Hi Nicklas, base-developpers, Dominic an myself are currently working on a MAGE-TAB*(http://www.mged.org/mage-tab/) importer for BASE2. The format allows specifying Units to qualify descriptors such as protocol parameter, experimental factors, biomaterial descriptors. I can be quite handy for instance when having to report doses ranges of various compound fed to animals. When trying to get the unit information in BASE2, we are facing the following: Essentially, in order to retain unit information, we have to 'squeeze the information in an Annotation Type of type string that will get the numerical value + the unit value represented in the MAGE-TAB document.
Several drawbacks in using this mechanism in BASE2 - loss of data type - loss of data validation capability offered by BASE2 Annotation Type - loss of computation (using BASE formulas for instance) over numerical Annotation types. The other option of creation several Annotation Type of type float with different labels to reflect unit changes, has serious User friendlyness issues. Are there any plans to provide a support for units in BASE2 Annotation Type, and if so on which timeline ? Is it a viable options to alter Float Value and Integer Value for Annotation Type in BASE2 to allow for specification of units (possibly as free text in a first go) ? (I reckon this would requires changes to the interface..) Are we the only BASE2 users confronted with this units/annotation type pb and would there people out there interested in developing this feature and contribute it to BASE2 ? Thanks for your input. Philippe ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ basedb-devel mailing list basedb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/basedb-devel
