In fact HDF5 is not only a file format. It’s also a high level C++ API that allows to store data in a such format. But it is not the only way to store data in a HDF5 file. The pytables python library, makes easier the conception of HDF5 files in an Object Oriented (OO) manner. It enables files nodes tree navigation, nodes attributes affectation, tables or arrays creation and data insertion. This library is really mature and gives access to many practical functions, but it was necessary to extend this library with new classes and functions to adapt it to Optical Imaging and Neural Network Simulation contexts.
Developping an extension is an OO approach necessary to make itself reusable, easily extendable and avoid the pytables code pollution. Moreover, it allows to generate new objects classes that are easier to recognize among base objects and gives access to new functionnalities adapted to each object. A such extension requires that users and developpers who want to work on it have a knowledge on pytables base library. But a class (cf next paragraph) has been fortunately developped to simplify access to pytables classes and function. It will replace old hdf5tools and hdf5api in the NeuroTools folder.
This extension is divided in 5 Python files :