| Core | WPF Addons |
|---|---|
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Sardine is an open-source framework for developing and executing complex scientific workflows written in C# and built with .NET 8. It is designed to rapidly create and execute data acquisition and processing desktop applications following a modular approach.
Sardine allows the reliable execution of dynamic networks of independent modules - where each module can interface with hardware, process data, or both. It includes integrated logging and UI management, has a low overhead, provides fault-tolerant hardware control, and minimizes downstream delays by providing dedicated data processing queues for each module. Any .NET class can be easily adapted to a Sardine module, facilitating integration with existing codebases.
Get Sardine through NuGet! The WPF add-ons to build desktop applications are available in the WPF add-ons package.
Our component collection and examples are available here.
A change log is available here.
Submit crash reports/bugs/feature requests through GitHub Issues.
Get the packages via NuGet, by using the package manager or from the CLI:
nuget install Sardine.Core
nuget install Sardine.Core.Views.WPF
using Sardine.Core;
namespace ExampleSystem;
// Create a new Fleet
public class MySystem : Fleet
{
// Declare Vessel properties that will serve as containers for the components
public Vessel<CameraService> CameraProvider { get; }
public Vessel<Camera> ImagingCamera { get; }
public Vessel<DataSaver> FrameSaver { get; }
public MySystem()
{
// Freight the Vessels by providing both dependencies
// and build, initializer, and invalidator methods
CameraProvider = Freighter.Freight(
builder: () => new CameraService()
);
ImagingCamera = Freighter.Freight(
CameraProvider,
builder: (provider) => ...,
initializer: (provider, camera) => ...,
invalidator: (provider, camera) => ... );
FrameSaver = Freighter.Freight(() => ...);
}
}
// Write methods matching one of the data operation signatures
public delegate TOut? Source<out TOut>(THandle handle, out bool hasMore);
public delegate TOut? Transformer<in TIn, out TOut>(THandle handle, TIn data, MessageMetadata metadata);
public delegate void Sink<in TIn>(THandle handle, TIn data, MessageMetadata metadata);
// Add data operation to vessels in the Fleet constructor
public MySystem()
{
...
ImagingCamera.AddSource(CameraFrameSource);
FrameSaver.AddSink(FrameSink);
ImagingCamera.SourceRate = 100;
...
}
--- XAML
<sardine:SardineApplication
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:sardine="clr-namespace:Sardine.Core.Views.WPF;assembly=Sardine.Core.Views.WPF"
xmlns:fleet="clr-namespace:ExampleSystem;assembly=ExampleSystem"
x:TypeArguments="fleet:MySystem"
x:Class="ExampleApplication.App"
/>
--- Code behind
using Sardine.Core.Views.WPF;
namespace ExampleApplication;
// Have the entrypoint derive from SardineApplication
public partial class App : SardineApplication<MySystem> { }
Sardine is licensed under the MIT License. If you are using software built with Sardine for your research, please cite our publication below.
Martins, A. L., Laborde, A., & Orger, M. (2025). Sardine: a modular framework for developing data acquisition and near real-time analysis applications. bioRxiv, 2025-08. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.05.668834
- Point of contact: Lucas Martins
- Email: lucas.martins at neuro.fchampalimaud.org
- Organization: Champalimaud Foundation
This work was financed by funding to Michael Orger's lab from the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant, Neurofish-DLV-773012), the Champalimaud Foundation, the Volkswagen Stiftung Life? Initiative (A126151) and through national funds from the Portuguese FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the projects PTDC/NEU-SCC/5221/2014 and 2023.14873.PEX.
A. Lucas Martins received funding from the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through the PhD fellowships SFRH/BD/129843/2017 and COVID/BD/152726/2022.