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Searching in XNAT§

XNAT search can be used to find items and produce XNAT data tables from your project's metadata.

The Search box in the top bar at the right is a quick way of navigating to particular projects, subjects and sessions. The search matches against names, IDs or (in the case of projects) keywords or aliases. Search bar

Home page search§

The search panel on the XNAT home page performs a more detailed search across the project metadata. You can use this to find particular projects/subjects/sessions. You can also use this to create tables from your data which can be exported as spreadsheets.

To use the XNAT home page search:

  • Go to the XNAT home page (click on the XNAT logo at the top-left of any screen) XNAT Home Page

  • In the main search panel, select what you want to search for (Projects, Subjects or particular session types eg MR, PET, CT).

  • Fill in any fields you want to include in the search. Leave fields blank if you do not want these to limit the search
  • For subjects and sessions, you can alternatively choose the Search by Exact IDs option. This will return items with the IDs you specify in the box.
  • Click Submit
  • The results are displayed as an XNAT Data Table. See XNAT data tables and spreadsheet export for information on how to use these results.

The advanced search is similar to the home page search, but you can search across different session types and combined the results into a single data table. For full details, see Using the Advanced Search

Search bar

To use the Advanced search:

  • Click the Advanced link in the top bar next to the search box

  • Under 1. Pivot Data Type, choose the type of session you are searching for (eg MR Session) or Subjects. If you want to perform the search across more than one data types, choose the main type of session in your project (eg MR Session)

  • Under 2. Select Additional Data-types choose if you also want to perform a simultaneous search across other data types (in addition to the one you specified in Pivot Data Type) and combine the results into a single table. To include other data types select Brief or Detailed. Not all types give you a choice - if so, they determine which data fields will be initially visible in the search results (the fields shown can be changed later).

  • Click Next Advanced Search

  • Under 3. Define Search Criteria you can enter search fields for each of the data types you chose to search through. Fill in any fields you want to include in the search. Leave fields blank if you do not want these to limit the search. Do the same for all the search types.

  • Click Submit Advanced Search
  • The results are displayed as an XNAT Data Table. See XNAT data tables and spreadsheet export for information on how to use these results.