ISTP CDF Skeleton Editor

Application screen capture

The SKTEditor is a simple graphical user interface (GUI) application for creating and editing International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP)/Interagency Consultative Group (IACG) guideline compliant skeleton Common Data Format (CDF) files.

Installation

The following Windows and MacOS installers do not require installing Java or CDF first. And they do not require administrative privileges.

Windows: skteditor-1.3.6.msi
MacOS (Intel): skteditor-1.3.5.dmg
MacOS (M1/2): skteditor-aarch64-1.3.6.dmg
Linux/other: follow the Web Start or Manual Installation instructions.

Web Start Use

To use this application, you must hava Java and IcedTea (Web Start) installed on your computer. For more information, refer to these instructions before proceeding.

On a macOS computer, starting this application typically involves the following:

Download the skteditor.jnlp file.
Locate the skteditor.jnlp file using your browser’s “Show downloads” function.
Choose the “Show in Finder” option next to the skteditor.jnlp file.
From the Finder, control-click the skteditor.jnlp file and choose to Open With > Java Web Start. This will usually result in the following dialog.

unidentified developer dialog

Choose `Open` to continue.

Next, you are likely to see the following dialog.

unidentified developer dialog

6. After choosing `Allow`, the application should start.

Notes

.skt and .nc files: In order to read and write CDF skeleton files (extension .skt) and netCDF (extension .nc) files, you must first install CDF. This is not necessary to simply read/write CDF files. A full installation of netCDF is not necessary. Linux users will have to also install the cdf-to-netCDF and netCDF-to-cdf programs from the CDF Data Format Translation Tools into their $CDF_BIN directory.
CDF: An installation of CDF is not required to use this editor from the above button to read/write CDF files. It is only required to also be able to read/write .skt and .nc files.
Java 11 or higher: To launch the application with WebStart (skteditor.jnlp file), you will likely need to ensure that the IcedTea software is installed. Refer to these instructions. To run the editor without WebStart, follow the “traditional” installation instructions.
Small Window/Text on Linux: If the SKTEditor window and text appears small on a Linux computer with a high-DPI display (for example, a 4K monitor), try starting it by doing $ GDK_SCALE=2 javaws https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/skteditor/skteditor.jnlp as a workaround. Although JEP 263 is suppose to correct this problem in Java 11, it has been observered to still exist on Linux and Java 11.
Windows 10: This application functions on Windows 10. More information about Java on Windows is available at the following pages:
- Windows 10 and Java.
Chrome/Microsoft Edge: After selecting the Launch Application button, Downloads may show skteditor.jnlp was blocked because this type of file can harm your device. To overcome this select .../More actions for the skteditor.jnlp file and choose keep. Then select Open file.

Manual Installation

Instead of launching the application from the above button, the application may be installed by following the Manual Installation Instructions.

Command-line CDF Checkers

The SKTEditor GUI application contains two separate CDF standard checking functions. The first checks a CDF for compliance with the ISTP/SPDF guidelines. The second checks a CDF for compliance with project-specific guidelines (e.g., MMS Mission CDF File Format and Units of Measure Guides). This CDF checking software can also be run from a CLI (in addition to running it from within SKTEditor). An advantage to running the software from a CLI is to automate the checking of many files. Follow these instructions for installing and running the checkers from a CLI.

Uninstall

This application may be uninstalled by following the Uninstall Instructions.

License

The ISTP CDF Skeleton Editor is a software application that is made available under the terms of the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA).

The latest source code / SHA-256 is available for download.

Feedback

Comments and questions about this application are welcome. Please use this e-mail address to send your comments, question, or problem reports.