How to create and upload an Attribute File

An attribute file is similar to a sample sheet. We suggest you create an Attribute file so that we can associate meta-data to each of your samples. These become helpful to set up meaningful comparisons later on in the experiment design process.

Follow our step-by-step guide below to learn how to upload an attribute file for your experiment: 

1. Select "Generate Attribute File". Your Attribute File template will download from your browser. 

2. Open the downloaded .csv file and add the attributes (i.e. meta-data) you'd like to associate with each of your uploaded samples. For nCounter experiments, ROSALIND will take the file names of your uploaded RCC files and give you an option to rename these files. We call this the "Sample Replacement" column, it just means that you can give your RCC files a simpler name.  

You can also add additional columns to your Attribute file, one for each attribute you'd like to include in your study. Once your Attribute file is complete it should look something like this:

(Be sure that all cells in your Attribute file have some value!) 

3. Save your updated Attribute file and drag-and-drop to upload onto ROSALIND. Then, select Next. ROSALIND provides you a list of the attributes you've included as columns in your attribute file.

You may also add attributes on the fly by typing in the "Select Attributes" field and hitting enter on your keyboard. If there are any attributes you would not like included, you may select the "X" next to each of the attributes in the list. Once everything looks good, you can select next. 

4. ROSALIND reports back your Attribute file in a sample sheet. This is to verify that your Attribute file was uploaded correctly. If you need to make any changes to your attributes, you can do so here directly on this page.

If everything looks correct, select next to move onto the next step: Setting-Up your comparisons.