Resolving FCS Files During Import

When importing analysis results from a FlowJo workspace or an external analysis archive, the Flow Module will attempt to find a previously imported FCS file to link the analysis results to.

The matching algorithm compares the imported sample from the FlowJo workspace or external analysis archive against previously imported FCS files using the following properties and keywords: FCS file name or FlowJo sample name, $FIL, GUID, $TOT, $PAR, $DATE, $ETIM. Each of the 7 comparisons are weighted equally. Currently, the minimum number of required matches is 2 -- for example, if only $FIL matches and others don't, there is no match.

While calculating the comparisons for each imported sample, the highest number of matching comparisons is remembered. Once complete, if there is only a single FCS file that has the max number of matching comparisons, it is considered a perfect match. The import wizard resolver step will automatically select the perfectly matching FCS file for the imported sample (they will have the green checkmark). As long as each FCS file can be uniquely matched by at least two comparisons (e.g, GUID and the other keywords), the import wizard should automatically select the correct FCS files that were previously imported.

If there are no exact matches, the imported sample will not be automatically selected (red X mark in the wizard) and the partially matching FCS files will be listed in the combo box ordered by number of matches.