Import and export with text files

Files can be saved into binary and text format. The text format is intended to help communication with other applications and combining of data from several Mimosa files or other sources. Mimosa also uses internally two text file formats (.ini and .cfw) to store templates and settings. You can also import and export data via Clipboard, typically from and to spreadsheet applications. See the chapter Import and export with Clipboard.

Mimosa supports well-known standard file formats Comma Separated Values (.csv), iCalendar (.ics) and vCalendar (.vcs) enabling to convert and migrate Mimosa timetables to several other applications, web-based appointment sites and mobile phones. Use the selection File|File Export|Other calendar formats to convert your Mimosa timetables to any of these file formats.

Applications supporting the file formats above include for example the following: Apple iCal, Facebook, Google Calendar, Lotus Notes, Mobile devices, Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Works Calendar, Mozilla Thunderbird, Moodle, Novell Groupwise, Windows Calendar, Windows Live Calendar and Yahoo Calendar. Also several mobile devices can read/write files using at least one of these formats.

The propriety file formats Mimosa uses:

When you Export, Import and Add files, you apply only Mimosa binary files (.mfw) and Mimosa text files (.mxt).

You can merge the contents of several Mimosa files in many ways. But if you just want to merge the contents of two Mimosa files (A.mfw and B.mfw) into one Mimosa file (C.mfw), do as follows:

1. Invoke Mimosa and open the file "B.mfw" with File|Open.
2. Export the file into text format "B.mxt" with File|File Export.
3. Open the file "A.mfw" with File|Open.
4. Add the contents of the file "B.mxt" to "A.mfw" with File|File Add (select "1. Add everything").
5. Save the results to file "C.mfw" with File|Save as.

Note that all possible conflicting events of the two merged files were automatically removed.

Mimosa binary files (.mfw)

Mimosa utilises its own sophisticated database system which is specifically designed for demanding scheduling requirements. This means that users cannot edit or extract any item of the database without endangering to break its structure. Users can access the data base with the help of the text format (.mxt), defined in Mimosa text files (.mxt).

Mimosa proprietary binary database is based on fast integer arithmetic and it does not access any third-party databases. The architecture of the database for this special purpose was designed to achieve good performance, reliability and integrity. Mimosa files are also efficiently compressed. Due to high performance requirements, all Mimosa data is accessed in computer memory. When a file is opened in Mimosa, all data is copied to computer memory and when a file is saved, it is copied back to disk.

Mimosa uses the file extension .mfw for its own file format and modification of this file is not possible with text editors or other applications. Mimosa can manage only one binary file at the time, and when users want to import, export or add other files, they have to be first converted to (.mxt) text format with the selection File|File Export. The resulting text file format syntax is simple and it can be easily converted to other file formats and back, in case users want to connect Mimosa to other applications.

Mimosa database system has a good performance, enabling over 100,000 accesses of courses and timetables per second. Mimosa file sizes typically range from 10 kilobytes to 100 kilobytes - the maximum Mimosa file size ever seen is 580 kilobytes. Due to efficient compression, each component plus course timetable stored in a Mimosa file requires on average only 4.3 bytes of disk, based on a sample of 500 real Mimosa files.

Mimosa text files (.mxt)

Commands like File|Network, File|File Import, File|File Export, File|File Add and File|File Split use the text format with the extension .mxt. Files with this format are easy to manipulate with other applications and they can be saved into the Mimosa binary format with commands File|Save as and File|Save. After storing a Mimosa file in text format, its structure can be viewed and edited by all text editor applications.

Note that it is also possible to import all or partial data into Mimosa and export it from Mimosa easily with the help of Clipboard. In this case users typically utilise a spreadsheet application as an external data storage.

You can use this format to create an API (Application Programming Interface) to import or add all or partial data into Mimosa and export data from Mimosa to other applications. Note that when you add the text file to a Mimosa file with File|File Add, you need to create only those sections and/or their items that you want to edit or add.

If you have checked in selection Options|Other "Open the last accessed Mimosa file upon start-up" and also "Add the contents of the selected text file (.mxt) at start-up to your Mimosa file at start-up", Mimosa automatically merges the contents of the selected text file to the Mimosa file which was opened.

