Main explorer view

The visionCATS main window contains at least one tabbed document –the file explorer. All stored data in the software database can be accessed from the file explorer. In many ways, the file explorer works like the Windows Explorer, with a folder structure containing files and subfolders. By default, a “Home” folder is created with some sample files in it.

1.Contents of the current folder

• Lists the files in the currently selected folder

• Aside from the location and name, the File Types and File Status are displayed for each file, as well as other important information

• Select a file to display its Preview view

• Right-click on a file or use the Main Toolbar to access to the available File Actions

• Double-click to open a file or a folder

• Drag/drop a file or a folder to move it

2. Navigation

• Displays the current folder path

• Navigate in the folder structure by clicking on items in the folder path

3. History

• View the history of opened folders

• Go back/forward in this history

4. Status bar

• See general information about the file explorer

5. Sort options

• Sort the currently displayed items by using different criteria

6. Search options

Default textual search

Use the main textual search field to quickly find some files based on their name or explorer notes (by default). See Advanced search for details about how to customize the default search.

Simple search shortcuts

The section also contains shortcuts for the most common search operations:

• Search for recent items

  • Choose between one day, one week, one month or one year

  • Use this option to find items created, modified or imported recently

• Search for My items to find items created, modified or imported by the current user

• Search for analysis in progress

• Use one of the explorer file type icon to filter by item type ( folder, method, analysis, winCATS analysis or comparison)

• Use one of the colored square to filter by category

Advanced search

By clicking on the Advanced search button, each visionCATS user can completely configure its search experience:

• Building search queries

In the main panel, the advanced search popup includes a search tree builder where the nodes are the logical operators (and/or) and the leaves are the criteria. A lot of criteria are available, ranging from the most general fields (like Name or Is read only) to very specific ones (like Derivatize 4 instrument). Depending on the way you use visionCATS, some criteria may be more interesting than others. That’s why you can define favorite criteria by clicking on the icon next to each criteria in the list. Then, use the Display only favorite criteria button to filter the list. Furthermore, each criteria is configured by a list of operators. For example, textual criteria (Name, Explorer notes, and so on) accept various operators like Contains or Starts with. With this functionalities, each visionCATS user can search through almost everything stored in the visionCATS files. Here are a few examples:

1. A simple search for comparison files whose name contains leaf in which the S18053 vial is used:

2. An example of a more complex search on the name of an item:

3. An advanced example of search query which will find analysis AND comparisons whose name contains Rhodiola. The analysis must have at least one evaluation and the comparison must have image tracks:

• Configuring the default search

Depending on how you use visionCATS, the query executed by default (when using the main text field) can differ. For example, some people want to search the name of the file by default, whereas others want to search the sample names (vial IDs) too. VisionCATS allows each user to define its own default search query by defining a query and hitting Set as default search. Revert to the original default search (search for item name and explorer notes) by using the Reset default search button.

Note

When defining a default search, the contents of textual search fields can be left empty. They will be filled with the text entered in the box during the search.

• Defining user queries

To prevent users from having to build complex search queries each time they want to execute one, each user can define and save up to 5 search queries. To define an user query, begin by building the desired query. Then, open the User queries dropdown and hit the save icon next to the user query you want to define. Later, to execute the stored user query, simply click on it in the User queries dropdown. The search query will be filled in the main panel.

In the following capture, the user query 2 was defined (User query 2 text is dark blue whereas others are gray). By hovering on it, a tooltip displays the contents of the query.

Note

While it is possible to search for archived items (is archive), no result may be displayed depending on current user’s options, see Explorer options.