Summary
A mapping project bundles a source (database or imported file) and all the alignments made from it. This page explains how to create, organise and navigate between your projects.
Project list
Each project shows up in the list as a card with the key information:
- Name — short project label (here
MIMIC-IV lab data). - Source — connected database or imported file (spreadsheet icon + filename).
- Badges — colored free labels to group projects (by hospital, team, study…). A project can carry several.
- Status — colored pill:
In progress(blue),On hold(amber) orCompleted(green). - Progress — bar showing mapped / total, with the approved count in green above.
Creating a project
Click New mapping project at the top of the list. A dialog opens:
New mapping project
Create a new concept mapping project from a database or an imported file.
Used in other projects
Drag & drop a file or click to browse
CSV, TSV, Excel (.xlsx, .xls), Parquet
You fill in:
- Name (required) and a technical identifier (a
used in the URL and exports, auto-generated from the name).slug - Description of the scope.
- Initial status — three options, usually In progress at creation:
- In progress — active work. Most projects sit here.
- On hold — paused (waiting on validation, data, etc.).
- Completed — mapping done and exported. Keep for traceability.
- Badges — colored free labels to group projects (by hospital, team, study…). Pick a colour, type a label, confirm. Multiple badges allowed. If other projects in the workspace already use badges, they’re suggested for reuse.
- Source type — toggle button:
- Source database: pick a database already connected to your workspace (typically a table containing the concepts to map).
- File import: drop a
.csv,.tsv,.txt,.xlsx,.xlsor.parquetfile. A second settings page appears automatically (see below).
Import settings (file only)
For file sources, a second page of the dialog appears:
Import settings
Configure file parsing and map columns to concept fields.
Map file columns to concept fields. At least the concept name or code is required.
| # | itemid | label | fluid | category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50808 | Free Calcium | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 2 | 50826 | Tidal Volume | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 3 | 50813 | Lactate | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 4 | 52029 | % Ionized Calcium | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 5 | 50801 | Alveolar-arterial Gradient | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 6 | 50810 | Hematocrit, Calculated | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 7 | 50820 | pH | Blood | Blood Gas |
| 8 | 50912 | Creatinine | Blood | Chemistry |
| 9 | 51221 | Hematocrit | Blood | Hematology |
| 10 | 51301 | White Blood Cells | Blood | Hematology |
Two blocks to fill in (a third one, the Preview, is computed automatically by Linkr and lets you verify that parsing is correct):
Parsing options
Linkr provides sensible defaults that work for most files; tweak as needed:
- Delimiter — auto-detected by default. Can be forced to comma, semicolon, tab or pipe.
- Encoding — UTF-8 by default. ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1252 available for older Excel/Windows files.
- Skip rows — useful if the file has decorative headers before the actual first row.
- Header row — Yes if the first row contains column names (standard case).
Column mapping
For each column in your file, indicate what it represents:
- Vocabulary — name of the source terminology, usually local (e.g.
ICCAfor codes from the ICCA ICU software,Labsfor the laboratory system…). Used to filter by vocabulary later. - Category — grouping present in the source system (e.g. lab parameter family, prescription type, clinical specialty…) that helps identify concepts and chunk the work.
- Concept code * — source code of the concept, e.g.
itemidin MIMIC. - Source concept ID — numeric ID matching the
source_concept_idused in the OMOP ETL (source_to_concept_maptable). Fill it in if your file already has one; otherwise Linkr can generate one automatically in the OMOP custom range (see Overview). - Concept name * — label of the concept, e.g.
labelin MIMIC. - Record count / Patient count — frequencies observed in the source database. Very useful to prioritise the most common concepts.
- Info (JSON) — column with JSON metadata (distributions, statistics) shown in the detail panel. The expected structure is detailed on the Mapping Editor page.
- Extra columns — any other columns you want to keep as free-form metadata.
* required.
Auto-detection
Linkr tries to pre-fill column fields from header names (e.g. concept_name, code, vocabulary_id…). Double-check before confirming.
ZIP import / export
Two actions, in two different places:
- Import — button above the project list, to load a Linkr ZIP file (typically a project exported from another instance or shared by a colleague).
- Export — on each project card, via the
…icon at the top right.
The ZIP format is detailed on the Export page — it contains the project JSON, all mappings, the pre-generated SSSOM/STCM/Usagi files, and the original source file. It re-imports as-is.
Import conflicts
If the imported project has the same identifier as an existing one, Linkr offers two options: overwrite or duplicate (generate a new internal ID and keep both).