Using command line parameters

Command line parameters help you to perform file import, export and add automatically and when the commands are written to batch file, they can be easily repeated in a similar way each time. Note that the filenames in the examples below may also contain their folder names, like the Mimosa application name (mfw.exe). The first command line parameter is always a Mimosa file name (.mfw) and the second parameter the text file name (.mxt). If the next parameters contain the switch /T, conversion is made from the Mimosa file to the text file, and if it is missing, from the text file to the Mimosa file.

Mimosa binary file (.mfw) must always exist, but the file does not need to have any components or courses. After a text file is added to the Mimosa file, all possible conflicts between the two files are automatically removed. The syntax of the command line has the following format - the optional folders [folder1], [folder2] and [folder3] refer to the locations of the Mimosa application (mfw.exe), the binary file and the text file, respectively:

[folder1]mfw.exe [folder2]filename.mfw [folder3]addfile.mxt [/W][/T]

1. Add the contents of a text file (addfile.mxt) to a Mimosa file (filename.mfw):

mfw.exe filename.mfw addfile.mxt

After adding the text file (addfile.mxt) to the Mimosa file (filename.mfw), it is automatically written to disk and Mimosa is closed, if you also include the parameter /W to the command line:

mfw.exe filename.mfw addfile.mxt /W

2. Export the contents of a Mimosa file (filename.mxt) to a text file (exported.mxt):

mfw.exe filename.mfw exported.mxt /T

After converting the Mimosa file (filename.mfw) to the text file (exported.mxt), it is automatically written to disk and Mimosa is closed, if you also include the parameter /W to the command line:

mfw.exe filename.mfw exported.mxt /T /W

You may want to create a batch file (such as combine.bat) that automatically performs several task in succession and merges the Mimosa files of three other users, Peter (peter.mfw), Paul (paul.mfw) and Mary (mary.mfw) to my Mimosa file (myfile.mfw) and finally exports the result to a text file (exported.mfw). In this example the preceding folder names have been omitted for simplicity.

First, convert the Mimosa files of each user to text format so that they can be added, then add each file in turn to my Mimosa file myfile.mfw. Finally, convert this file to text format (exported.mfw):

Batch file lines:

mfw.exe peter.mfw peter.mxt /T /W
mfw.exe paul.mfw paul.mxt /T /W
mfw.exe mary.mfw mary.mxt /T /W

mfw.exe myfile.mfw peter.mxt /W
mfw.exe myfile.mfw paul.mxt /W
mfw.exe myfile.mfw mary.mxt /W

mfw.exe myfile.mfw exported.mxt /T /W

Adding the third parameter /W automatically writes the results to disk and closes Mimosa so that this sequence can be run each time in the same manner and without any interaction. Remember to use folder paths in front of the file names, if they are located elsewhere than in Mimosa installation folder.

Structure and use of text files:

The text file consists of lines divided into sections, following the convention of Windows .ini files. The best way to study it is to save the data into text format (File|File Export) and load the file into a text editor. Lines beginning with a semicolon (;) are interpreted as comments. Otherwise, the semicolon (;) is used as a separator between fields. To avoid confusions, it is recommended not to use this character in codes or names. Note that all sections do not need exist. If they are missing, Mimosa replaces them with the default values, and when a text file is added (File|File Add), the contents of the current Mimosa file and added file are merged.

Note that when importing or adding a text file to Mimosa, the numbers preceding the lines, such as "3=" in

3=DIS639;Distribution Rights;1

do not have to have to be different or in increasing order, but when the text file is exported from Mimosa, it automatically renumbers each line within each section.

Text file format is forgiving when importing or adding data into Mimosa; lines within each section can appear in any order and they can be replicated. All sections do not need to exist when adding data to a Mimosa file. If some of the sections is missing, Mimosa defaults are used instead.

