Locations

Locations is a module created to handle the specification and management of freezer systems. The specification will include the internal configuration of freezers, such as racks and boxes, as well as general properties of a freezer, such as the freezer's location within a building or room. This module enables BSI to provide other features such as finding, reserving and assigning available specimen locations within a freezer as well as transferring the location of any number of specimens.

The Locations manager is used to view and manipulate containers. Users must have permission to access this module. Container properties and contents can be also be viewed from the Location editor.

Locations within a user's repository are created, displayed, and modified from within the Locations manager.  

From the manager, users can open the Locations editor, where further options are available to edit and manage locations within the repository.

Locations within a user's repository are created, displayed, and modified from within the Locations manager. Modifications to the location hierarchy are made via the locations tree.

Locations Tree

Along the left side of the Locations manager, a tree is displayed containing all defined locations within the user's repository. Depending upon the user's preference setting, the locations listed will be identified by the container ID, the container's label, or both.

Parent containers can be expanded to reveal their subcontainers by pressing the "+" next to the container name. In this way, the tree can be expanded down to the box level. Selecting the "-" next to a container will collapse the subcontainer listing.

Clicking on the name of a container in the location tree will display the subcontainer contents of that container in the container display panel to the right of the tree.

Vials contained within a box or other container will not be displayed in the location tree. The contents of a box can be viewed in the container display panel or by editing the specific container and viewing the container layout map or container contents.

A container can also be moved to a new location within the tree by clicking on it and dragging it to a new location.

Locations Editor

Creating a new location or editing an existing container will open the Location editor. The Location editor will appear differently depending on the type of container being edited.  

The location editors consist of fields that define the parameters for the container and an error table at the bottom of the dialog. If there are errors present in the data entered, the fields with the errors will be shaded red and there will be rows describing the errors in the error table. All container types must be defined in the lkup_container_type code list before they can be added to as a location to the repository.

All containers require that an ID and a label be assigned to the container. The ID for a container must be unique within its container hierarchy. The label represents the actual label on the container and does not need to be unique. The system can generate unique labels in the Location editor, subcontainer editors, and in Specify Shipping Container Data in Requisitions.

When creating a new container, BSI will automatically fill in the label field with the container's place in the location hierarchy (for example, "Building 1, Freezer 2, Rack 5, ?"). The "?" question mark in the automatically generated label will be replaced with the container's ID when the container is saved. The automatically generated label is provided for convenience and does not have to be used. BSI will not make any changes to a label entered by a user when saving a new or existing container.

Users can create multi-specimen containers (MSCs) via the Locations editor. They can also change container dimensions or row/column formats.