[thredds] point feature collections?

• To: THREDDS Users <thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: [thredds] point feature collections?
• From: John Maurer <jmaurer@xxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:56:23 -1000

Hi all,
Are point feature collections now the preferred method for aggregating
point/station datasets in TDS? I'm still using NcML aggregations, but
wondered if it was time to switch over. I saw this:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/tech/tds4.2/reference/collections/PointFeatures.html.
I wasn't sure if this was still "beta". I'd prefer to work with something
stable. I'm using TDS 4.3.17.

Four questions:

1. Can someone point me to a working example? I'm curious how it looks.
Namely, what each of "cdmrFeature Files" provide. I currently maintain
separate datasetScan and NcML aggregation catalogs, and I presume the
featureCollection method provides both (?).

2. Will it work whether or not my files are using the CF-1.6 discrete
sampling geometries (DSG)?

3. Must the start time be in the file name?, and all the way down to the
minute? What if the filename has local times instead of UTC?

4. Will it work even if there are missing days/times in the time series
(like NcML aggregations)?

Thanks,
John Maurer
Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS)
University of Hawaii at Manoa