Introduction

When a new freezer needs to be setup in OpenSpecimen, you can first create on test server to make sure everything works as expected. Once the structure is finalized, this can be moved to production using the export/import feature of containers. This feature was implemented in v4.1.

Export Containers

1. Go to 'Containers' list page
2. Select one or more containers
3. Click on 'Export' to export the container definition
   
   

This exports the whole freezer definition as a CSV file. Note that this is only the structure of the freezer but not the details of the specimens stored in it.

Import Containers

When a container is exported, a CSV file is generated which can be imported into any other instance of OpenSpecimen. This is useful to move containers from one server to another like test to production. 

Pre-requisites for importing containers:

• Import the container types if any associated to the containers being imported
• Collection Protocols: If any CP restrictions are set for the containers, these have to exist before importing the containers
• Sites: The parent site associated with the container should exist

To import the container CSV, go to 'Containers' from menu and click on 'Import' as below. 

For more details, refer to 'Container CSV' page.