OPeNDAP Hyrax Back-End Server (BES) Customization

This presentations were given as part of the Hyrax installation and customization workshop at the 10-year anniversary meeting of the ESIP (Earth Science Information Partners) Federation in July 2008. The workshop was a combination of lecture/presentation and hands-on use of Hyrax. Attendees were given a virtual machine on a CD-ROM that contained a complete development environment along with the Hyrax data server, already built and installed, and some open-source clients that can be used to read data from the server. Included here are the presentations and the CD-ROM image.

Summary: 
The OPeNDAP's Hyrax architecture consists of several components, including the OLFS (OPeNDAP Lightweight Front-end Server), Java servlet engine, and various modules. These modules facilitate the handling of different data formats and storage systems such as files and databases. The BES (Base Extraction Service) acts as a Unix daemon managing data access and responses, and it can be extended in various ways. Extensions include adding new commands, response objects, request handlers, and more. Modules are dynamically loaded into the BES, allowing for flexibility and customization. The configuration file, typically located at /usr/local/etc/bes/bes.conf, governs the setup and behavior of the BES. Requests can be made via command line tools or through the OLFS interface. The system supports different data handlers like CSV and offers methods for accessing and manipulating data containers, definitions, and catalogs. Response handling involves implementing specific response handlers that create and transmit response objects based on incoming requests.