JGOFS Software Release History

The release history of the JGOFS software available from our site follows. To download the software, click here. For information about installing the software see the INSTALL.txt file at this ftp site as well as within the tar file. For an overview of the JGOFS software, see JGOFS Data System Overview by Flierl, Bishop, Glover and Paranjpe. Also, for details of becoming a data server, see Becoming a Data Server.

Contents of jgofs-V1.73.tar - February 4, 2004

Remove older, unused versions of defgb and remove the misleading README file within the src/defgb directory.

Reorganize the defgb distribution by placing common subroutines in the lib/ directory and library file. Move the "brev" version of outer to the standard location so all methods use the same one.

Add a preliminary release of the Matlab utility, loadjg, to allow reading of JGOFS data directly by Matlab. [Implimentation not yet complete. The makefile needs additional work.]

Improve the installation instructions.

Edit the parse_path_info doc file.

Update default.h and outer.h with larger ATTRSIZE. Change from 40 to 80.

Replace jdb.c version 1.1c with version 1.1e. Improved error handling with add conditional compilations for debug options.

Replace listvar.c with Version 1.3a 16 Oct 2003. It explicitly exists with status of 0 after a normal execution.

Change DATUMSIZE from 80 to 240 in outer.h

Remove the older, unused, and archived files out of the distribution.

There is a new release of list.c, V1.6b. Several new switches were added and some *.h files are expected to be in the include subdirectory.

Change MIN_DATUMSIZE 120 to 240 in list.h.

HTTCP.c V1.4 dated 3 December 2003 replaces sys_errlist and sys_nerr with strerro. This fixes a problem which occured in Linux compilations. Add version definition to the code.

Contents of jgofs-V1.72.tar - May 7, 2002

Fix dir perl script to specify server name in directory links so that it works with Netscape V6.

Contents of jgofs-V1.71.tar - April 30, 2002

Added buffer size check to jcb.c in version jdb11c.c. Will wait to see if better version is available refore remaking release. Replace list.c with version that can restructure output. Also, change makefile for list and listvar to be two separate files. Increase the INBUFSIZE to be 8192 in order to handle longer field name lines. Change build-env to specify PROGRAM as other for more generic users. Rework the make files for list and listvar.

Contents of jgofs-V1.70.tar - February 5, 2002

outer.c is new version, outerbrev15b.c It fixes a buffer overflow.

Contents of jgofs-V1.6.tar - January 25, 2002

This tar file contains the newest version of HTTCP.c and a special version of the dir CGI script if you want to handle multiple directories (columns), one for each "program" element. To use, make the following changes from your JGOFS root directory: mv src/htmlbin/multi_columns_makefile.aaserv src/htmlbin/makefile.aaserv mv src/htmlbin/multi_columns_dir_pl.tmp src/htmlbin/dir_pl.tmp Also, edit the build-env script according to the instructions in the file.

Contents of jgofs-V1.5a.tar

This tar file contains the JGOFS software as distributed by MIT's Glenn Fleurl (V1.5), but it has the new directory structure, and the make files have been modified to use it. Its outer is outer_brev which permits the optional short data listing to the web site. It has defgb within the ../src subdirectory and all the defgb utility routines are in the library as one would hope. It also has the new jdb.c.

Prior to Releaase V1.5a, the JGOFS software was only available from MIT. The release history for this version of the software follows.

The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Program uses the JGOFS software to serve our diverse data sets via the World Wide Web. This is the same software used by the U.S. JGOFS Program to serve their data. Chris Hammond, my counterpart at the JGOFS program; Glenn Flierl, one of the original developers of the JGOFS software; Warren Sass, a programmer at WHOI; and myself have been working on enhancements to the JGOFS software for many months. The results of these efforts are available in the form of a new release, Version 1.5, of the JGOFS software.

The enhancements made in Version 1.5 include:

a new look to the directory of data objects, including a Help button, listing of the objects before the directory structure, and a pointer to where you are in the directory
the ability for data and field names to "line up" when displayed on your browser. This "width sensitive" feature is available in all standard methods (def, nm, and lm). To take advantage of this feature, the field attribute [width=nn] can be added to the field names within your objects, where nn is the maximum size of the data value, in bytes.
Alternatively, the width of each column can be extended by adding an appropriate number of underscores to the field names. These are stripped off by the software, after they are counted to determine the field width attribute. For example:
```
		field name:  cast
		can be extended to a field width of 6 by either 
			of the following:
		   cast__
		   cast[width=6]
	
```
improved error message reporting
ability for URL's (i.e. clickable links) to appear within the data comments

Several programming bugs are also being addressed in this new release, including better sensing of non-numerical data within a data value and improved handling to data buffers to minimize the risk of "buffer overflows."

While everyone who browses and accesses the data will see the improvements in the look of the directory, it is only those sites who are serving data that need to "do anything" about this release. You can access the new software at the install software page at URL

http://globec.whoi.edu/globec-dir/jgofs-server.html

and follow the instructions on this page. You should know that all of your existing methods will continue to work as is with this new release, but before you recompile any of your methods with the new software, you need to make some changes to your code. Contact the Data Management Office (DMO) for instructions and help when you are ready to recompile and relink your own methods.

A few data serving sites that take advantage of the local "info" feature, will also need to run a utility to convert the contents of their descript.html files into .info files, one for each object name. If you need this script, please contact the DMO.

We plan to prepare new releases of the JGOFS software, approximately every four months. In addition to futher improvements in the methods, we also plan to enhance the data analysis and display functionality in upcoming releases, based on your feedback and suggestions and available funding.

So, if you use data served by the JGOFS software you should see several improvements on how it looks and performs. If you serve data to others via this software, you need to get the new software release and install it on your system. As always, I am available to help you with the installation process. Please contact the Data Management Office when you are ready to install the new software.

Prepared by: Bob Groman
Last modified: September 21, 2003