Starting with ACD/I-Lab

Access to I-Lab

This section is intended for new-comers to the ACD/I-Lab. However, it may be useful for those who have already worked with the previous version of the I-Lab.

  1. First of all, you should register for I-Lab services (the Register at I-Lab command).
  2. After the registration is successfully completed, you should activate your registered account using the Activation Key that is sent to you upon registration.
  3. As soon as the account is activated, you can log in to I-Lab. Only after you have logged in, you can use the I-Lab services.

The next time you want to access the I-Lab services you will only have to login.

Note: If you only wish to have a look at how I-Lab works, you may want to use the Guest Access. In this case, you don't have to register. To access I-Lab as a Guest User, choose the Enter as Guest command (or click on the Enter as Guest button on the Login page). As a Guest User, you can view the list of available services and corresponding parameters and perform calculations of free Services.

CAUTION:   Please be advised that ACD/Labs does not warrant the security of the scientific transactions conducted via I-Lab, and we therefore strongly recommend that you refrain from entering proprietary structures.

 

Register Account

In order to access the I-Lab services, you must register at the system.

  1. Make sure you are not logged in. If you are, choose the Logout command.
  2. Choose the Register at I-Lab command to start the registration procedure.
  3. Read the License Agreement and if you agree with the terms, click Agree.
  4. The next page that appears asks you if you have already registered on the ACD/Labs web site. If you have, it may be a good idea to use your Web site registration data for accessing the I-Lab. In this case, your Web site login name (e-mail) and password should be used for accessing the I-Lab (Note that you can easily change registration parameters after you log in to the I-Lab).
  5. If you have not registered on the ACD/Labs Web site or don't want to use that registration, select the second option and click OK to display the Registration Form that you must complete.
    Note: Make sure that you have correctly specified your personal data and e-mail. The specified e-mail address will be used to send the activation key that you will use to activate your account. Your personal data (Country, City and Address) will be used to send out invoices for rendered services.
  6. As soon as you fill in the form, click OK. If any errors occur during the registration, the I-Lab returns the corresponding message; if the registration is successfully completed, the message appears and the e-mail message containing the Activation Key is sent out to the specified e-mail address.
  7. As soon as you receive the Activation Key, you should activate your account.

 

Activate Account

If you have successfully passed the Registration procedure and received the e-mail message with the Activation Key, you can activate your account:

  1. Make sure that you are not logged into the I-Lab. If you are logged into the I-Lab,  log out by using the Log out command.
  2. Choose the Activate Account command.
  3. Type the login name you have specified when registering and Activation Key that you received. Click OK.
  4. If the activation is successfully completed, the corresponding message appears.
  5. Now you are ready to log in to ACD/I-Lab.

 

Log in to I-Lab

If you have already registered at the I-Lab and have activated your account, you should log in to ACD/I-Lab to be able to use the I-Lab services.
  1. Choose the Login command.
  2. Specify your Login Name and Password (the ones you have specified when registering at the I-Lab).
  3. Click OK.

Note:

 

Demo Access

If you want to receive the Demo Access (it will allow you to use most of the services available on the I-Lab for free during a specific period of time), please do the following:

  1. Use the Request Demo Key command to send a request for Demo Access to the I-Lab administrator. The Demo Key is sent you via e-mail. Note that this procedure can take some time.
  2. As soon as you receive the Demo Key, choose the Register Demo Access command.
  3. Read the Licence Agreement and if you agree with its terms click Accept.
  4. In the form that appears, specify whether you are already registered on the I-Lab, on the ACD/Labs Web site or not registered yet by selecting the corresponding option. Click Continue.
  5. If you are not registered, the Registration procedure is activated as you click Continue. If you are already a registered user, the page appears where you should specify your Login Name, Password and Demo Key. Click OK.
  6. If the Demo Access is successfully processed, the corresponding message appears.
  7. Demo access can only be given to I-Lab users once. This applies to both registered and non-registered users.

 

Session Preferences

When logging to I-Lab you can specify the type of molecule drawing/viewing software to be used for your working session. If your Internet connection is slow (you are a modem-user) or if you want to avoid problems with the Applet on the Macintosh or earlier versions of Internet Browsers under Windows, it is recommended that you use the Structure Viewer instead of the Structure Drawing Applet. Please, note that the Structure Viewer does not allow drawing molecules; choose the Structure Editor Applet if you want to draw molecules.
 

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions

Q: How does ACD/Interactive Lab Work?
A: You access the ACD/Interactive Lab at http://ilab.acdlabs.com/, register at the I-Lab system and log in (or you may choose to enter as a guest user). Then you draw a chemical structure in the Structure Editor or upload the file with the structure to the Structure Viewer, select the chemical property to be calculated or the database to be searched.

The same functions are also available through the ChemSketch interface if the necessary I-Lab add-on is installed. Both ChemSketch and add-on can be downloaded for free from our Web site at http://www.acdlabs.com/download.

Q: If I have questions or need technical support, who do I contact?
A: You can contact the I-Lab administrator at ilab@acdlabs.com or Sales at sales@acdlabs.com.

Q: What are the hardware and software requirements for accessing the I-Lab via an HTML browser?
A: ACD/Interactive Lab uses Java applets available in Netscape 4.7 and later, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 and later under various computer platforms: Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, LINUX, etc. If you use any other browsers you can still use the ACD/Interactive Lab by submitting structures as molfiles into the Structure Viewer.

Q: What are the hardware and software requirements for accessing the I-Lab under Windows?
A: Windows 9x or Windows NT 4.0 and later, approximately 4 MB of free hard disk space for installation and access to the required Web sites at http://www.acdlabs.com and http://ilab.acdlabs.com.

 

About accounts

Q: How can I view my usage statistics?
A: To obtain statistics, log in to I-Lab and choose the corresponding option from the Account Management toolbar at the bottom of the page. You can obtain details on your current and previous subscriptions, transactions made and applicable charges.

Q: What if I forgot my Login Name or Password?
A: Please contact the I-Lab Administrator at ilab@acdlabs.com.

Q: Where can I get detailed information about account management operations?
A: To get answers to other account related questions, please refer to the corresponding topic:

 

About payments

Q: Can I pay by credit card?
A: Yes, you can either use the online credit card payment system CyberPay that accepts Visa and Mastercard or you can make payments by phone, fax or regular mail. We accept all major credit cards, cheques, money orders and wire transfers in US funds.

Q: How much does it cost to make a prediction?
A: Please refer to our Price List for pricing information.

Q: What are the penalties if I do not pay my invoice on time?
A: Please refer to our Invoicing page for information regarding our billing policies.

Q: How do I pay for I-Lab services and subscriptions?
A: For details, please refer to the corresponding How To page for information regarding payment procedures.

 

About HTML interface

Q: My Structure Drawing applet does not work. What should I do?
A: Use the Structure Viewer for molfile upload. Go to the Login page. Select the Structure Viewer option in the Structure Window Type section of the Session Preferences. After logging in, click Structure in the upper row of options and in the window that appears specify the path to the molfile you want to upload.

Q: How can I print the results of my transaction?
A: You can print out most of the results using your browser's Print function. To print the contents of the Spectrum Viewer applet that displays the results of spectral predictions, click the Print button in it. The contents of the window is converted into a GIF file and a separate page is generated which can be printed out using the common browser's Print command.

 

Connection to I-Lab

Q: How can I get a demo access to I-Lab for free?
A: Please, go to http://ilab.acdlabs.com/ and click on the Request Demo Key link. Your default mail client is activated and displays the message that you should complete with your personal data and send. After a while, the demo key is generated and sent back to you. Please note that Demo Key gives you access to I-Lab services for free for a limited period of time and can be used only once.

Q: For what sites must I have access in order to use the I-Lab?
A: You should have an open connection to http://www.acdlabs.com and http://ilab.acdlabs.com

Q: I have a direct connection to the required sites but every time I log in via ChemSketch, I get the "Unable to connect to host" message. What's wrong?
A: Check your connection address in the Host URL field of the Options dialog box from the I-Lab menu in the ChemSketch Window. It should be set to http://www.acdlabs.com/ilab/chsk.cgi. To recover the correct address automatically, clear the contents of the Host URL field and click OK.

Q: Is it possible to access the I-Lab from ChemSketch if I use connection to the Internet via proxy server that requires user authentication?
A: Currently it is not possible. But in the coming updates it will be fixed. Note that the access to the I-Lab via HTML browser is not restricted by proxy server.

Q: Is it possible to access the I-Lab from ChemSketch if I use connection to the Internet via proxy server that does NOT require user authentication?
A: Yes, it is possible. But you should make sure that the Host name of HTTP proxy and the port are correctly specified in the Options dialog box of the I-Lab menu in the ChemSketch Window.

