A
domain is a collection of fields under a data type. Each data type (e.g., Assays, Lists, Datasets, etc.) provides specialized handling for the domains it defines. Assays define multiple domains (batch, run, etc.), while Lists and Datasets define only one domain each.
An assay module can define a custom domain to replace LabKey's built-in default assay domains, by adding a schema definition in the domains/ directory. For example:
assay/<assay-name>/domains/<domain-name>.xml
The name of the assay is taken from the <assay-name> directory. The contents of <domain-name>.xml file contains the domain definition and conforms to the <domain> element from assayProvider.xsd, which is in turn a DomainDescriptorType from the expTypes.xsd XML schema. There are three built-in domains for assays: "batch", "run", and "result". This following result domain replaces the build-in result domain for assays:
result.xml<ap:domain xmlns:exp="http://cpas.fhcrc.org/exp/xml"
xmlns:ap="http://labkey.org/study/assay/xml">
<exp:Description>This is my data domain.</exp:Description>
<exp:PropertyDescriptor>
<exp:Name>SampleId</exp:Name>
<exp:Description>The Sample Id</exp:Description>
<exp:Required>true</exp:Required>
<exp:RangeURI>http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string</exp:RangeURI>
<exp:Label>Sample Id</exp:Label>
</exp:PropertyDescriptor>
<exp:PropertyDescriptor>
<exp:Name>TimePoint</exp:Name>
<exp:Required>true</exp:Required>
<exp:RangeURI>http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime</exp:RangeURI>
</exp:PropertyDescriptor>
<exp:PropertyDescriptor>
<exp:Name>DoubleData</exp:Name>
<exp:RangeURI>http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#double</exp:RangeURI>
</exp:PropertyDescriptor>
</ap:domain>
To deploy the module, the assay directory is zipped up as a <module-name>.module file and copied to the LabKey server's modules directory.
When you create a new assay design for that assay type, it will use the fields defined in the XML domain as a template for the corresponding domain. Changes to the domains in the XML files will not affect existing assay designs that have already been created.
