MDL AWIPSII Training Resource Page

This page is intended to gather AWIPS II resources in order to facilitate MDL training. It includes listings of basic AWIPS II training topics, and some documents appropriated from other development groups. At a minimum, this page should provide enough information to fulfill prerequisites for viewing the Raytheon training modules (see below). If you know of training resources not listed here that may be useful, please forward them along. This page will be updated frequently.

Currently (Dec 2009), NWS has received delivery of Task Order 9, which contains MDL's AVNFPS (as well as Time of Arrival from TO8) Our other apps arrive in TO11. The task orders are delivered roughly once every six months.

Updates:

• Jan. 29, 2009 – added link to the AWIPS Migration Developer Collaboration Portal Website .
• Dec. 31, 2008 – added TO9 documentation; replaced Mule references with Camel.
• July 30, 2008 – added a C++ to Java training link (courtesy of Ken Sperow);
• July 29, 2008 – added a document from Ken in the MDL Documents section ("Using Eclipse to Debug CAVE");
• July 27 2008 – added "Suggested Training Approach"
• July 18, 2008 – added additional Python resources (courtesy Eric Bruning of NESDIS)
• June 10, 2008 – added info for Spring & Hibernate, plus an MDL document section.
• July 2, 2008 – added instructions for signing up for awips2dev listserver under General Info.

 

Suggested Training Approach

Training for AWIPS II can be a daunting task; there are many topics to learn.
All the training topics , however, are not equal in importance.  A practical approach (patterned after OHD's strategy) is to:

1. Learn Java at an introductory level (by Learning Center or book), enough so you recognize differences and similarities with C++.
2. Take Eclipse training to get a feel for the interface.
3. Take some lessons in XML, if you haven't already (the Learning Center development plan has some linked).
4. Review the AWIPS TRG document, (and also, optionally, some audio/visual files of the in-person Raytheon briefings, found on SEC's web site.
5. Sign up for the awips2dev list server (see instructions below in AWIPS II - General Info Section).

 

These steps address fundamental AWIPS II skills.  The other training topics – Apache Camel, Hibernate, Spring, Python, etc., -- are important, but the steps above will give you enough of an overview that you can begin examining and experimenting with AWIPS II code.

 

AWIPS II – General Info

• The main NWS AWIPS II/ AWIPS Technology Infusion page is: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ost/SEC/AE/
  You’ll find links to background information, training and testing materials, exercises, etc.   Of particular interest on this site is:

·        The training page at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ost/SEC/AE/Training.htm .  It contains exercises and videos on various topics, including….

·        The primary training document from Raytheon:   http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ost/SEC/AE/SA_Training/AWP.TRG.SWCTRTO8.ADE-CAVE_All.pdf
It was initially presented a few task orders ago, and has been appended to since, most recently for TO8. The PDF file consists of twelve training modules. Some of the materials may be outdated (e.g., JavaScript references), but it’s still an authoritative technical/development guide to AWIPS II.

·        The Raytheon TO9 outbrief, which serves as an addendum to the main training document listed above: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ost/SEC/AE/Training/outbrief.to9.ppt.  Task Order 9 changes are detailed, and the thirteenth and fourteenth training modules are added to the previous twelve.

• The NWS Training Center Matrix (whoa) is probably the most extensive collection of AWIPS II training materials:
  http://www.nwstc.noaa.gov/AWIPS/ADE/ADE_resources.htm
  Some of the links on this MDL page were found through the NWSTC page.

• The NWSTC also has an AWIPS II definitions page at:
  http://www.nwstc.noaa.gov/AWIPS/ADE/ADE_terms.html
  It’s a good reference to have handy if you find an unfamiliar term in the Raytheon training modules.

• The instructions for signing up for the awips2dev list server (every AWIPS-II developer should do this) are as follows:

1. Go to http://infolist.nws.noaa.gov/read/login/ .
2. Select "all forums".
3. Scroll down to the "awips2dev" list, and click "subscribe" on the right column.
4. Enter your email address, name, and password.

Your membership will be approved by the list administrator, and then once approved, you can send, view, and receive messages.

