Web Part - A user interface panel designed for specific functionality. Examples: file management panel, wiki editor, data grid.
Dashboard/Tab - A collection of web parts assembled together for expanded functionality.
Folder/Project - An organizing container for web parts and dashboards. Projects are top level folders.
Assay/Assay Design - A container for instrument-derived data, customizable to capture information about the nature of the experiment and instrument.
List - A general data container - a grid of columns and rows.
Dataset - A tabular data container like a list, but associated with and integrated into a study.
Data Grid - A web-based interactive table that displays the data in a Dataset, List, Query, or View.
Report - A transformational view on the underlying data, produced by applying some statistical, aggregating, or visualizing algorithm. For example, an R script that produces a scatter plot from the underlying data. Reports are often the most important part of a project, because they summarize your findings, they confirm or dis-confirm your hypothesis, and they are the focus of attention from your audience. See "Query" below for staging data for a report.
Database terms
Table - The primary data container in the database - a grid of rows and columns.
Query - A selection of data from the tables. Queries form the mediating layer between LabKey Server and the database(s): LabKey Server "sees" the databases as a set of queries. Each table is presented by the "default" query, which shows the whole underlying table (minus some system columns). Users can create any number of user defined queries based on the underlying table(s). Queries are useful for staging data when making reports: use a query to select data from the database, then base a report on the query. All queries for a folder are listed in the Query Schema Browser.
View - Formatting and display on top of a query. Created through the data grid web user interface: from any grid select Views > Customize View.
Schema/Database Schema - A collection of tables and their relationships. Includes the columns, and any relationships between the columns. LabKey uses schemas to solve many data integration problems. For example, the structure of the 'study' schema anticipates (and solves) many challenges inherent in an observational/cohort study.
Lookups - LabKey Server sees foreign key/primary key column relationships as "lookup" relationships. Lookup shortcut syntax has the form:Table.ForeignKey.FieldFromForeignTable.
Assay terms
Assay type - Think assay "template". A structure defined by developers for a technology or instrument type such as Luminex, Elispot, ELISA, NAb, or microarray. There is also a general purpose assay type that can be customized. Assay designs (see below) are based on assay types.
Assay design - A specific named implementation of an assay type, which often includes lab-specific properties defined by an administrator. Assay designs are the main data containers for assay results.
Assay results (also referred to as assay data) - The individual data elements of an assay run, such as a measured intensity level of a well or spot.
Assay run - A grouping of assay results, typically corresponding to a single cycle of a lab instrument on a specific date and time, recorded by a researcher or lab technician who will specify any necessary properties.
Assay batch - A grouping of runs that are imported into LabKey Server in a single session.
GPAT - General Purpose Assay Type. The most generic assay type/"template", used to import a single tabular data block from a spreadsheet or text file. At assay design time, the GPAT type can infer the field names and types from an example instance of the data it is designed to store.
ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) terms
Transform - An operation that copies data from the result of a source query into a destination list or other tabular data object.
ETL script - A file that contains the definition of one or more transforms.
Filter strategy - A setting that determines which rows are considered before the source query is applied.
Select all, or only changed rows
Target option - A setting that determines what the transfer does when the source query returns keys that already exist in the destination. For possible settings see ETL: Schedules and Options.
Study terms
Study - A container for integrating heterogeneous data, aligned by subject and time.
Subject - The entity being tracked in a study (participant, mouse, etc.).
Visit - Identifier or date indicating when the data was collected.
Dataset - The main tables in a Labkey Study, where the heterogeneous data resides. There are three sub-groups: demographic datasets, clinical datasets (the default), and assay/specimen datasets.
