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Accessing A Proposal
To access a specific proposal a user can use one of the SSDB's two tools for the searching, viewing and downloading of data objects that reside within the SSDB's Digital Library: SSDBquery and SSDBviewer. Both search tools can be launched by clicking on the sidebar and both will return identical results for the same search.
SSDBviewer is the main viewing portal into the data bank, enabling discovery of all data objects, displayed over a basemap of global topography. Within this Java application, users may search for objects by data type, proposal number, geographic region or other user-specified criteria. SSDBviewer displays the location of found objects and allows for downloading one or more object at the same time.
To search for objects associated with a specific proposal select "Advanced Search" in the upper left panel then choose the appropriate proposal number and click "Submit Search." The results are presented in two fashions.
All objects associated with that proposal will graphically appear in the main map panel of SSDBviewer. At the present, icons are drawn at the center of the coordinates used to georeference the object. To see a summary of information about the object, right-click (ctrl-click with a Mac) on the icon to pop up a small window. With the pop-up window users can also view the file by clicking on "Open File" assuming the appropriate plug-ins exist on the computer for viewing the file.
The results of the query are also displayed in the upper right hand panel of the viewer, allowing users to browse through folders for each data type. If the object name appears in gray it is because that user does not have access to the associated proposal and will not be able to view or download the file. If the object name appears in black, by right clicking (ctrl-clicking on a Mac) on a folder, or on an individual file or files, that file, or all files in a folder, can be added to a download list.
To download the selected file(s), click on the "Download list" button at the top of the file list. This will show a list of files selected for download. To begin the download, the user must enter an email address into the Email box and press the "Download Now" button. This starts up another Java application called DOTS (Digital Object Transfer System), with which the user can again select specific files for download, and begin the download by clicking the "Save" button. For each data file listed in the DOTS table there is a corresponding ".mif" metadata file. Most users will only need to examine the data files, and can ignore the .mif files.
SSDBquery is a web-browser-driven text interface. Within this interface users can search for data related to a specific proposal or proposals, find specified data type(s), find data uploaded between specified dates, or data within a specified geographic region. To access data associated with a specific proposal
select the proposal number and click "Search."
The result of a query is a table of results which, for each item, gives the proposal number, data type, file name, file size, and upload date. The table can be sorted (in ascending or descending order) by any of these categories by clicking on the column heading, making it easy to see, for example, which data have been submitted since a previous panel meeting.
Users can click on the filename to view the file, assuming the file is of a type that can either be viewed in a browser or by an appropriate plug-in on the users computer. Otherwise files can be downloaded to personal computers, e.g., by right clicking (ctrl-clicking on a Mac) and choosing "Download Linked File." If a user cannot view or download a file, it is because that user does not have access to the associated proposal. With SSDBquery you can download only one file at a time.
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Last Update: July 09, 2007 |
