2018 Import Part 2

Introduction – 00:00

Hi there, welcome to the Freezerworks Learning Series, your visual guide to our sample management software. This is the second installment of our updated import series. In the last video, we went through an import that created samples with aliquots, based on the number of aliquots field, and added those records to existing patients in our database. In this next example, we are going to simulate importing a box of aliquots, where freezer box locations are included in the import for every aliquot.

Preparing the Import File – 00:43

So this time, we have a spreadsheet of aliquots instead of samples. We have ten records listed, but only five sample IDs, as each line actually represents an aliquot, rather than a sample. To start, we have three cells at the same sample ID (40,000), meaning that these are three aliquots being added for one sample. The same goes for these next three cells with sample ID, 40,001. The key here is that each row has its own distinct box location, indicating a separate aliquot. So, we've taken a look at the import file, let's save it as a usable file type again. Click File – Save As. Last time we saved it as a .txt, how about we save it as a .csv (Comma delimited) file this time, so you can see how I set up the import format differently. Click through the warnings just like last time, and let's return to Freezerworks.

Finding Empty Freezer Positions with Explore Freezers – 01:47

Now, the next thing I'm going to do is find the freezer that I'm putting this box of aliquots into. One way to do this is through Explore Freezers. Open the Search menu and select Explore Freezers. Now, I've got the freezer I plan to put this box of Aliquots into right over here, it's called Demo Physical. I open it up and it has two shelves that I can put this box of aliquots into. I want to put them into Top Shelf. Open Rack A, now we're at the box level. When I open one of these boxes you'll see by the picture that there are aliquots inside of it. Not all the spaces are taken up, but we need an entirely empty box in order to store these aliquots. What I can do is look back at the hierarchical list to see if there are any boxes not listed, the hierarchical list will not display spaces that are completely vacant. Box 2 and 3 don't show up, therefore they are empty, and that's where we can store the new box. We'll just need to remember this space during the import process. Speaking of, let's close Explore Freezers and start that process.

Setting Import Parameters – 02:55

Open the Inventory Mgmt menu and select Import Inventory data. Click Add New. Let's call this one Import B. My import has a header record again so we can check that box on. This time we're using a comma delimited file so we can leave the Field Delimiter and Record Delimiter dropdowns alone. The dates are the same as last time, so no change there, and we're not even importing any time fields so we don't have to worry about that format. Alright, Parameters are set.

Mapping Fields – 03:33

Now let's open the file to map the fields. Click Open File, and let's find our .csv. Here it is, let's open it. So, like in our last video, Freezerworks has automatically mapped fields in my database whose names exactly match the headers in the file. Like last time as well, it didn't find every field because the names aren't exactly the same. But I know that Type refers to Aliquot Type, so I'll map that field. These two headers are for my box locations. Row and Column refer to the last two subdivisions in my freezer, and since I know that the freezer I'm putting these boxes into is made up of four subdivisions (Rack, Box, Row, and Column), I know that Row refers to Subdivision 3, and Column to Subdivision 4. Let's map those fields now. Take note that the subdivision field names are Position 1, Position 2, Position 3, and so on, rather than subdivision. So Position 3 for Row, and Position 4 for Column.

Import Settings – 05:00

Okay, mappings done, now we need to go to the Import Settings page and determine how we're going to import. We start with the Import Type. I didn't mention this last time, but the possible options here are determined by the tables used when mapping fields. If I map patient, sample, and aliquot fields, there will be different options than if I only map sample and aliquot fields, as I did this time. Instead of being able to Add Samples and Aliquots to Patients, I can instead choose to Add Aliquots to Samples. However, the samples in my import file don't exist yet, so I can't modify them yet. They need to be created first, along with my aliquots, so let's select Add this time. We can ignore these first two options on the right, as we've already added any new dropdown items in the previous import, and the other is disabled for the Add import type. However, we will want to check on the Interactive auto-assign aliquot positions box underneath “How will aliquots be created?” The interactive auto-assign is a dialog where you select the freezer and position to begin assigning the aliquots in the import file (which we call the next assignable position or the NAP for short). As you can see, the Import Details box tells us that we will indeed be prompted during the import to enter the NAP for the aliquots in our import file. I also want to note that by leaving the Automatically create Aliquots checkbox alone, we are telling Freezerworks to expect each line in the import file to represent an aliquot.

Interactive Auto-assigning Aliquots – 06:30

Alright, remember we need to check and make sure our unique fields are set correctly, and yes, in fact, we do want our samples to be identified by Sample ID. You'll notice that although we are creating aliquots without the automatic function, Freezerworks knows to simply create the aliquots with the system field, Unique Aliquot ID, since we didn't map any unique aliquot fields for it to look for. Therefore, this aliquots dropdown is still blank and we can ignore it. Before we import, let's save the format for use later. Reopen it, and click Import. Find our file, open it, and here is the interactive auto- assign dialog I spoke of a minute ago. We’ll select our freezer, remember it was DEMO Physical, then the freezer section, Top Shelf. Now we're going to ignore the Row and Column fields here, as they are grayed out and determined by our import file. We just need to enter the rack and box the aliquots will be going in. Freezerworks provides the NAP for those two fields, but let's change it since we figured out the exact box we want earlier. Change it to Box 2. Now that we have a NAP for the aliquots, we can click OK. The import runs.

Import Report and Results – 07:55

Here is our import report; we have 6 samples and 10 aliquots created. That sounds right to me. Let's click Samples again and then View Records to take a look at the results. Here are the 6 samples I imported. We can see that two are created with three aliquots, while the other four were created with one aliquot apiece. Let's open one up and take a look at the freezer positions. We can see that we do in fact have three aliquots stored, and they all have positions in my Top Shelf freezer. Clicking through the other samples we'd see the same thing, but why don't we open Explore Freezers and look at how our freezer has been updated. Let's open up DEMO Physical again, and drill down to the boxes. There's Box 2, remember it wasn't there before. Open it up and there are the 10 Aliquots we just imported, in the positions provided by our import file.

Conclusion – 08:50

That about does it for today's video. Next time we'll run a purely Modify import with a couple of surprises. Thanks as always for watching, see you next time.