolation methods (closes Issue #208)

  • Convolution: 2D convolution operation

  • Erase area: Erase image areas defined by ROI (closes Issue #204)

  • Horizontal/vertical projections: Sum of pixels along axes (closes Issue #209)

  • Improved centroid computation: More accurate in challenging cases (truncated/asymmetric images) (see Issue #251)

  • Flip diagonally: New geometric transformation

  • 1/x operation: Reciprocal operation for images

Cross-panel operations:

  • Signals to image conversion: Combine multiple signals into 2D images

    • Two orientation modes: as rows (spectrograms) or columns (waterfall displays)

    • Optional normalization (Z-score, Min-Max, Maximum)

    • Typical use cases: heatmaps, spectrograms, multi-channel data visualization

Common features:

  • Standard deviation: Calculate across multiple signals/images (closes Issue #196)

  • Add noise: Add Gaussian, Poisson, or uniform noise (closes Issue #201)

  • Add metadata: Add custom metadata with pattern support ({title}, {index}, etc.) and type conversion

📐 ROI & Annotation Management#

ROI features:

  • ROI clipboard operations: Copy/paste ROIs between objects

  • ROI import/export: Save/load ROIs as JSON files

  • Individual ROI removal: Remove ROIs selectively via “Remove” submenu

  • ROI title editing: Set titles during interactive creation and in confirmation dialog

  • Create ROI grid: Generate grid of ROIs with configurable rows, columns, and spacing

    • Import/export grid configurations

    • Preview before creation

  • Inverse ROI logic: Select area outside defined shapes (images only)

  • Coordinate-based ROI creation: Manual input of coordinates for rectangular and circular ROIs

  • Multi-object ROI editing: Edit ROIs on multiple objects simultaneously

Annotation features:

  • Annotation clipboard: Copy/paste annotations between objects

  • Edit annotations: Interactive editor dialog with PlotPy tools

  • Import/export annotations: Save/load as .dlabann JSON files with versioning

  • Delete annotations: Remove from single or multiple objects with confirmation

  • Annotations independent from ROI: Can coexist on same object

Detection with ROI creation:

  • All 7 detection algorithms now support automatic ROI creation:

    • Peak detection, contour shape, blob detection (DOG/DOH/LOG/OpenCV), Hough circle

  • ROI geometry choice: Rectangular or circular ROIs

  • 2D peak detection: Option to choose ROI geometry (closes related requirements)

📊 Visualization & Display#

Performance & display limits:

  • Configurable result display limits: Prevent UI freezing with large result sets

    • max_shapes_to_draw (default: 1,000), max_cells_in_label (default: 100), max_cols_in_label (default: 15)

    • Settings documented with performance implications

  • Faster contour rendering: Over 5x performance improvement for contour display

  • Signal rendering optimization: Smart linewidth clamping for large datasets

    • New setting: “Line width performance threshold” (default: 1,000 points)

    • Prevents 10x slowdown from Qt raster engine limitation

Result visualization:

  • Merged result labels: All analysis results consolidated in single read-only label

    • Reduces visual clutter, auto-updates, horizontally divided results

  • Result label visibility control: Toggle visibility via Properties panel checkbox

    • Default visibility configurable in Settings

  • Results group organization: Plot results automatically organized in dedicated “Results” group

  • Comprehensive result titles: Include source object identifiers (e.g., “FWHM (s001, s002, s003)”)

  • Individual result deletion: Remove results selectively via Analysis menu

  • Customizable shape/marker styles: Four new style configuration buttons in Settings

    • Separate styles for signals and images

    • Interactive editor with comprehensive options

    • Persistent configuration with refresh on change

Enhanced profile extraction:

  • Click directly on X/Y profile plots to switch extraction direction

  • No need to open parameters dialog for direction changes

  • Improves workflow efficiency (closes Issue #156)

DateTime signal support:

  • Automatic datetime detection in CSV files

  • Datetime axis formatting: Human-readable timestamps on X-axis

  • Configurable formats: Separate formats for standard and sub-second units

  • Supports various time units (seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, minutes, hours)

  • Closes Issue #258

Settings:

  • Autoscale margins: Configurable margins (0-50%) for signal/image plots

  • Lock image aspect ratio: Option for 1:1 aspect ratio (default: use physical pixel size) (closes Issue #244)

  • Show console on error: Configurable behavior (default: off)

Image extent parameters:

  • New “Extent” group box showing computed Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, Ymax

  • Automatically calculated from origin, pixel spacing, and dimensions

📁 Import/Export & File Handling#

New file format support:

  • FT-Lab signals and images: CEA binary formats (.sig, .ima) (closes Issue #211)

  • Coordinated text files: Real and complex-valued images with error images (similar to Matris format)

    • Automatic NaN handling, metadata with units and labels

Enhanced HDF5 support:

  • Custom file extensions: Intelligent HDF5 detection by content (not just extension)

    • Extension-based detection for dialogs, content-based for drag-and-drop

    • “All files (*)” option in file dialogs

  • HDF5 Browser improvements: Default collapsed tree view for better navigation

  • Workspace clearing options: Configurable behavior with “Ignore” option (closes Issue #146)

Text file improvements:

  • CSV delimiter handling: Better support for various whitespace separators

  • Locale decimal separator: Support for comma as decimal separator (closes Issue #124)

  • Encoding error tolerance: Ignore errors for files with special characters

  • Header detection: Automatic detection and skipping of data headers

Other I/O features:

  • Save to directory: New feature (closes Issue #227)

  • Open from directory: Recursively open multiple files with folder drag-and-drop support

  • File ordering: Consistent alphabetical sorting across platforms

🔧 Advanced Features#

Non-uniform coordinate support:

  • Images now support non-uniform pixel spacing

  • “Set uniform coordinates” feature for conversion

  • Polynomial calibration: Up to cubic order for X, Y, Z axes

    • Creates non-uniform coordinates for X/Y, transforms values for Z

  • HDF5 and text file formats preserve non-uniform information

Group management:

  • Panel-specific short IDs: gs prefix for signals, gi prefix for images

    • Avoids ambiguity in cross-panel operations

  • Fixed group numbering for new groups

Configuration:

  • Version-specific folders: Major version coexistence (.DataLab_v1, .DataLab_v2, etc.)

