compliance-checker ugrid plugin

[ocefpaf]

Project Description:

IOOS developed a UGRID checks plugin for compliance-checker and recently the UK Met Office developed a similar tool, ugrid-checks.

The project would be more of a discussion on how to integrate the two efforts. One solution would be to halt the ugrid plugin development in lieu for the newer ugrid-checks. The Software challenge here the different nature of both Software where one is a plugin and the other stand-alone. Deprecating the plugin would cause some friction to its current users.

Expected Outcomes:

A unified ugrid checker that, hopefully, works with compliance-checker.

Skills required:

Familiarity with either package code base and knowledge of the ugrid standards.

Difficulty:

Low. While hacking on the code and fixing the problem would be nice the main goal is to write a roadmap for the ugrid checker.

Topic Lead(s):

Ping here @bjlittle and @pp-mo from the UK Met Office hoping they can participate and @benjwadams who is the lead on the compliance-checker track.

Relevant links:

All inline above.

[pp-mo]

@ocefpaf just to say, many thanks for making a start on this.
A bit of a placeholder, as I was only just made aware of this, and haven't yet had time to compare in detail.
But I am definitely on board + will post some opinions shortly ...

[pp-mo]

Hi @ocefpaf

I'd be interested to know how we/I might contribute to next week's sprint?

Since it's getting rather late now (!), I ought to feedback on what I've been considering here regarding the relationship between cc-plugin-ugrid and ugrid-checks ...

I have tried to gain an overview understanding of the IOOS checker framework, and I've taken a close look at the existing cc-ugrid-plugin general, and compared the scope of the actual checks it implements with those here.

For ref, my slightly random observations-so-far, noted here.

I have also been considering what it would take to make the ugrid-checks code work within the context of an ioos plugin.
Still work-in-progress on that, but some quick ideas :

1. ioos applies a 3-step "severity level" for tests, whereas ugrid-checks uses only 2 (~ error/warning).
   No big problem with that
2. ioos expects a test to identify checks which were run ok, as well as checks that failed
3. ideally, an ioos test will return a composite result listing multiple of checks-run and passed/failed
4. where a test is re-run in a different context (e.g. applied to a different variable of the same role), ioos expects to generate a result that summarises N-passed / N-checked.

In short, I've been drafting some code changes that might help us bridge this function gap, and potentially may even improve the code structure in the ugrid-checks repo.

.. FYI, in haste, more to follow (will re-edit this later) ..

[pp-mo]

Quick update :

I have posted a quick note on a problem I uncovered in the main cf-checker.
I think I could provide some similar observations on fixes to the cc-ugrid-plugin, if useful ? (various problems spotted, as noted above)

In the meantime, as I just wrote on the ugrid-checks isuue matching this ...

Regarding possible use of the ugrid-checks code

I have already created a proof-of-concept solution (incomplete, and not yet visible here) to provide checking results in a suitable form for inclusion in an IOOS-style Report object.
So, if anyone is interested, I think we could collaborate on creating an ioos plugin to integrate ugrid-checks via such an interface.
It makes sense to me, that we would want the plugin in its own project/repo. But of course, the sprint may simply not be a very good time, since the time difference can be a bit of an obstacle.
Also, I still remain to be convinced that this is particularly wanted -- but the interfacing problem did pique my interest !