ToolboxConfiguration

Toolbox Configuration

The toolbox contains a number of configuration files, allowing for customisation of the toolbox display and behaviour, and of NetCDF output.

IMPORTANT: when migrating from one toolbox version to another, it is important to manually copy paste the relevant content of each configuration file when and were needed rather than overwriting the configuration files!

In particular, the main configuration files that need porting from one version of the toolbox to another are: -toolboxProperties.txt -global_attributes_timeSeries.txt and global_attributes_profile.txt -instruments.txt

This page provides an overview of the different configuration files.

toolboxProperties ./toolboxProperties.txt

This file contains general toolbox configuration settings. Many of the settings in this file are related to previous selections for e.g. the selected import/export directory; these settings are automatically updated every time the selection changes, meaning that the toolbox will always remember your most recent selection. In most circumstances, the only settings that you will need to change in this file are the toolbox.ddb settings, which tells the toolbox where the deployment database lives, and the toolbox.mode setting, which defines the data mode in use between timeSeries (default) and profile.

imosParameters IMOS/imosParameters.txt

This file contains specifications for all of the IMOS parameters (see the IMOS NetCDF Conventions). For each parameter (e.g. 'TEMP'), the file contains the IMOS standard name, units of measurement, direction positive, reference datum, NetCDF fill value, valid minimum/maximum values and the required data type to be used in the NetCDF file. All of these fields are used to populate the NetCDF metadata. Additionally, the minimum/maximum values are used by the imosGlobalRangeQC procedure to flag outliers. You would probably never need to modify this file.

imosQCFlag IMOS/imosQCFlag.txt

This file contains specifications for all of the IMOS quality control sets. In this file, you are able to define new QC sets and change the colours in which the different flag types are displayed on graphs. You would probably never need to modify this file.

imosFileVersion IMOS/imosFileVersion.txt

This file contains definitions for the IMOS file versions (e.g. level 0 - non QC'd data). The information in this file is used to populate NetCDF metadata. You would probably never need to modify this file.

imosFileName IMOS/imosFileName.txt

This file allows customisation of NetCDF filenames; it contains definitions for the fields which make up an IMOS file name (see the IMOS File Naming Convention). You would probably never need to modify this file.

instruments Parser/instruments.txt

This file contains mappings between deployment database instrument entries and parsers. When importing data for a deployment, the toolbox looks up the Make and Model fields from the relevant entry in the Instruments table. If a parser mapping exists in Parser/instruments.txt for the instrument, that parser is used to import the data. This means that, if you follow a consistent conventions for entering instrument metadata into the deployment database, you won't need to manually select which parser to use for a given deployment.

If a parser mapping for a given instrument does not exist, upon import you will be prompted to select a parser from a drop down list. The parser that you select will then be added to Parser/instruments.txt, so that the next time you import data from the same instrument (or from an instrument of the same make/model), you will not need to manually select the parser to use.

This is probably the only configuration file that you can copy paste from one toolbox version to another.

NetCDF templates NetCDF/template/*.txt

NetCDF attributes are automatically generated from a set of template files, which live in the NetCDF/template/ subdirectory. See here for an overview on how to configure the NetCDF template files.

The global_attributes_timeSeries.txt and global_attributes_profile.txt in particular need to be populated according to your deployment database content and the mandatory global attributes listed in the IMOS NetCDF Conventions. For these two files, when migrating from one toolbox version to another, it is important to manually copy paste the relevant content of each file when and were needed rather than just simply overwriting them.