    • Allows v0.x and v1.x to run simultaneously

Public API & Remote Control:

  • Enhanced metadata handling with function name context

  • add_group, add_signal, add_image methods with group_id and set_current arguments

  • get_object_uuids with optional group filter

  • Multiple API improvements for better programmability

Processing infrastructure (for developers):

  • New @computation_function decorator for computation functions

  • Renamed computation functions (removed “compute_” prefix)

  • Refactored BaseProcessor methods with clear naming:

    • compute_1_to_1, compute_1_to_0, compute_1_to_n, compute_n_to_1, compute_2_to_1

  • No backward compatibility maintained for these internal changes (closes Issue #180)

🛠️ Bug Fixes since version 0.20#

Performance fixes:

  • Switching between images with many results: Dramatic improvement (66s → <1ms) when navigating images with hundreds of shapes

  • Plot cleanup robustness: Fixed errors when removing analysis results

  • Critical fix: Result labels now properly excluded from cleanup to prevent disappearance

Cross-panel & group handling:

  • Cross-panel computation groups: Fixed inconsistent group organization for image-to-signal operations

  • File import ordering: Consistent alphabetical sorting across all platforms

Action state updates:

  • Fixed action enable states not updating after annotation/metadata operations

  • UI now immediately reflects current object state

Result management:

  • Fixed result label deletion to permanently remove associated metadata

  • Fixed duplicate results parameter metadata cleanup

  • Result coordinate fixes: Corrected shifted results on images with ROIs and shifted origin (Issue #106)

  • Profile extraction indices: Fixed wrong indices with ROI (Issue #107)

ROI-related fixes:

  • Fixed multi-image ROI extraction not saving ROI in first object (Issue #120)

  • Fixed AttributeError when extracting multiple ROIs on single image with multiple selections (Issue #121)

  • Fixed mask refresh issues (Issue #122, Issue #123)

  • Fixed ROI editor on multiple signals/images (Issue #135)

  • Fixed ROI clearing affecting only first image (Issue #160)

  • Fixed ROI editor showing first instead of last image (Issue #158)

Text Import Wizard:

  • Fixed preservation of user-defined titles and units (Issue #239)

  • Fixed preservation of data types (Issue #240)

  • Fixed comma decimal separator support (Issue #186)

  • Fixed trailing delimiter issue (Issue #238)

Curve fitting & analysis:

  • Improved initial frequency estimate for sinusoidal fitting

  • Fixed parameter display formatting for extreme values

  • Fixed FWHM computation exception handling

  • Fixed curve marker style changing unexpectedly (Issue #184)

  • Fixed hard crash on zero signal with curve stats tool (Issue #233)

Image handling:

  • Fixed aspect ratio not updating when switching images

  • Fixed shape unpacking issues (Issue #246, Issue #247)

  • Fixed colormaps not stored in metadata (PlotPy v2.6.3+ issue) (Issue #138)

  • Fixed amplitude calculation for non-integer data types

Signal processing:

  • Fixed ifft1d x-axis computation when shift=False (Issue #241)

  • Fixed moving median crash on Linux with mirror mode (Issue #117) - SciPy bug

  • Fixed magnitude spectrum with logarithmic scale (Issue #169)

  • Fixed pairwise operation mode for asymmetric functions (Issue #157)

Analysis & results:

  • Fixed NaN value handling in statistics and normalization (Issue #141, Issue #152, Issue #153)

  • Fixed analysis results kept from original after processing (Issue #136)

  • Fixed duplicate results with no ROI defined

  • Fixed “One curve per result title” mode ignoring ROIs (Issue #132)

  • Added result validation for array-like results

Plot & visualization:

  • Fixed profile plots not refreshing when moving/resizing (Issue #172) - PlotPy fix

  • Fixed empty average profile display outside image area (Issue #168) - PlotPy fix

  • Fixed average profile extraction ValueError with oversized rectangle (Issue #144)

  • Disabled generic “Axes” tab in parameter dialogs

Other fixes:

  • Fixed proxy add_object method not supporting metadata (Issue #111)

  • Fixed RemoteClient method calls without optional arguments (Issue #113)

  • Fixed KeyError when removing group after opening HDF5 (Issue #116)

  • Fixed KeyError in “View in new window” with multiple images after HDF5 open (Issue #159)

  • Fixed long object titles display (Issue #128)

  • Fixed file name titles showing relative paths (Issue #165)

  • Fixed unexpected group names in “Open from directory” (Issue #177)

  • Fixed one group per folder expectation (Issue #163)

  • Fixed unsupported files in recursive loading (Issue #164)

Removed features:

  • Removed “Use reference image LUT range” setting (confusing behavior)

    • Migration: Use multi-selection property editing instead

🔒 Security Fixes#

  • CVE-2023-4863: Fixed vulnerability in opencv-python-headless

ℹ️ Other Changes#

  • Bumped minimum plotpy requirement to V2.8

  • Bumped minimum guidata requirement to V3.13

  • Using new guidata translation utility based on babel

  • Python 3.13 now supported (via scikit-image V0.25)