This topic provides examples of
query metadata used to change the display and add other behavior to queries.
Auditing Level
Set the level of detail recorded in the
audit log. The example below sets auditing to "DETAILED" on the Physical Exam table.
<tables xmlns="http://labkey.org/data/xml">
<table tableName="Physical Exam" tableDbType="NOT_IN_DB">
<auditLogging>DETAILED</auditLogging>
<columns>
...
</columns>
</table>
</tables>
Conditional Formatting
The following adds a yellow background color to any cells showing a value greater than 72.
<tables xmlns="http://labkey.org/data/xml">
<table tableName="Physical Exam" tableDbType="NOT_IN_DB">
<columns>
<column columnName="Pulse">
<columnTitle>Pulse</columnTitle>
<conditionalFormats>
<conditionalFormat>
<filters>
<filter operator="gt" value="72" />
</filters>
<backgroundColor>FFFF00</backgroundColor>
</conditionalFormat>
</conditionalFormats>
</column>
</table>
</tables>
Wrapping/Surfacing Calculated Columns
The following example shows how to surface columns of calculated values in other datasets.
Suppose you have weight data recorded in one dataset (Physical Exam) and height data recorded in another dataset (Demographics). You want to accomplish three things with this data: (1) convert the height data, which is records in inches, into meters, (2) calculate the BMI (Body Mass Index) from the height and weight data, and (3) surface these calculated columns in the Physical Exam dataset.
The following query accomplishes the first two tasks, by including two calculated columns:
- Height_m (which converts the base data in inches to meters)
- BMI (which uses the formula Height/Weight^2 to calculate the BMI)
BMI Query
SELECT "Physical Exam".ParticipantId,
"Physical Exam".LSID,
"Physical Exam".Weight_kg,
Datasets.Demographics.Height_inch*0.0254 AS Height_m,
Weight_kg/POWER(Datasets.Demographics.Height_inch*0.0254, 2) AS BMI
FROM "Physical Exam"
How do you accomplish the third task, surfacing the calculated columns so they can be displayed in the Physical Exam table?
To do this, use query metadata to wrap the BMI query as a lookup (= foreign key) from the Physical Exam dataset. Notice that we have included the LSID column in the BMI query to function as a key column. The following metadata on Physical Exam adds a wrapped column over LSID as a lookup to the BMI query.
Query Metadata on Physical Exam
<tables xmlns="http://labkey.org/data/xml">
<table tableName="Physical Exam" tableDbType="NOT_IN_DB">
<columns>
<column columnName="BMI" wrappedColumnName="lsid">
<fk>
<fkDbSchema>study</fkDbSchema>
<fkTable>BMI Query</fkTable>
<fkColumnName>LSID</fkColumnName>
</fk>
</column>
</columns>
</table>
</tables>
Now that Physical Exam is linked to BMI Query via the lookup/foreign key, all of the columns in BMI Query are made available to the grid customization GUI:
Lookup Display Column
The following example shows how to specify an alternate display column for a lookup field.
<tables xmlns="http://labkey.org/data/xml">
<table tableName="Demographics" tableDbType="NOT_IN_DB">
<columns>
<column columnName="Gender">
<columnTitle>Gender Code</columnTitle>
<fk>
<fkDisplayColumnName>GenderCode</fkDisplayColumnName>
<fkTable>Genders</fkTable>
<fkDbSchema>lists</fkDbSchema>
</fk>
</column>
</columns>
</table>
</tables>
Include Row Selection Checkboxes
To include row selection checkboxes in a query, include this:
<tables xmlns="http://labkey.org/data/xml">
<table tableName="Demographics" tableDbType="NOT_IN_DB">
<columns>
<column columnName="RowId">
<isKeyField>true</isKeyField>
</column>
</columns>
</table>
</tables>
URL Display Columns
Using query metadata provided in a module, you can display images with optional custom thumbnails in a data grid.
For example, if you have a store of PNG images and want to display them in a grid, you can put them in a fixed location and refer to them from the grid by URL. The column type in the grid would be a text string, but the grid would display the image. Further, you could provide separate custom thumbnails instead of the miniature version LabKey would generate by default.
The module code would use a
displayColumnFactory similar to this example, where the properties are defined below.
