Requirements_OPeNDAP_client.txt

Requirements on OPeNDAP client for BEAM

- enter lat/lon and time bounds
- enter file name pattern
- set URL from where to download
- set target directory (default possible)
- if time series tool is installed: provide option to create time series from downloaded products
- possibly support user authentication on OPeNDAP server
- show file set matching specifications (V2)
- tool shall download every file matching the specifications in the background
- ProgressMonitor in front
- open every product that has been downloaded
- create time series, if wished

Possible problem: products may be scattered over server in different directories
--> server responsibility to make products accessible by canonical URL

Problem: geographic filtering
--> no problem for CF-conforming products: get DAS, get canonical names for latitude and longitude, filter
--> for non-CF-conforming products: first patterns can be searched, then ask user for lat/lon variable names

Problem: time filtering
--> there is no standard on names for the time variable nor on the unit
--> search for default name patterns inside global attributes (in NetCDF-case, it's NC_GLOBAL)
--> search for default patterns inside file names
--> if nothing's found: user can enter pattern to search for in file name
--> if not applicable, don't filter

Software:
- for an URL pointing to a directory, return a set of filtered URLs pointing to products
- FilterBuilder
- download component: download data from a set of filtered URLs, store into target directory
- UI