GitLab

Summary

There were a few informal discussions and ideas thrown about the file formats to use in the longer term. Let's try to formalize it better.

• XML to be minimized as much as possible:
  • Libraries: xdata, xoap, and xerces
  • SOAP calls to be replaced with a JSON API when possible:
    • Better unification with the Web interface and reduction of the code duplication
  • xDAQ static configuration to be kept to its minimum
• YAML for the configuration files:
  • Library: yaml-cpp
  • Hardware layout tree
  • Text configuration database
  • Possibly application configuration
• JSON for information exchange:
  • Libraries: nlohmann/json and cereal
  • Web interface
  • Import-export of configuration parameters
  • Export of the monitorables
  • ...
• cereal binary format for the RPC calls:
  • Library: cereal
  • Can it be replaced with JSON?
  • Anyway, no duplication of code since the same library would be used for JSON

Then, the data-taking file formats:

• GEM DAQ data format within the CMS Raw file format:
  • See #50 (closed) for more details
  • Implementation in progress in !145 (merged)
• Compressed numpy arrays for the non-tracking data scans:
  • Library: To be developed
  • Currently CSV-like, but storage hungry
  • Could a simple compression of the CSV files be enough?