Wed Sep 11, 2019 4:39 pm by mleipold
At least for instrument identification, yes, I think it would be superior to have it written to the file itself.
For other things like Plate: there are advantages to having something contained within a file itself (rather than even in the filename). It's less likely to be accidentally lost or altered: at least in FlowJo, most keywords are "hidden" unless you add them to the displayed columns in your workspace. You can delete keywords, but again, it's not something you can easily do by accident.
Additionally: your external database idea only applies if you and your team are the only ones analyzing those files. If you are published a dataset, yes, ideally you would published metadata documents describing the files (plate, Case vs Control, etc). However, I have to be honest: a lot of people don't, or do a poor job of describing.........most people just dump a bunch of files and call it done. If that info in captured in the FCS header as keywords, it's still attached to the files.
Mike