Laboratory Data Entry System (LDES)

Data Transmittal Format (Public Drinking Water)

The Department realizes that facilities and laboratories do not all have the same capability in providing electronic records.  Therefore, there are a number of options for electronic submittal.

• Web data entry form: (for public drinking water results only): The web-based data entry form is now available for laboratories to enter public Safe Drinking Water Act samples. Click here for more information on entering these types of sample results directly via the web.
• Manual file upload: Manually logon to the DNR Switchboard with your WAMS ID and tell the system what file to upload. There are two types of files that can be uploaded.
  • Tab-Delimited text file: The sample, analysis, result, and memo information into a single record for each result. The file includes 1 batch record followed by combined records. This format does not allow samples to be submitted without analyses and results, and only allows for a single memo for each analysis. See the linked spreadsheet (Excel 97)  file for explanations of the fields and file structure. A sample file can be found at this link. This sample file imported in to Excel is also available at this link.
  • XML format: The Department has adopted "eXtended Markup Language" (XML) for data transfer in the future.  In order to use the XML file format, the tags for the markup language have been standardized into a XML schema. A sample XML file can be found at this link.
• Automatic file upload: An XML file is required that is somewhat different than the XML for the manual file upload. A stylesheet will be provided by DNR to convert the manual XML format file to this XML file format for automatic upload. You will send your XML file to a web service (EPA Exchange Node). We will provide a batch client for your submissions.