Assays have a definition that defines a basic set of columns. however, each instance of that assay could have different columns. each instance can also get a different name.

A second center is installing the MHC Assay. That module has the assay definition, metadata, some simple UI and queries. thanks to 11.1 changes, the first three can now be tied to the assay definition in general, and are not linked to a specific instance of that assay. this makes them much more portable.

any query based on an assay currently needs to point to a specific instance of that assay. this is b/c the name of that assay instance is built right into the source table's name, such as 'MHC_SSP Runs'. in order to write a query about an assay table, you need to hard-code the name of that assay instance.

because we want to share the queries with the other center, i'm going to have them name their assay instance the same as ours. this isnt really a hardship, but it is fragile. is there any option besides that?

thanks.