Editing a Large Group Of Samples After They Are Entered In LIMS

Q:

I have a large group of samples that were NOT entered in a batch, they were entered individually all on the same date with the same location. I need a quick way of changing a few words in the description area. Right now, I must go in one at a time and back out and back in one by one. I have a group of samples to correct. Guide me on an efficient way of doing this.

A:

Due to the LIMS’ built-in audit trailing it is not possible to update sample descriptions en masse after samples have been logged (regardless of if they were part of a batch or logged individually). However, there is a way to speed up the process of updating them one by one. 

For context, any change or update after a sample has been logged will trigger an audit trail event in the database, which you will also have to enter an audit trail reason for. The purpose is to prevent data manipulations and to make any change searchable/reportable from the LIMS. I believe the “Description” field is a default audit trail field, but it can be removed by a LIMS Admin if it’s not important to your lab to have this field tracked for audit trailing. By doing this, you won’t have to enter a reason for each description you update. 

First, ask your LIMS Admin to double check the audit trail settings and see if they approve of removing the Description field from audit trail events. From the Main Menu, have your LIMS Admin click on Admin > System Configuration. In the System Configuration menu, click on the Audit Trail tab. If approved, they can uncheck “Description” from the Audit Trail list. This will mean you can update sample descriptions without having to enter a reason each time. If this field is not checked already, you can leave it as is. Consider exploring any of the other fields in this menu and evaluating if they need to be tracked as audit trail events in the future. 

Next, you will want to query your samples. On the Samples tab, click Sample Login. Toward the top/center of the Sample Login menu, click Edit Data to query & edit existing samples. Next to the Select Samples picklist in the top left, click Query Samples and input a combination query criteria to find your desired samples (project, location, login date, etc). Once you’ve pulled up your samples in “Edit” mode, you can update their descriptions one by one. Unless the Audit trail settings can be adjusted, you will still need to type or select a reason for updating their descriptions. After the Description is updated, you will navigate to the next sample by clicking the small triangle icon next to Sample: in the lower left corner, which shows how many samples you’ve queried. 

 While you’ll still need to update the descriptions one by one, you’ll save time if you don’t have to enter a reason for each description (assuming this is audit trail setting update is OK with your LIMS Admin), and you won’t have to individually query each sample.