Error importing Dasch data

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Mon, 03/26/2018 - 17:44

Dear friends, I have a problem when I want to import Dasch data via Dasch plugin into Vstar. It does not matter if you want to import via files or URL. The message java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string --- appears.

I use the exported data "A" with the extension "db". VStar 2.19.0 runs on a computer running Mint Linux 18.3.

Does anyone have a tip for me? I find Vstar extremely good and interesting.

Best regards

Thomas

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Error importing Dasch data

Hi Thomas

I'm sorry you are having this problem. Can you give me a specific example of a A .db file you have seen this error with? This will provide a concrete example for me to try to reprdoduce the error.

David

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Problem with DASCH

Hello David, Thank you for your quick response. I'm uploading a zipped DASCH "A" record by RR Leo. I have seen the problem on a Linux mint machine and on a Win10 computer.

Thank you for your work! I'm really looking forward to working with VStar!

Thomas
 

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Found the bug

Hi Thomas

I have found the bug in the DASCH plugin. I've attached a zip with the jar file. Can you copy the jar file to your vstar_plugins directory and try this for me please?

Either the A .db format has changed or only some A .db files have dashes (-) under each column token of the header.

Also, I had trouble getting any DASCH search results tonight. Can you give me an example of one or more successful searches?

Paul York wrote the plugin and did a fine job. Testing at the time was fine. It would be good to do some broader testing again now, given this bug.

David

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Problem

Hello David, thank you very much for your great work!

I immediately installed your plugin in vstars_plugin. When restarting Vstar, the plugin was unfortunately not recognized and the plugin manager did not open. The following message appears in succession: "Error reading remote plug-in information" and "Plugin Manager: Initialising Plugin Man ...".

I am very interested in working with Vstar and Data Mining and will therefore be very happy to help testing the other plugins as well.

Best regards

Thomas

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Problem

Hi Thomas

That's odd re: the plugin manager not opening. Network problem at the time perhaps?

However, adding the plugin jar file to the vstar_plugins dir should mean that when you next start VStar, the new plugin will be available for use without using the plugin manager.

Can you try this?

  • Close VStar
  • Delete the existing DASCH jar file from your vstar_plugins directory
  • Copy the new DASCH jar I sent you into your vstar_plugins directory
  • Open VStar
  • See if DASCH is in the File menu, and if so, see if it works now

The plugin manager is just there as an alternative to manual manipulation of plugin jar files and any dependent jar files (none in this case). 

David

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Some DASCH-Files

Dear David, I'll send you some files for testing. Of course I will help with testing.

Greetings to Easter

Thomas

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Some DASCH-Files

Hi Thomas

Thanks for that.

All the Dasch files in that zip load, e.g. see the one attached.

Can you give me an example screenshot of the search you entered on the DASCH search page to get one of these files?

I couldn't get a search to work yesterday and wanted to see whether the process has changed and doco needs to be updated.

David

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Plug in works fine

Hi David,

everything works fine now. I'm sorry that I first copied your plugin into a wrong vstar-plugin directory that I created.

I'm sending you some screen shots from DASCH's website. You can see that everything is still as described in the tutorial (https://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/vstar-plugins/vstar-plugins-d…).

Thank you and best regards

Thomas

Affiliation
Astronomical Society of South Australia (ASSAU)
Screenshots

Awesome. Thanks Thomas.

Let us know if you have any further questions or want to chat about using VStar in your work.

I'll ask Sara to get the bug fixed DASCH plugin into the central plugin repository as well.

Thanks for the screenshots too. I was not waiting long enough for the dataset to become available.

As an aside, if you don't want to download the file and load it you can just paste the URL to the file from the browser into VStar via the Request URL button in the file chooser dialog.

David