Web Services

Notifications, questions and comments related to using the DMC’s web services

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Active Message Threads for April 2013

Philip Crotwell
abbreviations in query params
2013-04-30 18:33:41
Hi The main page for the fdsn dataselect and station web services say that you should use network, station, location and channel. But the examples sometimes use abbreviations like "sta". This example on the main fdsn station page uses "network" but also "sta". http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/station/1/query?starttime=2013-01-01&network=IU&sta=ANMO&level=channel&nodata=404 Another point of confusion is that the docs for the fdsn event services allow minlat instead of minlatitude, but the stati… [more]
Replies
Rob Newman
Fwd: IRIS Website Update - incorrect builder title
2013-04-16 22:15:06 - 2013-04-25 15:26:54
One for you guys I think. Thanks, - Rob N Begin forwarded message: > From: met@iris.washington.edu > Subject: IRIS Website Update - incorrect builder title > Date: April 16, 2013 3:13:42 PM PDT > To: webmaster@iris.washington.edu > > Someone has submitted an update to an IRIS webpage that you are responsible for maintaining. The details on this update are below. If you have any questions about the content or purpose of the update, please contact the person who submitted it. If you need help… [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
using both a lat/lon box and donut
2013-04-24 22:10:05
Hi I suspect this isn't the intention, but from some simple tests it looks to me like the fdsn station and event web services allow simultaneously specifying both a donut and a box and the resulting events or stations are those that are in the intersection of the two areas. Is this undocumented behavior likely to remain, or is it an accident of the implementation that might go away? The spec from what I can tell does not say if a lat/lon box and a donut are mutually exclusive or not. thanks … [more]
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Russ Welti
events without mags, depending on whether mag range is specified
2013-04-22 22:07:46 - 2013-04-23 01:51:18
I am seeing a small, sometimes up to 2%, number of events served up with no mag values. This in format=text, if that matters. If I use minmag=0 and maxmag=9 and query service.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?format=text&nodata=404&minmag=0&maxmag=9&starttime=2010-01-14&endtime=2010-04-15&orderby=magnitude&limit=2500&maxlat=45.33&minlat=18.65&maxlon=-99.14&minlon=-129.72 ...skipping to the last N lines of output: all is good. > 2843778|2010-01-26T04:20:27|37.477|-121.79|7.8|NC|NEIC P… [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
seisFile-1.6.0-beta1
2013-04-22 20:38:52
Hi all Still very much a work in progress, but it being Monday I have decided to put out a beta version of seisFile 1.6 which includes support for the three new FDSN web services. http://code.google.com/p/seisfile/ Simple examples of how to code against the 3 services are here: DataSelect http://code.google.com/p/seisfile/source/browse/src/example/java/edu/sc/seis/seisFile/example/FDSNDataSelect.java Event http://code.google.com/p/seisfile/source/browse/src/example/java/edu/sc/seis/seisFi… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
are magnitudetype, catalog and contributor lists or singles?
