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B.2 Activation Functions

The following functions can be used only for defining custom Activation Actions - they mostly deal with causing something to happen, such as popping up an image display window. They generally return a short string, which will be logged to the user to give an indication of what happened (or didn't happen, or should have happened). More complete documentation of them is available from within TOPCAT in the Available Functions Window.

TwoQZ
Specialist functions for use with data from the the 2QZ survey. Spectral data are taken directly from the 2QZ web site at http://www.2dfquasar.org/.

TWOQZ_SPEC_BASE
String prepended to the object NAME for the FITS spectra file URL.
TWOQZ_SPEC_TAIL
String appended to the object NAME for the FITS spectra file URL.
TWOQZ_FITS_IMAGE_BASE
String prepended to the object NAME for the FITS postage stamp URL.
TWOQZ_FITS_IMAGE_TAIL
String appended to the object NAME for the FITS postage stamp URL.
TWOQZ_JPEG_IMAGE_BASE
String prepended to the object NAME for the JPEG postage stamp URL.
TWOQZ_JPEG_IMAGE_TAIL
String appended to the object NAME for the JPEG postage stamp URL.
spectra2QZ( name, nobs )
Displays all the spectra relating to a 2QZ object in an external viewer (SPLAT).
image2QZ( name )
Displays the postage stamp FITS image for a 2QZ object in an image viewer.
jpeg2QZ( name )
Displays the postage stamp JPEG image for a 2QZ object in an external viewer.
get2qzSubdir( name )
Returns the name of the subdirectory (such as "ra03_04") for a given 2QZ object name (ID).

System
Executes commands on the local operating system. These are executed as if typed in from the shell, or command line.

exec( cmd, arg1 )
Executes an operating system command with one argument.
exec( cmd, arg1, arg2 )
Executes an operating system command with two arguments.
exec( cmd, arg1, arg2, arg3 )
Executes an operating system command with three arguments.
exec( line )
Executes a string as an operating system command. Any spaces in the string are taken to delimit words (the first word is the name of the command).

SuperCosmos
Specialist display functions for use with the SuperCOSMOS survey. These functions display cutout images from the various archives hosted at the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys (http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/sss/). In most cases these cover the whole of the southern sky.

SSS_BASE_URL
Base URL for SuperCOSMOS image cutout service.
sssCutout( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image in one of the available bands from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square. Sky coverage is complete.
sssCutout( ra, dec )
Displays a cutout image of default size in one of the available bands from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys. Sky coverage is complete.
sssCutoutBlue( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image of default size from one of the blue-band surveys from SuperCOSMOS. Sky coverage is complete.
sssCutoutRed( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image of default size from one of the red-band surveys from SuperCOSMOS. Sky coverage is complete.
displayUkstB( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys UK Schmidt Telescope Bj-band survey. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square.

Sky coverage is -90<Dec<+2.5 (degrees).

displayUkstR( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys UK Schmidt Telescope R-band survey. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square.

Sky coverage is -90<Dec<+2.5 (degrees).

displayUkstI( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys UK Schmidt Telescope I-band survey. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square.

Sky coverage is -90<Dec<+2.5 (degrees).

displayEsoR( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys ESO R-band survey. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square.

Sky coverage is -90<Dec<+2.5 (degrees).

displayPossE( ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a cutout image taken from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys Palomar E-band survey. The displayed image is square, and pixels pixels in the X and Y dimensions. Pixels are approximately 0.67 arcsec square.

Sky coverage is -20.5<Dec<+2.5 (degrees).

Splat
Functions for display of spectra in the external viewer SPLAT.

splat( label, loc )
Displays the resource at a given location as a spectrum in a spectrum viewer program (SPLAT). label may be any string which identifies the window for display, so that multiple (sets of) spectra may be displayed in different windows without getting in each others' way. loc should be a filename pointing to a spectrum in a format that SPLAT understands (includes FITS, NDF). In some cases, a URL can be used too.
splat2( label, loc1, loc2 )
Displays two spectra in the same (SPLAT) viewer. This may be useful to compare two spectra which correspond to the same table row.
splatMulti( label, locs )
Generic routine for displaying multiple spectra simultaneously in the same SPLAT plot.

