Open letter to our beta testers
Thank You so much for agreeing to road test the CMIP5 metadata questionnaire. We (Metafor) really appreciate your help, and we are sorry for the long delays but at last here is the questionnaire. The information entered during beta testing will be migrated to the final version of the questionnaire.
We will release the questionnaire to the CMIP5 community at the end of September. There are many places in the questionnaire where we tried things out and we'll be making changes according to how the users (and beta testers) use the questionnaire.
Instructions for Access to the CMIP5 Questionnaire http://q.cmip5.ceda.ac.uk
We have restricted access to the CMIP5 questionnaire. The Test and Example centres are freely accessible but only those users who have an OpenID issued by an ESG Federation OpenID provider can request access to individual modelling centre pages. The registration and authorisation procedure is listed below:
- Get an OpenID If you do not have an ESG Federation OpenID you can obtain one by registering with the BADC.
To do this visit http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/reg/user_register_info.html and follow the "Register as a new user" button.
- Request access to a modelling centre Email cmip5qteam at badc.nerc.ac.uk to request access to a modelling centre. Please state your name, OpenID URL, and the modelling centre you want to access. We will then confirm your request with the contact at your modelling centre.
- cmip5q mailing list Please join the cmip5q mailing list. The cmip5q mailing list will be used to send messages from the cmip5q team to our users. You can also use the mailing list to share day to day questionnaire queries at cmip5q at badc.nerc.ac.uk. Alternatively you can raise queries directly with the support team at cmip5qteam at badc.nerc.ac.uk
If you wish to change to a new OpenID, for example if you've had an OpenID with the BADC but now you wish to use an OpenID from your home ESG site, you will need to re-apply for access with the new OpenID URL (step 2).
User Help
A Mailing List has been set up for users to post queries about the questionnaire
The Questionnaire Support Team can be contacted on our dedicated email: cmip5qteam at badc dot nerc dot ac dot uk.
A Road Map presentation to guide you through the questionnaire is available as powerpoint and pdf documents.
A CMIP5 Questionnaire FAQ is also available on the metafor forum pages
Reporting
We have set up a Survey to record comments, queries and issues raised by our beta testers. Each survey has space for 5 reports, to log further issues simply complete the survey again. The reports are being collated on a designated Wiki Page
Key Words To help us to sort through the findings from your road test of the questionnaire the survey asks you to associate one of these key words with each comment.
- bug - something that breaks
- usability - functionality could be better
- unclear - extra explanatory text is required
- vocabulary - comments about the content of drop down lists
- question - you have a question about something
- other
http://... Please also provide a link to the relevant questionnaire page with each comment.
Browsers
Firefox 3.# is most compatible with the questionnaire. We have tested the questionnaire on various browsers and operating systems and found that Safari and Google Chrome also work well but access via Internet Explorer is not supported. The Reporting Survey will ask you to tell us what browser and operating system configuration you used to access the questionnaire, we will use your information to update our list of compatible browsers.
Browsers that Work
| Browser | Version | Operating System |
| Firefox | 3.6.3 | Microsoft Vista |
| Firefox | 3.5.9 | Ubuntu 9.10 |
| Firefox | 3.6.6 | Mac |
| Firefox | 2.0.0.20 | debian Linux, Kernel 2.6.18-6-686 |
| Safari | 4 | Microsoft Vista |
| Safari | 5 | Microsoft Vista |
| Safari | 5 | Mac |
| Konqueror | 3.5.7 | KDE 3.5.7 openSUSE 10.3 |
| Google Chrome | 5.0.375.70 | Microsoft Vista |
| Google Chrome | 5.0.375.99 | Mac |
Web browsers that don't work
| Browser | Version | Operating System | why |
| Internet Explorer | 8.0.6001 | Microsoft Vista | does not show leaf components |
| Internet Explorer | 7.0.6001 | Windows Server 2003 | unable to display pages with leaf components |
| Firefox | 2.0.0.12 | KDE 3.5.7 openSUSE 10.3 | Choose one or more of drop down lists do not appear |
Sharing Model Descriptions
We have disabled the facility to allow models to be copied between institutions. Nevertheless it is still possible to share xml and text output of your model descriptions with other institutions, more information on this on our FAQ. We suggest that you send requests to see descriptions from other centres to the questionnaire support team cmip5qteam at badc dot nerc dot ac dot uk.
Some things may still not work, such as…
CF standard name entry box scroll bars There are a few usability bugs that we know about such as some CF standard Names drop down lists extend off the side of a page so you can't get to the scroll bar (you can use the arrow keys to navigate these lists too)- we're still fixing these sorts of bugs. If you find them please tell us about them.
Grid hierarchies still need to be implemented The hierarchies for model grids have not yet been implemented so the questions about grids will appear un-wieldy. This means that we are relying on you, our beta testers, to make sensible choices. These hierarchy issues will also be fixed for the eventual release but if you find anything that doesn't look right please let us know.