Q: What should I do if the results cannot be received to the ChemSketch for a long time ?
A: If the connection indicators (in the left part of the status bar) are highlighted, you'd better wait. The rate of transferring data hardly depends on the provider. Each request always results either in the output of your query or the message stating the timeout or any other error.

 

About I-Lab Intra

Q: For what platforms are the I-Lab Intra servers designed?
A: I-Lab servers are designed for UNIX-based and Windows NT operating systems and can operate under any commercial Web servers, as well as free Apache Web server.

Q: What options can be customized for I-Lab Intra?
A: We can register each transaction for a specific IP address, limit specific services for a specific period, limit access to I-Lab from specific IP addresses as well as by login name and password. Other combinations are possible and can be discussed.

Q: Who should I contact for more information about I-Lab Intra?
A: Contact Sales at sales@acdlabs.com.

Q: What to do if there is no answer to my question in the F.A.Q.?
A: Contact I-Lab administrator at ilab@acdlabs.com.

 

About I-Lab Affiliate program

Q: Is it possible to publish my Chemical predictions programs on I-Lab?
A: Yes. Contact Sales at sales@acdlabs.com for more details.

Q: Can the visitors of my Web site access your IUPAC Name service directly from my site?
A: Yes, they can and hundreds of Web site owners have already done so.

Q: Can I grant access to your Free IUPAC Name service for users via my Web site?
A: Yes, you can. And hundreds of Internet service providers have already done so.

Q: What do I need to publish your IUPAC Name Free service on my Web site?
A: We provide a package and instructions on how to publish ACD/IUPAC Name Free at the Affiliate program page of ACD Web site.

Q: Is it possible to integrate I-Lab services into our online calculation services?
A: Yes, it is. We provide an API to the 3d-party servers in order to implement HTTP connection to our Open Server Contact Sales at sales@acdlabs.com for more details. Visit our Affiliate program page to see how it works.

 

Troubleshooting

The main reason to write this document is the great variety of platform- and browser-specific tricks that complicate the creation of stable and reliable Web Applications.

Q: What should I do if I-Lab downloads invalid pages or does not not update pages?
A: Make sure that the data caching option in your browser is set to Every Time and the current cache is cleared.

Netscape: Go Edit-> Preferences-> Advanced-> Cache. Click Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache. Set the Document in cache is compared... option to Every time. Close Netscape and run it again.

Internet Explorer: Go Tools-> Internet Options->General tab. Click Delete Files... Select Delete all offline contents and click OK. Click the Settings button. Select Every visit to the page from the Check for newer versions of stored pages section and click OK. Exit from Internet Explorer and run it again. If the change does not have any effect, restart your workstation.

Q: Does Netscape Navigator 4.05 work properly with I-Lab applets?
A: No. You should use Netscape Navigator 4.5 or 4.7 or later or Internet Explorer.

Q: I'm using Netscape Navigator 4.5 and when I try to save structure from the Structure Editor Applet (or Structure Viewer), nothing is saved. What should I do?
A: Use Netscape Navigator 4.7 or Internet Explorer to avoid this bug.

Q: I go from the I-Lab page with the Applet to any other page, then click Back and the Applet (and sometimes even my Browser) crashes. What's wrong?
A: Close Browser and run it again. It is strongly recommended to leave I-Lab by logging out. To return to I-Lab always use the Login option. Try not to use the Back and Forward buttons to switch between I-Lab pages and other sites.

Q: What should I do if I cannot use Structure Drawing Applet from Browsers under MacOS?
A: It is recommended that you to use the latest versions of Internet browsers. As an alternative, you may use the Structure Viewer instead of Structure Drawing Applet. It will allow you to upload structure from molfiles (note that it does not allow structure drawing, though).

Q: What should I do if the page with additional I-Lab parameters and information is not downloaded automatically after the drawing applet has been loaded?
A: Click New Calc on the top toolbar to get the required page. It is the known Java/MSIE5.0 bug that occurs if the applet and the information page are loaded from two different Web sites.

Q: Where can I get the latest versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer?
A: To download Internet Explorer, visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads
To download Netscape Navigator, visit http://www.netscape.com/download

Q: I try to visit the ACD/IUPAC Free Page using my bookmark or by specifying the URL in the location bar but Structure Drawing Applet is not loaded. What's wrong ?
A: Click the Logout icon and enter I-lab again. The problem is that you cannot go to the ACD/IUPAC Name page directly. You should go to it only via the login page.