20031210: EMEP and IDV

>From: "Heiko Klein" <address@hidden>
>Organization: met.no
>Keywords: 200312101047.hBAAlMp2015345 IDV webstart sitepath

Heiko-

>thanks for your answer. I presented the IDV yesterday, and my co-workers 
>have been very impressed and will try using it.

Glad to hear it.  We'll look forward to your input on new features,
etc.

re: Webstart
>I've been using WebStart, this works nicest. I would like to see the 
>sources/javadocs of IDV, just to see how it is possible to extend it, 
>and the code is normally better commented than a user-documentation.

You can download both from the Unidata software downloads page:

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/modules.php?name=Downloads

You'll need to set up an account first.

Unfortunately, our javadoc's are not complete either.  There is
a preliminary developer's guide in the /ucar/unidata/apps/example/docs
directory when you unpack the source. That might be a starting place.
In the next few months, we hope to improve the docs.  

The Javadoc is available online from the link on the IDV homepage:

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/software/IDV/index.html

>The problem with the 3D display was my fault. Your explanation solved 
>this quite easily.

Okay.  For a while, we had a mistake in our WebStart JNLP file that
was not loading Java 3D on Linux.  This is probably what happened
to set your default to 2D.

>The possibility with the site-path sounds very nice. I am currently 
>using WebStart, but when the whole group is starting using IDV, it might 
>be better to have a local installation.

To do the same thing through WebStart:

1) save the JNLP file at 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/metapps/webstart/IDV/idv.jnlp
to your own system.

2) Edit it and change the following:

       <application-desc main-class="ucar.unidata.idv.DefaultIdv"/>

to:

       <application-desc main-class="ucar.unidata.idv.DefaultIdv">
            <argument>-sitepath</argument>
            <argument>"your path here"</argument>
        </application>

where "your path here" would point to the sitepath directory
that you set up as per my previous e-mail.

Put this jnlp file on your web server, make a page with a link,
and it should "just work". ;-)

You'll have to configure your web server to handle the JNLP MIME type.
Each Web server has a specific way in which to add MIME types. For
example, for the Apache Web server you must add the following line to
the .mime.types configuration file:

 application/x-java-jnlp-file JNLP

Check the documentation for the specifics of your Web server.

>The color-bar is most important. Switching the black background to white 
>and adding some titles can be done with a usual graphic-program, though 
>it might be nice to have everything done inside IDV. I'm looking forward 
>to the January-release.

I'm making good progress on the color bar and hope to have something
preliminary at least by January.

Don Murray