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A new SENAITE site has no sample types, no methods, no analysis services and no clients. The workflow engine works and the API answers, but there is nothing to register a sample against. To evaluate the system, train a new colleague or try out a workflow idea, you want a site with setup data in it.
SENAITE ships a test dataset for exactly that. It is a spreadsheet inside senaite.core, and the site loads it from a form in the browser. No command line is involved.
What the dataset contains
The workbook (test.xlsx, in senaite.core under
src/bika/lims/setupdata/test/) has one sheet per kind of setup
record. The filled sheets create, among others:
- 5 clients with 7 client contacts, and 8 laboratory contacts
- 12 sample types, mostly agricultural (barley, wheat, soya, hay, apple pulp) plus water and dust
- 3 analysis categories: metals, microbiology, water chemistry
- 25 analysis services, such as calcium, copper, iron, COD, conductivity, moisture and pH
- 7 calculations, among them titration, dry matter and total hardness
- 11 methods and 21 instruments
- analysis specifications per sample type
- one worksheet template
It contains no samples and no analysis profiles. You register the first sample yourself, which is the point: the data is there so the sample registration form has something to offer.
Load it
You need a running SENAITE site. If you do not have one, start with the 5-minute Docker run.
- Log in as a user with the Manager or Lab Manager role.
- Open the import view of the site,
http://localhost:8080/senaite/import. - Switch to the tab Load Setup Data.
- Under Select existing file, choose SENAITE LIMS: test and click Submit.
The import runs in one transaction. If a row fails, nothing is stored and the page shows the traceback. When it succeeds, the page reports Data import successful, and the setup folders are filled.
Read this before you load it into a real site
The import is meant for evaluation sites. Three properties make it unsuitable for a site you intend to keep:
- It overwrites the laboratory. The sheet Lab Information sets the laboratory’s name, accreditation details and address, and the sheet Setup changes settings of the site configuration.
- It does not check for existing records. Every row creates a new object. Loading the dataset twice gives you every client twice.
- There is no undo. The records are ordinary content. Removing them means deleting or deactivating them one by one, or starting over with a new database.
The simple way around all three: one instance can hold several
sites. Open the root of the instance (http://localhost:8080),
create a second SENAITE site with the path identifier demo, and
load the test data there. Your own site stays untouched.
Use the workbook as a template
The same tab has a second option, Load from file. It reads a
workbook with the same structure from your computer. That makes
test.xlsx a template for your own setup: copy it, empty the
sheets, and fill in your sample types, analysis services and
specifications.
For a first setup with dozens of analysis services this is faster than the forms, and the spreadsheet is a record of what you configured. Two limits:
- Files referenced in the workbook, such as a method document or a logo, are only loaded if they exist on the server. The form says so in its own help text.
- The workbook covers the classic setup records. Configuration that add-ons bring, and newer fields of the core, are not necessarily in it. Check the result in the setup forms after the import.
What to do with the data
Three exercises that show how SENAITE works:
- Register a sample. Open a client, add a sample, pick a sample type and a few analysis services, save. Then receive it.
- Use a worksheet. Create a worksheet, assign the analyses of your sample, and print it for the bench.
- Enter, submit, verify, publish. Enter results, submit them, verify them as a second user, and publish the report. Then look at the sample’s history to see who did what and when.
Once the test data has shown you how SENAITE behaves, the next question is how it behaves with your own data. That is what the 3-day workshop is for: we preconfigure a system with your sample types and analyses, and your team works through it with us.
