[Go-essp-tech] Minutes: 2/9/10 ESG Model Metadata Demonstration

[Sylvia Murphy]

On 2/9/10 the Curator team conducted its latest demonstration of the developmental state of the model metadata display within the ESG-CET gateway. This was conducted as part of the METAFOR year 2 meeting.  Thanks to Eric and METAFOR for giving Curator time during the meeting to conduct the demonstration.  It provided us with a diverse audience, several of whom had not seen the display before.

Present:

Antoinette Alias
V. Balaji
Phil Bentley
Roxana Bojariu
Sarah Callaghan
Antonio S. Cofiño
Sébastien Denvil
Gerry Devine
Mark Elkington
Rupert Ford
Eric Guilyardi
Michel Kolasinski
Michael Lautenschlager
Bryan Lawrence
Marie-Pierre Moine
Mark Morgan
Charlotte Pascoe
Hans Ramthun
Lois Steenman-Clark
Karl E. Taylor
Frank Toussaint
Allyn Treshansky
Sophie Valcke
Patrick Brockmann
Luca Cinquini
Sylvia Murphy
Cecelia Deluca
Don Middleton

The following items were covered:

* the new PCMDI gateway appearance
* the new search interface
* some special text that highlights CMIP5 model metadata
* units on inputs
* several layout changes we hope to improve readability
* a review of experiments
* a review of conformances
* a review of inputs
* an update on our XML upload progress

PREVIOUS ACTION ITEMS COMPLETED:

1) Open by default at least one accordion per tab.
2) Make the variable name under inputs stand out more (e.g. bold it, put the other information below it etc).
3) Add units to the input


CARRY OVERS:

1) Add definitions to the targets on the search interface somehow. (Note we have settled on definitions, but are waiting for the search pages to settle on a design before implementing).
2) Connect gridspec files to grid tree.
3) Determine which facets we should use to search on models (Sylvia sent an email on 2 February). 

NEW ACTION ITEMS:

1) METAFOR to resolve how users will enter contact information. Users should be aware
which if any contact information they enter will be displayed on the web
2) Remove Karl's name and emails from the experiment descriptions
3) Open bug, grid tiles are not sequential.  They should be numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc.  
3) Open a feature request to ping Balaji about linking to his other gridspec tools from the grid tab
4) Ping METAFOR about which Realms they would like to see in the demo example 

Discussions:

Sylvia indicated to the group that the label Discipline has been changed to Realm in the ESG model metadata display to correspond to the label being using in the DRS syntax and data search and browse.  Eric indicated that the values for Realm in the GFDL example do not match what he would expect the questionnaire to produce.  Sylvia indicated the values were created by her and if METFOR provided a list of the Realms they would like to see it would be trivial to change the example.  As of 3/3 all have agreed to use the Realms as spelled in the DRS document and all examples have been modified to reflect this. 

Sylvia gave everyone an update on ESG's XML upload development.  To date, the ESG questionnaire parser can read and display the component tree, the description, contacts, and realm.  The next phase of the code development will focus on parsing simulations and platforms.  Gerry recently provided ESG with a slightly better XML example.  Cecelia reiterated that ESG was anticipating receiving a full XML example by 9 February.  That did not happen.  Bryan suggested that the examples we had were sufficient to get started.  Sylvia indicated that this was true, but that for demonstration purposes a realistic, fully fleshed out example is critical to determine if the software is functioning properly, to determine if the attributes are being mapped to the correct controlled vocabulary, and to conduct a sanity check on the science being represented.  As of 3/3, the component display generated by XML from the questionnaire is far from presentable.  The Curator team would like to continue receiving improved XML updates and **will need a complete example at least a month or more before the first real metadata starts to come in.**

Sylvia indicated she has applied for an account on BADC, which is required to access the beta 3 version of the questionnaire.  She received access in the middle of February.  Once the questionnaire is stable, intends to compare the attribute names in the beta3 version with the METAFOR wiki/ticket 280 to confirm that all anticipated attributes are in the ESG display and that the agreed upon definitions are present.  

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Sylvia Murphy
sylvia.murphy at noaa.gov
303-497-7753