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Trial Metadata

Overview

Trial is a comparative experiment established to test the effectness of various treatments. 

There are following three parts of trial information stored in the database.
  1. Trial Metadata : Header information (such as Site, Year, Trial Type, Trial Number, Trial Manager etc) of the trial are stored in this part of the database.
     
  2. Trial Operation: This part stores information that was gathered on overall trial ie the unit position (such as Column/Row) are not applicable or not relavant. 
    For example: Measuring Dry Matter measurement randomly within a trial.
     
  3. Trial Unit of Trial Design: This part stores information (such as treatment, design parameters and sample information) of each trial unit (ie trial design) of the trial. 
     
  4. Raw data: This part stores raw data of each trial unit (ie trial design) of the trial. 

Detail

Trial Alternate Key

The trial table has two alternate keys. While importing data, the source file must have either [ Site Name, Site Year, Trial Type Name and Trial Number ] columns or [ Trial Acronym ] column (without space in the column name) in order to find the Trial in the database.

Trial Number

Number (count) of Trial when multiple trials of same trial type done at a site in a year. If there are trials of same trial type in a site on a year then the first trial get the trial number 1 and the second one gets trial number 2.

The system-generated trial number can be changed using the Trial Setup Form before the trial has any dependant data.

Trial Manager

Trial Manager is the person or responsible unit (ie Contact) who is responsible for managing the trial.

While importing trial, if the source file does not have Trial Manager Name column or has empty (null) value for the Trial Manager Name column, then Unknown Contact is used for the trial manager.

Latitude and Longitude

The Latitude and Longitude of Trials are used by the Trial Navigator to perform map-based search in the database. Though these values are optional, it is strongly recommended to enter these values so that the map-based search can be used in the navigator (as shown below).
Illustrative snapshot:
Map based search Form (Click it to change its size)
  1. Click on the button to activate the map-based-search form.
  2. Displays current latitude of the cursor position in the map.
  3. Displays current longitude of the cursor position in the map.
  4. The surrounding area (km) determine the radius of the circle when click on the map (in this example, its "400").
  5. In this example, the area in which the location will be searched to display in the Contact Navigator. If a location does not have latitude or longitude then the location is excluded from the search.
How is Latitude and Longitude managed in Katmandoo?
When Latitude and Longitude is entered for an existing or a new Trial, Katmandoo checks whether the Latitude and Longitude already exist in the GeoCoordinate table. If it does, then GeoCoordinateId is updated for the Trial record. If not, a new record is created in the GeoCoordinate table with given Latitude and Longitude. Then new GeoCoordinateId is updated for the Trial record.

Table Structure

Column Name Description
TrialId (PK) Identification Number that uniquely identifies a Trial.
SiteYearId (AK1) Id that identifies a site year record that consists of Site (where), Site Year (when) and Site Manager.
TrialTypeId (AK1) Id that identifies the trial type of the trial
TrialNumber (AK1) Number (count) of Trial when multiple trials of same trial type done at a site in a year.
TrialAcronym (AK2) An Acronym that uniquely identifies a trial done at a site in a year.
DesignTypeId (FK) Id that identifies the design type used in the trial.
TrialManagerId (FK) Id referencing to a Contact who is responsible for managing the Trial.
TrialStartDate Date when the trial was started (this is sown date for field trial, use 1/1/SiteYear for the historical data)
TrialEndDate Date when the trial was ended (this is harvested date for field trial)(if this is null then the trial was NOT harvest!)
GeoCoordinateId (FK) Id that reference to the Latitude and Longitude in the GeoCoordinate table taken at outside corner of Column 1, Row 1

Pre-requisite to add a trial

Following information must exist before a Trial can be added into the database.
Note: Although Unknown Design Type and Unknown Contact can be used, it is preferable to add the Design Type and Trial Manager before adding a new trial. This avoids changing at a later date.

