PerkinElmer Signals™ Notebook - What’s New

What’s New

This release of Signals Notebook adds Samples capabilities to experiments. Samples can be configured by administrators and enabled for end users to create during the course of experimentation. Samples can be of multiple types, including chemical samples derived from reactants and/or products of a chemical synthesis. We have also added some usability enhancements to images and tables and exposed the capability to restrict access by IP range, or configure use of a SAML compliant IdP, to the administrator.

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook Individual Edition, Signals Notebook E3 and Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Usability updates
• Image improvements

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook E3 or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Tables
• Sort tables
• Download data to csv
• More efficient addition of sequential items to Materials Tables

• Samples
• Administrator can define numbering sequence, properties for samples
• End users can add samples into experiments

• Administration
• IP range restriction can be defined by administrator
• Integration with a SAML 2.0 compliant IdP can be configured by administrator

We also fixed several small bugs in this release. Details of the enhancements are described below.

Further Details

Usability Updates
We have added a few improvements to our image annotation capabilities. We have added an ellipse to indicate areas of interest and extended the font sizes for annotation text.


The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard, E3 or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

Tables Updates
You can now sort tables alphabetically or numerically. Columns using numbers with units are sorted relative to the units (e.g. mg<g<kg). Any new sort order is not persisted and not included in changes in the History and can be achieved on a table in read only mode.


The data in Tables can also be downloaded as a csv file, included all displayed columns.
Materials Tables have been improved to make the addition of sequential items more efficient and to be more consistent with other Tables.

The ability to connect Tables to external data sources has also been fully released and is now available to all administrators.

Samples

Once the admin has activated the capability, scientists can now add samples to their experiments. Chemical Samples can be created from reagents or products within an experiment. Other types of samples can also be created with properties defined by the administrator. Samples are displayed in a Samples Table within an experiment.
Administrators can define properties to apply to different sample types. Administrators can also define the format for sample numbering.
IP Range and SAML restriction

Administrators can now define their own IP ranges to restrict access to the tenant. Administrators can also configure the use of a SAML 2.0 compliant Identity Provider to enable Single SignOn.

What’s New

This release of Signals Notebook continues to expand our configurable tables capabilities by allowing administrators to define external databases that can be connected to tables to access, provide and update data. We added the ability for end users to change the preview generated for MS Office, PDF and attached files, enhanced the ability to add images into experiments, and improved the PDF generation from experiments.

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook Individual Edition and Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Usability updates
• Add Image option in Add Content toolbar
• Custom previews for MS Office, PDF and attached files
• Updates to Export to PDF

• Chemistry updates
• Variable attachment points
• Atom/bond properties

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Tables
• Administrator can define external data sources
• Administrators can configure tables to connect with external data sources

We also fixed several small bugs in this release. Details of the enhancements are described below.

Further Details

Usability Updates
Users can now provide their own custom previews for MS Office, PDF and attached files. Preview images can be reverted to the default preview.


Users can now add Picture files to experiments directly via the Add Content button. The Picture option allows file upload, drag and drop and paste of suitable image files. Image files can still be added via the File Upload option or by drag and drop into the Contents panel.
The Export to PDF from an Experiment has also been updated to provide more obvious timestamps, information about the Signer and Approver in the header, and to change the default settings for including the Header, Footer and attaching documents within the exported PDF.
Chemistry Updates
Chemical search now supports variable attachment points and alternative groups for query.
Atom and bond properties are now more easily accessed via a new toolbar icon.
The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

Table Updates

The following capability is currently in beta and available to customers upon request.

Tables can now be set up to connect with external databases, either populating data from those databases or pushing data into them. The database connections are now set up in a new External Data Source smart folder where connection via the 3^rd party API is managed. External data sources are set up to support a GET, POST and/or PATCH operation.

The Table templates are then configured to utilize the external data source. Existing Table Templates can be retroactively set up to connect also.
Once Table Templates are configured, the end user can add tables to experiments. Tables connected to external data sources can retrieve data from them once the end user inserts a unique ID.

