CDAT developers
are currently working with Ncvtk
developers
to make Ncvtk 3D
graphics accessible to the CDAT community. Ncvtk is a
collection of commonly used 3D visualization methods applied to data on
structured lat/lon grids.
For the initial
release the CDAT/Ncvtk module will not include:
geodesic
grids,
unstructures
grids.
Ncvtk is
interactive and it follows an event driven model.
Look for the beta release of this module in
mid-April.
Working
with the pyDAP developer (Roberto De Almeida), the CDAT development
team has integrated pyDAP into the IPCC data holdings system for HTPP
access (along with the existing FTP access). This will allow
a user to
select the IPCC ESG OPeNDAP
server, authenticate the user access, list files and subdirectories,
display metadata information, allow user to specify advanced searches,
and
download the chosen data directly into the VCDAT for
analysis.
Note:
Server-side analysis will be allowed in a later release of VCDAT.
Web
Portal revamped
CDAT
Web Portal
and Documentation
A comprehensive
collection of online CDAT documentation is now available at the PCMDI
Software
Portal.
This
website is growing
rapidly. In addition to the standard collection of manuals
there are now over
15 tutorials covering both VCDAT
(GUI) and scripting usage (e.g., CDMS,
Numeric, VCS, etc.).
The new "Tips
and Tricks" section provides useful advice for CDAT and
general Python
programming. Future plans include more advanced tutorials and an
improved
"News" section which will give our users more insight into our
current areas of development. For developers and users interested in
"getting under the hood", a CDAT
API Reference is now available.
CDAT Source Code Repository
Since the Software Portal is built with Plone,
a Python-based web content
management system, it has advanced collaborative capabilities.
Behind the
scenes, we are migrating the CDAT source code repository to Subversion,
an
open-source revision control tool. We plan to offer repository access
and
Software Portal accounts to outside developers, so they can create
and
maintain CDAT
Contrib Packages, as well as associated documentation.
Visitors
will also be able to view the repository (source code, revision
history, etc.)
directly through the website.
OPeNDAP Data
Access
The CDAT development team is working with PyDAP,
an open-source
Python-based OPeNDAP server. Coupled with CDAT, this server will
provide
transparent data subsetting and aggregation for interactive use. In
other
words, CDAT users will be able to access remote files as if they are
stored
locally. OPeNDAP
only downloads the necessary data when a slice or subset is
requested. PyDAP will integrate with the existing IPCC Data Portal, so
users
will be able to download data either via FTP or OPeNDAP using the
same
username and password.