Here's a step-by-step introduction to using ACE. Don't forget to get ACE up and running first! Go to the Download section to find out how you can do just that!
First steps with ACE
A first look at ACE
This is how ACE looks when you first run it.
Establishing a connection
To establish a connection to a COOL database, fill in the required information in the Connection Dialog. For SQLite databases, only the Database Type, Schema (full pathname to the SQLite file) and DB Instance fields need to be supplied. Leave the rest of the fields empty.
A sample SQLite database mytest.sqlite [~6.4MB] can be used to try out ACE. To establish a connection to it, from the ACE toolbar, click on the Open toolbar button to bring up the Connection Dialog. Set Database type to sqlite, Schema to the full path of the mytest.sqlite file (e.g. /where/I/left/test.sqlite) and DB Instance to TEST. Leave all other fields in the Connection Dialog blank. Click Connect.
Alternatively, if you are trying out ACE on LXPLUS, you can simply copy test.sqlite from /afs/cern.ch/user/c/ctan/public/ACE/examples/test.sqlite. You can even use it directly by setting Schema to this full path. It will be read-only access (i.e. no commit action) of course!.
Browsing contents of a folder
Upon establishing a connection to a COOL database, a tab is created in the connection panel (left of main window) displaying the structure of the database as a tree. To browse the contents of a folder of interest in a panel (as table to right of main window), simply double-click on a leaf of the tree.
An Open COOL Folder dialog opens up to allow more fine-grained selections (of tags, channels and IOVs) to be made of the data to be displayed. Support for channel selection is not ready yet and has been disabled for now.