Hi Nathan,
Can you explain the context for these questions. This is on the server
side (in Hyrax)?
Nathan Potter wrote:
Greetings,
So I am using the THREDDS API in an attempt to get the <property>
elements for a dataset. I've run into a couple of (possibly related)
problems.
Just to clarify our terminology. When you say "THREDDS API" you mean
both the thredds.catalog and thredds.servlet packages? I generally split
those apart and call the thredds.catalog package the "THREDDS Catalog
API" and call the thredds.servlet package the "THREDDS Servlet
Framework" (TSF).
[Note: the TSF is probably only useful for those writing servers.]
** 1) I can't get the dataset information without searching.
In the HttpServletRequest I have the URL for the dataset, say:
http://localhost:8080/opendap/wcs/MODIS/Grid/test.hdf.html
Is this URL for an OPeNDAP HTML response?
Are you trying to get the property from the THREDDS catalog so you can
use it in the OPeNDAP response?
In order for me to get THREDDS to divulge the <property> elements for
the dataset I have to:
- take the dataset name "wcs/MODIS/Grid/test.hdf.html" and back track
to the
collection name, "wcs/MODIS/Grid/".
- ask the DataRootHandler for the InvCatalog for "wcs/MODIS/Grid/"
- Ask the InvCatalog for the InvDataset for "wcs/MODIS/Grid/"
- Search the child datasets of the "wcs/MODIS/Grid/" InvDataset for the
one whose name (lexically) matches "wcs/MODIS/Grid/test.hdf.set"
- Read the properties of that InvDataset
That seems awfully complex. (Of course there may a more straight
forward way that I am not aware of.)
That is about as simple as it gets. Though I would suggest you make sure
the THREDDS configuration (TSF) knows about this dataset first by
getting the CrawlableDataset that matches the dataset URL:
DataRootHandler.getCrawlableDataset("wcs/MODIS/Grid/test.hdf")
// I dropped of the trailing ".html" assuming it was the OPeNDAP
dataset URL extension
Are you using InvDataset.findDatasetByName( String name) to find the
child dataset?
Also, depending on how you setup your dataset IDs, you could ask the
catalog to find the dataset by ID, like
cat.findDatasetByID( "wcs/MODIS/Grid/test.hdf")
** 2) When I ask for a catalog I have to know the name of the XML file
in which it resides.
In the above example, when I ask the DataRootHandler for the
InvCatalog I ask for: " wcs/MODIS/Grid/catalog.xml" Which is all well
and good if all of the catalogs are stored in files called
catalog.xml. Essentially this means that anyone configuring a THREDDS
catalog has to create a hierarchy of directories that mimics the
organizatiopn of the collections, and all of the THREDDS information
must be stored in files called "catalog.xml".
Why do you need to create this hierarchy of directories mimicking the
data collection hierarchy? The TSF should keep track of your config
catalogs and the automatically generated catalogs.
THREDDS does not actually require this - I can make a complex
hierarchy of collections by using either a single (complex) top level
catalog.xml file, or a collection of XML files in a single directory
that employ <catalogRef> elements to create their organizations.
However the API breaks down in both cases.
If the catalog is composed of a collection of XML files in a single
directory that employ <catalogRef> elements to create their
organizations, then in order to retrieve catalog information I would
have to KNOW how the information was organized (file names, directory
hierarchy , etc.) But I don't know - since the catalog may be created
by a user after compile time (although THREDDS does know this since it
parsed all of the catalog information at start up) - and I shouldn't
have to know. For me to know would require that I parse the top level
catalog.xml file and build the XML doc tree myself. At which point it
I can get the elusive <property> elements from the XML doc in memory.
If the catalog is composed of a single (complex) top level catalog.xml
file then I would have to know that and just ask for the top level
catalog.
(Searching the entire catalog from the top down for my dataset doesn't
seem to work either...)
I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time following here. What are you trying to
do and why?
Is the problem that you may not know if the dataset is contained in a
catalog generated because of a datasetScan element or contained directly
in one of the THREDDS config catalogs?
All of these methods of writing and organizing catalogs are legitimate
in THREDDS, and users writing THREDDS catalogs would likely employ one
or more of these methods when writing their catalogs.
I propose that the THREDDS API be extended so that one can simply ask
the DataRootHandler for an InvDataset or an InvCatalog. Like:
InvDataset id = drh.getDataSet("wcs/MODIS/foo.nc");
InvCatalog id = drh.getCatalog("wcs/MODIS/");
or possible the InvDataset that represents a collection:
InvDataset id = drh.getDataSet("wcs/MODIS/");
If the DataRootHandler doesn't have it, return null.
Is that unreasonable?
I'll have to take a closer look at this.
Ethan
Nathan
=
Nathan Potter ndp at opendap.org
OPeNDAP, Inc. 541.752.1852
===============================================================================
To unsubscribe thredds, visit:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing-list-delete-form.html
===============================================================================
--
Ethan R. Davis Telephone: (303) 497-8155
Software Engineer Fax: (303) 497-8690
UCAR Unidata Program Center E-mail: edavis@xxxxxxxx
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000 http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
To unsubscribe thredds, visit:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing-list-delete-form.html
==============================================================================
