Hi Evan,
the “retain variables” creates a field in the XML file called “persistent” and sets it to 1. I’m assuming this means it will be saved/set when I save a variable set.
Yes, that’s correct.
Looking through the discussions I found this: http://help.mworks-project.org/discussions/suggestions/73. Is this “task definition” file the official way to achieve what I want for the windows? It also seems to be a way of loading parameter sets.
Yes, that’s what you want. (FYI, they’re now called “workspaces”.)
If that’s the case, would I be able to learn how to use this functionality with the information in that thread?
Yes, all the details are in that thread, starting here. However, it’s pretty simple to use:
To create a workspace, first set everything up the way you want (connected server, loaded experiment, loaded variable set, client window state). Then, in MWClient’s “File” menu, select “Save Workspace…”.
To load an existing workspace, open the client (but don’t connect to a server – that’s part of the workspace definition), then select “File → Open Workspace…”.
You can also create and/or modify workspace files in a text editor. They’re stored as JSON data, which is well suited to direct manipulation by a human (far more so than XML).
Note that the workspace stuff is still a work in progress. In particular, some client windows don’t yet support saving/loading their state via workspaces. However, it should be sufficient to meet your needs, and I’d welcome any feedback or suggestions on how to further improve the feature.
Cheers,
Chris