5 How to access products?

5.1 Introduction

The catalogue search is used to find the type of data you are looking for:

Search for the metadata item you are interested in (refer to the paragraph 4).

Access the products of interest from the search results (described below).

5.1.1 What type of products can be retrieved?

Products provided by a GISC

Initially the GISC catalogue will only contain Global products: WMO Essential and Additional data, as defined under WMO Resolutions, 40 (Cg-XII) and 25. All "essential" products are for unrestricted (including commercial) use. For the use of the "Additional" products, please read the WMO resolution 40 (CG-XII) and please refer to the conditions of the product owner.

The GISC catalogue offers also metadata of Local products intentionally exposed by DCPCs and NCs but the products cannot be retrieved directly: the GISC portal will only offer a link to the producer interface.

Products provided by a DCPC

Local Products that are associated to a metadata item within the DCPC catalogue; either a proper metadata item, or a Draft metadata item.

5.1.2 How to retrieve products?

When you have an account and are logged in, you can access to following actions:

Perform a Request:

Access any number of products for a particular metadata item currently available in OpenWIS.

Immediate retrieval of products.

One time delivery of products.

Perform a Subscription

Regular delivery of products of a specific metadata item.

Products can be sent as soon as they become available, OR can be queued to be delivered at a regular time interval.

Subscriptions are active until they are paused or removed.

Access to a link to request/subscribe on producer in case the request/subscribe is done on Cache (Other action)

5.2 Product delivery

Note: MFI thanks Leon Mika (ITB- SSS) from the Australian bureau of Meteorology for providing the explanations and drawings used in the current paragraph.

5.2.1 Product delivery methods

OpenWis provides the following delivery methods:

Staging Post: Product can be access through the browser.

Email: Product is sent as an attachment in an email.

FTP: Product is transferred to a remote host via FTP.

Product delivery methods

5.2.2 Delivery method summary

	Staging Post	Email	FTP
Setup	Easy	Moderate	Moderate
Product sent via	Download using web browser	Attachment in email	File transfer
Consumable by	Humans	Humans	Automated systems
Suitable for	Small products consumed occasionally	Moderately sized products consumed regularly	Large products consumed frequently
Successful product delivery assurance	None	None	Ensures each file has been transmitted
Product delivery validation assurance	None	None	Ensures file sizes of source and transferred files are equal

5.2.3 Product delivery failures

Each delivery mechanism has a different level of assurance in whether or not your product has been delivered without error.

Products sent via the Staging Post or Email have no assurance of successful delivery from OpenWIS.

Products sent via FTP have full assurance of successful delivery.

When OpenWis has detected that a product was not received successfully, it will perform a product redelivery operation:

1. Failure detection:

2. Notification of error:

3. Failed messages are resent:

5.3 Request a product

The request mechanism allows retrieving a particular instance of a product once.

The request mechanism is done in several steps:

1. Definition of the sub-selection parameters to select the expected product instance(s)

2. Definition of the primary dissemination to select how to receive the product

3. Definition of the secondary dissemination (in case the primary fails)

The step 1 is the definition of the sub-selection parameters and depends on the type of product and on the kind of deployment the request is performed. The following table gives an overview of the kind of request depending on the type of product and the type of deployment:

	GISC	DCPC or NC
Global Product	Request on cache	Local Data Source Request
Local Product	Open a new Web page on the producer to allow accessing this product (to authorized user only)	Local Data Source Request

The step 2 and 3 are common to all cases.

5.3.1 Access

Click Request on a metadata item in the search result:

5.3.2 Step 1: Sub-selection parameters

Request on Cache

If OpenWis is deployed on a GISC and the product is global (for example a bulletin), the Create a request from cache tab is displayed as follows:

The tab allows the selection of particular product instance (file).

A filter based on product date (time in UTC) helps finding the expected file.

Request on restricted data

If OpenWis is deployed on a GISC and the product is local, the click on the Request button could display the following window:

Request on Local Data Source

If OpenWis is deployed on a DCPC or a NC, the Create a request tab is displayed as follows:

The Request on Local Data Source depends on the kind of requested metadata. The system allows each producer to describe the sub-selection parameters best adapted to find the correct product instance.

The sub-selection parameters consist in a line by line selection of parameters, to define the query that will be performed to the data source.

