FreeForm

Using FreeForm ND with OPeNDAP, a researcher can easily make his or her data available to the wider community of OPeNDAP users without having to convert that data into another data file format. This document presents the FreeForm ND software, and shows how to use it with the OPeNDAP server.

Tasks Illustrated in this Guide

For a quick start to getting, installing, and using the FreeForm ND software, see the list below of tasks described in this document.

• Quick start. (here)
• Getting and installing the FreeForm ND software. (here)
• Serving tabular data. (here)
• Array tabular data. (here)
• Dealing with data file headers (here)

Who is this Guide for?

This guide is for people who wish to use FreeForm ND to serve scientific datasets using the OPeNDAP software. Scientists who wish to share their data with colleagues may also find this a useful system, since it is a relatively simple matter to set up a server that can allow remote access to your data.

This documentation assumes that the readers are familiar with computers and the internet, but are not necessarily programmers. More than a passing familiarity with different data file formats will be useful, as will an understanding of elementary internet concepts, such as URLs and http.

This manual also assumes some familiarity with the OPeNDAP software. If you are starting from scratch, knowing nothing at all about OPeNDAP, we strongly encourage you to read the The OPeNDAP User Guide before reading further here.

Organization of this Document

This book contains both introductory and reference material. There is also a description of the installation procedure.

Introduction

contains an overview of the OPeNDAP FreeForm ND Data Handler software, including how to get it and install it.

Quick Start

provides a brief introduction to writing format descriptions and using the OPeNDAP FreeForm ND Data Handler.

Table Format

provides detailed information about writing format descriptions to facilitate access to data in tabular formats.

Array Format

provides detailed information about writing format descriptions to facilitate access to data in non-tabular (array) formats.

Header Formats

tells you how to work with header formats.

FreeForm Server

describes the operation of the OPeNDAP FreeForm ND Data Handler, with tips for writing format files.

FreeForm Conventions

presents FreeForm ND file name conventions, the search rules for locating format files, and standard command line arguments for FreeForm ND programs.

Format Conversion

shows you how to use the FreeForm ND program newform to convert data from one format to another and also how to read the data in a binary file.

Data Check

discusses the FreeForm ND program checkvar, which you can use to check data distribution and quality.

A position box is often used in this book to indicate column position of field values in data files. It is shown at the beginning of a data list in the documentation, but does not appear in the data file itself. It looks something like this:

1         2         3         4         5         6
012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890