How to import existing BIDS data – Flywheel.io

BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) has become one of the standard ways for organizing and sharing neuroimaging data. If you have existing data that is in the BIDS format that you would like to migrate to Flywheel, you can use the Flywheel CLI. Because BIDS follows a standard structure, the Flywheel CLI is able to read the metadata and automatically place your files in to the correct location in Flywheel.

This article explains how to use the Flywheel CLI to import BIDS data and includes a reference guide for the command.

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We also have a collection of webinars on using BIDS and Flywheel.

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Before you begin

Follow these instructions to download and install the Flywheel CLI. If you cannot download the Flywheel CLI to your computer, you can upload smaller batches of files using your web browser.
Verify your data follows the BIDs format. If your data does not follow the BIDS format, see our other options for importing data.

Note

Currently, the Flywheel CLI supports importing the MR modality. To import other modalities in to Flywheel (for example, EEG or MEG), use the browser upload.

Example BIDS directory structure

From the BIDS specification documentation, here are two examples of a single session and longitudinal and multi-site study.

Single session example

Longitudinal studies with multiple sessions (visits) example

Steps

To import BIDS data in to Flywheel:

Open Terminal or Windows Command Prompt.
Note the location of the parent folder containing the BIDS data you are importing.
Find the group ID for the group where you want to import your data. To find the group ID in the Flywheel UI:
1. Open Chrome, and sign in to your Flywheel account
2. From the menu on the left, select Groups.
3. Note the group ID.
Tip

You must have read/write permission to import data to the group.
In Terminal or Windows Command Prompt, enter the following command to import the folder:
```
fw import bids <BIDS_Folder_Location> <group_ID>
```
For example: fw import bids ~/Documents/Study1 Ophthalmology

The Flywheel CLI displays the BIDS data it is processing and then shows if it is creating a new container in Flywheel or if it is adding the data to an existing container.
The import is complete once the Flywheel CLI stops showing data. If the Flywheel CLI is unable to import any data, an error occurs.
Sign in to Flywheel, and view your data:
1. In the left-hand navigation, select Projects.
2. Your imported data will be under a project that matches the name of the parent folder for your BIDS data.
  
  If you used the --project option in the command, your data will be under the project you specified in the command.
Tip

The Flywheel UI offers the option to view data in the BIDs directory structure. See our BIDS Overview article for more information.

Example: Import a single session

If you do not want to import all of your BIDS data, you can import a single subject or session folder to Flywheel. The --session and --subject options only upload folders matching the name you give in the command.

Below is a directory in the BIDS format. In this example, you want to upload session 01 for subject Control01.

Open Terminal or Windows Command Prompt.
Note the location of the parent folder containing the BIDS data you are importing.
Find the group ID for the group where you want to import your data. To find the group ID in the Flywheel UI:
1. Open Chrome, and sign in to your Flywheel account
2. From the menu on the left, select Groups.
3. Note the group ID.
Tip

You must have read/write permission to import data to the group.
Use the --subject and --session options with the import bids command. Using the example directory above, the command to import ses-01 for subject control01 would look like:
```
fw import bids --subject sub-Control01 --session ses-01 ~/Documents/Study1 Ophthalmology 
```
The import is complete once the Flywheel CLI stops showing data. If the Flywheel CLI is unable to import data, an error occurs.
Sign in to Flywheel, and view your data.

Tip

The Flywheel UI offers the option to view data in the BIDs directory structure. See our BIDS Overview article for more information.

External resources

Reference guide

The BIDS importer will import a BIDS organized folder as a project within flywheel, under the provided group. Learn more about installing the Flywheel CLI.

fw import bids [optional flags] [folder] [group]

Positional arguments

Required argument	Description
folder	path to the folder with the BIDS data you would like to upload
group	Flywheel group id

Optional arguments

Optional argument	Description
-h, --help	Show this help message and exit
--config-file CONFIG_FILE, -C CONFIG_FILE	Specify configuration options via config file. Learn more about creating a config file for data upload.
--no-config	Do NOT load the default configuration file
-y, --yes	Assume the answer is yes to all prompts
--ca-certs CA_CERTS	The file to use for SSL Certificate Validation
--timezone TIMEZONE	Set the effective local timezone for imports
--debug	Turn on debug logging
--quiet	Squelch log messages to the console
--project <label>, -p <label>	Label of project to import into
--subject SUBJECT	Only upload data from single subject folder (e.g. sub-01)
--session SESSION	Only upload data from single session folder (e.g. ses-01)

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