[THREDDS #IQK-419679]: location attribute to URL

Hi again Valentijn,

I think I'm answering your emails in reverse order. Sorry about that.

> Is there no alternative way of letting the catalog build itself "more or less
> automatic" by exploring all sub-directories on a remote DODS server? The MODIS
> TERRA/AQUA server is hudge...

Neither the TDS catalog generation nor the older CatalogGen application or 
servlet support crawling remote OPeNDAP servers. They both could be (and the 
CatalogGen was at one time) extended to do so but that isn't implemented 
currently.

If you are interested in working on this yourself, I would be happy to help. I 
don't think I could do the work myself anytime soon.
 
> When i set it "by hand", is parameter subsetting and/or geographic subsetting 
> still
> possible in some "semi-automatic" manner when the catalog is accessed (i.e. 
> when a
> client like the IDV)? The DODS Dataset Access Form allows this to be done 
> manually
> when accessing one of these HDF files (i.e.
>http://reason.gsfc.nasa.gov/opendap-bin/nph-dods/FTP_DATA/Giovanni/OPS/TOMS/EP/TOMS-EP_L3-TOMSEPL3_1996m0725_v8.HDF.html)
> 
> In otherwords, should I "hardcode" get/post parameters trailing the "?" in a 
> DODS url
> (...?Ozone[0:1:179][0:1:287]) in the catalog, or is there some way of 
> automating this
> in "runtime" when a client accesses the catalog?

It really depends on the client as to how well it will understand and handle a 
dataset. Pretty much any OPeNDAP client will be able to do parameter subsetting 
of most OPeNDAP datasets. Whether the client will understand the relation the 
data has to the earth depends both on the dataset and the client.

Generally, I would suggest you catalog the base OPeNDAP URL for all datasets. 
That is unless you are writing a catalog specific to a parameter or region.

Dealing with the specifics of OPeNDAP, georeferencing of datasets and 
conventions would best be left to the various clients.

In this specific case, I'm not sure if the IDV understands the conventions of 
the TOMS dataset you reference well enough to figure out the georeferencing. Is 
that an HDF-EOS file behind that server? I'll give it a try in the IDV and see 
what happens. I suspect it won't understand it very well.

Hope that answers your questions.

Ethan


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: IQK-419679
Department: Support THREDDS
Priority: High
Status: Open