Add manual page

Author: kabilar

docs/mkdocs.yaml

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ nav:
       - Primary Key: design/tables/primary.md
       - Attributes: design/tables/attributes.md
       - Lookup Tables: design/tables/lookup.md
+      - Manual Tables: design/tables/manual.md
       - Blobs: design/tables/blobs.md
       - Attachments: design/tables/attach.md
       - Filepaths: design/tables/filepath.md

docs/src/design/tables/manual.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# Manual Tables
+
+Manual tables are populated during experiments through a variety of interfaces.
+Not all manual information is entered by typing.
+Automated software can enter it directly into the database.
+What makes a manual table manual is that it does not perform any computations within 
+the DataJoint pipeline.
+
+The following code defines three manual tables `Animal`, `Session`, and `Scan`:
+
+```python
+@schema
+class Animal(dj.Manual):
+     definition = """
+     # information about animal
+     animal_id : int  # animal id assigned by the lab
+     ---
+     -> Species
+     date_of_birth=null : date  # YYYY-MM-DD optional
+     sex='' : enum('M', 'F', '')   # leave empty if unspecified
+     """
+
+@schema
+class Session(dj.Manual):
+     definition = """
+     # Experiment Session
+     -> Animal
+     session  : smallint  # session number for the animal
+     ---
+     session_date : date  # YYYY-MM-DD
+     -> User
+     -> Anesthesia
+     -> Rig
+     """
+
+@schema
+class Scan(dj.Manual):
+     definition = """
+     # Two-photon imaging scan
+     -> Session
+     scan : smallint  # scan number within the session
+     ---
+     -> Lens
+     laser_wavelength : decimal(5,1)  # um
+     laser_power      : decimal(4,1)  # mW
+     """
+```