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Analyses and Worksheets

An Analysis is a saved Workbench document. It holds one or more Worksheets, and it owns the Calculated Items you create in it. A Worksheet holds a Details Pane, a Display Range and an Investigate Range.

Creating an Analysis

The Analyses screen, which opens when you sign in, is a Folder browser: it opens at My Folder, your own top level, and Shared lists the Analyses shared with you, or with Everyone, and the Folders you can read in a place you can't. Each row has an icon for its type, then its Name, Owner and when it was Last Updated. Click an Analysis's name to open it. See Folders, My Folder and Shared.

Click New Analysis to create one in the Folder you are looking at, which needs Write on it, or in My Folder. plintz names it Analysis and the date and time you created it, in your Time zone, such as Analysis Mar 15, 2023 1:46 PM, and opens it. Analysis names are unique across plintz, whatever their capitalization, so if that name is taken, plintz adds the smallest free number, as in Analysis Mar 15, 2023 1:46 PM (2). A top-level Analysis is private to you, its Owner. An Analysis created in a Folder inherits that Folder's effective Grants by default. Every new Analysis has one Worksheet, named 1, with an empty Details Pane.

You can rename an Analysis, as described in Renaming an Analysis, and its Owner and users with Manage can move it to the Trash, as described in Moving an Analysis to the Trash. An Analysis is never deleted. To let others work with it, see Sharing and permissions.

Calculated Items belong to the Analysis where you create them. Search finds them only there, and only that Analysis's Formulas can use them. See Formulas and Calculated Items.

Renaming an Analysis

The Owner of an Analysis and users with Write or Manage access can rename it in two places. Users with Read access cannot rename it and see no rename controls.

  • In the Workbench. Click the Analysis's name in the title, which reads Analysis name - Worksheet name. The name becomes a field, and the Worksheet's name beside it stays as it is. To rename a Worksheet, see Renaming, reordering and deleting.
  • On the Analyses screen. Click Rename at the end of the Analysis's row. The name in the row becomes a field. The button is not shown for an Analysis you only have Read access to.

In either field, press Enter, or click elsewhere, to save the new name, or Escape to keep the old one. Saving the current name leaves it unchanged.

The new name follows the rules of a new Analysis's name:

  • plintz removes spaces at the start and end. The trimmed name must contain 1 to 1024 characters. If it is blank or too long, plintz reports the error and keeps the current name.
  • It is unique across plintz, whatever its capitalization, among all Analyses, including those you can't see. If another Analysis has the name, plintz says only "That name is unavailable." It doesn't say whose Analysis it is, and the Analysis keeps its name. Changing only the capitalization of an Analysis's own name is allowed.

A rename updates the Analysis's Last Updated time, so on the Analyses screen it moves to the top of the list.

Moving an Analysis to the Trash

Only the Owner of an Analysis and users with Manage access can move it to the Trash. Administrators have Manage on every Analysis, but the Analyses screen lists only the ones they own or that are shared with them. Do this on the Analyses screen, not in the Workbench. Administrators can also do it for any Analysis on the Analyses tab of the Administration page. Click Move to the Trash at the end of the Analysis's row. The button is not shown for an Analysis you only have Read or Write access to. plintz asks you to confirm, naming the Analysis, as in Move the Analysis "Reactor study" to the Trash?.

While an Analysis is in the Trash:

  • It is left out of the Analyses screen, for its Owner and for everyone it is shared with.
  • Nobody can open it, including its Owner. plintz says "Analysis not found", as it does for an Analysis that doesn't exist. Search and Item Usages also omit its Calculated Items.
  • It keeps its Worksheets, Calculated Items, Grants and name. The name remains unavailable. No Analysis can be created or renamed to it, regardless of capitalization.

The Owner, users with Manage and Administrators restore an Analysis from the Trash page, which the Trash link in the header opens. Its Analyses table lists the trashed Analyses you have Manage on, with who moved each to the Trash and when. Click Restore on its row. The Analysis reappears in the Analyses lists with its Worksheets, Calculated Items and Grants intact, and its Last Updated time changes to the time of restoration. Its Grantees can open it again. The same restore is POST /api/analyses/{id}/restore with the Analysis ID, which refuses with a 409 an Analysis that is not in the Trash.

For anyone else the Analysis is not there, and plintz says "Analysis not found". Its name stays reserved. plintz can't delete an Analysis permanently and keeps trashed Analyses indefinitely. The Trash for Items works differently. See Trash.

Working with Worksheets

The Worksheets of the open Analysis are listed on the left, in order, with the open one marked. Each Worksheet keeps its own:

  • Details Pane, with each Item's Lane and Y-Axis
  • Display Range and Investigate Range, and whether the Investigate Range is on
  • chosen view (Trend, XY Plot, Chain View or Table)
  • Table, with its type, the Simple Table's columns and Transpose, and the Condition Table's added columns and Transpose
  • Chain View's Group, with the Signals tied to a Condition
  • Capsule Time, with the Condition it aligns on and its Capsule Time Range
  • Auto Update, on or off, and its rate

Click a Worksheet's name to open it. It opens as you left it. A new Worksheet shows the last day, ending now, with the 7 days ending now as its Investigate Range, and an empty Details Pane.

If you have Write access, plintz saves these as you change them. If you only have Read access, plintz doesn't save your changes: see Sharing and permissions.

To add a Worksheet, click +. It goes at the end of the list, and opens. plintz names it with the next number after the largest number at the end of another Worksheet's name. For example, it names the new Worksheet 2 after 1, or 3 after Worksheet 2 and Notes 1.

Undo and Redo

Undo and Redo, next to the title, step through the changes you made to the open Worksheet: its Details Pane, Lanes and Y-Axes, ranges, Capsule Time and Auto Update. A zoom or a pan is one step, and so is a value you type in a range field. The keyboard does the same: Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes, and Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y (Cmd+Shift+Z or Cmd+Y) redoes. In a text field, those keys undo your typing there instead.

Creating a Calculated Item also adds it to the Details Pane. Undo removes it from the Details Pane, but the Calculated Item stays in the Analysis and remains searchable.

The history of each Worksheet lasts until you reload the browser.

Renaming, reordering and deleting

With Write access, each Worksheet in the list has four buttons.

  • ✎ Rename. The name becomes a field. Press Enter, or click elsewhere, to apply it, or Escape to keep the old name. An empty name is not applied. A name has at most 1024 characters.
  • ↑ Move up and ↓ Move down change the Worksheet's place in the list. The first can't move up, nor the last down.
  • × Delete asks you to confirm, then deletes the Worksheet with its Details Pane and ranges. Calculated Items you created stay in the Analysis. If you delete the open Worksheet, plintz opens the Worksheet now in its place. If you delete the last Worksheet, it opens the new last one.

An Analysis keeps at least one Worksheet, so its only Worksheet can't be deleted.

With Read access, you can open the Worksheets but not add, rename, reorder or delete them.

Hiding the list

The Worksheet navigation button beside the title hides and shows the list. It is shown by default, and plintz keeps your choice in this browser, for all Analyses. On a screen 820 pixels wide or narrower, the list is a strip you scroll sideways.