Spectrum
Functions for general display of spectra in a window. Display is currently done using the SPLAT program, if available (http://www.starlink.ac.uk/splat/). Recognised spectrum formats include 1-dimensional FITS arrays and NDF files.

displaySpectrum( label, location )
Displays the file at the given location in a spectrum viewer.
displaySpectra( label, locations )
Displays the files at the given locations in a spectrum viewer. Each file represents a single spectrum, but they will be displayed within the same viewer window.

Sog
Functions for display of images in external viewer SOG (http://www.starlink.ac.uk/sog/).

sog( label, loc )
Displays the file at a given location as an image in a graphical (SoG) viewer. label may be any string which identifies the window for display, so that multiple images may be displayed in different windows without getting in each others' way. loc should be a filename or URL, pointing to an image in a format that SOG understands (this includes FITS, compressed FITS, and NDFs).

Sdss
Specialist display functions for use with the Sloane Digital Sky Server.

SDSS_DR2_BASE_URL
Base URL for SkyServer JPEG retrieval service, DR2.
SDSS_BASE_URL
Base URL for SkyServer JPEG retrieval service.
sdssCutout( label, ra, dec, pixels )
Displays a colour cutout image of a specified size from the SDSS around a given sky position. The displayed image is square, a given number of (0.4arcsec) pixels on each side.
sdssCutout( ra, dec, pixels, scale )
Displays a colour cutout image of a specified size from the SDSS around a given sky position with pixels of a given size. Pixels are square, and their size on the sky is specified by the scale argument. The displayed image has pixels pixels along each side.
sdssCutout( ra, dec )
Displays a colour cutout image of a default size from the SDSS around a given sky position. The displayed image is 128 pixels square - a pixel is 0.4arcsec.

Output
Functions for simple logging output.

print( str )
Outputs a string value to the user log.
print( num )
Outputs a numeric value to the user log.

Mgc
Specialist functions for use with data from the the Millennium Galaxy Survey.

MGC_IMAGE_BASE
String prepended to MGC_ID for the FITS image URL.
MGC_IMAGE_TAIL
String appended to MGC_ID for the FITS image URL.
imageMgc( mgc_id )
Displays the postage stamp FITS image for an MGC object in an image viewer.

Image
Functions for display of images in a window. Supported image formats include GIF, JPEG, PNG and FITS, which may be compressed. The SoG program (http://www.starlink.ac.uk/sog/) will be used if it is available, otherwise a no-frills image viewer will be used instead.

displayImage( label, location )
Displays the file at the given location in an image viewer.

Browsers
Displays URLs in web browsers.

basicBrowser( url )
Displays a URL in a basic HTML viewer. This is only likely to work for HTML, text or RTF data. The browser can follow hyperlinks and has simple forward/back buttons, but lacks the sophistication of a proper WWW browser application.
systemBrowser( url )
Attempts to display a URL in the system's default web browser. Exactly what couts as the default web browser is system dependent, as is whether this function will work properly.
mozilla( url )
Displays a URL in a Mozilla web browser. Probably only works on Unix-like operating systems, and only if Mozilla is already running.
firefox( url )
Displays a URL in a Firefox web browser. Probably only works on Unix-like operating systems, and only if Firefox is already running.
netscape( url )
Displays a URL in a Netscape web browser. Probably only works on Unix-like operating systems, and only if Netscape is already running.
mozalike( cmd, url )
Displays a URL in a web browser from the Mozilla family; it must support flags of the type "-remote openURL(url)". Probably only works on Unix-like operating systems, and only if the browser is already running.

BasicImageDisplay
Functions for display of graphics-format images in a no-frills viewing window (an ImageWindow). Supported image formats include GIF, JPEG, PNG and FITS, which may be compressed.

displayBasicImage( label, loc )
Displays the file at a given location as an image in a graphical viewer. label may be any string which identifies the window for display, so that multiple images may be displayed in different windows without getting in each others' way. loc should be a filename or URL, pointing to an image in a format that this viewer understands.


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Next: Release Notes
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Previous: General Functions

TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note 253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk