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Reading and writing files: the cctbx DataManager

Learn how to use the cctbx DataManager. It lets you read and write files that describe experimental data, models, restraints and so on. This tutorial shows how to set up the DataManager, and how to read and write information for models, maps and reflection information.

### The cctbx DataManager

When you write a script that performs some actions on data or a model, you have to start with reading the file. Once the action is done, you probably want to write the files. To do this conveniently, you can use the cctbx DataManager. The DataManager lets you read and write files describing atomic models, restraints, reflection data files, symmetry files, sequence files, and MRC/CCP4 format map files. In this section we will see how to read in and write information from some of these file types.

### Preparation: Get a library model

Let’s work with a library model that we can obtain with the map_model_manager (revisit this page if you need a refresher on high level objects):

    from iotbx.map_model_manager import map_model_manager      #   load in the map_model_manager
    mmm=map_model_manager()         #   get an initialized instance of the map_model_manager
    mmm.generate_map()              #   get a model from a small library model and calculate a map for it
    mmm.write_map("map.mrc")        #   write out a map in ccp4/mrc format
    mmm.write_model("model.pdb")    #   write out a model in PDB format

### Setting up the DataManager

Let’s set up and initialize a DataManager so that it can read and write files for us:

    from iotbx.data_manager import DataManager    # Load in the DataManager
    dm = DataManager()                            # Initialize the DataManager and call it dm
    dm.set_overwrite(True)       # tell the DataManager to overwrite files with the same name

The DataManager is always aware of all supported file types, such as models, maps, reflection data, map coefficients, sequences, restraints and more. But it is possible to set up a DataManger object that is only aware of a subset of these data types that you want to work with:

    dm_many_functions = DataManager(datatypes = ["model", "real_map",
      "phil", "restraint"])   # DataManager data types

This is useful for writing programs that only need certain data types to work. The DataManager will then return a message if it encounters a data type that is not going to be used in any way by the program. This prevents users from unknowingly adding unnecessary data. For simple scripts, the full DataManager is most likely sufficient.

The datatypes are:

- model: a file containing coordinates and other features of a model
- real_map: a density map on a grid
- phil: a file containing parameters
- ncs_spec: a file with map or model symmetry information
- miller_array: a file with any number of arrays of Fourier data
- map_coefficients: a file with one array of Fourier coefficients representing a map
- sequence: a file with sequence information
- restraint: a file with geometric restraints to be applied to a model

### Reading and writing model information

The DataManager `dm` knows how to read and write model files. A model file contains 3-D coordinates of atoms in a model as well as other information such as the fractional “occupancy” and “atomic displacement parameters” or B-factors for each atom. It also contains information on the space group and unit cell dimensions (the box that the model is placed in).

The format for model files is typically either “PDB” (extension .pdb) or “mmCIF” (extension .cif). Both can be read and written by the DataManager. The DataManager first sets things up with the method `process_model_file` and then it creates useful objects like a model object with methods like `get_model`. Let’s read in a model from a file called “model.pdb”:

    model_filename="model.pdb"                         #   Name of model file
    dm.process_model_file(model_filename)              #   Read in data from model file
    model = dm.get_model(model_filename)               #   Deliver model object with model info

Here we defined the name of the file we want to read from (model_filename), read in the information with the DataManager dm, and created a new model object called model containing information about this model. If we had restraint information about this model that we wanted to load in, we would load that restraint information from a restraints file with the `process_restraint_file()` method before creating the model object with get_model().

We will see in detail later how to use models, change them, and make new models. For now, let’s see how to write our model out as a new file. We can use the DataManager to do this:

    dm.write_model_file(model,filename="output_model.pdb") # write model to a file

Note that the DataManager can write either in PDB or CIF format. By default it writes out whichever format was used when the model was read in, or PDB format if the model was not read in from a file. You can specify which format you want with a keyword: extension="pdb".

### Reading and writing map information

Now let’s read in a map file with the DataManager dm. The format for these is called CCP4 or MRC (they are pretty much the same). The DataManager first sets things up with commands like `process_real_map_file()` and then it creates useful objects like a map object with the command `get_real_map()`:

    map_filename="map.mrc"                    #   Name of map file
    dm.process_real_map_file(map_filename)    #   Read in data from map file
    mm = dm.get_real_map(map_filename)        #   Deliver map_manager object with map info

Now we have a map_manager object called mm that has information about the map that was read from map.mrc. We can write out a new map file using the DataManager just as we did for the model:

    dm.write_real_map_file(mm,filename="output_map") # write map

### Reading and writing reflection information

Crystallographic reflection data and other Fourier-space data is often stored in binary “MTZ”-formatted data files. These can be read and written by the DataManager. We can create some Fourier data from our map and write it out. First let’s convert our map to Fourier coefficients (we’ll see more about this here (<--LINK)):

    map_coeffs = mm.map_as_fourier_coefficients(d_min = 3)    # map represented by Fourier coefficients

Now map_coeffs are Fourier coefficients corresponding to the map in map_manager mm, up to a resolution of 3 A. We can write these map coefficients out as an “MTZ” file with our DataManager. It takes a couple steps because we need to specify all the things that are going to go into this MTZ file. First we create an mtz_dataset from our map_coeffs Fourier coefficients:

    mtz_dataset = map_coeffs.as_mtz_dataset(column_root_label='FC')    # create an mtz dataset

You have to indicate a column_root_label. Although you can choose any name you like for the label, there are many conventional choices, such as FC for calculated structure factors, I for intensities, and so on (see http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/html/mtzformat.html for other conventional choices). Also there is a restriction of 30 characters for the length of the label.

At this stage, if we have additional data that we want to write out, we can append it to the mtz_dataset like this (we won’t do it this time but you can see how it works:

    #  mtz_dataset.add_miller_array(
    #                 miller_array      = some_other_array_like_map_coeffs,
    #                 column_root_label = column_root_label_other_array)

Then we create an object that knows how to write the MTZ format:

    mtz_object=mtz_dataset.mtz_object()      # extract an object that knows mtz format

and finally we write out those Fourier coefficients with our DataManager (note that in this case the filename is the full file name with the .mtz suffix):

    dm.write_miller_array_file(mtz_object, filename="map_coeffs.mtz") # write map coeffs as MTZ

We can also read in Fourier coefficients with our DataManager. An MTZ file may contain one or more arrays of data. These arrays are indexed by a 3D reciprocal space lattice (h,k,l) and for each index may have one or more data for a single “array”. One array can be map coefficients with a complex number as data for each index (as in the map_coeffs object we have worked with). Alternatively one array can be experimental amplitudes and their sigmas. So one array can consist of several “columns” in the mtz file. In cctbx these arrays are called miller_arrays; they are the basic unit of Fourier data that are worked with. Each miller_array has an associated label string that is used to identify it (and also a data type). Label strings for a complex array typically look like, “FC,PHIFC” which stands for amplitude and phase.

Let’s read the Fourier coefficients from map_coeffs.mtz. First, let’s figure out what the label string is for the one array in this file:

    array_labels = dm.get_miller_array_labels("map_coeffs.mtz")   # List of labels in map_coeffs.mtz
    labels=array_labels[0]    #  select the first (only) label string
    labels                    # print out the first label string

This label string (labels) is “FC,PHIFC”. Now let’s read the file in with DataManager, selecting just the array that we are interested in. We do this by calling the get_reflection_file_server method with a list of file names (in this case just one entry) and a list of label strings (just one this time). The DataManager then reads in and stores just the matching arrays:

    dm.get_reflection_file_server(filenames=["map_coeffs.mtz"],      # read reflection data.
         labels=[labels])                       # file names and labels are matching lists

Now we can get all the arrays that we selected based on their label strings:

    miller_arrays=dm.get_miller_arrays()   # extract selected arrays

and we can take the first (only) one and call it map_coeffs. It is a miller_array object that is like the map_coeffs object that we created from the map object in the beginning of this section:

    map_coeffs=miller_arrays[0]    # select the first array in the list called miller_arrays

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