Verifying CDF contents

The following page describes methods for verifying CDF files after they are created by IMAP processing software.

SKTeditor

After CDF files are generated, it is helpful to check for any compliance errors using the SKTeditor tool.

You can download this tool from the link above, and open the created file there. You can click “Show Messages” in the lower right-hand corner, and it will provide details about any ISTP compliance errors that the code may have missed.

SPDF Validation

As a final validation step, the SPDF will review all completed data products. They will run the CDF file through the SKTeditor as a first pass, and also ensure that the auto-generated plots look nice on CDAWeb using the IDL tool https://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdfx/.

They will also perform a final check on all of the attribute values to ensure they make sense from a user perspective. Some examples of errors caught so far include:

• The TEXT global attribute needs to be longer

• VALIDMIN and VALIDMAX need to be reasonable numbers

• FIELDNAM and CATDESC need to be more descriptive

• Logical_source_description needs to be more formal, like Low gain channel of the time-of-flight signal instead of This is the variable for....

• “Metadata” fields from the CCSDS packet should be made into VAR_YPE=data rather than support_data or metadata

  • support_data is reserved for coordinate data, i.e. the variable that other DEPEND_{i} attributes point to

  • metadata is reserved for text-based variable, like pointers to text labels