Introduction

This is an example of wrapping a command-line application for use as a virtual-observatory service. The application for this example is one of the functions of the Starlink STILTS package: converting data tables from one format to another. "Wrapping" the application means making it runnable from inside an AstroGrid application-server.

In this exercise, you set up an AstroGrid application-server for yourself, using the software provided by AstroGrid. The standard instructions for this are available on the AstroGrid software web-site and, after the first stages of installation, from the application-server itself. The standard installation expect you to "fill in the blanks": to provide the configuration specific to your site and to the applications you want to run. The instructions that you are now reading are an annotated, expanded version of the standard set, in which most of the details are filled in for you. In the subsequent pages, the annotations are paragraphs set like this:

These are annotations for the workshop

To do the exercise, work through the pages listed under "Workshop procedure" in the side-bar in the order given. Follow the instructions as you go.