Editing Result schemas using JSON

You can edit schemas and fields minimally, but can make more specific edits to Result schemas using JSON. To add Lookup columns to a Result table, visit Lookup columns and tables.

Access the JSON editor

You can add custom JSON scripts to your schema to further customize it. To customize a schema:

1. In the schema, click Edit as JSON.

2. After adding your scripts, click Update.

Error message: “fields.FIELDNAME.FIELDTYPE cannot change type once data has been received”

If this error message displays, the field has been used and you can no longer change the field type. Archive the field and create a new one.

Add minimum and maximum thresholds to number fields

If your schema field has Integer or Decimal selected as the data type, you can add minimum and maximum value thresholds.

To add thresholds in the JSON editor, add the following, replacing minimum and maximum with your numbers:

{"min": MINIMUM,
"max": MAXIMUM}

Configure decimal field placement

If your schema field has Decimal selected as the data type, you can configure the decimal precision. For example, a decimal precision of 3 would record submitted results to the thousandths position (0.000).

To specify decimal precision, add the following in the JSON editor, replacing number with the number of places after the decimal:

{"decimalPrecision": NUMBER}

Configure text dropdown options in decimal fields

You can configure decimal (float) fields to accept text. If a user enters text values that are not configured in the field, it will be flagged as illegal to preserve data integrity. For example, a number field can be configured to accept ULOQ and LLOQ to represent the upper and lower limits of quantification, which can be useful for analytics assays.

To configure text drop-down options in a schema, first ensure the dropdown exists. You will need to input the dropdown ID in your JSON script.

To find the dropdown ID and configure your JSON script:

1. Select Dropdowns in the left-side panel, then click the dropdown.

2. Copy the end of the URL containing the dropdown ID. This begins with sfs_.

3. Replace dropdownID in the script below with the dropdown ID you just copied, then paste the script into the JSON editor.

{"legalTextDropdownId": "DropdownId"}

Data warehouse integration

When a number field has text options configured, Benchling automatically generates an additional text column for that field in the data warehouse. Since columns can only contain one type of information, the original column holds the numeric value and the text column holds the text value, depending on the entry’s selected value. The new column is titled {field_name}$text.