Virtual Observatory Software for Astronomers

VODesktop 1.3.2 Release Notes

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • TAP client now included. TAP means "Table Access Protocol". This is the new IVOA-approved way of querying tables and databases. Previously Astrogrid made database querying possible through our Remote Application (CEA) mechanism. TAP services will gradually replace CEA-based ones as data providers deploy this method.
  • VOExplorer: added a popup warning when a static list query contains ivo id that does not exist in the registry.
  • VOExplorer: added 'description' field to xml representation of a resource list. If set, displays as a tooltip in the voexplorer resource tree.
  • VOExplorer: added menu operation 'Edit > Remove Selected Resources from this list' which allows user to remove items from a static list more conveniently than using the 'edit' view.

Fixed bugs:

  • Fixed irritating focus-grab by system tray popup messages on OSX
  • VOExplorer: Enabled editing of URL for existing subscriptions
  • VOExplorer: Worked around a bug that prevented subscriptions to files in FTP. Bug still applies to SFTP, vospace.

Changes:

  • VOExplorer: updated examples lists, added a 'sandbox', moved 'recent changes' to top level
  • Astroscope: made 'services table' the default view for new users.
  • VOExplorer: Improved presentation of TAP services in smart list builder.
  • VOExplorer: Updated presentation to recognize new standard IDS for VOSI and TAP

Removed features:

  • VOExplorer: removed 'build cea query' option when resource also has a TAP capability.
  • Removed security certificate downloader - no longer needed.
  • Removed plastic hub from default startup. Can be re-enabled via preferences.

VODesktop 1.3 Release Notes

Changes in this version include:

New User Features and improvements :

  • Task runner delegates credentials to services if they have registered a delegation interface. This means principally that CEA and DSA services can now use a secured VOSpace but it also makes possible grid gateways where the delegated credentials control access to the grid.
  • Astro Runtime: added the getHome() method to UserInformation to reveal the user's home space. The value returned by this method is determined from the community at log-in time, so is always correct and, when the home space is in the ivo:// scheme, it is always a "concrete" IVORN.

Technical changes and bug fixes :

  • Login now works correctly if main registry is down and only the fallback registry is working.
  • Improve column suggestions provided by Multi Query dialogue "Magic Wand" button. Fixes 2941.
  • Exponential format avoided in DAL requests; fixes problem with small angle searches. Fixes 2938.
  • FileExplorer: fixed the "VO workspace" button to work sensibly with vos:// locations.

VODesktop 1.2 Release Notes

1.2.3.1

Changes in this version include:

New User Features and improvements :

  • Multi Query. This allows the user to upload a file of positions, and search a given resource against each position, concatenating the results into one large table. The uploaded table can be in a variety of different formats. Can be launched from VOExplorer by selecting a catalogue service, or by selecting a VOTable of positions in FileExplorer, or by sending a VOTable from another application (eg Topcat or Aladin) that is connected via SAMP.
  • Inter-application Communication. VO Desktop now speaks to other applications (eg when passing tables to and from Topcat) using the new IVOA standard, called "SAMP". Users can see which applications are connected using "Show SAMP Hub status" under the "Interop" menu. The old "PLASTIC" connection method still works as well.
  • Publication button. If a selected resource contains a journal reference, VO Desktop picks this up and displays a link (in the "action" pane and in the "resource" menu) for jumping to the ADS page with that reference.
  • Improved search fields presentation. The search fields used in "New Smartlist" searches, and in filtering the list of selected resources, have been revised and slightly re-organised, to make help searches clearer and more logical. (For example, distinguishing "Resource Type" from "Capability"). These search fields are a simplified version of the metadata stored abour resources in VO Registries.
  • Sesame Lookup. Next to the box in Astroscope for typing in an RA and Dec position is a new Sesame lookup button, using a "binoculars" icon. Typing the name of an object (e.g. "3c 273") in the position box followed by clicking this icon results in the position of the object being fetched from the CDS Sesame service. Previously this happened automatically, but this resulted in some inconsistent and annoying behaviours, so we felt an explicit request was better.
  • Improvements to Commandline Utilities : Users can duplicate many of the actions of VO Desktop with commandline calls using small Python scripts. In this release we have added 'browse' option to adql.py, siap.py; implemented app.py for executing remote applications (CEA); and improved search.py to accept simple query language.

