Meeting: Introduction to Source Catalog Tool
Attendees: B.Butler, C.Chandler, E.Fomalant (remotely), D.Harland (presenter), B.Hesman, B.Truitt, G.van Moorsel
2007-Jul-27
Updated with links to JIRA issues, 2007-Aug-07

Changes appear this way: this is new text.

Abstract

This document contains suggestions that were raised during a meeting that introduced the Source Catalog Tool (SCT) to a group of astronomers who are charged with defining the user interface for that tool. The URL for the presentation that they saw is http://staff.nrao.edu/evla/sss/sct/sctIntro.pdf .

Potential Changes

The items in the list below are described only briefly. Each of these will probably become an issue in JIRA, at which time they will be described more thoroughly.

A. General

  1. Support browser back button. (EVL-289)
  2. Add ability to recover from a crash. (EVL-290)
  3. Make save button more prominent when there is unsaved data. (EVL-291)
  4. Add ability for user to set preferences, eg: sources-per-page. (EVL-287)
  5. Add ability for user to configure which catalogs are displayed. (EVL-288)
  6. Ensure compatability with Firefox (Mozilla family), Safari, and IE browsers (at least the latest versions thereof). (EVL-292)
  7. Add headers to source table columns. (EVL-293)

B. Clipboard

  1. Create ability to view clipboard. (EVL-295)
  2. Create option to add, as well as replace, items in clipboard. (EVL-296)
  3. Allow cut / copy buttons to operate on selections from multiple groups. (EVL-299)
  4. Support copying of source into same catalog. (This may not work properly right now.) (EVL-298)

C. Source Searches

  1. Define all the parameters (eg, flux density) that can be used in a search for sources. (EVL-301)
  2. Create ability to do boolean logic while filtering. (EVL-302)

D. Source Position

  1. Continue to allow horizontal (az/el) coordinates? (EVL-305)
  2. Add drop-down box for selecting distance units. (EVL-306)

E. Source Brightness

  1. Decide proper handling of FITS and CLEAN files. Right now they are just additional forms of source brightness descriptions. (EVL-227)

F. User Help

  1. Distinguish help links from other kinds of links. (EVL-231)
  2. Trim down the number of help links? Eg, one link for section of source details, instead of link per field. (EVL-228)

G. Import / Export (EVL-216)

  1. Add import/export support for PST-style text format. (EVL-277) & (EVL-278)
  2. Add import/export support for VLBA Sched-style text format. (EVL-279) & (EVL-280)
  3. Add ability to choose specific data fields for export. (EVL-281)
  4. Export file: change "HERE" link to button. (EVL-282)
  5. Make cleaner separation between file types and compression options on import/export screens. (EVL-283)
  6. Add ability to export group of a catalog. (EVL-284)

H. Observatory Catalogs

  1. Allow authorized users to update observatory catalogs. (Incorporate User / UserGroup concepts from User DB.) (EVL-307)
  2. Convert images in standard catalogs to readily viewable (png, jpg, etc.) form. (EVL-308)
  3. Decide on what groups the standard catalogs should have. Remove RA / Dec groups? Add other groups?. (EVL-309), (EVL-310), (EVL-311), (EVL-312)