Finding data elements based on metadata

Using the Metadata Table view you can find data elements associated with rows of the Metadata Table. Select one or more rows of the Metadata Table, then click Find Associated Data. A search result table is then displayed below the Metadata Table, see figure 3.19.

Image metadata_search_results
Figure 3.19: Metadata Table with search results

The search results table shows the type, name, and navigation area path for each data element found. It also shows the key of the Metadata Table row with which the element is associated, as well as the role of the data element with respect to the entity modelled by that row. In figure 3.19, there are five data elements associated with sample ETC-009. Three are Sequence Lists, two of them containing un-mapped reads resulting from an execution of the Map Reads to Reference tool.

By selecting rows in the search result table, you can open search results of interest by clicking the Show button, or you can have them highlighted in the Navigation Area by clicking the Find in Navigation Area button. If you invoke a tool or exporter, the selected search results will be pre-selected in the wizard. This functionality can be used together with filtering on the Role column of the search results table to execute analyses on data elements that have a particular role with respect to its associated metadata.

Clicking the Refresh button will re-run the search and refresh the search results table. You can close the table by clicking the Close button.