• Follow GSD training and testing activities on their excellent AWIPS-II page: http://fxa.noaa.gov/AWIPSII/index.html

 

 

DOC/NOAA/NWS Learning Center Development Plan

Members of the Decision Assistance Branch have been registered for the Learning Center site (https://doc.learn.com/noaa/nws). You can find a development plan under your Training section. A development plan basically a collection of courses assigned to a “pending list” of a group of people – in this case, the MDL Decision Assistance Branch. The plan is updated as new AWIPS II-related courses are made available. The development plan currently includes courses on Java, XML, and Service-Oriented Architecture. The best thing about these courses is that they are highly interactive, with opportunities to take quizzes and write in answers. The worst part is that the response may be slow. Developers who already know the covered topics, or who are training with other resources, are of course free to test their knowledge with the course exams.

 

Fundamental Language Resources:

Java: 

• http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/
• “Head First Java, 2nd Edition”; Authors: Sierra & Bates (O’Reilly Media 2005). Most or all of us already have this book.
• NOAA ESRL “Java Zone” PowerPoint presentations:
  http://www-ad.fsl.noaa.gov/ac/javazone/ClassMaterial.html
• Learning Center development plan courses ( https://doc.learn.com/noaa/nws/ )
• " IBM training for C++ programmers transitioning to Java: https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/j-javac-cpp/index.html
• NOTE:  AWIPS-II is using the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), not other widget libraries like AWT or Swing.

 

XML:

• The Sun tutorial is well thought of, but I can’t seem to find it when I click this link: http://java.sun.com/xml/tutorial_intro.html
• http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp
• http://www.devshed.com/c/b/XML/
• http://www.xml.com/pub/a/98/10/guide0.html
• Learning Center development plan courses https://doc.learn.com/noaa/nws/

 

Python (replacing JavaScript for micro-engine scripting):

• Official site tutorial: http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html
• Python library reference: http://docs.python.org/lib/lib.html
• Another tutorial site: http://www.diveintopython.org/
• Python best-practices site: http://www.swc.scipy.org/
• Book: Learning Python, 3 rd Ed. (O'Reilly) ISBN-13: 9780596513986
• Book: Python Pocket Reference (O’Reilly) ISBN-13: 9780596009403

 

Development Tools:

 Eclipse (the main development interface)  

• Eclipse can be downloaded, along with tutorials, from www.eclipse.org. (note that Raytheon AWIPS deliveries also include Eclipse).
• The SourceForge video tutorial collection (6 tutorials, ~15 minutes apiece) is a good resource that seamlessly blends Java IDE work with….a bluegrass guitar riff (no, I didn’t see that coming either):
• http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/
• Also useful for a quick reference is the “Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide”, from O’Reilly.
• NOAA ESRL’s “Java Zone” page has a brief tutorial at:
• http://www-ad.fsl.noaa.gov/ac/javazone/material/03-JavaIDEs.ppt

 

Ant (XML-based Java build tool, analogous to “make”, that can be used in conjunction with Eclipse.)  

• Main page: http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html
• NOAA ESRL Ant Powerpoint:

http://www-ad.fsl.noaa.gov/ac/javazone/material/06a-Ant%20Intro.ppt

 

Hibernate (Java-based development tool, particularly helpful when using Java to interact with the relational database.)

• Tutorial: http://www.visualbuilder.com/java/hibernate/tutorial/
• Home page: http://www.hibernate.org/

 

Service-Oriented Architecture

General SOA Overviews (read first before reading “Camel” documentation)

• An approachable explanation of SOA concepts: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/09/30/soa.html
• Learning Center development plan course on web services and SOA ( https://doc.learn.com/noaa/nws/ ).   Not quite on point, but still worthwhile (the “SOA in AWIPS-II” course was removed in December ’08 because its information had become outdated)

 

Camel

• SOA is made possible with the use of an Enterprise Service Bus. The ESB in AWIPS II is Apache Camel:  http://activemq.apache.org/camel  It replaces the Mule ESB.  For a discussion on Camel versus Mule, see http://activemq.apache.org/camel/how-does-camel-compare-to-mule.html

 

Spring (Development tool used in AWIPS II to aid in communication with Camel)

• Camel & Spring: http://activemq.apache.org/camel/tutorial-jmsremoting.html
• General Spring Info:http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=IntrotoSpring25

 

Data Storage

• HDF5 – taking the role of NetCDF for storing large amounts gridded data: http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/index.html

 

MDL Documents

Testing

• TO8-2001 – Time of Arrival
• TO8-2002 – Station Plot Model AWIPS II vs. AWIPS I Regression

 

Training

• AWIPS II: Building EDEX and CAVE Software inside of Eclipse in TO9 (Ken Sperow)
• "Using Eclipse to Debug CAVE" (Ken Sperow)