developer.capabilities
From autoplot.org
Purpose: document use of existing capabilities of DataSource objects. This was motivated by the poorly-documented Updating capability.
Contents |
1. Overview
An Autoplot datasource implements a number of methods, such as retrieving the dataset and metadata. It can also be "decorated" to have additional capabilities. Instead of declaring a subclass and using Java inheritance, we use a pattern where we can query the object to see if it has additional capabilities. This document outlines the capabilities.
2. TimeSeriesBrowse
The first and probably most important of these capabilities is TimeSeriesBrowse. This allows clients to query for additional data. For example, if I ask for 20120203.dat, I have the one file. But if I ask for $Y$m$d.dat?timerange=2012-02-03, then its TimeSeriesBrowse capability tells me I can generate URIs for other times and get data.
3. Updating
This tells clients that they can listen for updates by registering a listener.
4. Caching
Often it is inexpensive or necessary to read more than the user asked for, so Caching tells the client to ask it first if a dataset has already been loaded. For example, when we run a Jython script, all of the quantities calculated are stored in a cache, so for example, even though we plot four parameters, the script is only run once.
