Web bot to automate retrieval from a mass storage system
$100-250 USD
Maksettu toimituksen yhteydessä
This is a project that will need to be Delphi 5 compatible and not have any third-party class library dependencies except as specifically outlined as part of the Coder's bid.
Programmer will develop a bot that will help Search, Submit, and download image sets from the NOAA CLASS site at [url removed, login to view] using a user-defined shopping list. This will eliminate the need to tediously request scientific datasets by hand and spend time monitoring jobs. This application will be for private inhouse use only. The Search, Submit, and monitoring process is rather straightforward but requires an application that can interpret and interact with HTML pages and forms.
## Deliverables
The bot must specifically do the following:
1. Log in with a username and password.
2. Submit a search. The manual search page is found at "Please Select A Product To Search > GOES Satellite Data - Imager GVAR_IMG" and all the elements are static (they are fixed choices). This coding request does not need to work with other products on the site, only GVAR_IMG.
I recommend the bot ingest a text file to accomplish this search submission, with one row defining all of the search elements for one search, such as:
53.0 26.0 -140.0 -60.0 2007-12-09 00:00:00 2007-12-10 02:59:59 2 XXX XX XXXXX
where the first eight fields are location and dates, the "2" indicates to select the second option for "Specify the range of the times", XXX selects the first 3 of the 14 choices for "Coverage", X X selects the first and third elements of the 4 Satellite Schedule choices, and XXXXX selects all five of the Satellite choices. This is all the information needed to do one search.
3. When the Search request is made, another browser window pops up. The bot will perform a "Select All" from the Search Results.
4. Go to the Shopping Cart and set the "Digital Signature", "Geog Subset", "Output Format", "Bits/Pixel", "Spatial Resolution" for VIS and IR, "Bands", and "Map Overlay" for all rows. This is all the same for one work order, so the entire job can be predefined by one row in the shopping list, such as:
N N GIF 8 1 1 125 Y
to mark the desired choices.
5. Submit the job and note the order number.
6. Proceed to Order Status and monitor the order and await its completion (takes about 2 minutes to several hours depending on job size). You will need to refresh the listing every few minutes to avoid the account timing out and having to log back in.
7. Download each of the resulting images, saving them locally on the hard drive.
The application must have a detailed status panel showing what it is doing at all times and illustrating the interaction that is taking place with the CLASS site (via a browser window, a simple memo box showing key information from the latest HTML page, or status messages) so that it is possible to tell whether the application is stalled. The application will also have an abort button and exit button.
The application must also be capable of submitting and monitoring multiple orders. It will be aware of which jobs are still pending, even if the application is closed prematurely, and download those jobs when they are ready.
CLASS is a free system and you may obtain a username and password at the Register page. This is required in order to submit any jobs. Please test with retrieving only one or two images at a time to keep the load on their system low.
DELIVERABLES MUST INCLUDE:
1) Complete and fully-functional working program(s) in executable form as well as complete source code of all work done.
2) All deliverables will be considered "work made for hire" under U.S. Copyright law. Buyer will receive exclusive and complete copyrights to all work purchased. (No GPL, GNU, 3rd party components, etc. unless all copyright ramifications are explained AND AGREED TO by the buyer on the site per the coder's Seller Legal Agreement).
## Platform
We run Delphi 5 and Windows 2000.
Projektin tunnus: #3547659
