compliance-checker 1.0.0

# IOOS Compliance Checker

The IOOS Compliance Checker is a Python tool to check local/remote datasets against a variety of compliance standards. It is primarily a command-line tool (tested on OSX/Linux) and can also be used as a library import.

It currently supports the following sources and standards:


| Standard | .nc/OPeNDAP | SOS |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| [ACDD (1.1)](http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Attribute_Convention_for_Data_Discovery_%28ACDD%29) | Complete | - |
| IOOS Asset Concept | - | GetCapabilities, DescribeSensor |
| [CF (1.6)](http://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-convetions/cf-conventions-1.6/build/cf-conventions.html) | Complete | - |

### Concepts & Terminology

Each compliance standard is executed by a Check Suite, which functions similar to a Python standard Unit Test. A Check Suite runs one or more checks against a dataset, returning a list of Results which are then aggregated into a summary.

Each Result has a (# passed / # total) score, a weight (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW), a computer-readable name, an optional list of human-readable messages, and optionally a list of child Results.

A single score is then calculated by aggregating on the names, then multiplying the score by the weight and summing them together.

The computer-readable name field controls how Results are aggregated together - in order to prevent the overall score for a Check Suite varying on the number of variables, it is possible to *group* Results together via the name property. Grouped results will only add up to a single top-level entry.

See the [Development](//github.com/ioos/compliance-checker/wiki/Development) wiki page for more details on implementation.

### Usage (command line)

The compliance-checker can work against local files (.nc files, .xml files of SOS GetCapabilities/DescribeSensor requests) or against remote URLs (OPeNDAP data URLs, SOS GetCapabilities/DescribeSensor URLs).

> **WARNING** The CF/ACDD checks **will access data**, so if using a remote OPenDAP URL, please be sure the size is reasonable!

```
$ compliance-checker --help
usage: compliance-checker [-h] [--test {acdd,cf,ioos} [{acdd,cf,ioos} ...]]
[--criteria [{lenient,normal,strict}]] [--verbose]
dataset_location

positional arguments:
dataset_location Defines the location of the dataset to be checked.

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--test {acdd,cf,ioos} [{acdd,cf,ioos} ...], -t {acdd,cf,ioos} [{acdd,cf,ioos} ...], --test= {acdd,cf,ioos} [{acdd,cf,ioos} ...], -t= {acdd,cf,ioos} [{acdd,cf,ioos} ...]
Select the Checks you want to perform. Either all
(default), cf, ioos, or acdd.
--criteria [{lenient,normal,strict}], -c [{lenient,normal,strict}]
Define the criteria for the checks. Either Strict,
Normal, or Lenient. Defaults to Normal.
--verbose, -v Increase output. May be specified up to three times.
```

```
$ compliance-checker --test=acdd test-data/ru07-20130824T170228_rt0.nc
Running Compliance Checker on the dataset from: test-data/ru07-20130824T170228_rt0.nc


-------------------------------------------------------
The dataset scored 95 out of 149 required points
during the acdd check
This test has passed under normal critera
-------------------------------------------------------

$ compliance-checker --test=cf sss20140107.v2.0cap.nc
Running Compliance Checker on the dataset from: sss20140107.v2.0cap.nc


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The dataset scored 12 out of 14 points
during the cf check
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scoring Breakdown:


High Priority
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name :Priority: Score
Variable names :3: 3/3
conventions :3: 0/1
data_types :3: 3/3
dimension_names :3: 3/3
units :3: 0/1


Medium Priority
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name :Priority: Score
all_features_are_same_type :2: 0/0
contiguous_ragged_array :2: 0/0
coordinate_type :2: 2/2
coordinates_and_metadata :2: 0/0
feature_type :2: 0/0
incomplete_multidim_array :2: 0/0
indexed_ragged_array :2: 0/0
missing_data :2: 0/0
orthogonal_multidim_array :2: 0/0
var :2: 1/1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasoning for the failed tests given below:


Name Priority: Score:Reasoning
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
conventions :3: 0/ 1 : Conventions field is not
present
units :3: 0/ 1 :
sss_cap :3: 0/ 1 :
known :3: 0/ 1 : unknown units type (PSU)
```

### Installation

To install locally, set up a virtual environment (recommend using [virtualenv-burrito](https://github.com/brainsik/virtualenv-burrito)):

```
$ mkvirtualenv --no-site-packages compliance-checker
$ workon compliance-checker
```

The Python dependencies require several underlying system packages that most package managers should have. See the [Installation](//github.com/ioos/compliance-checker/wiki/Installation) wiki page for more information.

Install dependencies, numpy must be installed on its own:

```
$ pip install numpy
$ pip install compliance-checker
```

### Usage (from Python code)

```python
from compliance_checker.runner import ComplianceCheckerCheckSuite

cs = ComplianceCheckerCheckSuite()
groups = cs.run(dataset, 'acdd')
scores = groups['acdd']
```

### Development

The compliance-checker is designed to be simple and hackable to edit existing compliance suites or introduce new ones. See the [Development](https://github.com/ioos/compliance-checker/wiki/Development) wiki page for more information.

### Roadmap

- Improved text output (#12)
- UGRID compliance (#33)

### Contributors

- Dave Foster <dfoster@asascience.com>
- Dan Maher <dmaher@asascience.com>
- Luke Campbell <lcampbell@asascience.com>

And many more testers!

Portions of the CF checker are based on Michael Decker's work, http://repositories.iek.fz-juelich.de/hg/CFchecker/