[thredds] ampersands not working in viewer property URL

• To: thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [thredds] ampersands not working in viewer property URL
• From: "John Maurer, IV" <jmaurer@xxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:09:06 -1000

Hi All,
Are we not allowed to include ampersands in the URL string for adding a viewer 
property? Even when I encode them as & I get the same error. I am trying to 
point a viewer directly to a screen in Live Access Server (LAS) that will 
display the dataset being viewed in TDS; as an example, here's a URL to our 
ROMS FMRC model output: 
http://oos.soest.hawaii.edu/las/getUI.do?dsid=hiroms_hiig&catid=hiroms_hiig&varid=temp-hiroms_hiig&plot=Plot_2D_XY_zoom&view=xy.
 When I add this URL in the viewer property, the catalog for that datasets page 
fails to load (HTTP Status 404: Not Found). threddsServlet.log and catalina.out 
have nothing much to say, but here is what I found in catalogInit.log about 
this:

readCatalog(): full 
path=/usr/local/tomcat/content/thredds/idd/ocn_mod_hiig.xml; 
path=idd/ocn_mod_hiig.xml
readCatalog(): invalid catalog -- ----Catalog Validation version 1.0.01
**Fatal:  InvCatalogFactory.readXML failed
 Exception= org.jdom.input.JDOMParseException Error on line 73: The reference 
to entity "catid" must end with the ';' delimiter.
 fatalMessages= *** XML parser fatalError (73:101)= The reference to entity 
"catid" must end with the ';' delimiter.

 errMessages=
 warnMessages=

initCatalog(): failed to read catalog 
</usr/local/tomcat/content/thredds/idd/ocn_mod_hiig.xml>.

Note that it is referring to "catid" that is in the URL I am trying to use. Is 
there a workaround for this or is this a feature I can request for a future TDS 
release? Thanks!
Cheers,
John Maurer
Hawaii Ocean Observing System (HiOOS)

P.S. Here is the entry in my TDS catalog about this:

  <datasetFmrc name="HI-ROMS Forecast Model Run Collection"
               ID="roms_hiig_forecast"
               path="hioos/roms_forec/hiig"
               collectionType="ForecastModelRuns">

    <metadata inherited="true">
      <property name="viewer" 
value="http://oos.soest.hawaii.edu/las/getUI.do?dsid=hiroms_hiig&catid=hiroms_hiig&varid=temp-hiroms_hiig&plot=Plot_2D_XY_zoom&view=xy,Live
 Access Server (LAS)" />
    </metadata>

    [...etc...]

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: [thredds] ampersands not working in viewer property URL
    • From: Ethan Davis