Changes with Categories and Status

[NicolasCARPi]

In the upcoming version 4.9.0, a major change will happen. Previously, Resources had Categories (Items Types/Resources Categories), and Experiments had Status.

Now Experiments, Templates and Resources will all have Categories and Status, and Resources Categories will also have a Status.

Also, it is now possible to have a NULL Category or Status. This means that a Resource can be without a Category, and an Experiment can be without a Status.

During upgrade, all Experiments will have a NULL Category, and all Resources will have a NULL Status. Then the Admin can go to the Admin Panel to add Categories for Experiments, and Status for Resources.

There is some sort of peculiarity, is that the main color for entries will be determined by Status for Experiments and Category for Resources (a NULL value will appear gray).

Here is how it looks:

Experiment showing both Category and Status in listing

Table mode showing Category and Status columns

Clicking a Category or Status will filter the results with that value, and the filters are additive.

There is still something that will probably need to be addressed, is that for now Categories/Status are split between Experiments or Resources, meaning that all Experiments have access to all Status for any Category, and same for Resources. But it would probably make more sense to have Status only for certain Categories. So for instance the Resource Category "Microscope" will have "Operational" "Broken" status, and Resource Category "Consummable" will have "In Stock", "Need to reorder", etc...

Templates

Experiments templates also gain access to Category and Status attributes, if the Status is not null, then the default Status of the team will be used. It also means that it will be easier to categorize templates by Category. They use the Experiments Categories.

Resources Categories

We still end up with Resources Categories that are more than just a name and a color, but that are in fact Resources Templates, similar to how Experiments Templates are templates for well, ... experiments. And Resources Categories cannot have a Category because they are the Category (for Resources). This is not necessarily a problem in itself, but I think it complicates things a bit for the initial comprehension of how things work.

Things that might be surprising to a newcomer:

• Experiments Templates can be created by users, but not Resources Templates (Resources Categories).
• Only Admin can set Categories and Status.
• The color is the Status for Experiments and Category for Resources

Anyway, what do you think of this change? Feel free to give your 2 cents ;)

[Aveyron-RetD]

Hi Nico,

I know where you are going and appreciate all the work you are putting to elab, but I think this feature is not yet ready for release.

I believe to be feature complete, the templates set by the admin should in either experiments or resources be able to select a choice of status in the status selection.

This would build a drop-down menu of the selection for the user when in use.

Thanks for you hard work.

[NicolasCARPi]

So if I understand correctly, you think binding a Status list to a Category would be crucial, right?

[Aveyron-RetD]

Not crucial but a nice addition.
I have done this kind of status already in my category name e.g. project open: project closed:projet to be open etc...
Equipment in use/ not in use
For my case, it would reduce the number of category

[Aveyron-RetD]

I have been looking at the demo website and now strongly believe that for the resource category the status list should not be a global setting but per category.

As a manager I am already in charge of doing some clean-ups sometimes, because stuff are not entered consistently.

I have only 14 categories and believe with the addition of the status in a global setting I will have to do even more clean-ups. Because those categories would have very different status and could be kind of similar they could be misused and i will have to correct the mistakes.
By having a per category setting I will have only a set status which would be self-explanatory.
Some example below...

Project: To be open/open/close/archived
Reagent: In stock/to be ordered/Disposed/Open/Waiting for disposal
Samples : Received/Waiting for analysis/In analysis/Waiting for disposal/Disposed
Equipment :

[NicolasCARPi]

I'm thinking next to the Status there could be "Available for" and then a multi select with the Categories.

[microbearlogist]

I agree with @Aveyron-RetD suggestion

A category-specific status list would really be necessary. In the current situation this is already very good (excellent category / status rework for this 4.9.0) but does pose the problem of user errors concerning status since they are actually global.

[ELN-uzun]

What about combining the colors. For example: I have the status running for an experiment and the color green. In the "not table" layout I can see a green stripe on the left side of the experiment. How about adding a second strip according to the color of the category. Color of category frist and satus second.

[ELN-uzun]

looks good to me

[microbearlogist]

Could the color of the status dot be also customized by the admin (like the actual categories) ?

[NicolasCARPi]

@microbearlogist yes the status dot is the status color!

[Aveyron-RetD]

mm that screenshot makes me think that the status could also reflect the scheduler status (For the example above, if the microscope is booked at the time i am looking at it it should state currently in use... )

[baumnic]

Love it!