Technical changes and bug fixes :

  • Added SAMP messaging - Plastic messaging is still present too.
  • AR: Added a File API that provides uniform access to different kinds of file system - local disk, ftp, sftp, myspace, http, vospace. This change will become apparent to users in later versions of VO Desktop.
  • Astroscope: disabled go to top button when in services table view
  • Astroscope: position and offset now toggle correctly between sexagesimal and decimal degrees in results table.
  • Astroscope: Object names are now recorded in search history.
  • AR: Added simple XML access to registry resources. Used when exchanging resources in SAMP messages.
  • VOSpace: updated plugin, now handles remote-copy (through client), filenames containing spaces and file permissions.
  • VO Explorer : fixed problem with user annotations not persisting
  • Astroscope: Fixed incorrect number-of-services services. Issue 2884
  • AR: made Applications API more forgiving to user input
  • AR: fixed availability of util.tables
  • Added integration tests to verify availability of all components.
  • Astroscope: work-around for NED service quirks
  • VoExplorer: 'any field' smartlist query now works correctly.
  • AR: Updated to work with latest Sesame schema from CDS
  • AR: Improved parsing of DAL (Cone, Siap, Ssap) responses, and reporting of lack of metadata.
  • File Explorer: Improved drag-n-drop behaviour of file table.
  • File Explorer: Improved behaviour of popup menus in file table.
  • AR: improved presentation of in-program help.

1.2.2

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • TaskRunner: Experimental support for IVOA Table Access Protocol (TAP). A simplified query-builder window is presented when a TAP service is selected in VOExplorer.
  • AR: Updated to latest version (0.4) of the IVOA Standard 'Virtual Observatory Support Interfaces' (VOSI). VOSI is used within VOExplorer and TaskRunner to check that services are operable and to query for their expected availability. VOSI queries can now be made by scripts & programs using the AstroRuntime library.

Fixed bugs:

  • TaskRunner: Fixed a bug in the XML parsing of registry resources as defined in the latest Common Execution Architecture standard.

1.2.0

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • AR: implemented registry resource choosing dialog, and cea tool editing dialogue
  • taskrunner: Implemented 'New Task' button - displays a list of available tasks.
  • UI: Added a 'change password' dialogue.
  • astroscope: added position and offset columns to results table.
  • astroscope: when a large query is encountered, user is warned and display flips to services table
  • astroscope: added transient warning when search radius is greater than 1.0
  • UI: Remember user's preferred views for next time
  • voexplorer: added mode to protect registry from overlarge novice queries.
  • voexplorer: added indication when tabular metadata view contains data
  • astroscope: pre fill search form with testquery parameters, if available.

Fixed bugs:

  • voexplorer: Vizier resources with multiple tables can all be downloaded /sent via plastic
  • astroscope: improved parsing of non-standard ssap services Issue: 2767.
  • astroscope: resource table and coverage metadata now shown in services table details, added 'Results' filterwheel to services table.
  • taskrunner: File selection dialogue navigates to vospace where necessary Issue: 2805.
  • Plastic: connect to external hub if already running. Issue: 2692.
  • AR: Changed default address for AR and plastic connections to 'localhost' Issue: 2785, 2151, 1799.
  • AR: xmlrpc is now tolerant of a wider character set in data returned from registry. Issue: 2790.
  • astroscope: recognizes fits files as spectra, so they can be sent via plastic
  • voexplorer: service test query no longer reports a failure as a ui error Issue: 2763.
  • sesame service endpoint can now be altered. Issue: 2494.
  • fileexplorer: 'new folder' dialogue now displays correctly. Issue: 2778.
  • voexplorer: Improved presentation of validation level.
  • AR: now accepts CEA tool structures with repeated parameters. Issue: 2253.
  • astroscope: Updated registry querying to process as a stream - improves performance
  • Plastic: errors when sending plastic messages are now displayed in click-to-dismiss dialogues. Issue: 2718.
  • voexplorer: added waveband column to voexplorer / astroscope resource table
  • voexplorer, Astroscope , AR: Altered to work with new CDS resource format.
  • QB: Cures loss of focus after certain edits in QB Issue: 2756.
  • QB: Tool tips for columns and tables in menus and tree view Issue: 2757.
  • QB: ROUND and TRUNCATE fixed. Issue: 2733.
  • QB: Fixed cardinalities for Maths and Trig functions. Issue: 2735.
  • QB: Explicit joins are now carried out more tastefully. The join condition is checked for tables. If required, tables are included automatically. Issue: 2736.
  • astroscope: Fixed obscure race-condition. Issue: 2724.

Changes:

  • voexplorer : Altered registry resource caching scheme -faster and better cache usage.

VODesktop 2008.1 Release Notes

2008.1

Changes in this version include:

Fixed bugs:

  • Force update of VOSpace filesizes. Issue: 2679.

