Data series specification

Each data series in the JSOC catalog is defined in a JSOC Series Definition (JSD) file (usually a text file with extension .jsd). The JSD contains a description of the global properties of the series, such as its name, owners, date of creation, storatge unit size, etc. as well as a concise description of all the keywords, links and data segments that all data records belonging to the series will contain. The JSD is divided into 4 section, global, keywords, links, and data segments. The syntax of each section is described below.

A new data series is added to the JSOC catalog by parsing the JSD and creating SQL code that when executed by the JSOC catalog database server will create the necessary tables and global table entries to represent the series described in the JSD (see section 3). This can either be done by passing a JSD file to a command line utility

   command prompt> jsoc_series -create newseries.jsd

or by calling the functions

   JSOC_Series_t *jsoc_parse_description(JSOC_Env_t *env, char *jsd)
   int jsoc_create_series(JSOC_Env_t *env, JSOC_Series_t *series)

from within a process running in the JSOC environment with the text of the JSD contained in the string argument jsd. Since the series name must be unique, the above commands will fail if a series with the same name as specified in the JSD already exists. It is possible to update the definition of an existing series by editing the JSD and either using the command line utility

   command prompt> jsoc_series -update oldseries.jsd

or by calling the functions

   JSOC_Series_t *jsoc_parse_description(JSOC_Env_t *env, char *jsd)
   int jsoc_update_series(JSOC_Env_t *env, JSOC_Series_t *series)

Updating a series by adding or removing keywords or links will result in a rebuild of the database tables holding the keyword and link values for the data records. This can be slow for series with many existing records.