[CF-metadata] Conventions (vs. Community Profiles), and CF-checker

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 15:33:26 +0100

Dear Nan

> The CF compliance checker chokes on a compound conventions
> attribute, like Conventions = "CF-1.4, OceanSITES-1.0" - is this the
> accepted
> method of declaring multiple conventions, or do I need to stick with
> a pristine "CF-1.4" and declare the OceanSITES compliance in a separate
> attribute, perhaps, as Derrick suggested, using a "profile" attribute?

As we have not yet agreed what it would mean, in terms of resolving conflicts
for instance, to list more than one convention in the Conventions attribute,
I think it would be better to stick with "CF-1.4", especially as in this case
you are not adding to CF, just restricting it. Anything else implies a new
syntax which would have to be explained in the standard.

You could record "OceanSITES-1.0" in a CF attribute of unstandardised content,
such as "comment", or propose a new CF attribute like John suggests, or use a
non-CF attribute to identify oceansites data. I suppose it depends partly on
whether you think "OceanSITES-1.0" label has to be interpretable by software or
is just for the benefit of humans inspecting the file.

If we did decide to list conventions in the Conventions attribute, I think
they should be blank-separated, like other lists in CF attributes, rather
than comma-separated.

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Tue Sep 01 2009 - 08:33:26 BST