What’s New

This release of Signals Notebook adds configurable tables capabilities by allowing administrators to define their own tables. We also provided administrators the ability to define date and external hyperlink fields in System Templates as well as having added an alternate autonumbering method whereby numbers are globally sequential.

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Tables
• Administrator can define new Table Templates
• End users can add Tables to experiments

• Administrative updates
• Date, external hyperlink fields for System Templates
• Global autonumbering

We also fixed several small bugs in this release. Details of the enhancements are described below.

Further Details
The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

Administrative Updates
Administrators can now add date and external hyperlink fields to System Templates. Like other fields, such as Attribute fields, these can be set as being Required or Optional. The fields are part of the metadata of an Experiment or Notebook.
We also added an alternative numbering option to allow autonumbering to occur sequentially across the whole system rather than within a notebook. With this option enabled, the administrator can advance the number sequence but cannot return to a lower number. This provides a method to guarantee unique experiment names.
Tables
Administrators can now define Tables to be added to Experiments. Each Table is defined using a Table Template and the administrator can define the column names, property types and if the column is hidden by default, always shown, or if any user entered value are removed when an experiment is copied. The Admin can also define Sharing to control which users are able to add such Tables into their Experiments.
Once the Table is defined the User can add the Tables into their experiments by choosing from the available Table types.

What’s New
Here are all the details about the exciting new features in Signals Notebook this month. Signals Notebook makes the capture, re-use, and sharing of your experimental data faster, easier, and provides greater security and data integrity than paper notebooks.

Further Details

Usability Updates

Our highly powerful search engine has been extended to now include free text searching of fielded properties of type User. These properties, which are available via the specific filters in Advanced Search and come from metadata, are now included in free text searching via both the Quick Find and Advanced Search windows. Numerical and date type fields are excluded.
We improved the behavior of Autotext included within Text Elements when the experiment is copied or converted to a template. If the Autotext has been selected to a value in a list, or to a specific chemical, and the whole experiment is copied, then the new Autotext will retain the linkage to the list value or specific chemical. If the Text Element is copied on its own then any Chemical Autotext items will revert to the label, however other Autotext Lists values will be retained.

Adding a .txt document to an experiment now converts the document into a Text Element rather than loading it as an attached file. This has the advantage of allowing for text searching of the document and enabling access to additional editing capabilities such as incorporating Autotext. This capability is limited to .txt files up to 500Kb in size.
MS Office Updates
We have completed qualification of MS Office 2019 and now fully support this version of Microsoft Office. As we support 2 versions of Microsoft Office we will stop qualifying MS Office 2013 going forward.

Materials Management Updates
The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

We have now released the Materials Management capability to all administrators. Please note that this capability is not available to end users without administrative setup.

Administrators can also now define their own library types in addition to the libraries already provided through the application. Administrators can define a unique name, define a numerical sequence for the ID, define any properties for the material and lot level fields, and define security for the Library, as they already can for the existing Library Types.
E-Notebook Archive Updates
The E-Notebook Archive extractor now will extract the latest PDF and metadata from the LTA (Long Term Archive) for E-Notebook customers who utilized the classic e-sign option. The PDF is displayed as a separate page within the Signals Notebook Archive.
Hierarchical information is available for filtering of extracted content. A separate filter is available for each Collection Type, which can be filtered against the Collection Names.
These capabilities are updates to the E-Notebook Archive extractor and do not apply to already extracted content.

What’s New
This release of Signals Notebook supplements our Materials Management capability with bulk import and export capabilities, adds an additional library for Primers and a new field type (external hyperlink). We have also included text type fields into our free text searching.

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook Individual Edition and Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Search updates
• Text fields included in free text searching

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Materials Management (limited release to select customers)
• Bulk upload
• Select and bulk download
• Primers library
• Molecular Formula added to Compounds library
• Example policies added
• “External Hyperlink” field type added

We have also fixed several small bugs in this release. Details of the enhancements are described below.

