Installation

Bonsai Installation

To download Bonsai, select between the portable download and the installer download here.

• The Portable download (.zip) installs a sand-boxed version of Bonsai. Portable environments enable users to switch between different environments to prevent package conflicts or user different versions of packages.
  • To install from the Portable download, extract the downloaded file. You can start the portable Bonsai by running the Bonsai.exe that is inside the extracted folder.
• The Installer download (.exe) installs Bonsai and all its dependencies globally.
  • To install from the Installer download, run the downloaded Bonsai-X.X.X.exe file and agree to the involved licenses. You can start the globally installed Bonsai by launching it from the Bonsai Setup window after installing or searching for it in your OS's search function, for example.

Tip

When using multiple environments, create and name shortcuts such that different Bonsai environments are easier to find and distinguish.

Package Installation

Bonsai packages expand the set of operators available to you for building useful workflows. For example, the OpenEphys.Onix1 package is required to interface with Onix hardware through Bonsai.

Open the Bonsai Package Manager

The Bonsai package manager can be accessed from Bonsai's landing window or its workflow editor:

or

Install Packages

The following packages are required to run the workflows in this documentation are:

• OpenEphys.Onix1.Design: An extension of the OpenEphys.Onix1 library that includes graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Installing OpenEphys.Onix1.Design automatically installs OpenEphys.Onix1 as a dependency.
• Bonsai.StarterPack: the "standard library" for Bonsai that contains tools that are used in almost every workflow.
• OpenEphys.Commutator: for controlling Open Ephys commutators.
• OpenEphys.Sockets.Bonsai: for establishing TCP Sockets (to stream data to the Open Ephys GUI, for example).

Tip

Additional packages will allow you to extend the functionality of ONIX hardware beyond the scope of this documentation. There are packages that allow ONIX be combined with visual psychophysics, marker-less pose estimation, HARP behavioral devices, and much more.

To install packages, open the package manager and:

1. Click the Browse tab.
2. Set Package source to All.
3. Search for the exact package name listed above, e.g. OpenEphys.Onix1.Design.
4. Click Install.
5. If a license agreement window appears, click I Accept.

Update Packages

It is good practice to periodically check for package updates. To do this, open the package manager and:

1. Click the Update tab.
2. Set Package source to All.
3. Leave the search bar blank if you want to check for updates for all installed packages.
   Alternatively, if you want to check for an update for a particular package, you may type that package's name in the search bar to expedite the update retrieval process.
4. Click Update All if you want to perform all available updates that appear in the package browser.
   Alternatively, click on a package and click Update if you want to perform a subset of the available updates.

Uninstall Packages

Sometimes it is helpful to uninstall packages. Open the package manager and:

1. Click the Installed tab.
2. Set Package source to All.
3. Leave the search bar blank if you want to see all installed packages.
   Alternatively, if you want to uninstall a particular package, you may type that package's name in the search bar.
4. Click a package and click Uninstall to uninstall a packages.

Next Step

Now that Bonsai and pertinent packages are installed, the next step it to learn how to use the workflow editor to place operators from these newly acquired packages into a workflow.