1. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 Implementing CSML Feature Types in applications within the NERC DataGrid Dominic Lowe, British Atmospheric Data Centre, CCLRC and NDG team (Andrew Woolf, Bryan Lawrence et al.)

2. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 http://ndg.nerc.ac.uk Complexity + Volume + Remote Access = Grid Challenge British Atmospheric Data Centre British Oceanographic Data Centre NCAR NERC DataGrid

3. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Feature Model Intermediary XML data format Represents Atmospheric, Oceanographic data GML Application schema Features based on geometery e.g GridSeriesFeature PointFeature TrajectoryFeature...

4. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006

5. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Parser XML Elements... Python Classes class GridFeature:... Provides mappings (and conversion) between XML model and python object model. toXML() fromXML() Implemented in Python, uses c module: cElementTree Performance: Length of XML (lines) Time to parse (CPU secs) 870.010 1520.010 3690.040 11,4820.570

6. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Parser Hierarchical - Calling fromXML() or toXML() method of root element calls methods of child elements.... and so on... Dataset.toXML() FeatureCollection.toXML() GridSeriesFeature(AbstractFeature).toXML() RangeSet.toXML()..... and so on

7. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Parser Process whole document or parts of the document To convert whole document: From XML to python: tree = ElementTree(file='mycsmlfile.xml') dataset = csml.parser.Dataset() dataset.fromXML(tree.getroot()) From Python to XML: csmldoc = dataset.toXML() Or just convert a fragment: gsFeature = GridSeriesFeature() gsFeature.fromXML(xmlFragment) gsXML = gsFeature.toXML() Allows for easy editing of documents Or addition of new features Or redefining existing features e.g. subsetting

8. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Parser – Creating CSML Can be used to create CSML documents (or fragments) from scratch: gs = GridSeriesFeature(id = 'myGS' domain = mydomain, rangeSet = myRS) ps = PointFeature(id = 'mypoint', domain = mydomain2, rangeSet= myrs2) fc = FeatureCollection(members = [gs,ps,...] ds = Dataset(id ='mycsmldocument', featureCollection = fc) ds.toXML() mycsmldocument.xml No need for data providers to understand XML APIs Very useful for performing operations on features

9. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML Parser 2 level API to parser object model: Parser level (mainly used by me + NDG data providers): dataset.featureCollection.members[3].profileSeriesDomain Wrapped by higher level interface (used by client applications) getListOfFeatures(csmldoc) # get list of available features getDomain(feature) # get domain info getAffordances(feature) # get available operations subsetFeature(feature, subset) # operation:request subset

10. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 Access to underlying data Multiple I/O libraries - cdms, NAppy, others... CSML code talks to a single DataInterface class that provides a uniform wrapper for different file access methods. Easy to add more data formats - just need to write the correct wrapper methods (getData, getSubsetOfData, getVariable...) Similar interface needed for RDBMS access (not yet implemented)

11. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006

12. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #1 Scanning at BADC Multiple data formats, NetCDF, NASAAmes, GRIB, PP Feature identification challenges Scanner has concept of a FeatureFileMap + Config options Creates parser objects, then calls csml.parser.dataset.toXML() to create document. By using parser, does not have to worry about XML details.

13. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #2 Scanning at BODC Metadata in Oracle Database. Python-Oracle link to extract metadata Create parser objects, then call toXML() By using parser, does not have to worry about XML details.

14. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #3 Subsetting operation Query CSML document, getFeatureList() etc. Subset CSML dataset, return CSML document + new netcdf file Subset multiple datasets return CSML document describing both + netcdf files Subset datasets from different data providers and supply in single CSML file + netcdf files All simplified by use of parser 'objects'.

15. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #4 CSML Updates Datasets change! BADC has automatic ingest scripts. Datasets change often, and without warning! Feasible to automate metadata updates: Using parser to update existing CSML document when dataset changes Or rescanning dataset periodically and write new CSML document Not implemented btw...

16. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #5 NDG power user Writes bespoke python scripts to access data e.g. For a dataset that is updated daily: Uses the CSML API to download a subset every day eg. Temperature at certain locations.

17. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 CSML tooling - Use Case #6 Integrate CSML into Applications High Level API easy to use Integrated with: BADC DataExtractor TPAC WCS Meteorologisk institutt (Norway)

18. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 BADC Data Extractor

19. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 TPAC WCS

20. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 Norwegian Met Office

21. AUKEGGSWorkshop ANU, Canberra, 29 November 2006 Summary Modular set of tools “Features as Objects” instead of just XML Many use cases simplified by object model High level API – easy integration of features with applications CSML v2 parser under development; more sophisticated than v1 parser & may be adaptable for other domains.