2013-04-20 00:30:11 - 2013-04-20 00:37:03
Not clear from the doumentation if magnitudetype, catalog and contributor are single value or lists? In other words can i search for events with a minmagnitude of 6 and a type of MB,MS,MW? thanks Philip
Replies
Philip Crotwell
error in doc
2013-04-19 00:31:44
Hi On http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/station/docs/1/help/ The section on starttime, endtime has this: - if the query contains channel= or location= then the startbefore and startafter criteria are compared to the *channel* start and end dates. so I think you mean "starttime, endtime" and not "startbefore, startafter"? The way time queries work is a bit confusing with parameter meaning depending on what other parameters are present. I wonder if explicit level-time parameters like stat… [more]
No replies
John West
HTTP status code
2013-04-15 22:01:35 - 2013-04-18 16:38:15
Hi. I understand that the new FDSN web services return HTTP 204 to indicate no data returned, and applaud this move. If the service is temporarily not available (say because I've made too many requests in parallel, system is busy, etc.) do I get a different return code? If so, what? Thanks! -- John
Replies
Celso Reyes
Combined feedback
2013-04-16 21:10:26 - 2013-04-17 00:33:36
Hi Philip, Thank you for the continued feedback; I'm glad you're exercising the services so thoroughly. Let me gather the responses to a few of your emails here. Even though we haven't responded to all of them, we've seen them. Chad has been out of the office, so discussion on several of the issues will await his return. Cheers, Celso IRIS DMC QA Engineer 4/15 IRIS specific restrictions or common? Latitude, Longitude, Minradius, Maxradius Footnote in the event service: That was a vest… [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
schema location in fdsn event service
2013-04-16 22:00:30
So the fdsn station service includes a schemaLocation attribute, like: xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.fdsn.org/xml/station/1 http://www.fdsn.org/xml/station/fdsn-station-1.0.xsd" Is there a reason that quakeml documents from the fdsn event web service do not also contain a schemaLocation attribute? thanks PHilip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
wrong schema link
2013-04-16 21:52:54
On http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/ the link to the QuakeML schema points to the 1.2rc3 schema, but I think the web service uses the final 1.2 schema. Not sure if the differences matter, but might be nice to not make it seem like you depend on a release candidate schema. Philip
No replies
John West
differences between old and new web services
2013-04-16 18:08:20 - 2013-04-16 19:09:21
Hi. I made two identical requests, one to the new fdsn station web service and one to the old station web service. They were: http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/station/1/query?updatedafter=2013-04-10&level=response&network=TA&station=S59A and http://www.iris.edu/ws/station/query?updatedafter=2013-04-10&level=resp&net=TA&sta=S59A The first returned 40 channels if information, the second returned 404: no stations found. Why the difference? Thanks! -- John
Replies
Rob Newman
NOTICE: Planned system maintence at the IRIS DMC on April 15th, 10am PDT - outage of all services for 30 mins
2013-04-12 22:58:22 - 2013-04-15 19:38:45
Dear Web Services Users, The IRIS DMC will be undertaking a planned major system upgrade on Monday April 15th, 2013 starting at 10:00am Pacific Time. The outage is expected to take a maximum of 30 minutes and all services will be affected. Please plan accordingly and apologies for any inconveniences caused. An all-clear notification will be sent once everything is back online. Best regards, - Rob Newman on behalf of IRIS DMC Web Services _____________________________________________ Rob Newm… [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
IRIS specific restrictions or common?
2013-04-15 18:51:49
With things in the "footnotes" like: 3To define a radial boundary, latitude, longitude and maxradius are required, but minradius is optional. are these specific to the IRIS implementation of the FDSN Stations web service, or are they general? I am assuming as they are not in the FDSN spec that they are IRIS-specific, but wanted to check. thanks, Philip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
event examples give Error 400: Bad Request
2013-04-15 18:27:05
2 of the 4 examples on this page are wrong, and generate errors if you try them: http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/ Not sure why the first fails. The second one just needs "yes" changed to "true". Philip Error 400: Bad Request: Not enough search parameters. Request:http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?minmagnitude=8.5 Request Submitted: 2013/04/15 15:23:44 UTC Service version: fdsnws-event: v 1.0.1 Error 400: Bad boolean value for includeallmagnitudes: yes Request:http://… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
java library still uses old web services
2013-04-12 16:34:51
