(potentially) Frequently Asked Questions

Please see Getting started for possible answers to questions not covered here.

`icoscp_core` is very different from the old `icoscp`, do I have to rewrite everything?

No, your code depending on the older version will continue working. Apart from moving stilt-related functionality to a new dedicated library and overhauling authentication that was present in later versions of 0.1.x series, no code got removed from icoscp with release 0.2.0. But you should use the new icoscp_core features for new developments, and can benefit from gradual porting of at least some of your older code to using icoscp_core.

How can I retrieve the latest/newest version of a dataset?

from icoscp_core.icos import meta
dobj = meta.get_dobj_meta('https://meta.icos-cp.eu/objects/lNJPHqvsMuTAh-3DOvJejgYc')

latest_version_uri = dobj.latestVersion

Please note that latest_version_uri can be either a URI, or a list of URIs, because in ICOS metadata it is possible for a number of objects to collectively deprecate a single one.

How to obtain ICOS station class of a station?

from icoscp_core.icos import station_class_lookup
station_uri = 'http://meta.icos-cp.eu/resources/stations/AS_HTM'
station_class = station_class_lookup().get(station_uri)

station_class_lookup method caches its output, so it is fast to call it repeatedly.

How do I suppress warnings?

Internally the icoscp python library uses the warnings module to provide useful information to the users.

future warning messages are connected to components of the library that will change in a future release. Here is an example of a future warning message:

/pylib/icoscp/cpauth/exceptions.py:28: FutureWarning:
Due to updates in the python library of the ICOS carbon portal,
starting from the next version, user authentication might be required.
warnings.warn(warning, category=FutureWarning)

To suppress such a message, users need to add the code below in their scripts before calling the warning-inducing module:

import warnings
warnings.simplefilter("ignore", FutureWarning)

user warning messages are used to notify the user that there is something potentially incorrect or risky in the program, but that the program is still able to run. Here is an example of a user warning message:

/pylib/icoscp/cpauth/exceptions.py:39: UserWarning:
Your authentication was unsuccessful. Falling back to anonymous
data access. Please, revisit your authentication configuration or
have a look at the documentation. Authentication will become
mandatory for data access.
warnings.warn(warning, category=UserWarning)