For instance, if you like add new or update existing five courses (with File|File Add), it is sufficient to have only the following lines in the .mxt file which is going to be added, and you can omit the last two numbers (course lock status and colour code):

[Coursedata]
1=ACQ747;Information retrieval;4;240
2=ADU171;Adult Education;2;76
3=ADV225;Advanced English;2;63
4=ADV383;Advanced Intaclid Printing;4;90
5=ADV476;Advertising Graphics;2;138

When exporting data to .mxt files, Mimosa adds extra fields at the end to the lines in [Componentdata] and [Coursedata] sections, but when adding data to Mimosa, they are not relevant.

In most cases, text file conversions are used incrementally, by using File|File Add repeatedly and entering and modifying the data also manually. This feature can easily be tested by adding a .mxt file consisting of the following lines:

[Coursedata]
1=MATHS;MATHEMATICS;1;3
2=HINDI;HINDI;2;3
3=GYM;GYMNASTICS;3;3
4=ENGLISH;ENGLISH BASICS;4;6

[Componentdata]
1=KG-B;KG-B;1
2=KG-D;KG-D;1
3=KG-E;KG-E;1
4=ADUTTA;A DUTTA;2
5=APINTO;A PINTO;2
6=GHOSALNUPU;GHOSAL NUPUR;2
7=KDUBEY;K DUBEY;2
8=MCHATURVED;M CHATURVEDI;2
9=RDASS;R DASS;2
10=RPARKASH;R PARKASH;2
11=KG-B-ROOM;KG-B ROOM;3
12=KG-D-ROOM;KG-D ROOM;3
13=KG-E-ROOM;KG-E ROOM;3

[Collections]
1=MATHS;KG-D
2=MATHS;KG-D-ROOM
3=MATHS;GHOSALNUPU
4=MATHS;RDASS
5=MATHS;RPARKASH
6=HINDI;KG-B
7=HINDI;KG-B-ROOM
8=HINDI;GHOSALNUPU
9=HINDI;ADUTTA
10=HINDI;MCHATURVED
11=GYM;KG-E
12=GYM;KG-E-ROOM
13=GYM;APINTO
14=GYM;KDUBEY
15=ENGLISH;KG-E
16=ENGLISH;GHOSALNUPU
17=ENGLISH;KG-B-ROOM

When this file has been added, Mimosa creates a file of 4 courses and 13 components and attaches the relevant components to courses. If the current Mimosa file already has components and courses with matching codes, their names are replaced accordingly and the courses collections are modified accordingly.

Note that you can also remove existing courses and components from your Mimosa file by adding them to [Remove] section. When you add the following lines to the text file, one course and two components are removed.

[Remove]
1=HINDI
2=KG-E
3=ADUTTA

Sections in text files:

[Header]

Fields in [Header] section have no effect on Mimosa file content and they are created by Mimosa when File|File Export is invoked. The values in tags "OriginalFile", "SourceFile" and "FileId" are received from third-party applications. When Mimosa file is next time converted to .mxt format, they are restored from disk and added to respective tags. Other applications creating a .mxt file do not need to include a [Header] section.

[Header]
Version=5.6.4
OriginalFile=
SourceFile=
FileId=
Created=20111124 21:07:26
Customer=Mimosa Scheduling School
Department=Timetabling Department
Copyright=[C] Mimosa Software Ltd.
Comment=
Description=

[Time]

[Time] section consists of the maximum number of Weeks, Days and time periods as set in Options|Limits. If you want to align Mimosa weeks with the calendar, set the serial date of the first date to Date. This serial date is a whole number used in most spreadsheet applications (serial date number 1 corresponds to 1.1.1900, serial date 2 the next day and so on). The optional tag YYYYMMDD is provided to set the serial date using an easier format (3.5.2012=20120305), and when it exists, its value replaces the serial date number value in Date.

If these date fields (Date, YYYYMMDD) are missing, Mimosa weeks are not assumed to be aligned with the calendar, the selection Align Mimosa weeks with calendar is not checked (in Options|Time).

The field Firstweek defines the first permissible week (default=1) set in Weeks view, WeekSum contains the number of all weeks (which are not imported to Mimosa) and Days consists of the list of days in week, separated by "$".