Issue 735: Skyline should attempt BlibBuild conversion when confronted with a spectral library whose format is not natively supported

Status:open
Assigned To:Brian Pratt
Type:Todo
Area:Skyline
Priority:3
Milestone:4.3
Opened:2020-06-08 08:43 by Brian Pratt
Changed:2020-06-08 11:25 by Brian Pratt
Resolved:
Resolution:
Closed:
2020-06-08 08:43 Brian Pratt
Title»Skyline should attempt BlibBuild conversion when confronted with a spectral library whose format is not natively supported
Assigned ToGuest»Brendan MacLean
Type»Todo
Area»Skyline
Priority»3
See https://skyline.ms/announcements/home/support/thread.view?rowId=47329

The user was expecting to see his spectral library's .extension listed by Library Explorer, or at least have Skyline import the file since we said it was now supported. He didn't understand that "supported" meant a manual step to convert to .blib first.

Adding the extension to the browse dialog could actually be done if we could have BlibBuild report a list of supported extensions.

2020-06-08 10:35 Brendan MacLean
Assigned ToBrendan MacLean»Brian Pratt
So, you are saying that he tried to add the library directly through Peptides Settings - Libraries - Edit List - Add instead of clicking the Build button? Or you mention the Spectral Library Explorer, so maybe by choosing <Add...> from the dropdown list there? And then he clicked the Browse button and found only:

Spectral Libraries (*.blib, *.clib, *.hlf, *.msp, *.sptxt, *.midas, *.elib)
Legacy (*.lib)
All Files (*.*)

Maybe all we need is to add a message box between clicking the Browse button and showing the OpenFileDialog, like:

Skyline supports the following library formats natively:

BiblioSpec (*.blib)
BiblioSpec Legacy (*.lib)
Panorama (*.clib)
X! Hunter (*.hlf)
NIST (*.msp)
SpectraST (*.sptxt)
SCIEX Midas (*.midas)
EncyclopeDIA (*.elib)

If the format you have is not in this list you may need to build a BiblioSpec Library.
Consult the page [https://skyline.ms/build-blib.url|How Skyline Builds Spectral Libraries] for more details.
Post a request to [https://skyline.ms/support|Skyline Support] if you find the format you have is not covered.

[Add Native] [Build]

I don't really want to pollute the OpenFileDialog with all of the extensions we can build a spectral library from or even just the ones that someone might already consider a "library" rather than search results.

2020-06-08 11:25 Brian Pratt
In the end it seems the user was misguided and really should have been treating this as a search result. We can just leave this alone, but it does seem like a better user experience if we went ahead and took a shot with BlibBuild anywhere we load, for example, .msp files but didn't recognize the .extension. Not a super high priority though.