Navigator

Use [ Task > Trial > Raw data > Manage Trial & Raw data ] to activate the trial navigator.
The trial navigator allows user to quickly find the trial, trial operation, trial design and raw data information. The navigator has following options to build the nodes in the navigator:
Important Note: Katmandoo automatically selects the option and node that were selected last time (ie before closing the navigator or Katmadoo).
Illustrative snapshot:
Trial navigator with "Site x Site Year based Node" Trial navigator with "Site Year x Trial Type based Node"
    Trial Navigator - Site x Site Year based Node
    Trial Navigator - Site Year x Trial Type based Node
  1. Click it to load data based on the selected area in the map.
  2. The selected option (Site x Site Year based Node) to build the navigator nodes using the loaded data.
  3. Filter component in the navigator ("Site Name" is the column, "Starts" is the operation and "*" is the filer value). After providing the filter information, click on the Search on Database (Search on Database) button to load the navigator.
  4. ".All Site" node. Click this node to display trials for all the listed sites in the navigator.
  5. Site node
  6. Site Year node
  7. Trial Type node
  8. Raw data node
  9. Analysis of Variance Node
  10. Trial Operation Node
  1. Click it to load data based on the selected area in the map.
  2. The selected option (Site Year x Trial Type based Node) to build the navigator nodes using the loaded data.
  3. Filter component in the navigator ("Site Name" is the column, "Starts" is the operation and "*" is the filer value). After providing the filter information, click on the Search on Database (Search on Database) button to load the navigator.
  4. ".All Site" node. Click this node to display trials for all the listed sites in the navigator.
  5. Site Year node
  6. Trial Type node
  7. Site node
  8. Raw data node
  9. Analysis of Variance Node 
  10. Trial Operation Node

Trial Navigator Nodes

Following is the structure of the trial navigator nodes:

Main Form

To display trials in the Trial Main Form, follow the steps below:
Illustrative snapshot:
Trial Main Form (Click it to change its size)
  1. Trial Navigator with selected site node "Cowra Research Station".
  2. Toolbar of Trial Metadata main form to add/edit/delete trial metadata. 
  3. Trial Main Form displaying the trials at the selected site. 
  4. Trial subform displays Virtual column information of the selected site (ie "Cowra Research Station" in the snapshot).
  5. Trial Design (Unit), Raw data, Trial Operation and KollecTrait toolbar menus.
  6. The filter in the trial main form displays the trials of site "Cowra Research Station" for the year 2007 only.
  7. Trial Design Parameters of the selected trial in the trial main form.

Trial Design Menu

Click here for Trial Design menu.

Raw data Menu

Click here for Raw data menu.

Trial Operation Menu

Click here for Trial Operation menu.

KollecTrait Menu

Click here for KollecTrait menu.

Setup Form

To add/edit a trial, follow the steps below:
Illustrative snapshot of the First Page:
 Trial Setup Form First Page (Click it to change its size)
  1. Site Name/Year is disabled since the trial already has dependant record. 
    • When the Site Name/Year is enabled (while adding a new trial), click on the combobox to select a Site Name/Year. Click on Apply Filter (Apply Filter) to narrow the list by displaying the Site Name / Year for the year selected in the trial navigator only (ie 2007 in the snapshot). Click on Reload From Database (Reload from database) to reload the Site Name/Year from the database.
  2. Trial Type of the trial. Click on Reload From Database (Reload from database) to reload the Trial Type from the database.
  3. Trial Number of the trial.
  4. Click it to display only those Trial Manager that are located in the postcode of the Site selected in the Trial Navigator. 
  5. Click it to reload all the Trial Manager in the database.
  6. Design Type of the trial. Click on Reload From Database to reload the Design Type from the database.
  7. Click Add new to add new Design Type.
  8. System generated Trial Acronym of the trial
Illustrative snapshot of the Second Page:
 Trial Setup Form Second Page (Click it to change its size)
  1. Trial Design Parameter column name (in second step of the wizard)
  2. A Trial Design Parameter value for the displayed Trial Design Parameter column can be entered on this part of the datagrid.
  3. Virtual column name (in second step of the wizard). Click here for information on the Virtual column data entry datagrid.
    • Important Note: If there is not any virtual column for TrialFactor and TrialParameter tables, then second page is disabled.
  4. A value for the displayed Virtual column can be entered on this part of the data grid.

Export / Import

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See Also