2008.1 RC2

Changes in this version include:

Fixed bugs:

  • Improved SSAP handling in AstroScope Issue: 2689.
  • Fixed race condition at start-up fetching helpmap (as seen by Dave).
  • Fixed code error in content-type filter. Issue: 2681.
  • Increased defensive coding in resource parser. This will fix problems seen when doing reg query through AR

2008.1 RC1

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • Added button to fire an availability query from VOExplorer
  • Added tooltip of login information - including DN - to login indicator.
  • Improved display of security info in VOExplorer, and force login when trying to execute a secured service in TaskRunner.

Fixed bugs:

  • Added to, and made uniform, UI help tags.
  • Freshened all example resource lists. Made the examples location a preference Issue: 2640.
  • !VOExplorer left-right resizing now works properly. Issue: 2609.
  • Improved synchroniation to prevent concurrent modification exceptions in Helio/AstroScope. Issue: 2665.
  • Added preference to enable chunking of transfers to FileStore. Issue: 2675.
  • Altered initial capacity settings of HtmlBuilder and reviewed instances of StrBuilder Issue: 2640.
  • Minor fix to style sheets to correct Group By error in ADQL. Issue: 2673.
  • Another minor fix to the sizing of Query Builder. Renamed the comment tab in QB to Comment rather than Information plus icon change. Slightly more tasteful failure if tabular metadata not found. Improved comment processing. (added C and C++ style) Issue: 2649.

Changes:

  • Updated to latest browser-control library Issue: 2677.

2008.1 Beta 5

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • Display test queries in resources, and allow them to be executed.

Fixed bugs:

  • Query size estimator gives total size of registry. Issue: 2666.
  • FileExplorer: fixed handling of spaces in filepath.
  • Improved appearance on Windows
  • System tray now responds to right and left mouse clicks
  • Provide better info when sending vizier tables via plastic.
  • Improved filenames generated when downloading Vizier tables.

Changes:

  • Upgraded parser to handle SSAP v0.4 resource schema

2008.1 Beta 4

Changes in this version include:

Fixed bugs:

  • Tables should not be case sensitive in ADQL. Issue: 2639.
  • Execute button enabled and populated within TaskRunner. Some failsafe checking when trying to retrieve tabular metadata. Some ivorns within registry inconsistent on case when used as a foreign key. Issue: 2632.
  • Renable AstroScope search button when resolve fails. Issue: 2624.
  • Resource list popup menu on OS X no longer deselects selected resource. Issue: 2610.
  • File dialogue remembers position last browsed to. Issue: 2422.
  • File dialogue can now display in list view. Issue: 2439.
  • Improved progress display of self tests. Issue: 2629.
  • Test for running on low memory. Issue: 2613.
  • Changed text colour in smart list progress bar for readability. Issue: 2532.
  • Finally fixed problems with initial expansion state of resource list tree. Issue: 2430.

2008.1 Beta 3

Changes in this version include:

New Features:

  • New network preferences configuration panel enables configuration of HTTP proxy and other network system preferences. Issue: 2559.

Fixed bugs:

  • Resizing query builder. Issue: 2362.
  • Fix VOSpace problems via AR (now use FileManager-client-2008.0b2). Issue: 2578.
  • Work around bug which caused preference saving to fail at java 1.6. Issue: 2595.
  • Multiple capabilities (even of the same kind) per resource now supported in AstroScope. Issue: 2562.
  • In-context menu reintroduced into Query Builder Issue: 2418.
  • Make sure resources tree is expanded when first viewed. Issue: 2430.
  • "concrete" myspace IVORNs used to call CEA server Issue: 2547.
  • Final aspects of ADQL folded into Query Builder Issue: 2546.
  • Retrieval of metadata for Query Builder now at Registry v1.0 Issue: 2560.

2008.1 Beta 2

Changes in this version include:

Fixed bugs:

  • URLs now visible in VOExplorer resource display Issue: 2520.
  • TabularMetadataViewer. Fixed NPE when column value null. Fixed incorrect inclusion of columns after a sort. Issue: 2419.
  • Improved :8080 selftest. Issue: 2466.
  • Fixed filename-related bug on Windows. Issue: 2465.

Changes:

  • Upgraded Registry client and parser to Registry v1.0

Acknowledging AstroGrid. If you make use of the AstroGrid system or tools, we would be grateful if you could acknowledge this use in any resulting publications. You could use these words: 'This research has made use of data obtained using, or software provided by, the UK's AstroGrid Virtual Observatory Project, which is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and through the EU's Framework 6 programme.' Use of any data discovered or accessed through AstroGrid should of course be mentioned as noted by the data providers.

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