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    Can Storage Containers hold two different types of containers?

    Technical Questions
    #1

    Good afternoon,

    I’m trying to configure some storage containers for one of our labs, but I don’t see an option to allow a parent container to hold multiple types of containers. For example, We have a rack that can store both 10x10 boxes and 9x9 boxes. I have created two Storage Container Types, a 10x10 box and a 9x9 box, but when I go to create a parent rack, I can only select one of the two Container Types. Is there any way to allow both types of boxes to belong to the parent rack? I have looked at a similar thread, but I do not see any option to add multiple types as is referenced. I also do not have access to the link in the other thread.

    Thanks,
    Dave K.

    #2

    Hi @David_Kraemer,

    As of now OpenSpecimen does not allow a parent container type to hold 2 types of storage containers.
    In order to create racks holding boxes of different dimension, follow the steps mentioned below

    Pre-requisites - Rack type, 10x10_Box and 9x9_Box storage types.

    • Create a rack without the hierarchy option
    • Create ‘n’ number of boxes of 10x10 dimension
    • Create ‘n’ number of boxes of 9x9 dimension

    We understand that this is a bit round about way. We plan to enhance the container types to support multiple container types in the future.

    Thanks,
    Neha

    #3

    Thanks for the response! I was able to get two different box types into one rack container by not defining what the rack can hold. I’m not sure if it means anything, but I did the import via CSV Bulk Import, rather than creating the boxes in the UI.

    #4

    The reason we dint allow multiple child containers types: when creating the whole hierarchy in “one-click” we wont know which type to use in which location.

    In v3.4 or v3.5 we plan to enhance types to support designing the freezer. I.e. provide details of which slot has which type. That will enable us to also support non-rectangular containers where you can mark certain slots as unusable.

    ~Sri