In the default Experimental Step and in the Entry, there is a Parents section where it is possible to specify links to materials and methods from the Inventory or to any other Object, e.g. another Experimental Step or Entry.
Parents are all samples/materials used in an experimental procedure, standard protocols from the inventory followed in the experimental procedure, the equipment used. It is also possible to set one Experimental Step/Entry as parent of a second Experimental Step/Entry, to keep the connection between the two.
The name of this section and which parents should be shown in the form, is customisable by the lab manager or group admin as described in Customise Parents and Children Sections in Object Forms
Adding a parent
Adding a parent of a predefined type in the form
In the screenshot above, General protocol is predefined as parent type in the form. We have two options to add a parent of this predefined type:
1. Search
-
- Click on the Search button.
- Enter the name or code of the entry you want to add as parent.
- Select the entry you want to add from the list presented to you.
The parent will be added only when you save the entity.
2. Paste
-
- You may copy the identifier of an entry you want to add as parent from a file, or from an advanced search or from another ELN page. You can paste the identifier(s) in the Paste text field.
- click the +Add button
Adding parent of any available type
If you want to add a parent that is not specified in the Experimental Step form, you can use the Search Any or Paste Any options next to Parents.
1. Search Any
- Click Search Any
- Select the Object type for which you want to add a parent
- Search by code or name as explained above
- Click the + Add button
2. Paste Any
There are cases where you may want to add several parents of the same type or also of different types. In this case, we recommend to use the Advanced Search to find the entries you want to add. You can select the desired entries from the table and the Copy Identifiers button will become visible. You can copy the identifiers and paste them in the Paste Any field in the Experimental Step page, as shown below.
Adding parent via barcodes
If you want to add a parent that is registered in openBIS and has a barcode associated with it by scanning the barcode:
1.Click on the barcode icon in the Parents section
2. A Barcode Reader window opens
3. Scan the barcode of the entry you want to add as parent
4. Click on the Add Objects button
5. Close
Removing a parent
To remove a parent, choose Remove from the Operations drop down in the parent table, as shown below.
Adding and Removing Children
Children of Experimental Steps are usually derivative Experimental Steps, or products of the Experimental Step. As for the Parents section, this section can also be customised by a group admin or lab manager in the ELN Settings (Customise Parents and Children Sections in Object Forms).
The procedure for adding and removing children is the same as explained for parents.
Children Generator
The Children Generator creates a matrix of all the parents entered in the Experimental Step, as shown below. Combinations of parents needed to generate children can then be selected by the user. The Object type to assign to the children and the number of replicas need to be specified. The children will then be automatically generated by openBIS upon registration of the Experimental Step.
Parent-child relationships between entries in lab notebook
In the Lab Notebook section, if you create a new Object from an existing Object, independently of the type, this will be automatically set as parent of the new Object. For example, if you create a new Experimental Step (measurement 4) from an existing Experimental Step (measurement 3), this will be automatically set as child of measurement 3, as shown below.
If you do not wish to have this relationship established, you need to create the new Object starting from the Experiment level, as shown below.
