An example of how to use NWBDatasetSpec to create a table

example_table.py

import numpy as np
from pynwb import get_class, load_namespaces
from datetime import datetime
from pynwb import NWBFile
import pandas as pd
from form.backends.hdf5 import HDF5IO
from pynwb import get_build_manager

ns_path = "alleninstitute.namespace.yaml"
ext_source = "alleninstitute.extensions.yaml"

help_attr = NWBAttributeSpec(name='help',
                             dtype='str',
                             doc='no help for you',
                             value='YUP')

# Declare the FooBarTable type
# -- this is just a special dataset, where we use a compound data type
nwb_ds = NWBDatasetSpec(doc='An example type definition of a dataset that is a "table"',
                        dtype=[{'dtype': 'int', 'label': 'foo'},
                               {'dtype': 'float', 'label': 'bar'}],
                        attributes=[NWBAttributeSpec(name='baz', dtype='str', doc='an attribute for the sake of adding an attrubte')],
                        # lets not require a specific name for our new type.
                        # we can always specify a name when we include it elsewhere
                        #name='table',
                        neurodata_type_def='FooBarTable')

ns_builder = NWBNamespaceBuilder('Allen Institute extensions', "alleninstitute")

# Add this to the namespace on its own so it can be used elsewhere
ns_builder.add_spec(ext_source, nwb_ds)


# Now lets create another new type that uses the type we already created i.e. FooBarTable
# Note that we don't need to use TableContainer here, this is just an example of including an existing type
ext = NWBGroupSpec('An example table spec',
                   datasets=[NWBDatasetSpec(name='table', neurodata_type_inc='FooBarTable')], # this says this group will have datasets of type FooBarTable
                   neurodata_type_inc='NWBContainer',
                   neurodata_type_def='TableContainer',
                   attributes=[help_attr])

ns_builder.add_spec(ext_source, ext)
ns_builder.export(ns_path)

ns_path = "alleninstitute.namespace.yaml"
load_namespaces(ns_path)

FooBarTable = get_class('FooBarTable', 'alleninstitute')
TableContainer = get_class('TableContainer', 'alleninstitute')
# The usage of the FooBarTable constructor is not necessarily correct
# I am just demonstrating that FooBarTable is a type on its own that can be used
fs = TableContainer(
            table=FooBarTable(data={'foo':[0, 1, 2], 'bar':[3, 4, 5]}),
            name='my_population',
            source='acquisition',
            unit='second',
            #help='None') # getting rid of this since we've hardcoded help

f = NWBFile(file_name='tmp.nwb',
            source='me',
            session_description='my first synthetic recording',
            identifier='EXAMPLE_ID',
            session_start_time=datetime.now(),
            experimenter='Dr. Bilbo Baggins',
            lab='Bag End Labatory',
            institution='University of Middle Earth at the Shire',
            experiment_description='empty',
            session_id='LONELYMTN')

f.add_stimulus(fs)

manager = get_build_manager()
io = HDF5IO('tmp.nwb', manager, mode='w')
io.write(f)
io.close()

I believe the requirements have changed a bit and the datatype specifications on line 20-21 now require 'doc' and 'name', not 'label'.