Help on How to Download and/or Run Models from Senselab's Model Database (ModelDB)

All locally stored models can be downloaded as a single file by pressing the "Download zip file" button. Some models can be run directly from the web page. For these models there will be a button labeled "Auto-launch".

DOWNLOADING MODELS:

NEURON: When you press the Download button you will be asked to save the file in a directory. At this point if you want you can change the name of the file. First you expand the file with the unzip program supplied with NEURON or any other zip program. If you do not already have NEURON click here to go to the download and install NEURON page.
Then cd to the directory that contains the mosinit.hoc file and if under unix type nrnivmodl and press enter to compile the mechanism (.mod) files. If under windows run mknrndll to compile the mod files. On the mac drag the model folder to the mknrndll application. Then the model is ready to be run. A default way to run the model is given by the mosinit.hoc file (which is executed on startup during Auto-Launch) and is executed by either double clicking on the file (PC or MAC) or by typing nrngui mosinit.hoc on the command line (PC or unix). Check the readme file for more information on running the model.

AUTO-LAUNCHING MODELS:

Just click on the "Auto-Launch button". If NEURON 5.1 or above is installed on your PC then it will automatically download and start executing (if you are using Internet Explorer) after you press return a couple of times to confirm that this is what you really want to do. Under Netscape by selecting Edit -> Preferences and then open under Category Navigator -> Applications. Press the "New..." button and enter MIME type application/mos2nrn and Suffixes nrnzip. You can enter "NEURON archive" under description but this is for humans to read and unnecessary for function. Under application press the choose button and browse to (the directory c:/nrnXX/bin in windows, neuron/nrn/i686/bin (i686 may be different on your platform) in unix, or the Applications/Neuron/ in MAC OS X) the mos2nrn file (mos2nrn.exe in windows, mos2nrn in unix, or mos2nrn.app in MAC OS X) and select that. Then press OK to close the boxes.

WARNING:

Running models on your machine is inherently insecure since models are able to execute any program or script consistent with the permissions of the user. We make a good faith effort at the ModelDB site to publicly provide models that are associated with published papers and do not knowingly provide models containing malicious or destructive code, viruses, worms, etc. We take several steps to insure the safety of running our publicly available models. These include making a cursory examination of each models code, test-running each model, and not accepting anonymous models. However if we were "hacked" our verified files might be replaced with malicious ones. Therefore please inform us if running a model causes any kind of problem on your machine so that we may remove the model as soon as possible from the database. It is also possible for you to "audit" the auto-launched programs. The auto-launched files are identical to the zip files except for having their name and MIME type changed (this allows browsers to send them to a program for execution rather than prompting to save them as a file).