Getting Started

Before we tell you what SynBioWave is, we would like to tell you what it is not:
SynBioWave is not a software that you have to download, install and then run on you local PC. SynBioWave is not a stand-alone web application that runs on a server somewhere.
But: SynBioWave is an extension to the Wave environment.

Wave? What is that?

The Google Wave Logo

The concept of the online collaboration environment wave may be familiar to some of you. If that is the case you may simply skip this paragraph.
Wave was first introduced by Google in 2009. For further information please see the used technologies section.
SynBioWave was developed and currently runs using Google Wave. That's why you will need an account there if you want to test it. If you already have a google account (for Google Mail or Calender) you can simply use this one.
Now log in to Google Wave! It should look something like this:

This is what Google wave looks like once you are logged in. On the left side you see folder navigation and contact list. In the middle is the currently selected folder and on the right side you will see the actual wavelet once you've selected or created one.

Communication on wave is done within the so called wavelets. You can think of the wavelets like email correspondences, instant messenger conversations or forum threads. In fact they are a mixture of all of those.
While people communicate in the wave via text messages, they can edit or delete old messages, import media files like pictures, videos and sounds and use special wave extensions: Gadgets and Robots. SynBioWave makes use of the latter two.
To open a new wavelet simply click the "blank wave" button in the right area.

How do I turn my wave into SynBioWave?

As mentioned before, SynBioWave is a System that uses Robots and Gadgets to extend the capabilities of the wave. However you only have to deal with the robots and they will then add Gadgets if they need any.
Each robot has a specific adress that looks like an email adress. For example the SynBioWave main robot has the adress synbiowave@appspot.com
You can add people and robots to a wavelet by clicking the plus symbol on top of the wavelet. Please add the SynBioWave main robot now!

Note: If you don't want to type the address every time, you can also add robots to you contact list on the lower left.

Once you have added the main robot to the wavelet it will deploy the SynBioWave Menu Gadget in the first Blip (Each wavelet is divided into so called Blips). The SynBioWave Menu Gadget is the main control area of SynBioWave. Every robot adds his submenu there and you can use its functions from there. But for now lets stick with the main robot alone and look at the 4 menus it offers.

The SynBioWave main menu can always be found in the very first blip of a wavelet.

File

The File menu handles all the importing and exporting of data into and out of the Wave.