September 20, 2013
CDD Vault Update: A picture is worth a thousand … data points?
In the informatics world, a picture may be worth a thousand numbers that you don’t have to enter. Just attach your image, plot, graph, or file and view it right next to your numeric assay results. In this release we introduce the ability to attach files to protocol readout rows so that image previews and download links appear in your results table, right alongside the single-point or dose-response data and molecular structure.
You can attach any file format of any size! If the file format is recognized as an image, you will see a preview. If not, you will see a link to download the file to open with the appropriate software. LCMS, PowerPoint slides, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, proprietary files—you name it. CDD Vault will display previews for all common image formats (JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, & BMP) and for PDF files as well.
Let us know if you encounter a file format that you'd like to see preview images of in your CDD Vault.
Sounds great, how do I set it up?
When creating or updating a protocol, add a new readout definition and choose the newly minted “File” data type.
After you’ve imported your assay results that are numbers or text, return to the protocol and go to the “All data” tab of the run. Edit a row and choose a file to attach. You may upload a new file, or choose a previously uploaded file.
You can download the original file at any time by clicking on the file name or preview image in any part of the application, for example right within the results table.
It works in exports, too
Image previews and direct download links are also included in Excel exports. Of course the link alone is not enough for outsiders to get your data! If you are already logged in to CDD Vault with your default browser, a single click in Excel will download the file. If not, you will be prompted to authenticate before the download starts. The same links are included in CSV and SDF exports.
The next release will allow you to import large sets of files via the “import data” interface. Stay tuned.
