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Creating Inventory for a Group

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For using the inventory collection with different users that can move items into or create items in the inventory, please update the system to version 1.1.1 or later ones

Creating a chemical inventory that can be accessed by all members of a working group requires four steps:

  1. creating a new user,
  2. creating a collection in that user's Chemotion ELN and adding all chemicals to that collection as samples,
  3. creating a new group or adding the account to an existing group and
  4. synchronizing the collection with the group.

Creating a new user:

A new Chemotion ELN account should be created to manage the chemical database. All new chemicals will need to be created by that account (usually that account is managed by the person in charge of ordering chemicals or receiving the group's chemicals). Once a chemical has been created in that account as a sample it can be edited by any group member (for example to update the amount left in the bottle), if the collection is shared with the right privileges (more on this in the section synchronizing the collection with the group).
The registration process of that account is identical to registering any other new Chemotion ELN user.

Creating a new collection:

In the newly created account, a collection has to be created where all chemicals can be inserted as samples. If the group is located in different buildings, or uses different chemical subsets, multiple collections can be created for the different buildings or subsets. Each collection can be shared with one or more groups independent of one another. Once the collection is created, the chemicals that are part of the database have to be created as samples. Importing a database is possible using the import samples to collection function of the Chemotion ELN. For that purpose, an XLS or XLSX Document in the right format and containing all chemicals to be imported, must be available.
It is advisable to create the samples with all relevant information in the Properties tab, such as CAS number, concentration or molarity, density, etc. However, the information can be updated later by other users, if it is shared with the group with write access (more on this in the section synchronizing the collection with the group).

Creating a new group:

It is advisable to share the collection containing the chemical database with a group, not with individual users, as it makes management easier. The group does not have to be created by the same account managing the chemical database. However, both can be also managed by the same account. To create a new group, choose My groups and Devices from the drop-down menu on the top right corner by clicking on the account's name next to the sign-out button. Now proceed to create a new group and then add all group members who should have access to the database of the new group. Multiple groups can be created, if different collections, containing subsets of the chemical database, are to be shared with different group members.
Note that only the person who created the group, or the account the administrator rights were transferred to, will be able to manage group members.

Synchronizing the collection with the group:

In the collection settings, the collection containing the chemical database can be synchronized with the group. Please be sure to choose the sync-rights appropriately when synchronizing the collection. Be aware that the chosen sync-rights might limit the ability of group members to update sample properties such as amount of chemical left, storage location, concentration or molarity, etc.