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

NEURON: If you do not already have NEURON click here to go to the download and install NEURON page.
After you have downloaded and extraced the zip archive from ModelDB: Change directory (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; sometimes a startup file name is identified in the readme (see below).

RUNNING NEURON MODELS:

Platform specific help for running NEURON models.

Unix/Linux:
1. download the zip file
2. unzip name.zip
3. cd name
4. nrnivmodl
5. nrniv mosinit.hoc (or nrniv -python mosinit.py) or replace mosinit.hoc with other startup file name.

MAC OS X:
1. download the zip file (for the purpose of example, lets say it was Moore2015.zip)
2. unzip by double clicking on the new icon for that file (in our example Moore2015.zip) in a Finder window
3. drag new folder (in this case a Moore2015 folder) over mknrndll icon - this creates a nested folder (folder Moore2015/x86_64 or perhaps Moore2015/i686)
4. open folder Moore2015 and locate the mosinit.hoc or other startup file
5. drag the file called mosinit.hoc (or other startup file) over the 'nrngui' icon (if file is mosinit.py drag over 'nrngui-python')

Windows:
1. download the zip file
2. use mknrndll to compile the mod files
3. move the nrnmech.dll file to the same folder containing the mosinit.hoc (or other startup file).
4. double click the mosinit.hoc (or other startup file).

Check the readme file for more information on running the model.

AUTO-LAUNCHING MODELS:

Start by clicking on the "Auto-Launch button". If NEURON 5.1 or above is installed on your PC the model 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 Firefox and many other browsers when you click the auto-launch button, the browser will present you with a list of options. Click the checkbox at the bottom that says always do this action and select to open an application (assuming that NEURON is installed). Browse to the mos2nrn file (mos2nrn.exe in windows, mos2nrn in unix, or mos2nrn.app in MAC OS X) and select that (under the directories c:/nrnXX/bin in windows, ~/neuron/nrn/i686/bin or /usr/local/nrn/i686/bin (i686 may be different on your platform, e.g. x86_64) in unix, or the /Applications/NEURON-X.Y/ in MAC OS X).
Technical note: you will probably not need to but if you find a browser menu where you would like to set a MIMEtype, use "application/mos2nrn" and Suffixes "nrnzip". You can enter "NEURON archive" under description but this is for humans to read and unnecessary for function.Then press OK to close the boxes. Historical note: mosinit is named for Mosaic initialization. Mosaic was an early (1993) internet browser.

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).