Browse Data Administration

This section describes how to create and modify the following objects in the Browse Program Explorer:

  • Programs
  • Studies
  • Analyses
  • Assays
  • Folders

For descriptions of these objects, see Viewing Studies in the Program Explorer Tree.

Creating Program Explorer Objects

A program is the highest-level object in the Program Explorer tree. The procedure for creating a program is different than for creating all other objects.

Creating a Program

To create a program in the Program Explorer:

  1. Click Browse in the tranSMART menu bar.

  2. Click Add new program under the Welcome to tranSMART box:

    browse_add_program

  3. Define the fields in the Create Program dialog box, then click Save.

Creating Other Program Explorer Objects

Studies, analyses, assays, and folders are child objects of some other object. For example, you can create a study under a program, an analysis under a study, or a folder under an analysis or another folder.

To create a child object:

  1. Select its parent object in the Program Explorer.

    The child objects that can be created under the parent appear as buttons in the upper-right corner of the Browse window; for example:

    browse_program_more

  2. Click the appropriate button to open the Create… dialog box.

  3. Define the fields in the Create… dialog box, then click Save.

    The following table shows the objects you can create for a selected object in the Program Explorer:

Selected Object in Program Explorer Child Objects You Can Create
Program
  • Study
  • Folder
Study
  • Analysis
  • Assay
  • Folder
Analysis
  • Folder
Assay
  • Folder
Folder
  • Sub-Folder

Editing and Deleting Objects

The following table describes how to edit and delete Program Explorer objects:

Task Description
Editing an object

To edit an object, click the object in the Program Explorer, then click the pencil icon that appears in the Browse window:

browse_folder_edit

Define the fields in the Edit… dialog box, then click Save.

Deleting analyses, assays, and folders

To delete an analysis, assay, or folder, click the object in the Program Explorer, then click the Delete this… button in the upper right corner of the window; for example:

browse_folder_delete

Note: Normally only analyses, assays, and folders can be deleted from within the Browse window. Programs and studies must be deleted from the database directly unless this feature is enabled in the startup configuration settings.

Deleting files

To delete a file from a folder, click the folder in the Program Explorer, then click the Delete button at the right:

browse_folder_filedelete

Common Features for Creating and Editing Objects

The following table shows the features that apply to all Program Explorer objects when you are creating or editing an object in a Create… or Edit… dialog box:

Feature Description
Required fields

Fields whose names are followed by a red asterisk are required:

browse_field_required

Autocomplete fields

Shaded fields are autocomplete fields. Type one or more characters at the beginning of the value that you want to assign to the field, and tranSMART will display a list of text strings that begin with those characters. Select the value to assign from the displayed list.

browse_field_autocomplete

Alternatively, insert the cursor in the field and press the Down arrow key to select from an alphabetical list of suggested field values.

Multiple-value fields

Some autocomplete fields allow multiple values to be assigned. These fields contain the label Add new next to the field.

browse_field_multi

Removing a value from a multi-value field

To remove a value from a multi-value field, click the blue x icon next to the value:

browse_field_multi_delete

Close vs. Cancel buttons Both buttons close the Create… or Edit… dialog box, any changes you made in the dialog box are abandoned. However, with Cancel, a warning message appears before the dialog box is closed. With Close, the dialog box is closed immediately with no warning message.

Uploading Files to Folders

Folders allow you to attach files to an object. For example, you might add a folder to contain files pertaining to the analysis of a study, or a gene list for an analysis.

You can upload any type of file to a folder. However, the free-text search feature will only search files in a format that can be text-indexed, such as Microsoft Word documents, text files, and electronically generated PDFs.

Files can be uploaded to a folder via FTP and can be stored on the application server.