2. Create Automated Data Display (a la oostethys)

Actor(s)

A developer building an automated data display system.

Background

The developer, Bob, has created a display that presents the most recent values from a selection of observing systems. Some systems he can influence their data presentation, but others use parameter names that are created by the data originators, using no known conventions. Bob can display data using the original parameter names, and a (rather lengthy) list of parameter names is available in a drop-down menu. But now the users of the display want to use a uniform vocabulary of broader concepts, so they can select all ocean temperatures, for example. The developer could implement this with the current parameters, by hard-coding the relationships between original parameter names and the desired concept vocabulary. He could even move the translation tables to configuration files -- for example, XML files showing the relationship between terms -- but these must be updated whenever the provider data sets change. Bob wants a solution that can recognize the actual meaning of the labels for any new parameters, or at least understand how they relate to the uniform vocabulary. Bob also wants to be prepared for changes in the uniform vocabulary. He hears the vocabulary will go through a major revision, and he doesn't want to have to rebuild his configuration files from scratch. It would also be nice if the system could support another, more widely used standard vocabulary that Bob's user community favors.

User Scenario

Bob's customer, Ray, arrives at the display site. Ray sees the default parameter list, and next to it a drop-down that says "Choose your preferred vocabulary." He chooses the COARDS Climate and Forecast Standard Name vocabulary, and in the primary vocabulary list sees hundreds of terms. This is too much to choose from; he selects the "by Concept Terms" checkbox, and now sees just 30 topics. He selects 'temperature', which opens up another level of detail. He then selects 'ocean', then 'sea surface temperature' -- although there is even more detail below sea surface temperature, he thinks that term is sufficiently detailed for his purposes. Ray also could have used his own vocabulary within this GUI, but it wasn't detailed enough for this selection. The display has been updating with each selection Ray made, and now has many fewer points inside the area of interest. Ray sees in the (also automatically updated) summary list of variables that two of the original names are actually labeled "SST Correction", and he deletes those, so another bit of data disappears from the display. Ray now how homed in on the data of interest, and he chooses two other commands, "Export Latest Data" and "Export Configuration". The first option gives him a file that contains the observations, their locations, the instruments that produced them, and the owner and credit metadata for each result. The second command captures the configuration he selected -- just the set of variables and other fields he entered -- in a URL, so that he can use that URL to go directly to this view any time in the future.

Solution Space

OOSTethys is an obviously related application that already performs some of these translations. There are many systems now displaying data that could be adapted to work in this way.