Bulk-update metadata for existing aedes neurons in FlyTable

Update-only bulk edit of arbitrary metadata columns on rows that are already present in the aedes_main FlyTable. Every root_id must already be present, otherwise nothing is written – use aedes_add_neurons() to create rows, and aedes_set_group() when the only column you need to touch is group.

Usage

aedes_set_meta(
  ids = NULL,
  df = NULL,
  dryrun = TRUE,
  update_roots = TRUE,
  annotator = TRUE,
  proofreader = FALSE,
  wipe = FALSE,
  ...
)

Arguments

ids

root_ids in any form understood by aedes_ids() (including a query string); or, when df is NULL, a data.frame of metadata that itself contains a root_id column.

df

an optional data.frame of metadata, recycled to match ids. When supplied together with ids, a root_id column is prepended from ids.

dryrun

logical: if TRUE (the default) return the update frame without writing to FlyTable.

update_roots

whether to bring root_ids to the pinned timestamp with fafbseg::flywire_latestid() before matching.

annotator

Multi-select annotator column write policy. TRUE (the default) appends getOption("aedes.initials") to the existing cell; FALSE leaves the column alone; a character vector (or comma-joined string) appends those tokens explicitly.

proofreader

Multi-select proofreader column write policy. Same accepted values as annotator; defaults to FALSE.

wipe

If TRUE, replace the target multi-select column(s) with just the new tokens instead of merging with existing cell contents. Default FALSE (append).

...

reserved (used to reject a mistaken dry_run argument).

Value

a data.frame of the rows written (or, on a dry run, that would be written), keyed by FlyTable _id.

Details

Rows with status bad_nucleus, duplicate or not_a_neuron are dropped before updating; any remaining root_id not found in aedes_main is an error (nothing is written). Writes go through the shared update engine, which pins a single timestamp so join-by-root_id is reliable.

See also

aedes_add_neurons() to add rows that are not yet present; aedes_set_group() for the dedicated group-only path; aedes_meta() to query the same table.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
options(aedes.initials = "GJ")

# Update a handful of neurons: two columns, recycled across all ids.
ids <- c("648518347569414567", "648518347399768369")
aedes_set_meta(ids,
               data.frame(cell_type = c("KCa'b'", "KCg"),
                          status    = "adequate"))

# Or pass a single data.frame that already carries `root_id`
df <- data.frame(root_id   = ids,
                 cell_type = c("KCa'b'", "KCg"),
                 status    = "adequate",
                 stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
aedes_set_meta(df)                       # dry run (default)
aedes_set_meta(df, dryrun = FALSE)       # commit

# Query-string ids also work: update every ALPN with a note
aedes_set_meta("class:ALPN",
               data.frame(notes = "reviewed 2026-09"),
               dryrun = FALSE)
} # }