Each copy of Espresso ELN comes with a demo database containing experiments for a user called "demo", allowing first steps with the application in a sandbox environment. Most likely you will have performed the steps of this tutorial in this environment. This sandbox later will be wiped out in favor of protocoling 'real' experiments based on a clean starting point.

Therefore the sandbox is limited to the creation of 20 of your own experiments, to prevent you from creating a large number of experiments under the non-unique "demo" user name with a public user password. When above limit is reached, you will be asked to create a unique user; however, you can create one also beforehand if you like.

The Home application section of Espresso ELN informs about the status of your sandbox experiments and provides a link for creating a new unique user:

Clicking the "new user" link opens the corresponding assistant which will guide you through the process of creating a new user.

More than one user can be created per local database. This might be required if a user is replaced by another one in a lab, or if temporary workers share a PC with someone. The users dropdown menu in the Experiments application section provides functionality for adding users, updating user data and switching the interface context between users:


This concludes the first steps quick guide. Hopefully it has provided a good starting point for further hands-on exploration of the many possibilities of Espresso ELN!