What happened?
Please be advised that a product limitation has been identified where a user is able to delete the results tables within a notebook entry after submitting and prior to archiving.
Additional Context
In Q4 2021, Benchling released a new framework for results tables to align more closely with our other structured tables in Benchling. The new results tables required results to be formally “submitted” in order to be finalized against an object. Results that have been submitted, are logged as results against an object, and most importantly can be found in the entry, on the object, and in the warehouse. The results themselves will still not be marked as “approved” until the entry that contains those results has been formally reviewed as well (this remains unchanged from the old result table). However, the action for how results are “archived” was changed between the old and new framework. Old results tables could be deleted and the results would be automatically archived, while the new results table could be deleted and would retain the results (archival is a separate step). Our data suggests that there are existing Notebook entries within your impacted tenants where results tables were deleted without results first being archived.
As mentioned, the change in result table structure meant that submitted results tables could be deleted from the entry by users while still being present on the entity and in the warehouse. Additionally there is a risk that Entries could have been approved after the Results table has been deleted and this would have also approved the previously submitted but now deleted results. The Entry history would have shown the results tables but Reviewers may well have not looked at the history. The result table deletion will also be found in the audit log for that entry.
In March 2022, Benchling released a blocker that prevented users from deleting result tables that contained submitted results. In August 2022, Benchling made available a new control on user behavior for table deletion that customers can opt-in to. This control prevents users from reverting back to a previous version of a Notebook entry if they have submitted results in the current version of the entry. Customers that wish to enforce this functionality for ‘forward only’ entries can reach out to Benchling support to enable this for their tenant.
Benchling is fully committed to personally working with you to resolve this matter. At your discretion, Benchling will send you a list of affected entries with deleted results tables for your review. Benchling can then create an Insights dashboard showing you which results were affected, where you can go through and decide what action Benchling is to take. You can choose from the following options and Benchling will work with you to ensure all results tables are updated:
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If you want Benchling to archive all of the affected results for you: Benchling can run a script to bulk archive all orphaned result tables and give an archive reason. Additionally, archived results can be unarchived at any time.
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If you want Benchling to archive some orphaned results but not others: Benchling can use the API to archive specific results and we will be providing a list of all deleted results tables for you to review.
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You decide that you want to manually archive all the affected results that you do not want yourself.
What happens next? [Action Required]
In order for Benchling to help resolve this matter, we are committing 90 days to allow impacted customers to review any and all impacted entries/results. Once you’ve decided how you’d like to resolve this gap, please inform your designated customer representative.
If you do not respond to this message within 90 days or do not provide a decision on how to resolve these results, Benchling will retain these results in their current state and will not be making any changes to your data. This message will serve as your notification for this occurrence.
How to contact Benchling?
If you have any questions or need additional information about this notice please contact Benchling at support@benchling.com and reference “Notification - Results Table Deletion” or reach out directly to your designated Customer Success Representative.
Thank you for your continued support!