5.3.3 Step 2: Primary dissemination

Depending on the user rights and the deployment capabilities, several dissemination alternatives are available (for primary and secondary disseminations) to retrieve the product instance.

Staging Post:

The product instance(s) will be stored and make accessible on OpenWIS system for a certain amount of time; the product can be accessed from the My Account / Track My Request section (refer to paragraph 6.1). This alternative is selected by default.

You can select a Compression mode:

None: no compression (default)

Zipped: ZIP compression

WMO_FTP: WMO FTP packing

Public Dissemination:

The product instance(s) can be sent either via FTP or Email.

1. Set the following parameters:

FTP
Host	mandatory	FTP server address
Path	mandatory	Path on which the files will be dropped
User	mandatory	FTP user
Password	mandatory	FTP password
Port	optional	FTP server port
Passive	optional	FTP passive mode
Check file size	optional	Whether the file size should be checked
Encrypted	optional	Not used
File name	optional	The name of the destination file

Mail
Email address	mandatory	The Email address
Header line	optional	Text sent in mail header (must be in the form "Name: Value")
Email TO / CC / BCC	optional (TO by default)	Whether the recipient should be put as TO / CC / BCC of the sent mail
Subject	optional	Subject of the email
Attachment mode	optional (As Attachment by default)	Option on how to attach the file to the email
File name	optional	The name of the file sent by email

2. You can select a Compression mode:

None: no compression (default)

Zipped: ZIP compression

WMO_FTP: WMO FTP packing

3. To save a favorite dissemination configuration, click Save.

To retrieve an FTP or Email favorite: click on the Host or Email address combo box and select a configuration:

The favorite dissemination can be further edited in the Personal Information page (refer to paragraph 7.1.4).

4. Click Next to display the Secondary dissemination tab.

5.3.4 Step 3: Secondary dissemination

The configuration of a secondary dissemination (in case the primary fails) is optional.

1. On the Secondary dissemination tab, tick Specify a dissemination.

2. Proceed as described step 2 to set the secondary dissemination.

3. Click Save to submit the request

5.3.5 Summary

Once the request has been submitted a summary is displayed containing the following information:

the kind of requested data source (Cache or Local Data source)

the corresponding metadata URN and title

a table showing the last events (only one for a request) with the status of the request actually processed and the possibility to download the related product instance (if available via the Staging Post)

Request number

1. Click to refresh the display.

2. If the Staging post delivery mode has been requested in the dissemination tab, you can select the product instance and click Download.

The product is downloaded from the Staging post

5.4 Subscribe to a product

The subscription mechanism allows retrieving products based on event or recurrent basis.

The subscription mechanism is done in several steps:

1. Definition of the sub-selection parameters to select the expected product instance(s) and definition of the subscription recurrence (schedule)

2. Definition of the primary dissemination to select how to receive the product

3. Definition of the secondary dissemination (in case the primary fails)

4. Alternatively definition of a backup subscription on another Centre

5.4.1 Access

Click Subscribe on a metadata item in the search result

5.4.2 Step 1: Sub-selection parameters

Subscription on Cache

If OpenWis is deployed on a GISC and the product is global (for example a bulletin), the Create a subscription from cache tab is displayed as follows:

1. Set the following parameters:

Parameter

Description

Period Selection

Which products are of interest:

- You can specify the time of day products associated with that metadata item should be collected for dissemination.

- You can choose individual hours or a continuous time range.

Schedule

You can specify when OpenWIS should deliver products once they have been collected:

- Deliver products as soon as they are ingested.

- Collect products in the staging post and deliver them in batches

2. Click Next.

Subscription on Local Data Source

If OpenWis is deployed on a DCPC or a NC, the Create a subscription tab is displayed as follows:

The Subscription on Local Data Source depends on the kind of requested metadata.

1. Set the selection parameters.

2. Set the Schedule.

3. Click Next.

5.4.3 Step 2: Primary dissemination

Identical to Request: refer to paragraph 5.3.3

An additional channel of dissemination could be available for subscription:

MSS/FSS: the subscription is managed via the MSS/FSS tool: a Message or File Switching System that allows Partners to exchange data via a private resilient network, the Global Telecommunication System (GTS).

When clicking on Go to backup Centre button, the main page of the backup GISC is opened, with the wizard of subscription creation opened on the same metadata.