The Samples Screen Overview

The Samples screen is used to manage samples maintained by eLab and is accessed by clicking the Samples button (see figure 7.1).

Figure 7.1. The Samples screen.

The screen is divided into two sections, the search criteria section at the top and the sample section at the bottom, as shown in figure 7.1. When the Search button is pressed it is the values of the search criteria section which determine the samples displayed in the sample section below. Once you have found the samples you were looking for you can select some or all of the samples by selecting the individual rows representing the samples or by using the Select button . Send the selected samples to a project or worklist by selecting the Send To Project or Send To Worklist buttons respectively.

The sample screen also provides the ability to import one or more samples. To import a single sample click the Add button (see figure 7.1), to import a file containing the data of one or more samples click the Import button (see figure 7.1). Clicking the Import button starts the Import Wizard which greatly simplifies the process of importing samples from an Excel file.

The History button provides access to the Sample History dialogue box which presents a hierarchical view of a selected sample and all its relatives. The related samples are represented in a tree, with the originally imported sample at the root, new sample types creating new branches, and samples of the same type creating additional nodes on a branch.

Each sample has an associated sample type which describes what that sample is. For example, a sample of DNA has the sample type DNA. The Sample Types button displays the Sample Types dialogue that allows you add, remove and edit the sample types that are available.