20020219: setting up MCGUI datasets (cont.)

>From: William C Klein <address@hidden>
>Organization: Valparaiso
>Keywords: 200202111722.g1BHMox08797 McIDAS-X MCGUI datasets

Bill,

re:
>
>> DATALOC ADD GINICOMP pscwx.plymouth.edu
>> DATALOC ADD GINIEAST atm.geo.nsf.gov
>> DATALOC ADD GINIWEST papagayo.unl.edu
>> 
>> Like I said in a previous email, each user can select which server they
>> request data from from the MCGUI:
>
>I understand that the user can select these, but how do they become
>default?

One of the setups in installing McIDAS is the creation of the file
LOCDATA.BAT in the ~mcidas/data directory.  This file is a copy
of ~mcidas/data/DATALOC.BAT that the McIDAS administrator needs
to create and edit to setup things.  The entries in this file
are McIDAS DATALOC commands for the various datasets that will be
accessible by the MCGUI.

Once this file has been created and edited to suit, it is the
responsibility of each user that wants to run McIDAS to make the
settings in that file active.  S/he does this by running:

BATCH LOCDATA.BAT

in his/her McIDAS session.  This only has to be done once, so it
is not an onerous task.

By the way, each user can use the ~mcidas/data/LOCDATA.BAT file
when/if their McIDAS environment variable, MCPATH, is setup correctly:

MCPATH=/home/user/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/data:/home/mcidas/help

Here, it is assumed that McIDAS is installed under /home/mcidas and
that the HOME directory for the user is /home/user; alter these to
match your setup.

re: upcoming new dataset that contains national NEXRAD composite base
reflectivity products

>excellent!

This is almost working, so its announcement is near.

re: which logon has the problem

>I emailed you (support@ucar...)

Hmm...  Our support mail address is address@hidden, not
address@hidden.  I have not seen a message with the IP address, so
it looks like that email went to the wrong place.

>about an IP address that you would be coming from.

re: DATALOCs setup in LSSERVE.BAT

>I'm not following you on the editing of the LSSERVE.BAT file.  It doesn't
>look like it has the locations of the datasets (or where they come from),
>but rather what they are called, ie:
>
>DSSERVE ADD RTIMAGES/GEW-WV       AREA   70   79 "GOES-East/West H2O
>Composite

The "location" of the data is determined by two McIDAS systems: the set
of directories listed in a user's MCPATH, and a set of file
REDIRECTions.  The LSSERVE.BAT entries describe to McIDAS how to
associate sets of files with ADDE dataset names of the form
'group/descriptor'.  So, the entry you sent says to be able to access
all AREA files AREA0070 - AREA0079, inclusive, as the dataset whose
group name is RTIMAGES and whose descriptor is GEW-WV.

>Should I still be making changes to this file?

Admittedly, only the experienced should be making mods (other than
commenting out entries) to LSSERVE.BAT.  The creation of the copy is so
that one can make the changes to match their system setup.  The
expert McIDAS administrator can change how many of any kind
of image received in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream.  If s/he makes
this change, then the set of files that will comprise the dataset
group/descriptor that represents those files has to change.

More typically, a McIDAS administrator like yourself will edit
LSSERVE.BAT and comment out entries (commenting out an entry is done
by adding 'REM ' to the beginning of the line that is to be commented).
For instance, if you do not ingest the RTNOWRAD imagery from WSI
Corporation (and most sites don't), then you would want to comment out
every line that referenced that data.  These are the lines that define
the datasets with group name of RTNOWRAD.  Also, if you don't get NIDS
imagery from WSI Corporation (and there is no need to buy these since
the IDD has them for free), then you would comment all of the lines
that define them, the ones that reference WNEXRAD.

Since running DSSERVE commands add definitions to the file RESOLV.SRV
(which will be located in the user's McIDAS working directory),
it is typically easiest to delete RESOLV.SRV and then run
'BATCH LSSERVE.BAT' to setup the correct set of datasets that are
to be served.  What I mean is:

1) make the LSSERVE.BAT copy of DSSERVE.BAT in ~mcidas/data
2) edit LSSERVE.BAT
3) cd ~mcidas/workdata
4) rm RESOLV.SRV
5) start a McIDAS-X session
6) run:  BATCH LSSERVE.BAT from the McIDAS command line

Make sense?

Tom