Australian OPeNDAP Workshop Series

 

· 12 October 2007 (half day) APAC’07 OPeNDAP workshop

                                                   in Perth, Australia

· 15-16 October 2007                BMRC OPeNDAP System Administrator’s workshop

                                                   in Melbourne, Australia

· 17-18 October 2007                BMRC OPeNDAP Software Developer’s workshop

                                                   in Melbourne, Australia

 

 

 

APAC’07 OPeNDAP workshop Agenda

Friday 12th October 2007 (half day)

 

This workshop targets the science user whose task is to access data archives via an OPeNDAP service to extract and download data for analysis, visualization, and comparison.

 

1.     Overview of OPeNDAP server and client technology

1.1.  OPeNDAP background info and history

1.2.  Why DAP?

1.2.1.     Data format and location transparency

1.2.2.     Metadata neutral

1.3.  What DAP means to me. 

1.3.1.     Data transport

1.4.  DAP versus FTP versus HTTP versus SRB ...

1.5.  Who is using DAP

 

2.     Basic DAP servers and services

2.1.  DAP servers

2.1.1.     HYRAX, TDS, GDS, PyDAP, etc

2.2.  DAP service

2.2.1.     One of many services inside of Hyrax

2.3.  Catalogs and Aggregation

2.4.  Demonstrate service setup

2.4.1.     Quick and easy

2.4.2.     Not a group activity

2.5.  How to browse an OPeNDAP service

2.5.1.     Initially instruction demo

2.5.2.     How to browse OPeNDAP web sites

2.5.3.      Using TPAC digital library 

 

3.     Focus on OPeNDAP client and access to OPeNDAP services

3.1.  OPeNDAP protocols and responses

3.1.1.     URL’s and subsetting

3.1.2.     Get responses

3.2.  Applications enabled with OPeNDAP data access client software

3.2.1.     Graphical clients

3.2.1.1.1.     Web browser

3.2.2.     Command line clients:

3.2.2.1.         Commercial applications

3.2.2.2.         Open Source applications

3.2.3.     Custom application using library or Java frameworks

3.3.  OPeNDAP data access

3.3.1.     Group activities

3.3.2.     demos of data access and usage

 

4.     Advance topics – OPeNDAP futures

4.1.  OPeNDAP working groups

4.2.  Australian Access Federation (AAF)

 

 

Abstract::

OPeNDAP (Open Data Access Protocol) is an open-sourced and widely supported protocol for the serving of oceanographic, meteorological and climate data to this community over the internet and on the Grid. The protocol allows data to be accessed regardless of its underlying data format. The protocol will be discussed and illustrated with some of the international and national data facilities.

OPeNDAP servers present the user with a catalog of datasets and metadata stored across local storage systems, relational databases, remote OPeNDAP servers, and virtualized data sets which can add metadata, aggregate data files or compute data on the server-side. OPeNDAP servers allow the users to subset and sub-sample data sets based on variable name, spatial range, and temporal range. OPeNDAP servers support multiple transport protocols such as HTTP, GridFTP, and DAP. DAP data access to storage systems is transparent to the user, allowing the service to access any data format with sufficient metadata, and any storage device such as a filesystem or relational database.

In addition to the OPeNDAP service, there is a well established suite of client programs and API libraries for interfacing with the OPeNDAP service (in addition to common web browsers). The API supports a number of commonly used programming languages such as C++, Java and Python for custom application support. Common scientific applications (such as Matlab, IDL, Ferret, GrADS) support this protocol with high level clients.

The workshop will illustrate the power of OPeNDAP services to catalog, retrieve, and sub-set various data sets using a range of well established clients (eg Matlab, IDL, ncBrowse, Ferret, NCO, etc) ) and servers (TDS, Hyrax, GDS, PyDAP). The workshop will discuss the API available for OPeNDAP, and present future plans for the OPeNDAP protocol and its relation to Web Coverage and Web Map Services, as well as its integration within Australian Access Federation and the National Computing Infrastructure.

 

 

Workshop participants will learn:

 

1.     How to access OPeNDAP servers and repositories through web browsers

2.     Access OPeNDAP servers and repositories through clients such as Matlab

3.     How an OPeNDAP service and repository is setup

 

Workshop participants are asked to provide their own laptop. Workshop participants will greatly benefit from some familiarity of Linux and OPeNDAP servers and clients. If people want to use a Mac, they will have to be able to 'roll with the punches' when it comes to building code in that environment.

We will provide attendees with a binder for the lecture and hands-on info.