Each organization, each project, each sample type may need its own data structure. The poor man’s way to solve this is to include some extra fields like ‘text1’, ‘text2’ to some tables. However this solutions is inflexible, not very useful, and on the long time everybody forgets what ‘text1’ means, and uses the same field for something else.
SampleNavigator contains a sophisticate data structure, consisting of:

• Attributes (the same as: fields, columns, properties)
• Rows (Records)
• Sets (Tables)
• Lineair lookup tables (classifications)
• Hierarchical Lookup tables (classifications)

Data Dictionary

All attributes are stored in a central repository, you can reuse those attributes in all Sets. You can use the same attribute, for instance the “research classifications’ in all Sets, and you can relate those sets to samples, master and micro, DNA, Documents, storage units, storage locations etc.

You can define the attributes on a central place, assure a nomenclature in your organisation. Propagate those standard names not only through your laboratories, but also to all users that access the data using a web browser.

Attribute Types

SampleNavigator supports the standard attribute types:

• Text
• Numeric values
• Dates (SampleNavigator looks in the local settings for the date format)
• Time (SampleNavigator looks in the local settings for the time format)
• File (PDF, Word, Excel, any type you want)
• URL (Internet)

Records

You can combine those attributes to records. For instance a record with first name, last name, birth date.

Sets

Often you want to store more than one value. For instance not only the temperature of a freezer, but each hour the temperature of a freezer. For that purposes SampleNavigator contains tables. The effect is a that you can attach a sheet of a spreadsheet to a container, sample, document, research, storage unit or location. And not one sheet, but multiple sheets