Configuration

Background

Class Hierarchy: handle -> Configuration

The Configuration singleton class is a container for configuration parameters, pipelines default arguments, and additional data required by some AstroPack functions. The Configuration class generates a singleton object. This means only that one copy of the object exists in the MATLAB session. Whenever the user generates a new Configuration object, they will get a pointer for the single copy of this object.

The data in the Configuration object is loaded from the config/ directory in the AstroPack/ directory.

The Configuration object provides a simple and safe way to use global variables.

The Config directory

Any file in the config/ directory will be loaded, on demand, to the Configuration object. In addition, the config/ directory contains a local/ directory. The local directory has a .gitignore file and therefore its content is ignored by git. Any private data, can be stored in the local/ directory and it will not be uploaded to github.

The files in the config/ directory are stored in yml format and have the .yml extension.

The file names in the config/ directory have names like: Header.Synonyms.KeyNames.yml or Header.Synonyms.KeyVal.IMTYPE.yml or WCS.ProjType.yml. These files will be uploaded as a structure to the Data property in the Configuration object. For example, the content of the: Header.Synonyms.KeyNames.yml file will be stored, as a structure, under Object.Data.Header.Synonyms.KeyNames.

Config file example

The BitMask.Image.Default.yml config file contains the default bit mask dictionary used by the image processing pipeline.

Saturated        : [0  ,       'Pixel is saturated']
LowRN            : [1  ,       'Pixel noise is low (Var<median(Var).*0.05) (probably dead)']
HighRN           : [2  ,       'Pixel noise is high (Var>10*median(Var)) (noisy pixel)']
DarkHighVal      : [3  ,       'Pixel bias/dark value is high (>2*Mean)']
DarkLowVal       : [4  ,       'Pixel bias/dark value is low (<0.2*Mean)']
BiasFlaring      : [5  ,       'Pixel is possibly flaring (>20 sigma)']
NaN              : [6  ,       'Pixel is NaN due to illegal arithmatics']
FlatHighStd      : [7  ,       'Flat Std/sqrt(N) is high (Std/sqrt(N)>0.01)']
FlatLowVal       : [8  ,       'Flat normalized value is low (<0.1)']
LowQE            : [9  ,       'Pixel with low QE (<0.5 from the nominal)']
Negative         : [10 ,       'Negative pixel after processing']
Interpolated     : [11 ,       'Pixel with interpolated value']
Hole             : [12 ,       'Hole (anti-star)']
Spike            : [13 ,       'Diffraction spike']
CR_DeltaHT       : [14 ,       'CR identified using HT to delta function']
CR_Laplacian     : [15 ,       'CR identified using laplacian filter']
CR_Streak        : [16 ,       'CR streak']
Ghost            : [17 ,       'Ghost']
Persistent       : [18 ,       'Persistent charge']
Xtalk            : [19 ,       'Cross talk']
Streak           : [20 ,       'Streak']
ColumnLow        : [21 ,       'Bad column low values']
ColumnHigh       : [22 ,       'Bad column high values']
NearEdge         : [23 ,       'Near image edge']
NonLinear        : [24 ,       'Non linear']
Bleeding         : [25 ,       'Possible bleeding/blooming']
Overlap          : [26 ,       'In overlap region']
SrcNoiseDominated: [27 ,       'S/N is source dominated (Val-Back)>Back']
GainHigh         : [28 ,       'In duel gain-detectors: Gain is high']
CoaddLessImages  : [29 ,       'Number of images in coadd is less than X percent']
SrcDetected      : [30 ,       'Source detected (all pixels within 1xFWHM radius from detected source)']

You can also store anonymous functions in a config file. For example, the Header.Time.KeyNames.yml file contains instructions on how to convert various header keyword values to JD:

MIDJD  : ['@(Time,Exp) Time']
MIDMJD : ['@(Time,Exp) convert.time(Time,''MJD'',''JD'')']
JD     : ['@(Time,Exp) Time + 0.5.*Exp./86400']
MJD    : ['@(Time,Exp) convert.time(Time,''MJD'',''JD'') + 0.5.*Exp./86400']
DATEOBS: ['@(Time,Exp) convert.time(Time,''StrDate'',''JD'') + 0.5.*Exp./86400']
TIMEOBS: ['@(Time,Exp) convert.time(Time,''StrDate'',''JD'') + 0.5.*Exp./86400']
DATE   : ['@(Time,Exp) convert.time(Time,''StrDate'',''JD'') + 0.5.*Exp./86400']

These will be stored as anonymous functions and can be executed by MATLAB.

Usage

To generate Singelton Configuration object:

C=Configuration.getSingleton;

A Configuration object is generated and linked to any class that inherits from the Component class. For example, the AstroImage class contains a Configuration object in the Config property.

AI = AstroImage;
AI.Config

In case the config/ directory was updated, you may want to reload its content (this will not happen automatically):

Configuration.reloadSysConfig()

To upload additional file to a Configuration object:

MyConfig = Configuration();
MyConfig.loadFile('C:/Temp/MyConfig.yml');

Alternatively, you can load all the files in a directory:

MyConfig = Configuration();
MyConfig.loadFile('C:/Temp/MyConfigFolder');