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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.0 What It Is

The HDFView is a Java-based tool for browsing and editing NCSA HDF4 and HDF5 files. HDFView allows users to browse through any HDF4 and HDF5 file; starting with a tree view of all top-level objects in an HDF file's hierarchy. HDFView allows a user to descend through the hierarchy and navigate among the file's data objects. The content of a data object is loaded only when the object is selected, providing interactive and efficient access to HDF4 and HDF5 files. HDFView editing features allow a user to create, delete, and modify the value of HDF objects and attributes.

The HDFView user interface is designed to be easy to use and intuitive. HDFView was implemented by using JavaTM 2 Platform that is designed to be machine-independent. The interface and features of the HDFView are the same for all platforms. HDFView displays the structure of the HDF file in a tree with data groups and data objects represented as conventional folders and icons. Users can easily expand or collapse folders to navigate the hierarchical structure of an HDF file.

1.1 About This Release

This release includes bug fixes, new features, test suite, and improved documentation.

HDF libraries

This release was built with HDF4.2r2 and HDF5-1.6.6

Platforms

This release was built and tested for the follwing platforms:
32-bit Java 2 SDK
64-bit Java 2 SDK
The following platforms are droped from this release

New features

There are a lot of new features added to the release. The following is a list of major new features.

Bug fix

There are many bug fixes in HDF-Java 2.4. One of the major bugs is the memory leak as explained in the following.

In HDF-Java 2.3 or earlier version, an attribute and datatype were left open when the file structure was retrieved from a file. The following code will build up the memory leak until the machine is out of memory. 

while (true) 
{
    H5File f=new H5File(fname, H5File.READ);
    f.open();
    f.close();
}
Another memory leak is at compound datasets. When a compound dataset is open, we keep the datatypes of the compound fields in memory so that we can reuse them for better perfomance. However, these datatypes were not closed when the file is closed. The following code will make the JVM run out of memory. 
while (true)
{
    final H5File file = new H5File(fname, H5File.READ);
    final Dataset dset = (Dataset)file.get("/Table0");
    dset.init();

    file.close();
}

Other enhancements

Test suite
Using the junit test frame, we build a test suite to test all the public APIs in the object package (ncsa.hdf.object) and the HDF5 object package (ncsa.hdf.object.h5). The test suite is added into the source configuration to make it easy to run by "make check"
Improved documentation
All the public APIs in the object package (ncsa.hdf.object) and the HDF5 object package (ncsa.hdf.object.h5) are fully documented.

1.2 Features

This version fixed bugs from previous versions and added a few new and enhanced features. It is a continuous work from previous HDFView with a major new feature: replaceable I/O and GUI modules.

version is user-configurable to support HDF4 or HDF5 or both. Users can choose HDFView features to support HDF4 or HDF5 or both when installing HDFView or compiling from the source code.

The following is a list of the browsing and editing features of HDFView. Details of the features are discussed in their related chapters.

1.2.1 Browsing Features

1.2.2 Editing Features

1.3 Limitations

The current implementation of HDFView has the following limitations.

1.4 System Requirements

The HDFView is distributed in two forms: No_VM_bundled and VM_bundled. The No_VM_bundled distribution does not contain the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) while the VM_bundled distribution bundles the JRE.

To run HDFView with No_VM_bundled distribution, JDK1.5+ is required. The HDFView does not compile on jdk1.4.x or earlier version.

Download Java 2 Platform at:

HDFView 1.3 has been built and tested on the following platforms:

The HDFView uses the HDF4 and HDF5 Java Native Interfaces, which calls the HDF4 and HDF5 library. These native interfaces are included in the distribution. For more information (source and pre-built) on the HDF4/5 Java Native Interface, visit website at /hdf-java-html/JNI/

1.5 Installation

The source and pre-built binaries for HDFView can be downloaded from:
ftp://ftp.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/hdf-java

The pre-built binaries are available in two forms: No_VM_bundled, and VM_bundled.

32-bit Java Pre-built Binaries Distribution
Platform Download File size

Java Virtual Machine Bundled
Linux hdfview_install_linux_vm.bin 60M
Solaris hdfview_install_solaris_vm.bin 61M
Windows hdfview_install_windows_vm.exe 34M

Java Virtual Machine Required
Linux hdfview_install_linux_novm.bin 11M
Mac Intel hdfview_install_macosx_intel_novm.zip 7.3M
Mac PowerPC hdfview_install_macosx_novm.zip 8.2M
Solaris hdfview_install_solaris_novm.bin 17M
Windows hdfview_install_windows_novm.exe 7.9M

64-bit Java Pre-built Binaries Distribution
Platform Download File size

Java Virtual Machine Bundled
Linux 64-bit AMD hdfview_install_linux64amd_vm.bin 49M

Java Virtual Machine Required
Linux 64-bit AMD hdfview_install_linux64amd_novm.bin 9.0M
Solaris 64-bit SPARC hdfview_install_solaris64_novm.bin 11M

Java Virtual Machine Required

The NoVM_bundled binary distribution does not contain the Java 2 Runtime Environment. The NoVM_bundled requires JDK1.5.0 or above. Before you install the NoVM_bundled distribution, you must have JDK1.5.0 or above installed on your machine. If you don't have a Java 2 VM, you must download and install one. As all releases of Macintosh OS X include a fully functional Java 2 Virtual Machine, there is no need for a Mac OS X JRE.

Download Java 2 Platform at:

StandAlone Application [JRE Bundled]

JRE1.5.0 is bundled in the VM_bundled distribution. You do not need any aditional software to run HDFView.

Download and installation of HDFView requires acceptance of the Java 2 Runtime Environment license agreement. Please read the Java 2 Runtime Environment Binary Code License Agreement before you download the VM_bundled distribution. The installation program will not install HDFView unless you accept the Java 2 Runtime Environment License Agreement.

Install on Unix or MAC OS X

After downloading the installation file, cd to the directory where you downloaded the installer. At the prompt type:
sh ./hdfview-xxx.bin,
where xxx is the Unix OS name such as solaris, linux or macosx. The installer will guide you to select the Java Virtual Machine and HDFView home directory (where you want to install the HDFView).

Install on Windows

After downloading, double-click
hdfview-windows.exe.

The installer will guide you to select the Java Virtual Machine and HDFView home directory (where you want to install the HDFView). After installing, you can launch the HDFView from
Start -> Program Files -> NCSA HDFView

1.6 For Further Information

General information about HDF (HDF4 and HDF5) is available at: http://www.hdfgroup.org/

Information about the HDFView tool and related products is available at:

/hdf-java-html/

Questions and feedback may be sent to the HDF Helpdesk.

Last Modified:   February 20, 2007