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Topic: save methods XCMS online (Read 4551 times) previous topic - next topic

save methods XCMS online

Hi,

I am struggeling a bit with making new methods in XCMS online. I currenly have a long list of slighly modified methods. Sometimes I just want to change some settings without changing the name of the method. I could however not figure out how this should be done: If I make a change in the method, the button "save current" is not appearing. In addition, first pressing the button "create new" and afterwards saving the method under the same name doesn't work either. It is probably something trivial that I have missed.
A related question that I have is how I should remove methods that I do not use anymore. Sometimes I see a button "delete", but is is not always pressent.

thanks for your help!

Koen
 

Re: save methods XCMS online

Reply #1 –
After you have created a parameter set the new parameter set will appear in available parameters when you create new jobs.  These parameters may be edited by clicking the "View/Edit" button (when creating a new job) and will have the "Save Current" button at the bottom so you can modify the parameter set prior to running the job.  There is one situation where the parameter set will be set to "read only" (and you therefore will not be able to modify it - which is why the "Save Current" button has been removed) and that is when the specific parameter set has been used to run an active job.  This is part of the design because many users wish to consult the parameter set that was used for a particular job after the job has been run.  (i.e., a user is wondering why certain features do not appear in the result set and checks the see what ppm or retention time settings were used to explain the difference between the expected result and the actual result.)

Saving a new parameter set with the same name will not overwrite the original as the index (number to the left of the parameter set name in the dropdown list) must be unique in the database.  Again this is by design.

If you delete the jobs that "rely" on a specific parameter set you wish to change, the parameter should then switch to "read-write" mode, enabling you to edit or delete it (which is the second part of your question).  Parameter sets do not automatically delete when the job that used said parameter set is deleted, allowing a user to reuse them.  The delete button only shows up when the "read-write" mode is enabled (similar to the ability to edit).

Many other users have found appending "a", "b" or a number to the end of a parameter set name to be sufficient when they want to create variations on a base parameter set.

Duane