UserGuideClient

From OPeNDAP Documentation
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The OPeNDAP Client

The OPeNDAP client is the program that sends a message to an OPeNDAP server in order to get some data, or other information.

An OPeNDAP client is usually just a data analysis application program modified to become a web browser, somewhat like any other web browser with which you may be familiar. A web browser can only display the data it receives, however. What makes an OPeNDAP client different from another web browser is that once the data has been received from an OPeNDAP server, the OPeNDAP client application can compute with it.

Like a web browser, an OPeNDAP client accepts a URL from a user, and sends a message to that address, asking for the information specified in the the URL. Unlike a typical web browser, an OPeNDAP client will not know what to do with data returned for a web page containing text and pictures, but an OPeNDAP server will return scientific data that an OPeNDAP client can understand and process.

There is a wide range of OPeNDAP clients available, and it should not be hard to find one you can use.

In fact, though it can become clumsy for advanced applications, you can use an ordinary web browser as a client to most OPeNDAP servers, making use of the server's WWW interface. The Quick Start Guide contains many examples of exactly this.

After a basic web browser, the simplest clients to use are likely to be the programs you're already using. If you use one of the popular data analysis environments like Matlab or IDL, you can find a client command you can incorporate into your environment to let you call OPeNDAP data directly into your working data. If you use one of the netCDF-based packages, like GrADS or Ferret, you can get a network-enabled version of the program that will work with OPeNDAP URLs just as well as file names.

If none of those options work for you, there is a whole range of client libraries you can use to develop a client of your own. Several of these are supported by the OPeNDAP project, and there are others out there in the world supported by other groups.

This page provides a list and very brief overview of the various options, along with pointers to places you can find more information about each one.

Clients

OPeNDAP clients come in a variety of forms. The simplest are web browsers, who use the OPeNDAP WWW interface and the [[ASCII response to check out data sets and download data.

Beyond these, there are three categories of client. The first contains clients you can use in conjunction with one of the popular data analysis environments, the second is a collection of command-line clients useful for scripting as well as testing, and the third contains a set of API libraries you can use for developing your own client, or for converting an existing body of code into an OPeNDAP client. These are reviewed in that order below:


Matlab, IDL, Ferret, GrADS

To use OPeNDAP with Matlab or IDL, you'll need the client for each. This is a special program that issues a request for data from an OPeNDAP server, and imports it into the environment. Links to the Matlab client and the IDL client can be found on the [http;//opendap.org/download/index.html OPeNDAP software download page].

Using OPeNDAP data with the GrADS or Ferret packages is even easier. Because these packages are based on the netCDF library, and because that library now supports reading OPeNDAP data sets, these packages can read OPeNDAP URLs as easily as they read local files.

Special note. If you're using the Matlab client, and using it for oceanographic data, you may be interested in the graphical user interface available for it. See [http://oceanographicdata.org/toolbox Matlab OPeNDAP Ocean Toolbox].

Testing

There are a couple of command-line clients out there you can use, though most people only use them for testing. Part of the libdap distribution (the C++ interface) is a program called getdap, which takes an OPeNDAP URL as a command-line argument and returns the reply to standard output. This is typically used to check that the libdap C++ library is properly compiled, but you can also use it to retrieve data.

Part of the OPeNDAP C library is a command-line client called octest. This allows you to type commands to manipulate responses to an OPeNDAP URL. Like the C++ test program, this can be construed as a test of the library or a test of the servers, but it can also be used as a command-line client, perhaps as an aid to automation.

Similar programs are part of the netCDF distribution. The ncdump program outputs a "dump" of a netCDF file, and ncview provides a better-formatted look at such a file. Since the standard netCDF library can be linked to the OPeNDAP libraries, both these programs can be readily aquired in their OPeNDAP-enabled form.

Here is a simple example, using the ncview program. This program simply prints out the contents of a netCDF formatted data file, specified on the command line, like this:

> ncdump fnocl.nc

Using OPeNDAP, this same function may be executed from any computer connected to the Internet by substituting a URL for the filename above:

> ncdump http://dods.gso.uri.edu/cgi-bin/nc/data/fnocl.nc


Aside from the fact that the data is remote, and must be specified with a URL, the program will seem to function in the same way it had with the simple netCDF library (albeit somewhat more slowly due to having to make network connections instead of local file operations).

netcdf fnocl {
dimensions:
    time_a = 16
    lat = 17 ;
    lon = 21 ;
    time = 16 ;

variables:
    long u(time_a, lat, ion) ; 
        u:units = ``meter per second'' ; 
        u:long_name = ``Vector wind eastward component'' ; 
        u:missing_value = ``-32767'' ; 
        u:scale_factor = ``0.005'' ; 
    long v(time_a, lat, ion) ; 
        v:units = ``meter per second'' ;
        v:long_name = ``Vector wind northward component'' ;
        v:missing_value = ``-32767'' ;
        v:scale_factor = ``0.005'' ; 
    double lat(lat) ;
        lat:units = ``degree North'' ;
    double lon(lon) ;
        lon:units = ``degree East'' ; 
    double time(time) ;
        time:units = ``hours from base_time'' ;

// global attributes: 
        :base_time = ``88- 10-00:00:00'' ; 
        :title = ``FNOC UV wind components 
                           from 1988- 10 to 1988- 13.'' ;
data:
 u =
  -1728, -2449, -3099, -3585, -3254, -2406, -1252,
    662, 2483, 2910, 2819, 2946, 2745, 2734,
  2931, 2601, 2139, 1845, 1754, 1897, 1854, -1686,
...


Client Libraries

Several libraries exist that you can link with other software to create an OPeNDAP client. Some of these are provided by the OPeNDAP project itself, and some are projects of other groups.

The OPeNDAP libraries are functional equivalents of each other. They are derived from separate code bases, but they do the same thing. They are provided in different languages for the convenience of the implementer.


C++ Client Library

The C++ library, also called libdap, was the original client implementation of the OPeNDAP protocol. It provides classes to manage the connection between a client and a data source, as well as classes for each of the data types, and the other information (such as DAS and DDS) a client will encounter.

Consult the libdap Overview for an introduction to the basic concepts behind the use of this library. You will also find the C++ library Reference useful.

C Client Library

The OPeNDAP group supports a C library.


Java Client Library

The OPeNDAP group supports a Java library.


netCDF API Library

The netCDF library deserves special note. This is a drop-in replacement for the standard netCDF library. (In fact, as of release 4.0, it is the standard netCDF library.) This means that converting a program that depends on the netCDF API to use OPeNDAP is as simple as re-linking with an updated version of the netCDF library.

See the netCDF home page for information about how to use that library.


Python library

Pydap is an implementation of the OPeNDAP client in pure Python. This is tremendously useful for scripting complicated applications with lots of download steps. This is not supported by the OPeNDAP group, so please refer to the [http://pydap.org Pydap site] for more information about it.