<column columnName="image">
<displayColumnFactory>
<className>org.labkey.api.data.URLDisplayColumn$Factory</className>
<properties>
<property name="thumbnailImageWidth">55px</property>
<property name="thumbnailImageUrl">_webdav/my%20studies/%40files/${image}</property>
<property name="popupImageUrl">_webdav/my%20studies/%40files/${popup}</property>
<property name="popupImageWidth">250px</property>
</properties>
</displayColumnFactory>
<url>/labkey/_webdav/my%20studies/%40files/${popup}</url>
</column>
Properties available in a
displayColumnFactory:
- thumbnailImageUrl (optional) - The URL string expression for the image that will be displayed inline in the grid. If the string expression evaluates to null, the column URL will be used instead. Defaults to the column URL.
- thumbnailImageWidth (optional) - The size of the image that will be displayed in the grid. If the property is present but the value is empty (or “native”), no css scaling will be applied to the image. Defaults to “32px”.
- thumbnailImageHeight (optional) - The image height
- popupImageHeight (optional) - The image height
- popupImageUrl (optional) - The URL string expression for the popup image that is displayed on mouse over. If not provided, the thumbnail image URL will be used if the thumbnail image is not displayed at native resolution, otherwise the column URL will be used.
- popupImageWidth (optional) - The size of the popup image that will be displayed. If the property is present but the value is empty (or “native”), no css scaling will be applied to the image. Defaults to “300px”.
Using the above example, two images would exist in the 'mystudies' file store: a small blue car image (circled) provided as the thumbnail and the white car image provided as the popup.
Filtered Lookups
If you want to filter a lookup column during an insert or update operation, you can do so using XML metadata.
For example, consider a list of instruments shared across many departments, each one associated with a specific type of assay (such as elispot) and marked as either in use or not. If your department wants an input form to draw from this shared list, but avoid having an endless menu of irrelevant instruments, you can limit insert choices for an "Instrument" column to only those for the 'elispot' assay that are currently in use by using a filterGroup:
<column columnName="Instrument">
<fk>
<fkColumnName>key</fkColumnName>
<fkTable>sharedInstrumentList</fkTable>
<fkDbSchema>lists</fkDbSchema>
<filters>
<filterGroup>
<filter column="assay" value="elispot" operator="eq"/>
<filter column="inuse" value="true" operator="eq"/>
</filterGroup>
</filters>
</fk>
</column>
In the above example, the same filter is applied to both insert and update. If you wanted to have different behavior for these two operations, you could separate them like this:
<column columnName="Instrument">
<fk>
<fkColumnName>key</fkColumnName>
<fkTable>sharedInstrumentList</fkTable>
<fkDbSchema>lists</fkDbSchema>
<filters>
<filterGroup operation="insert">
<filter column="assay" value="elispot" operator="eq"/>
<filter column="inuse" value="true" operator="eq"/>
</filterGroup>
<filterGroup operation="update">
<filter column="inuse" value="true" operator="eq"/>
</filterGroup>
</filters>
</fk>
</column>
Filter groups like this can be applied to a list, dataset, or any other table that can accept an XML metadata override.
Other Examples
- kinship.query.xml
- Disables the standard insert, update, and delete buttons/links with the empty <insertUrl /> and other tags.
- Configures lookups on a couple of columns and hides the RowId column in some views.
- Adds a custom button "More Actions" with a child menu item "Limit To Animals In Selection" that calls a JavaScript method provided in a referenced .js file.
- Data.query.xml
- Configures columns with custom formatting for some numeric columns, and color coding for the QCFlag column.
- Adds multiple menu options under the "More Actions" button at the end of the button bar.
- Formulations.query.xml
- Sends users to custom URLs for the insert, update, and grid views.
- Retains some of the default buttons on the grid, and adds a "Delete Formulations" button between the "Paging" and "Print" buttons.
- encounter_participants.query.xml
- AssignmentOverlaps.query.xml
- Aliquots.query.xml & performCellSort.html
- Adds a button to the Sample Types web part. When the user selects samples and clicks the button, the page performCallSort.html is shown, where the user can review the selected records before exporting the records to an Excel file.
- To use this sample, place Aliquots.query.xml in a module's ./resources/queries/Samples directory. Rename Aliquots.query.xml it to match your sample type's name. Edit the tableName attribute in the Aliquots.query.xml to match your sample type's name. Replace the MODULE_NAME placeholder with the name of your module. Place the HTML file in your module's ./resources/views directory. Edit the queryName config parameter to match the sample type's name.
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