General information about guild
The LIGO Data Analysis System (LDAS) uses commercial database software to provide core database functions, with LIGO software layers on top to manage database access from remote computers, do format translations, etc. The IBM DB2 "Universal Database" has been selected for the underlying database software, at least for the forseeable future. This is a relational database which uses the SQL query language to insert and retrieve information. All information is stored in "tables", each with a fixed number of pre-defined columns and a variable number of rows which represent database entries.
SQL is very flexible but somewhat arcane; therefore, a major goal of this graphical user interface is to provide a more intuitive means of accessing the contents of the database, through dialog windows and point-and-click operations.
Access to the database requires an LDAS username and password (NOT the same as any of your Unix usernames/passwords) to be entered before the first query can be executed. You will be prompted for these.
Besides direct database access, guild can display the contents of files generated by past database queries, or by user analysis programs (even if data is stored in non-standard tables). Just choose "Open File" from the File menu. It can also display the contents of files retrieved from web servers, by choosing "Open URL" from the File menu.
Guild also provides an interface to retrieve frame data from the LDAS systems running at the interferometer sites. However, it does not attempt to display the data; it just writes it to disk.
Finally, guild provides a few miscellaneous utility functions, including a graphical interface to launch any LDAS user command, and a time converter which translates between GPS, UTC, and local time.
Bug reports, comments and suggestions may be directed to Peter Shawhan (shawhan_p@ligo.caltech.edu).
Some additional information about guild, including a "Getting Started" guide, may be found at http://ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu/ligotools/guild
General information about LDAS may be found at http://ldas-sw.ligo.caltech.edu