Parental plasmid: id and name, possible to link name to id and show name automatically in the input interface?
When creating a new plasmid, two cells contain information regarding the parental plasmid. The first one is "parent_vector", which is supposed to be the numerial id of the plasmid. The second one is "parent_vector_name", which according to the documentation appear to be there to maintain historical compatibility.
In real use, it makes sense to use a numerical ID as the unique identifier of a plasmid. However, when creating a new plasmid, entering an numerial ID require a seperate look up in the plasmid table to ensure the ID corresponds to the intended plasmid. From an ergonomics perspective, it will be helpful to have a read-only field automatically retrieved from the database and displayed in the plasmid creation page, which shows the descriptive name of the parental plasmid when user enters the numerical ID.
An imaginary scenario can be like the following:
- Joel made a new plasmid pJ101 from a parential plasmid pMighty001, which has the id 42.
- Joel go to the create plasmid page to enter the information on his new pJ101, thinking that the parental plasmid pMighty001 has an ID of 66.
- In the absence of any automatically shown tips reminding Joel that # 66 is not pMighty001, but pOld007, Joel will most likely finish filling information for his new pJ101 with the wrong parental plasmid recorded.
If a read-only field is displayed as Joel enters 66 in the "parent_vector" field,
- Joel will see that this is not the pMighty001 he was thinking about, but instead pOld007.
- Seeing this information, Joel can go back to find the correct number, 42.
- And when Joel types in 42, he will see that this is what he needs, because "pMighty001" is now automatically retrieved and displayed on the plasmid creation page.