Thread: Major update to fdsnws-station service: new database and new location IDs

Started: 2015-01-28 01:23:24
Last activity: 2015-01-28 05:13:05
Topics: Web Services

Hello everyone,

On February 4th (Wednesday next week) we are planning a major update to
the fdsnw-station service including these changes (and many smaller bug
fixes):

* Move to PPAS
* Change empty location IDs from two-space strings to empty strings (for
FDSN conformance)

To facilitate comparison of metadata we will not change the location IDs
in the beta station service until Monday. After an update on Monday we
will be doing final testing of the service for functionality.

Regarding the move to PPAS we need a green light from Ops that the
database contents are ready. This services uses the following table
sets: metadata including networks, virtual network, time series
(all_channel_summary), BUD tables, license tables.

If there are concerns from Ops regarding the database readiness or
otherwise we need to know now. If we need to meet we should do so soon,
like tomorrow. Let us know.

Regarding the change in location IDs we need to check a number of tools
to make sure they will work with the change. To describe the change and
track status of packages there is a Wiki page here:

http://dmscode/projects/fdsnws-station/wiki/Representing_location_IDs_as_empty_strings

Chad, Adam, Robert, Yazan and Bruce all have things marked with their
name to check, please do so ASAP. There are likely a few more, please
add them.\

Again if there are issues with the change please talk to me right away.

thanks,
Chad


  • Hello web service list,

    Sorry for the misdirected mail previously, a glimpse of internal DMC
    coordination. But it does afford me an opportunity to remind you of a
    big user-level change and explain some internal workings at the DMC.

    The big change coming to the fdsnws-station service next week (assuming
    we get through testing by then) is the representation for empty location
    IDs. We are making this change to comply with FDSN standards.

    To illustrate, we currently represent empty location IDs as a string of
    two spaces, e.g:
    in XML: <Channel locationCode=" " ...>
    in channel-level text: IU|ANMO| |LHZ|...

    After the change those location IDs will collapse to empty strings, e.g:
    in XML: <Channel locationCode="" ...>
    in channel-level text: IU|ANMO||LHZ|...

    Another big change more internal to the DMC is a transition from Oracle
    to a Postgres database backend. We have been working hard to make this
    transition as seamless as possible for users of the DMC. In regards to
    the fdsnws-station service, one result of this transition will be an
    equivalent but slightly different flavor of number representation. For
    example, a zero may be represented now as "0.0" and later as simply
    "0". The metadata content will be equivalent and we expect the vast
    majority of users to not notice the difference.

    Be on the lookout for these changes coming soon.

    Chad

    Chad Trabant <chad<at>iris.washington.edu>
    January 27, 2015 at 5:23 PM

    Hello everyone,

    On February 4th (Wednesday next week) we are planning a major update
    to the fdsnw-station service including these changes (and many smaller
    bug fixes):

    * Move to PPAS
    * Change empty location IDs from two-space strings to empty strings
    (for FDSN conformance)
    ...

13:01:10 v.22510d55