Further Details

Search Updates
Our highly powerful search engine has been extended to now include free text searching of fielded properties of type Text. These properties, which are available via the specific filters in Advanced Search and come from metadata or other tabular content, are now included in free text searching via both the QuickFind and Advanced Search windows. Numerical, date and user type fields are excluded.
Materials Management Updates
The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

Items can now be loaded in bulk to the library via SDFile (Compounds) or csv. A field mapping workflow allows the end user to map expected fields from the source file to the destination fields. Reports on the success of the bulk import are provided to the user including the ability to download a file of any failed items.
Items already in the library can be selected and exported in bulk (sd file for Compounds, or csv).
A new Library type has been added for Primers. This Library type can be configured and activated by the administrator.
A “External Hyperlink” field type has been enabled to be added at both Asset and Lot levels.
An additional calculated field, Molecular Formula, has been added to the Compounds library. This field is only added to newly added Compounds.
Example security policies for Materials Libraries have also been added to the Security Policy for system administrators.

What’s New

This release of Signals Notebook allows chemists to define Salts and Solvates associated with their reagents and products in a chemical reaction. The user interface has been updated to make it easier to access Comments and the Quick Find search. For administrators, we added policies that let you define specific behavior for personal text and experiment templates. For systems where the Materials Management capability is enabled, you can now compare before and after views of material tables. For systems where the E-Notebook Archive capability is enabled, improved searchability of lists and tables has been added along with synchronization of the archive with E-Notebook.

The following new features are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook Individual Edition and Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Chemistry updates
• Salts & Solvates
• UI Updates
• New interface for viewing comments
• New interface for accessing Quick Find

The following are available for users of Signals Notebook Standard or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• Administrative updates
• New security policies for personal text and experiment templates
• Materials Management (limited release to select customers)
• Materials table shows before and after views in History

The following are available for existing customers of E-Notebook Enterprise and users of Signals Notebook Standard or Signals Notebook Private Cloud

• E-Notebook Archive
• Content stored in tables and lists is now text searchable
• Synchronous archiving is now supported

We have also fixed several small bugs in this release. Details on all the enhancements are described below.

Further Details

Chemistry Updates: Salts & Solvates
Chemists can now associate full or fractional salts and solvates to reagents and products. Multiple salts and/or solvates can be added to any reactant and/or product. The Reactant/Product Name, Molecular Formula and Formula Mass are adjusted accordingly.
If the required salt or solvate is not found in the available list, then you can add the salt and its properties yourself.

User Interface Updates
Comments now appear in the left-hand panel, which can be toggled on and off and does not block the viewing of the experiment.
The Quick Find, which allows easy text searching of content, has been moved to the top toolbar to make it more accessible. Quick Find supports accessing saved bookmarks and text searching with type ahead prediction.
Search Updates
An additional field for Molecular Weight (MW) for reactants and products has been added in addition to the existing Formula Mass (FM).
Properties where multiple values may exist within the same document also now support an AND clause within the filter. An example would be properties in the reactants table where you can now search for a reaction which contain multiple reagents by the Molecular Weight of each.
The following capabilities are only available to users and administrators of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and are unavailable as part of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

Administrative Updates
Administrators can now modify security policies to exclude personal text and experiment templates from being shared and being available in the dropdown lists.
Materials Management Updates
The History view of Material tables in Experiments has been updated to show before and after views of changes.
E-Notebook Archive
The E-Notebook Enterprise archive has been enhanced to allow synchronous archiving from E-Notebook to Signals Notebook. Text searching of tables and property lists has also been added. This capability is only available to customers of Signals Notebook Standard or Private Cloud and requires additional licensing and services. It is not available for users of Signals Notebook Individual Edition.

As a reminder, updates are posted online here. and more information about Signals Notebook is available on the product homepage here. An article explaining the difference between Signals Notebook Standard, Signals Notebook Private Cloud and Signals Notebook Individual Edition can be found here. Free trials of Signals Notebook Standard can be requested here