QWEventViewer Settings Manual
(for Version 1.1)
The QuakeWatch
Event Viewer ("QWEventViewer") program receives event messages from a
QuakeWatch
server and displays event information received in a scrollable list.
This manual describes the
configuration settings for the program. These
settings are accessible via the "Tools | Settings"
menu item and are
stored in the "conf/QWEventViewerConfig.xml" file in XML format.
The
contents of this file are overwritten anytime the settings are modified.
The "Tools" menu contains the following items:
Settings: Displays the "Settings Dialog Window", described below.
Reconnect to Server: Disconnects from and then connects to the QuakeWatch server.
Connection Status: Displays a window showing the current status of the connection to the QuakeWatch server.
Launch CISN Display: Launches the "CISN Display" program.
Clicking on the "Settings" item in the "Tools" menu brings up the "Settings" dialog window. The window contains "tabbed" panels, one of which may be selected at a time. These tabs and their items are described in the sections below.
At the bottom of the window are the following buttons:
The items on this tab define a set of general configuration parameters for the program.
Max loaded-events age (days): Sets the maximum age (in days) for earthquake events to be held in the program's memory. Events are held in memory to allow the program to keep track of which events have generated alert messages. Events older than this age will be removed. The age is measured from the event-time for the events and is specified as a floating-point value (which must be greater than zero).
Directory for CISN Display: Sets the directory where the "CISN Display" program may be found. This is used when the "CISN Display" is launched via the "Tools | Launch CISN Display" menu item.
Launch browser command prefix: Sets the prefix string for the operating system command used to launch a web browser. Leaving the two "Launch browser command" items blank will configure the program to automatically determine the proper operating system command to use, which works well on most systems.
Launch browser command suffix: Sets the suffix string for the operating system command
used to launch a web browser. Leaving the two "Launch browser
command"
items blank will configure the program to automatically determine the
proper operating system command to use, which works well on most
systems.
The items on this tab define the earthquake-event filter that is used to select which events are accepted. For an event to be accepted, it must satisfy all of the enabled filter items. Events that do not satisfy all of the enabled filter items are ignored.
Minimum event magnitude: Only earthquake events with a magnitude of this value or greater will be accepted.
Maximum event age (days): Only earthquake events that are newer than this age (in days) will be accepted. The age is measured from the event-time for the event and is specified as a floating-point value. Setting this item to zero will disable it (allowing events of any age to be accepted).
Keep events from these data sources: This item may contain a comma-separated list of data-source specifiers (i.e. "CI, NC"). If this item is not blank then only earthquake events with matching data-source specifiers will be accepted, and this item will override the "Drop events from these data sources" item. If this item is blank then earthquake events from all data sources will be accepted (except those dropped via the "Drop events from these data sources" item). The data-source specifiers are not case-sensitive.
Drop events from these data sources: This item may contain a comma-separated list of data-source specifiers (i.e. "CI, NC"). If this item is not blank and the "Keep events from these data sources" item is blank then earthquake events with matching data-source specifiers will not be accepted. If this item is blank then it will have no effect on filtering. The data-source specifiers are not case-sensitive.
Minimum event latitude: Earthquake events with a latitude less than this item's value will not be accepted. The value is specified in decimal degrees. If both this and the "Maximum event latitude" item are zero then earthquake events of any latitude will be accepted.
Maximum event latitude: Earthquake events with a latitude greater than this item's value will not be accepted. The value is specified in decimal degrees. If both this and the "Minimum event latitude" item are zero then earthquake events of any latitude will be accepted.
Minimum event longitude: Earthquake events with a longitude less than this item's value will not be accepted. The value is specified in decimal degrees. If both this and the "Maximum event longitude" item are zero then earthquake events of any longitude will be accepted.
Maximum event longitude: Earthquake events with a longitude greater than this item's
value will not be accepted. The value is specified in decimal
degrees. If both this and the "Minimum
event longitude" item are zero then earthquake events of any
longitude will be accepted.
The items on this tab define the parameters used for the connection to the server.
Server host address: Sets the host-address value for the server. The value may be in name (i.e. "www.caltech.edu") or numeric-IP (i.e. "131.215.220.4") form. If the the server-host-address value is empty and the "Enable fail-over to alternate servers" checkbox is selected then one of the alternate servers will be chosen at random and used as the server.
Server port number: Sets the port-number value for the server.
Server Login: Clicking on this button will display a Login-Information window that may be used to enter or modify the username and password used to validate the connection to the server. This window is also displayed when the program fails to connect because the username/password combination is not accepted by the server. For login username/password help, contact your system administrator or the CISN Display helpdesk representative at one of the CISN member organizations.
Max secs for server alive msgs: Sets the maximum number of seconds that this program will wait for a server "alive" message before determining that the message has been missed. The server will transmit one "alive" message every ten seconds. When server "alive" messages have been missed and the number of seconds elapsed since the last-received server "alive" message exceeds the "Server connection timeout" value, the program will attempt to reestablish its connection to the server. Setting this item to zero will disable alive-message checking.
Server connection timeout (seconds): Sets the number of seconds that this program will wait, after server "alive" messages have been missed, before attempting to reestablish its connection to the server. Setting this item to zero will configure the program to never attempt to reestablish its server connection.
Max connection-retry wait (minutes): Sets the maximum number of minutes that this program will wait between consecutive attempts to reestablish its connection to its server (or alternate servers). After each consecutive failed connection attempt, the amount of wait-time before the next attempt will be doubled (which helps to reduce network traffic during lengthy outages). This item establishes a maximum wait-time.
Enable fail-over to alternate servers: When this checkbox item is selected and a connection to the current server cannot be established, a connection to an alternate server will be attempted. The program maintains a list of alternate servers in its configuration, and also fetches a new list each time it connects to a server.
Max event from server age (days): Sets
the maximum age (in days) for earthquake-event messages that are
fetched from the server. The age is measured from the time that
the event messages were generated on the server and is specified as a
floating-point value. Setting this item to zero will disable the
fetching of messages from the server. Note that event messages
generated on the server after the time specified by this maximum-age
limit may reference earthquake events that occurred before the time
specified by this maximum-age limit.