File Type Plugins

How It Works

The Content Viewer uses a plugin system to display file previews. Plugins are loaded as BPL packages from the Plugins directory when the application starts. The number of loaded plugins is shown on the splash screen during startup.

When you select a file in the Items panel, the Content Viewer finds the appropriate viewer plugin based on the file’s extension. The plugin loads the file and renders a preview. Each open file gets its own card in the Content Viewer, and you can switch between them by clicking the card tabs.

Click Open in the Content Viewer toolbar to open the current file with your system’s default application.
Click Update File to re-import a modified external file.
Click Update Preview to regenerate the thumbnail for the current file.
Some plugins can extract numeric values from files. Right-click a file and select Extract Values to import measurements. See Extracting Values from Files for details.

General-Purpose Plugins

These plugins handle common document and media formats.

Plugin	Formats	Features
Image Viewer	.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .tif, .tiff	Full image display with zoom. WIC-based rendering supports a wide range of image formats.
HTML Viewer	.html, .htm	Rendered HTML in an embedded Edge/Chromium browser (WebView2).
OLE Viewer	.pdf, .xlsx, .docx, .pptx	Embeds Microsoft Office and PDF documents using OLE. Requires the corresponding application to be installed on the system.
Columnar Data	.dat, .csv, .txt, .ascii	Auto-detects delimiters and headers. Displays data as a table and/or interactive chart.
Markdown Viewer	.md	Renders markdown as formatted HTML. Resolves attached images by filename and follows `eln://item/<id>` / `eln://specimen/<code>` links to navigate the tree. Provides an Edit button that opens the Markdown Editor. Used for Wiki Pages.
Markdown Editor	.md (in-app editor)	In-app editor launched from the Markdown Viewer. Saves back to the same WebDAV file with ETag-based conflict detection so concurrent edits (desktop or via MCP) cannot silently overwrite each other.

Instrument & Data Plugins

These plugins handle specialized file formats from laboratory instruments and scientific software.

Plugin	Formats	Features
Tribotester	.zrw, .zrv	Tribological test data. Displays Cycles vs. COF chart with test parameters in the status bar. Copy and export support.
OriginLab	.opju	Preview of OriginLab project files with embedded graph thumbnails.
FIBPS	.fibps	FRT optical profilometer data displayed as a 2D surface heatmap.
XRDML	.xrdml	X-Ray diffraction measurement data. Displays the diffraction pattern as an interactive chart.
X-Ray Calc	.xrcx	X-Ray Calc simulation project files. Displays reflectivity curves as interactive charts.
DSC Viewer	.dsc	Sputtering deposition recipe files (XML). Displayed with syntax highlighting.
DSR Viewer	.dsr	Sputtering deposition result files (XML). Displayed as a structured form.
CSMIC Log	.log	Sputtering system log files. Displays process parameters as interactive time-series charts.
MIT File	.mit	Anton Paar UNHT nanoindentation data. Displays load-displacement curves.

Internal Plugins

These plugins are used by the application for internal content display. They are not associated with file extensions and are activated automatically when you view notes or protocols.

Plugin	Purpose
Note Viewer	Displays rich-text notes with formatting support (bold, italic, lists). Activated when you select a note in the Items panel.
Protocol Viewer	Displays protocol forms with template-defined fields and equipment metadata. Activated when you select a protocol.

Preview Thumbnails

The preview strip at the bottom of the Content Viewer shows thumbnail images for all files attached to the current item. Click a thumbnail to switch to that file’s preview.

Thumbnails are generated automatically when you attach a new file.
Plugins that support thumbnail generation provide a preview image via the IPreviewProvider interface. This includes the Image Viewer, chart-based instrument plugins, and the OriginLab viewer.
For formats without native thumbnail support (such as OLE documents), the system file preview is used as a fallback.
To manually regenerate a thumbnail, select the file and click Update Preview in the Content Viewer toolbar.

File Types

Each file in E-Lab Notebook has an associated File Type that determines which viewer plugin handles it. The application ships with a set of default file types covering all supported formats:

Extension	Description
.xrcx	X-Ray Calc Project
.opju	Origin Project
.pdf	PDF File
.xlsx	Excel Sheet
.dsc	Sputtering Recipe
.dsr	Sputtering Result
.log	Sputtering Log
.rp4	3D Profile
.xrdml	XRD Data
.tiff	TIFF Image
.fibps	Optical Profilometer
.zrw, .zrv	Tribotester Data
.dat	Columnar Data
.csv	CSV Data
.txt	Text Data
.ascii	ASCII Data
.mit	Nanoindentation Data
.lmpin	LAMMPS Input Script
.dump	LAMMPS Data File
.md	Markdown (used for Wiki pages)

Administrators can add, edit, or remove file types via Administration > File Types.

Fallback & Unsupported Files

If no specialized viewer plugin matches a file’s extension, the File Viewer plugin attempts to display it using the system’s built-in file preview (shell preview handler). This works for many common formats that Windows recognizes natively.

If no preview is available at all, a placeholder is shown. You can still open the file with your system’s default application by double-clicking it in the Items panel or clicking Open in the Content Viewer toolbar.