Example Click the screen-shot for a live version.

Information and Download

WPV2 is a PHP and JavaScript package for viewing dirfile data in your web browser. The dirfile format, designed for scientific data storage and used by several cosmology experiments, is described on the getdata homepage, where the official library for reading and writing dirfiles is provided. WPV2 makes use of the PHP bindings provided by getdata. It uses bootstrap CSS styles. WPV2 is written and maintained by Adam Hincks, S.J. and is released under the GPL licence.

The most current code can be downloaded from Gitlab, and you can also download a release here (which is recommended for most use):

• wpv2-1.0.0.zip (1 March 2016)

WPV2 requires the following PHP/JavaScript libraries (which come bundled in the lib/ path of the project): Jquery, Bootstrap, Bootstrap slider, Colpick, Date.format, Flot, Flot-axislabels, Mustache, Select2, Select2 Boostrap 3 CSS and Sprintf.

Q&A

Why do the CGI scripts use PHP and not, say, python?

PHP running on Apache can create persistent resource handlers. Consequently, multiple calls to PHP scripts from WPV2 do not require reopening the dirfile and reparsing the format file each time they are called.

What does WPV2 stand for?

Fourteen years ago I wrote a stand-alone program (using Qt) for viewing live dirfile data. It was called palantir, in line with the LOTR naming scheme being used for the BLAST experiment of the day. About eight years ago I made a web-based dirfile viewer for ACT, called the ‘Web Palantir Viewer’ (WPV). The original WPV used a custom-written PHP dirfile reader and updates required page refreshes. WPV2 is the successor to WPV using the official getdata library and AJAX calls instead of page refreshes.

Why is this part titled ‘Q&A’ and not ‘FAQ’?

Nobody has actually asked me any questions about WPV2, so there are no frequent questions. Hence, I anticipate possible FAQs with a Q&A.