What, if any, is the best method to search for orphan data in OpenLab CDS?

Hello,

I cannot tell what ECM or CDS version you are using and that can make a difference in the search capabilities. Take a look at the attached guide on page 50 for information on searching with ECM 3.x and CDS 2.x. You are not extracting any CDS metadata keys for your data that is why the name, acq operator, acq date and instrument name columns are blank for your search results. It also limits the search metadata in later versions. You should be able to use the quick search by dates with the current user to see what was created in defined time frames. If you need more advance searching of the metadata use the advanced search in the ECM client. Please note to search anything outside the 15 general file metadata fields you will need to setup filter keys on the LCDF structure in ECM. You should at least have the OpenLab CDS 2.x injection data filter keys applied to your results folders. I would avoid adding peak filter keys as that will cause the db to grow unless you need to be able to search against peak results. Also adding keys will not filter any existing data already in ECM, if you need to search data already present in ECM you will need to rekey any structures where you add filter keys. 

Marty Adams

Hi Marty,

We are using ECM 3.6 and CDS 2.7. Thank you, this information is extremely helpful! I will dig into these resources/examples.

Best,

Dan

Marty,

I figured out where I went astray. The desired metadata is now populated when performing a search in OpenLab CDS. Thanks so much for your assistance!

Best,

Dan

Marty,

I had one additional somewhat unrelated question regarding ECM. We organize our data in locations by quarter (e.g. Q4 2023). If it is desired to "lock" prior quarter folders, is archival the best way to do this? The intent is to prevent adding new data to these folders.

Hello,

You could archive the data just be aware there is no way to de archive in ECM 3.x, so once archived they will be read only. Also, you can only archive files not the folders themselves. You could remove users access to the folders in ECM but that would require setting LCDF level access and not using global access in ECM. The other option would be to have the users lock the data in CDS when complete. This could be setup as part of an electronic signature workflow if you need more control over the locking step. 

Marty 

Thanks for all of your help so far Marty. It is much appreciated! I noticed that when accessing ECM, users without admin access are able to delete folders. I am not an administrator, but I was wondering how to remove that privilege in ECM. Obviously, it is not a good thing for chemist level users to be able to delete results. Am I correct that this needs to be set up separately in ECM and cannot be done in the OLCP?

Dan

Hello,

Yes ECM permissions are done in the ECM client interface. You will need to find out what role the users are in and then look at the permissions that are given. The roles are additive so if they are in more than one then they will get all permissions from the roles they part of. 

Marty 

Perfect. Thanks! Turns out the delete folder privilege for the Contributor role was unchecked. However, the box was checked for the Folder Administrator role that I also currently have for permissions.

Dan

Perfect. Thanks! Turns out the delete folder privilege for the Contributor role was unchecked. However, the box was checked for the Folder Administrator role that I also currently have for permissions.

Dan