Overview Talks: Abstracts

1. Science with AstroGrid

This talk will explore the key science drivers which have been used to define the construction of AstroGrid, and AstroGrid in turn will be able to help astronomers carry out a wide range of analysis tasks. Detail will be given of specific topical science that can be better addressed with the help of AstroGrid and the virtual observatories.

2. AstroGrid Infrastructure

This talk will give a brief introduction to the AstroGrid components and explain how they interoperate with each other and other VO compliant services to provide a working Virtual Observatory infrastructure.

3. Using the portal: a gentle introduction

This presentation will give a brief overview of the features and functions available to the astronomer through the AstroGrid portal. Use of this to access key AstroGrid features such as querying of resources, creating workflows, checking on the status of jobs, accessing help and information, and initiating a range of 'helper applications' will be covered.

4. Introduction to the query builder

This talk will describe how the AstroGrid query builder can be used to construct simple and complex queries of a variety of database held information. The use of the emerging Astrophysical Data Query Language (ADQL), which is based on SQL92, will be described.

5. Introduction to the workflow builder

The concept of workflow will be introduced. I will show how to build a simple workflow that executes the query generated in the previous section and returns the results for inspection. An example workflow that queries a database of images and retrieves them will also be shown.

6. Solar and STP, specific issues

An update on the current solar/STP datasets and applications available via the AstroGrid portal will be given. The talk will also describe several studies in the solar and STP areas that are currently being developed as AstroGrid workflows. Issues related to the handling of time series data will be discussed.

7. Practical Experience with PHP and Perl to access Webservices

This talk will describe recent experience with the use of PHP to access web services provided by the VO. An example showing how CDS webservices can be addressed using PHP and Perl.

8. Introduction to Publishing Applications

Astrogrid uses a framework for publishing applications called the Common Execution Architecture (CEA). The design of this framework will be described and a demonstation will be given to show how easy it is to publish a legacy command-line application as a web service using the framework.

9. Introduction to scripting with Astrogrid

Some advanced workflows may require control-flow operations: repeated-, conditional- and parallel-execution of CEA applications.

In some cases, it is necessary to inspect the intermediate results from one step to determine how to proceed. In other situations, the input to a step is a subset or transformation of the intermediate results produced by a previous step.

The Astrogrid workflow language contains control-flow constructs and embedded scripting that can be used in these circumstances. I will show a selection of real-world examples of their use.

10. Overview of Client applications for Astrogrid

AstroGrid uses Java Webstart to provide sophisticated tools such as TOPCAT (see docs) and Aladin (for table manipulations, visualisation, image manipulation and access to the SIMBAD and Vizier databases). These tools have been adapted to allow exchange of data with AstroGrid applications via MySpace.

11. AstroGrid services throught the Workbench

We're developing an easy-to-use desktop application to interact with remote AstroGrid services. This talk will run through how to start the Workbench and use it to: access myspace; launch cea applications; monitor running jobs; launch parameterized workflows; and browse the registry. Finally, I'll sketch how the workbench can be used to integrate AstroGrid services with your own preferred desktop tools.

---

-- NicholasWalton - 08 Jul 2005