UKIDSS Access on AstroGrid

This document highlights how current UKIDSS users can access the UKIDSS DR1 database through the AstroGrid Workbench. Since the UKIDSS data has restricted access the DSA hosting this data has been secured, and can only be accessed by accounts in the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community. All users who have already registered for access to UKIDSS have an account on this AstroGrid community. In order to query the UKIDSS database from the workbench please follow the instructions provided below, and if you run into any trouble see the "Problems / Help" section below.

UKIDSS Community Accounts

Access to the UKIDSS DSA is only allowed for accounts in the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community (no other AstroGrid accounts can be granted access at this time). Anyone who has already registered for web access to UKIDSS data has an account on the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community, with the same username and password. If your previous password for UKIDSS access was shorter than 7 characters it has been modified to meet security standards!!! All passwords shorter than 7 characters have had the following text added to the end of them: WFAU

• Example:
  • Previous password = 2small
  • New Password = 2smallWFAU

In order to change your password go to http://hempriggs.roe.ac.uk/ukidss-community/ and click on the "Change Password" link in the left menu. Enter your username, current password, and new password and click the button.

Accessing the DSA

In order to access the DSA you must be running the latest version of the AstroGrid Workbench. All previous versions will not work because they do not have the necessary classes for logging onto the secured community server. The latest version of the workbench can be downloaded here: http://www.astrogrid.org/desktop

• Once you have downloaded the new version of the Workbench simply logon to the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community, and open your Task Launcher. In the Task Launcher search for 'ukidss' and the only result returned will be the secure DSA.
• Click on the service and select either the 'ADQL' or 'Cone Search' interface.
• !IMPORTANT!: Before youn can submit the query you must click on the 'Security' tab and click the check box labeled "Identify yourself to the application server." If you do not do this before running the query you will get an error.
• Use the Query Builder or Cone Search interface to enter your parameters and execute your query.

WSA/UKIDSS Information

The WSA is maintained by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit at the University of Edinburgh, and the official website for the project is: http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa/index.html. To go directly to information about the tables and data contained in the database take a look at: http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa/dboverview.html.

Users unfmailiar with submitting queries to a relational database should visit http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa/sqlcookbook.html for information on how to construct and submit SQL queries. It should be noted that the AstroGrid Query Builder uses ADQl, not SQL, so any SQL queries will need to be translated into ADQL before they can be submitted through the DSA (we are currently working on example ADQL queries and will provide them in the near future). If you are unfamiliar with ADQl you can use the Query Builder on the Astrogrid Workbench to construct queries in an SQL-like manner. Information on the ADQL specification can be found here: http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaVOQL

Problems / Help

Problem - You get the following error when submitting a query:

Solution - This means either you have not logged into the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community, or you did not select the check box under the 'Security' tab (see the note about this above, under the "Accessing the DSA" heading).

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Problem - You are unable to login to the ukidss.roe.ac.uk community

Solution - Make sure you are using the exact username you registered with for web access to UKIDSS. If your previous password to UKIDSS web access was shorter than 7 characters then add the following to the end of it: WFAU (see note and example above, under the "UKIDSS Community Accounts" heading)

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Problem - You can logon, and find the UKIDSS DSA, but you are unable to check the check box under the security tab (or you don't see a check box at all), and consequently you get the error message seen above when submitting a query.

Solution - You are not running the latest version of the AstroGrid Workbench. Go to http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/AstroRuntime and download the latest version of the Workbench in order to access the UKIDSS DSA.

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For any other problems or questions contact Mark Holliman at mshATroe.ac.uk