Editing Metadata tables
The Metadata Table Editor can be used to edit a metadata table. To open the Metadata Table Editor, open a metadata table already imported and saved in the Navigation Area, and click on Set Up Table.... For each column, it is possible to change the following:
- Name. A mandatory header name or title for the column.
- Description. An optional description of the information that will be held in the column. The description will appear as a tool tip, visible when you hover the mouse cursor over the column name in the metadata table.
- Key column. It is possible to designate any column as the key column, as long as entries in that column are unique.
- Type. The type of value allowed. The default data type for columns on import is text, but this can be edited to the following types:
- Text Simple text.
- Whole number Integer values, like 42 or -7.
- Decimal number Decimal values, like 3.14 or 1.72e13.
- Yes / No Yes/No or True/False values are accepted. Capitalization is not necessary.
- Date Local dates such as 2015-04-23 for April 23rd, 2015.
- Date and time Local date and time such as 2015-04-23 13:37 for 1:37pm on April 23rd, 2015. Note the use of 24-hour clock and that no time zone information is present.
Navigate between the columns using the (
) Prev and (
) Next buttons, or by using
left/right arrow keys with Alt key held down. Modifications made to a particular column take effect as you navigate to another column, or if you close the dialog using Done.
The (
) and (
) buttons are used undo and redo changes respectively.
Columns may be deleted using the (
) button. After metadata has been imported, additional columns can be added to the table structure. This can be done by importing the altered structure from an external file, where any columns not already in the metadata table will be added. Alternatively, individual columns can be added using the (
) and (
) buttons, which insert new columns before and after the current column respectively. Row information is added manually by clicking on the (
) button and typing in the information for each column.
To edit information about samples, click on Manage Data..., and navigate between rows as explained above about columns.