How to install the OpenClimateData app

This app can be installed on a local machine (Linux) or a R shiny-server so that it generates a web solution to present climate station data. It may also be installed on a Windows machine and a Mac, and the easiest way to do so is via GitHub (see how to install Git on Windows or Git for Windows)

To install:

git clone https://github.com/metno/OpenClimateData.git

You can now use the app if you have R-studio installed (e.g. on Windows or Mac) and open either global.R, ui.R or server.R in the main directory OpenClimateData by running the app in R-studio. It's also possible to add your own data by adding netCDF files with station data in OpenClimateData/data with a similar structure and format as the sample data already provided. This may require some lines of R-code and the R-package esd:

> library(esd)
> X <- read.table(<datafile>)
> write2ncdf4(X,file=<filename>)

Here '<...>' means that you replace it with an actual file name such as "myfilename". The filenames of netCDF files have the suffix '.nc' and the app uses a strict name convention: <element>.<source>.nc. Element is in the set ['t2m' ,tmax', 'tmin', 'precip', 'sd', 'pp', 'fx', 'fg', 'dd'], and this set is defined in global.R (it's fairly straight-forward to add your own elements here). Likewise, the source is predefined: ['Africa', 'ecad', 'Australia', 'Asia', 'LatinAmerica', 'USA', 'Pacific', 'metnod',' 'eustance'].

Linux (Ubuntu):

You may have to install some libraries before you can set up this app:

sudo apt-get install -f
sudo apt-get install libnetcdf-dev
sudo apt-get install liblapack-dev

Then to set up on the local machine, try:

sudo OpenClimateData/set-up.sh

Notice that the app is set up to allow google analytics to keeps statistics of the visits to the app if it's run on a server. This is done in the file ui.R, and needs to be changed if run through a web-site (for help on setting up the app on a shiny-server, see tips on setting up a shiny-server).

If everything worked, you should be able to run the app in a test-mode by typing:

./launch.sh

A demo video providing a screencast of the process is available at YouTube (Linux)

How to set up the app together with a shiny server (Ubuntu):

The set-up should now be simplified through one script.

These are the command lines needed to set up the OpenClimateDataPrototype with a shiny-server on Ubuntu:

git clone https://github.com/metno/OpenClimateData.git
sudo ./OpenClimateData/set-up.sh

In addition, there are further steps needed to set up SSL-certificate, i.e. giving thr IP-address a name within DNS protocol.

More help on setting up shiny servers are provided here.