[Index] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Chapter 1: Introduction

• 1.1 Overview
• 1.2 About This Release
• 1.3 Current Features
• 1.3.1 Browsing Features
• 1.3.2 Editing Features
• 1.4 Limitations/Known Problems
• 1.5 System Requirements
• 1.6 Installing HDFView
• 1.7 Further Information

1.1Overview

The HDFView is a Java-based tool for browsing and editing HDF4 and HDF5 files. HDFView allows users to browse through any HDF4 and HDF5 file, starting with a tree view of all top-level objects in an HDF file's hierarchy. HDFView allows a user to descend through the hierarchy and navigate among the file's data objects. The content of a data object is loaded only when the object is selected, providing interactive and efficient access to HDF4 and HDF5 files. HDFView editing features allow a user to create, delete, and modify the value of HDF objects and attributes.

The HDFView graphical user interface (GUI) is simple and easy-to-use. First, HDFView was implemented by using the Java^TM 2 Platform, which is machine-independent. The GUI components have the same look-and-feel for all machines. Second, HDFView uses conventional folders and icons to display groups and datasets in a tree structure. Users can easily expand or collapse folders to navigate the hierarchical structure of an HDF file. Third, HDFView shows data content as text (table or plain text) or as image.

1.2 About This Release

This release includes bug fixes, new features,a test suite, and improved documentation.

HDF libraries

Platforms

32-bit Java 2 SDK

• Linux
• Solaris
• Mac PowerPC
• Mac Intel
• Windows (Vista/XP/2000)

64-bit Java 2 SDK

• Linux x86_64
• Linux ia64
• Solaris 64-bit

New features

• Supports access to remote HDF5 files stored at the iRODS server (Windows and Linux only). For information on HDF5-iRODS module, please visit http://www.hdfgroup.org/projects/irods/index.html.
• Be able to show large dataset (e.g. 1,000,000 x 100); very fast in table viewer
• Convert JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP images to HDF5 or HDF4
• Save HDF4 or HDF5 images to JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP images
• Writes variable length string data
• Supports drag-and-drop files to HDFView
• Filters out fill value from images
• Imports and applies palette from an external file

1.3 Features

This version fixed bugs from previous versions and added a few new and enhanced features. It is a continuous work from the previous versions of HDFView. Some of the major features from previous versions include replaceable I/O and GUI modules, memory leak fixes, enhanced documentation, and test suite.

This version is user-configurable to support HDF4 or HDF5 or both. Users can choose HDFView features to support HDF4 or HDF5 or both when installing HDFView or compiling from the source code.

The following is a list of the browsing and editing features of HDFView. Details of the features are discussed in their related chapters.

1.3.1 Browsing Features

• Plugable GUI modules
  • Tree Viewer
  • Table Viewer
  • Image Viewer
  • Text Viewer
  • Metadata Viewer
  • Palette Viewer
• Supported file formats
  • HDF4
  • HDF5
  • netCDF (read only)
  • FITS (read only)
• Tree view of file structure
  • Displays file hierarchy in a tree and allows users to navigate among the file's data objects
  • Adds options to show dataset as an image, a table or text
  • Allows users to select a subset of dataset to display
  • Shows attributes and other general information of data objects
  • Supports large fonts in GUI components
  • Adds -geometry switch to set the window size and location
• Table view of file content
  • Displays simple compound dataset (simple or nested) in table
  • Allows users to select fields/members of VData/compound dataset to display
  • Shows multi-dimension compound dataset
  • Displays line plot for selected table data
  • Views variable-length datasets
  • Views ENUM dataset
• Image view of file content
  • Supports simple image manipulation: zooming image in/out, flipping image horizontally or vertically
  • Changes image brightness
  • Displays animation of 3-D images
  • Displays histogram for selected image area
  • Modifies palette for index RGB images
  • Supports multiple color tables for HDF5 images
  • Provides slider bar for modifying image threshold range
  • Filters "fill value" in Image Viewer
  • Shows actual palette that results from palette manipulation
  • Supports large number of 8kx8k 3-D images by reuse the memory data buffer
  • Incorporates Mouse Grab/Move to browse an image
• Text view of file content
  • Displays HDF5 user block in text, octal, hex, etc.
  • Provides option to show char dataset as text
  • Shows text attributes and text dataset in selected fonts (type and size)
  • Shows file information, such as file size and total number of datasets

