[McIDAS #MST-395786]: Acquiring GVAR Doc Blocks via ADDE

Hi Bob,

Sorry for the tardy reply...

re:
> Hi.  I'm hoping to acquire GVAR Documentation Blocks (block 0) from the
> NESDIS ADDE server, GER.  While the doc blocks appear in 'dsinfo' as
> 'GEDOCBLK', and I'm able to get/display actual images from this server,

Just so you know, one can setup an ADDE dataset that is empty.  A DSINFO query
only asks the server for a list of datasets that are defined.  IMGLIST lists
out the content of the dataset being interrogated.

> I get an error when I try to use the imglist or imgcopy methods to query
> or capture the blocks:
> 
> IMGLIST GER/GEDOCBLK
> Image file directory listing for:GER/GEDOCBLK
> IMGLIST: No images satisfy the selection criteria
> IMGLIST: done
> IMGLIST failed, RC=2

The "error" is that the GER/GEDOCBLK dataset has no elements.

> On the chance that this was a limitation of McIDAS-X,

Nope.

> I've also tried
> querying the server directly via the Java AddeURLConnection method, but
> get the same response:
> 
> Error: edu.wisc.ssec.mcidas.adde.AddeURLException: No images satisfy
> the selection criteria
> adde://SATEPSDIST2E.NESDIS.NOAA.GOV/imagedata?group=GER&descr=GEDOCBLK
> Error creating ScienceImage
> edu.wisc.ssec.mcidas.adde.AddeURLException: No images satisfy the
> selection criteria

This is what I would expect since the last message being written is from the
ADDE server for the dataset.

> I haven't located any documentation that describes getting the GVAR doc
> blocks. I realize that these aren't really image data, so perhaps the
> image methods aren't appropriate for them (although they appear with the
> conventional image types). Do you have any suggestions to help me
> resolve this problem.

Actually, and _if_ we are talking about doc blocks the same way, then one
can get the doc blocks when transferring imagery from a server that has
images with the doc blocks.  Here is a snippit from the online HELP for
IMGCOPY:

HELP IMGCOPY
IMGCOPY -- Copies image data from a server
   IMGCOPY sdataset ddataset <keywords>
Parameters:
   sdataset | source ADDE dataset name and position; specify as
              alias.position or group/descriptor.position; to use default
              position, either enter "0" or omit .position portion
              (no def for alias or group/descriptor, def=0 for position)
   ddataset | destination ADDE dataset name and position; specify as
              alias.position or group/descriptor.position; only positive
              integers (absolute positions) or the default are valid for
              the position number; to use the default position, omit the
              .position portion (no def for alias or group/descriptor, for
              position def=the position following the most recent image)
Keywords:
*********************  Image Positioning Keywords  ***********************
   LATlon=lat lon | latitude and longitude of sdataset image to place at
                    ddataset image location specified in PLACE keyword
   LINele=line ele sys | line and element numbers and coordinate system
                         (F or I for file and image, respectively) of the
                         sdataset image to place at the ddataset image
                         location specified in the PLACE keyword
                         (line def=0, ele def=line, sys def=F)
   PLAce= | location in the ddataset image to place the point specified
            in LATLON, STATION or LINELE keyword; valid options for PLACE
            keyword are ULEFT and CENTER for upper-left corner and center
            of the ddataset image, respectively (def=ULEFT when LINELE
            is used, def=CENTER when LATLON or STATION is used)
   STAtion= | station ID to place at ddataset image location specified in
              the PLACE keyword; specify as the ID, e.g., KMSN or YSSY,
              optionally followed by station type in brackets, e.g., ARX[N]
              or ARX[V]; see TYPE keyword in STNLIST command for details
*********************  Image Selection Keywords  *************************
   DAY= | selects from sdataset images with the specified day
   ID= | selects from sdataset images with the specified NEXRAD station
         ID, e.g., MKX
   RTIme=bmin emin | selects from sdataset images within the specified
                     range of minutes in the current hour; overrides the
                     TIME keyword
   TIMe=btime etime   | selects from sdataset images within the specified
                        time range
       =btime etime C | copies all POES data for the specified time
                        range; this C (coverage) option is valid only
                        with real-time POES data on an SDI server and
                        cannot be used with LATLON, LINELE, PLACE,
                        STATION or SIZE keywords
*********************  Output Keywords  **********************************
   BANd=    | image band number to copy (def=existing band if image is
              single-band; no def if image is multi-band); if image is
              AIRS Level 1b data in HDF format, you can copy a range of
              bands by specifying two values that indicate the beginning
              and ending bands; if image is GVAR raw data on an SDI server,
              MTSAT raw data on an SDI server, MODIS Level 1b data in HDF
              format or real-time segmented Meteosat Second Generation
              Level 1.5 files transmitted by EUMETSAT, you can copy
              selected bands by specifying them in the same format as
              frames are specified in the LS command, e.g., BAND=2 5 for
              bands 2 and 5, and BAND=1 3-6 10 for bands 1,3,4,5,6 and 10;
              if there are multiple resolutions among the bands they are
              all copied at the lowest resolution
       =ALL | copies all bands; if there are multiple resolutions among
              the bands they are all copied at the lowest resolution;
              BAND=ALL is not valid with STYPE=VISR
   DOC=YES  | include the image documentation when copying the
              sdataset image data (def=NO)
 ...

I believe that the GOES images served by the ESPC (formerly SATEPS) servers
are complete (meaning not blown-down, converted to 1-byte, etc.).  If they
are not, you can access realtime GOES-East and GOES-West images from the EAST
and WEST datasets hosted on unidata2.ssec.wisc.edu:

DATALOC ADD EAST unidata2.ssec.wisc.edu
DATALOC ADD WEST unidata2.ssec.wisc.edu

I hope that this helps.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: MST-395786
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed