Reduction browser

The leftmost part of the VDAT window is occupied by the Reduction browser. This panel shows the directories that have already been symlinked and reflects the structure described in Redux directory structure.

The figure on the right shows what the directory browser looks like. The directories shown with a light colour cannot be selected. Clicking the arrow or double-clicking on the corresponding name will collapse or expand the branch below them.

The directories shown in dark colours can be selected by the user. Upon clicking, the background of the corresponding entry changes colour and the view in the Main Panel is updated to show the data stored in the selected directory.

The directories below the cal and the zro types show a check box on the left of the name. As described at the end of the Symlinking section, every directory contains a reference to a zro and a cal directory. They are passed by default to the command interpreter, as described in The interpreter. Using the checkboxes it is possible to override these defaults and use a specific set of zro and cal directories, even across different nights. Only one directory per type is checkable at any time and, if no directory is checked, the default is used.

If, when first shown, the elements in the reduction browser exceed the visible area, the directory tree is fully collapsed.

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During the symlinking we store more information than is shown in the reduction browser. This information is accessible via a tooltip, that is displayed when the mouse hovers for a few moments over a directory name. It appears similar to the one in the following image:

The tooltip will have the following entries:

• cal_dir, zero_dir: path to the default reference calibration and zero directories, present only if applicable
• is_clone: if true, mark the directory as cloned; see below for more details
• name: name of the directory
• night: night to which it the directory belongs
• object_: for sci this is the value of the OBJECT header keyword; for cal it should be a combination of the flat and the name of the arc lamps; for zro it is the same as type_; for other types it depends on how they have been symlinked.
• original_type_: file type as encoded in the fits file names
• path: full path to the directory
• redux_dir: full path to the redux directory
• shot: name of the shot or shots that end up in the directory
• timestamp: average time for all the raw files in the directory
• type_: name of the type as it appears in the reduction browser

Warning

the following entries will be removed in future releases:

• ifus
• virtual

The following entries might be modified in future releases:

• is_clone

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When planning VDAT, we envisioned the possibility for people to branch reduction steps for testing purposes. Therefore we added the option to copy or remove a directory.

To do it select a directory and right-click on it; this brings up a menu, like the one on the left, showing one or two entries:

• Clone: copy the selected directory and all the files in it; this entry is available for every directory.
• Remove: remove the selected directory recursively; available only for directories created with the clone command.
• Remove exposure: allow to remove one exposure from the selected directory; available only for directories created with the clone command.

Upon selecting Clone, a new window pops up with a proposed name for the new directory (figure on the right). The user can edit the name and proceed to the creation of the directory with the Clone button or cancel it with the Cancel button. If the named directory already exists, the window appears again, making it impossible to overwrite or mangle existing directories.

When deciding to remove cloned directories, the user will be asked to confirm the decision in order to avoid unwanted deletions. An example of this can be seen in the above figure.