mssautoplot - A CLI tool for automation
=======================================

A CLI tool which enables users to download a set of plots according to the given configuration. The configuration for downloading the plots is located in "mssautoplot.json". In this file you can specify the default settings.
 
How to use
----------

The CLI tool has the following parameters:

+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Parameter    | Type  |         Description                                                  |
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--cpath``  | TEXT  |   Path of the config file where the configuration is specified.      |
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--ftrack`` | TEXT  |   Flight track.                                                      |
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--itime``  | TEXT  |   Initial time.                                                      |   
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--vtime``  | TEXT  |   Valid time.                                                        |   
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--intv``   |INTEGER|   Time interval in hours.                                            |  
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--stime``  | TEXT  |   Starting time for downloading multiple plots with a fixed interval.|
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ``--etime``  | TEXT  |   Ending time for downloading multiple plots with a fixed interval.  |
+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

A short description of how to start the program is given by the ``--help`` option.

Examples 
~~~~~~~~

Here are a few examples on how to use this tool,

1. ``mssautoplot --cpath mssautoplot.json``

The above command downloads the required number of plots with the default settings from mss_autoplot.json into the output folder.

2. ``mssautoplot --cpath mssautoplot.json --itime="" --vtime="2019-09-02T00:00:00"``

The above command will download all the plots configured in mss_autoplot.json of initial time "" and valid time "2019-09-02T00:00:00". This can be used to create a daily "standard set" of plots with/without an actual flight track, e.g., for daily morning briefings

For downloading plots of multiple flight tracks, specify the flight track and it's configuration in mss_autoplot.json. This can be used to create a "standard set" of plots for all actual flights of a campaign. See below:

"automated_plotting_flights": [
           ["flight1", "section1", "vertical1", "filename1", "init_time1", "time1"]
           ["flight2", "section2, "vertical2", "filename2", "init_time2", "time2"]]

3. ``mssautoplot --cpath mssautoplot.json --stime="2019-09-01T00:00:00" --etime="2019-09-02T00:00:00" --intv=6``

The above command will download plots of the with/without flight track from start time "2019-09-01T00:00:00" to end time "2019-09-02T00:00:00". The user would need to compulsorily specify the init_time and time in mss_autoplot.json inorder to use this functionality.


Settings file
--------------

This file includes configuration settings to generate plots in automated fashion. It includes,

 - View
 - URL of the WMS server
 - URL of mscolab server
 - List of layers to be plotted
 - Style
 - Elevation
 - List of initial time and forecast hours
 - List of flight paths
 - List of operations (from MSCOLAB)
 - Level
 - Map section
 - Resolution of the plot
 - Path of output folder


If you don't have a mss_autoplot.json then default configuration is in place.

Store this mss_autoplot.json in a path, e.g. “$HOME/.config/msui”

**/$HOME/.config/msui/mssautoplot.json**

.. literalinclude:: samples/config/msui/mssautoplot.json.sample