swsrkty's Blog

Blog #2

swsrkty
Published: 06/28/2022

Hi!

My project is to help MSS users automate their atmospheric research flight planning. I aim to build a module to let users download a number of plots in Jupyter notebooks and user scripts in an automated fashion according to the given settings. A CLI tool would also be provided for the same. A hacky, prototype script (retriever.py) already exists which creates plots without involving the MSUI. I'm currently working on understanding and refactoring retriever.py using MSS functions so that I can get started with building the module.

This week I worked on refactoring a part of retriever.py responsible for sending a request to the WMS and getting the plot by using MSS functionalities. First, I used a debugger to find all the functions being called while creating a top view plot using the MSUI. I found the function getmap() to get the plot from WMS and used it in retriever.py. I opened a PR for the same, which my mentors reviewed and gave comments.

Afterwards I looked into the "plotting paths and labels" part. I wasn't able to find the corresponding MSS functions. Me and my mentors had a meet where we discussed the PR and what to be done next. Joern gave some comments on my PR to help me with finding the MSS functions related to "plotting paths and labels". As retriever.py would need to access parts of functions located in different places, I need to refactor the MSS functions first. I aim to use the existing MSS functionalities to the fullest while keeping keep an eye on the tests. The main thing I struggle with is understanding the large codebase since my project involves understanding and refactoring different parts of MSS. Using debug statements and getting comments from my mentors really help.

This week, I'll be looking into the comments on my PR and continue refactoring retriever.py.

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Weekly Check-In #1

swsrkty
Published: 06/21/2022

Hii,

I'm Sreelakshmi Jayarajan, a second year IT undergraduate student at GEC Palakkad. I'm working on a project for automating atmospheric research flight planning at Mission Support System.

What did you do this week?

I wasn't well most of the week, but I spent some time tinkering with different parts of retriever.py and also continued understanding the flow of MSUI using a debugger.

What is coming up next?

I'm going to start refactoring the "top view" part of retriever.py to use MSS functionalities.

Did you get stuck anywhere?

Yep. Although I was able to update and run retriever.py, I wasn't able to make it produce proper plots. Joern helped me with providing an updated version of retriever.py with MSS data, which worked.

I’m really excited to learn more and keep contributing to MSS! Thanks to my mentors, the MSS community, Python Software Foundation and Google for this opportunity!

: )

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