Tutorial

This tutorial provides a step by step introduction to the usage of python-icat. It intents to give an overview of python-icat’s most noteworthy features. You need to have python-icat installed to run the examples. You also need a running ICAT server and IDS server to connect to. Some examples in the tutorial assume to have root access and modify data, therefore it is not advisable to use a production ICAT. Rather setup a dedicated test ICAT to run the tutorial.

During the tutorial you will create some simple Python scripts and other files in your local file system. It is advisable to create a new empty folder for that purpose and change into that:

$ mkdir python-icat-tutorial
$ cd python-icat-tutorial

Some of the more advanced tutorial sections will require some example content in the ICAT server. You’ll need the file icatdump-4.10.yaml to set it up. This file can be found in the doc/examples directory in the python-icat source distribution.

The tutorial assumes some basic knowledge in programming with Python as well as some basic understanding of ICAT. The tutorial contains the following sections:

• Hello World!
• Configuration
• Authentication and login
• Creating stuff in the ICAT server
  • Creating simple objects
  • Relationships to other objects
  • Access rules
• Working with objects in the ICAT server
  • Editing the attributes of objects
  • Copying objects
• Searching for objects in the ICAT server
  • Building advanced queries
  • Useful search methods
• Upload and download files to and from IDS
  • Upload files
  • Download files
• Advanced configuration
  • Custom configuration variables
  • Flag configuration variables
  • Defining sub-commands