Hi The "Java API" link on http://service.iris.edu/ points to code that still uses the older non-fdsn web services. Your announcement said this code was still "in progress", so maybe this link should be removed until you actually have java code that uses the new services? Philip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
index on PolesZerosType, FIRType, not on CoefficientsType
2013-04-11 22:08:09
So PoleZeroType (used in PolesZerosType) has a "number" attribute. NumeratorCoefficient in FIRType has a "i" attribute, presumably for the same indexing purpose. CoefficientType, which is very similar to FIRType in actual usage (ie a FIR is a like a Coefficient with no denominators) has Numerator as a FloatType, which does not have an indexing attribute . ResponseListType which has ResponseListElementTypes, also has no indexing attribute. PolynomialType has Coefficient as FloatNoUnitType bu… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
decimal vs double, sample rate units
2013-04-11 17:53:49
Hi Is there a reason BaseFilterType uses "decimal" instead of "double" for ApproximationLowerBound, ApproximationUpperBound and MaximumError? It seems a needless restriction given that everything else uses double? Also, InputSampleRate in DecimationType is a fsx:FrequencyType, so HERTZ, but SampleRate in SampleRateGroup is a fsx:SampleRateType and so SAMPLES/S. It seems like these should be the same type and unit? thanks Philip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
Frequency as FloatType
2013-04-11 17:16:18
For consistency, would it be better to have Frequency in GainType be a FrequencyType like in other places like BaseFilterType, ResponseListElementType, instead of just a double with units in the comments? FrequencyStart and FrequencyEnd in FrequencyRangeGroup are similar. FrequencyDbVariation might also be the same except units of db? thanks Philip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
parsing units in FDSNStationXML
2013-04-10 19:22:53 - 2013-04-10 21:51:50
Are there any guildlines for how the name of a unit in FDSNStationXML should be formed? Other than "do it like SEED"? I know the unit says it is the same as SEED blockette 34, but the SEED spec says use SI but use all uppercase, which contradicts the SI convention that case matters. So for example with prefixes m is milli and M is mega, and for units g is gram while G is gauss and s is second while S is siemens. I suppose most of seismology is covered by volt, meter, second and count, but ther… [more]
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Philip Crotwell
counting stages
2013-04-10 00:39:44 - 2013-04-10 19:58:47
The fdsnstationxml xschema shows that the "number" attribute on a <ResponseStage> is a CounterType, which is an integer with <xs:minInclusive value="0"/>. However, general usage, and the output from the web service generally count stages starting at 1. Might be nice to have the schema enforce this convention by having a separate counter type that starts at 1 for the cases where that makes sense. Especially since the seed usage of stage zero meaning "overall gain" would be confusing if someone i… [more]
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Philip Crotwell
QuakML and FDSNStationXML overlaps
2013-04-10 15:51:46
Hi So, it is pretty nice that the fdsn has adopted/created xml standards for both event data and station data. It is also really nice that the query parameters for the web services have been standardized across station, event and data queries. But it seems a bit of a shame that there is virtually no overlap or reuse between these two output formats. With all the talk recently about "bridging the silos" within for example EarthCubed to allow better interaction between the various geoscience dis… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
end times in future in stationxml
2013-04-10 00:52:57
I know that in SEED, and hence the DMC database, end times for stations or channels that have not yet ended are generally given as something like the year 2500, meaning "we don't know, but probably still operating". Given that a missing endDate (which is optional) presumably means the same thing, I wonder if it might not be better for the web service to not put an enddate attribute if the date in question is in the future? I guess this might have some negative performance consequences on the s… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
stationxml for responses is invalid
2013-04-09 18:28:22 - 2013-04-09 20:22:46
Hi The returned xml from this query is invalid according to the fdsn stationxml spec. : service.iris.edu/fdsnws/station/1/query?network=IU&station=ANMO&loc=00&channel=BHZ&level=response&nodata=404 The xschema requires all <Zero> elements to come before all <Pole> elements in a <PolesZeros> element, but the document has <Pole>s and then <Zero>s. This is a case where xschema's lack of ability to allow unordered content makes it hard to use. RelaxNG has a much nicer way of specifying a schema … [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
required vs optional attributes
2013-04-09 18:39:23
HI In some places attributes are explicitly marked as required or optional, while in others they are not. It would be nice since optional is the default for attributes in xschema if either use="optional" was always used or never used. Otherwise it is a bit confusing to read. For example: <xs:attribute name="resourceId" type="xs:string" use="optional"> <xs:attribute name="resourceId" type="xs:string"> thanks Philip
No replies
Philip Crotwell
lots o' comments
2013-04-09 16:32:32
Hi Is this the expected way for the station comments to be used? I guess these technically are legitamate "station comments", but I worry a bit about the large increase in verbosity, especially when getting things at the "station" level. There are 1744 lines in the xml, of which all but 25 are "comments". Generally clients asking at this level are doing simple things like plotting on a map or discovering that stations exist. These comments seem more along the lines of "show me known data probl… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
stationxml Agency unbounded in Operator
2013-04-08 20:36:37 - 2013-04-08 20:42:22
Is there a reason Agency is unbounded in Operator? The comments make it seem like different agencies should be different operators, and so there should only be one agency in an operator? thanks Philip
Replies
Philip Crotwell
fdsnstationxml station creationDate element vs attribute
2013-04-08 19:42:42
Hi In fdsnstationxml 1.0, the Station has both a CreationDate element and a TerminationDate element and via BaseNodeType a startDate and endDate attribute. The docs are a little unclear on what the difference is. I am guessing the attribute is the "station epoch" and the elements are the first known epoch start to the last know epoch end? Correct? The only case this seems to me to be useful is the case of having some station epochs but not all? If you have all station epochs then this is red… [more]
No replies
Philip Crotwell
eventId vs eventid in fdsn event ws
2013-04-02 23:20:36 - 2013-04-04 01:09:48
Hi In the returned XML from the fdsn event web service, the event publicID looks like: <event publicID="smi:service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?eventId=4213174"> But if you paste the url (after the sml:) into a browser you get a Error 400: Unknown query parameter: eventId Changing the I to i, so the URL is service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?eventid=4213174 seems to work. Would be nice if the publicID was compatible with the web service query params. thanks Philip
Replies
Philip Crotwell
fdsn stationxml
2013-04-03 21:27:51 - 2013-04-03 23:16:58
Hi The docs for the top level FDSNStationXML element say: Top-level type for Station XML. Required field are Source (network ID of the institution sending the message) and one or more Network containers or one or more Station containers. but if I am reading the schema right, the FDSNStaionXML element can only contain <Network>s directly and not Station containers. Are the docs incorrect, or is there a way that Stations will live in the FDSNStationXML element w… [more]
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Philip Crotwell
204/404 vs empty xml doc
2013-04-03 00:11:13 - 2013-04-03 14:43:06
Hi Following up on my inability to catch a 204, can you explain the rationalization for using a 204 instead of returning an empty, but structurally correct, quakeml document for a query that doesn't match anything. For example is I ask for a time window and magnitude range that doesn't match any earthquake, send back this: <q:quakeml xmlns:q="http://quakeml.org/xmlns/quakeml/1.2" xmlns=" http://quakeml.org/xmlns/bed/1.2"> <eventParameters publicID="smi:service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query"> … [more]
Replies
Philip Crotwell
no error code on bad catalog in fdsn event ws
2013-04-02 22:55:35 - 2013-04-03 00:05:51
I accidentally sent this URL to the event service. PREF is not a valid catalog I know, but the service seemed to simply close the connection rather than sending back a http error code, which makes it harder to debug bad queries. http://service.iris.edu/fdsnws/event/1/query?&minmag=5.0&maxmag=10.0&catalog=PREF&starttime=2012-04-01T00:00:00.000&endtime=2013-04-02T19:43:34.445 Deleting the "&catalog=PREF", or changing it to NEIC+PDE results in a valid query with events. For comparison, if I chan… [more]
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Chad Trabant
New FDSN web services and retirement of deprecated services
2013-03-27 20:43:01 - 2013-04-01 18:42:32
Hello web services users, We are pleased to announce that the IRIS DMC has implemented the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) versions of our core web services that support access to time series data, related metadata and event parameters. The equivalent DMC services are now deprecated and will be retired, read more on that below. The FDSN service specification defines an internationally recognized, standard interface. Programs that access data via these FDSN w… [more]
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