1.3.2 Editing Features

• Adds/deletes/renames datasets and groups
• Edits content of datasets
• Copies/pastes object in the same file or dross files of the same file format
• Exports dataset values to an ASCII text file
• Saves an HDF4/HDF5 image to a JPEG file
• Adds/deletes/modifies attributes
• Converts a JPEG image file into an HDF4/HDF5 file
• Imports data values from a text file
• Adds and modifies user blocks

1.4 Limitations / Known Problems

• HDFView does not support undo operations; all changes will go to the physical file, and the editing results cannot be recovered.
• Deleting object/attribute in HDF4 is not supported.
• HDFView does not support conversion between HDF4 and HDF5.
• HDFView supports only indexed image with RGB color model or 24-bit true color image. It does not support other color models such as CMYK and HSV.
• HDFView cannot modify compressed HDF4 SDS if rank is greater than 2 because the existing compression algorithms supported by HDF do not allow partial modification to a compressed datastream.
• HDFView cannot modify HDF4 vdata. HDF4 only writes vdata by records while hdf-java reads data by vdata fields since hdf-java does not support data structure of vdata record.
• Writing nested compound data of HDF5 is limited to some simple cases. HDFView does not write complex compound data.

1.5 System Requirements

The HDFView is distributed in two forms: No_VM_bundled and VM_bundled. The No_VM_bundled distribution does not contain the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) while the VM_bundled distribution bundles the JRE.

To run HDFView with No_VM_bundled distribution, JDK 1.5+ is required. The HDFView does not compile on JDK 1.4.x or earlier version.

Download Java^TM 2 Platform at:

Java^TM 2 Platform, Standard Edition (Windows, Solaris, Linux)

HDFView uses the HDF4 and HDF5 Java Native Interfaces, which calls the HDF4 and HDF5 library, respectively. These native interfaces are included in the distribution. For more information (source and pre-built) on the HDF4/5 Java Native Interface, see "Java Native Interface for HDF" at http://www.hdfgroup.org/hdf-java-html/JNI/.

1.6 Installing HDFView

The pre-built binaries are available in two forms: No_VM_bundled and VM_bundled.

Java Virtual Machine Required

The No_VM_bundled binary distribution does not contain the Java 2 Runtime Environment. The No_VM_bundled requires JDK1.5.0 or above. Before you install the No_VM_bundled distribution, you must have JDK1.5.0 or above installed on your machine. If you don't have a Java 2 VM, you must download and install one. As all releases of Macintosh OS X include a fully functional Java 2 Virtual Machine, there is no need for a Mac OS X JRE.

Download Java^TM 2 Platform at:

Java^TM 2 Platform, Standard Edition (Windows, Solaris, Linux)

StandAlone Application [JRE Bundled]

JRE1.5.0 is bundled in the VM_bundled distribution. You do not need any aditional software to run HDFView.

To download and install HDFView, you must accept the Java 2 Runtime Environment license agreement. Please read the Java 2 Runtime Environment Binary Code License Agreement before you download the VM_bundled distribution. The installation program will not install HDFView unless you accept the Java 2 Runtime Environment License Agreement.

Install on Unix or MAC OS X

After downloading the installation file, cd to the directory where you downloaded the installer. At the prompt, type
sh ./hdfview-xxx.bin
where xxx is the Unix OS name such as solaris, linux or macosx. The installer will guide you to select the Java Virtual Machine and the HDFView home directory (where you want to install the HDFView).

Install on Windows

The installer will guide you to select the Java Virtual Machine and HDFView home directory (where you want to install the HDFView). After installing, you can launch the HDFView from Start -> Program Files -> NCSA HDFView

1.7 Further Information

General information about HDF (HDF4 and HDF5) is available at http://www.hdfgroup.org/.

Information about the HDFView tool and related products is available at http://www.hdfgroup.org/hdf-java-html/

Questions and feedback may be sent to the HDF Helpdesk.

[Index] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Last Modified:   December 16, 2008