Installing and Configuring LDDTool

LDDTool is the low-level tool that takes an input XML document and converts it into the various types of structured files used to define, document, and use a local data dictionary in PDS4 labels.

Introduction

A local data dictionary is a set of schema files that define a namespace that is under the control of someone other than the PDS4 managers. It includes the PDS discipline dictionaries for things like display orientation and geometry, as well as node- and mission-specific dictionaries. There are web-based and GUI-based tools in development at various places to help users who prefer to do dictionary development in an web/GUI environment - ask your friendly, neighborhood PDS node consultant what's currently available if that's what you're looking for. These pages are for the roll-your-own crowd that either prefers or has no choice but to work at the command line and see how the sausage is made.

Caveat Usor

Be advised: There is a fair amount of hands-on setup work required to get the LDDTool working in your local environment the way you want it to. And because this is beta-release software, you may well have to repeat this process in new, interesting, and undocumented ways with each new release. We'll try to keep this page updated to reflect the latest version of the tool. Feel free to add additional information about LDDTool versions or OS versions not specifically mentioned here. Contact Anne Raugh at the Small Bodies Node for permission to edit this Wiki if you don't have it already. Thanks!

Goal

Our goal in this set of pages is to start with the LDDTool installation package and end up with the tool installed for general use on the target system. "General use" in this case means you can invoke the tool any directory where you happen to be working with a command line that looks something like this:

    % lddtool -lp <input_file>

Part List

To run the LDDTool locally, you'll need the following:

• The LDDTool ZIP package. Because this software is not officially released, you'll need to get this from your PDS contact. If you don't have a PDS contact, try contacting Anne Raugh at the Small Bodies Node.

• Java 1.6 or later. Type "java -version" at your command line to see what version of Java, if any, you have available. If you don't have Java installed, or want to work with a later version, you'll usually need administrator privileges on your computer to download and install a newer version from the Oracle web site https://java.com/download. Java 1.7 and later includes a handy feature that will help with configuration later on, so if you're still running a (relatively) ancient version, you now have one more reason to upgrade.

• A text editor that can handle simple text files for batch processing without filling them up with stupid control characters. On linux-based systems, things like vi, pico, or gedit will work; from the Windows DOS command line, you can use the edit command on older systems (pre-Windows7), or Notepad (which can be invoked from the command line) on newer ones.

• An XML editor, while optional, will make editing the output schema files easier, and you'll probably want one for creating the input file anyway. A schema-aware editor like Eclipse (open source) or oXygen (commercial) can be very handy for one-off file creation and editing. For the minor fix-up editing needed in the LDDTool output schemas, though, you can use the same simple text editor you used to edit the batch file or command wrapper.

General Procedure

Here's the general procedure for setting up the tool:

1. Unzip the LDDTool package.
2. Move the directories you actually need to run the tool to a central location.
3. Edit the wrapper script for the local environment.
4. Install the wrapper script in a central location.
5. Make sure the wrapper script is in the user's path.
6. Test the installation with the supplied sample files.
7. Rejoice in the knowledge of a job well done.