Getting Started

General XINA information and concepts.

Introduction and Ecosystem

XINA is an integrated data management platform, developed at NASA GSFC. XINA is provided as a managed service hosted on Amazon Web Services.

Overview

The XINA platform provides five primary functions:

XINA supports Launchpad and NAMS integration for user management and authentication.

Limitations

XINA is not a single standalone application, and cannot currently be installed locally. We provide the software as a service through a NASA AWS account integration. Specific AWS requirements and costs will vary depending on project parameters.

XINA is not recommended as a gold copy for data storage. Although AWS cloud services are highly reliable and XINA is often used as a valuable backup tool, a full gold copy should always be kept onsite.

XINA System Components

The XINA platform is composed of several interconnected components and applications:

XINA Server

The XINA server is the core application of the XINA platform. It manages all incoming and outgoing XINA data and provides API access. The server is built on a MySQL database backend and uses the AWS S3 service for large file storage.

XINA Web

XINA Web (formerly XINA Online) is the primary XINA front-end application, written in TypeScript with Google's Angular web application platform. Authentication is integrated with NASA Launchpad and managed through NAMS.

XINA Tunnel

The XINA Tunnel utility is a Java application intended to facilitate communication with the XINA API. The tunnel connects directly to the XINA server and manages connection security and authentication. It then opens a local webserver to which client applications can connect and communicate with the core XINA server. Full reference is available here.

XINA Import

The XINA Import utility is a Java application to simplify importing data to the XINA server by importing XINA API actions from JSON files. Full reference is available here.

XINA Run

XINA Run is a Java application for managing and executing asynchronous tasks though the XINA platform. Full reference is available here.

XINA Lambda

XINA Lambda is an integrated service for executing asynchronous tasks from the AWS Lambda platform. Full reference is available here.

Terms and Concepts

Database

Databases are the core data storage structures in XINA. A database essentially defines a MySQL table, with additional features managed by the XINA server system.

Each database is defined by a set of fields, which specify the columns of the table. Fields are primarily defined by:

A single unit of data in a database is a record, corresponding to a row of the table. Each record contains a value for each field of the database.

Structural database changes (adding / changing / removing fields) are very slow (hours to days for very large databases) so initial time investment to optimize database requirements is worthwhile.

Group

Databases in XINA are organized into a heirarchical structure of groups, which can each contain any number of groups and databases. For example:

A dot notation is used to reference groups and databases. For example, moma.data.science refers to the science database in the above configuration.

Importing Data

There are several approaches for importing data into XINA, but for most projects we recommend the XINA Import utility.

XINA Import reads XINA API calls from JSON files and passes them to the XINA server. Each JSON file corresponds to a single API action, but may be paired with additional files of other types depending on the content.

For example, to upload some housekeeping data from a CSV requires two files. First, the JSON file:

{
  "action": "load",
  "database": "demo.model.data.hk.full",
  "columns": true,
  "delimit": ",",
  "line": "\n",
  "$object_id": "{local}/hk.csv"
}

The CSV file then looks like:

t,name,value
1602086313288000,SCAN_INDEX(Step),-1
1602086313288000,MO1_LD1_CURR(mA),0
1602086313288000,MO1_LD2_CURR(mA),0
1602086313288000,MO1_CASE_TEC(C),21.739
...

A couple notes on these:

While this CSV approach is recommended for large data sets, data can alternatively be embedded directly in JSON files. For example, a file to insert a new instant might look like:

{
  "action": "insert",
  "database": "demo.model.data.ins",
  "records": [
    {
      "u_id": "58ea870a-52c3-33c7-b858-c20795ec3301",
      "p_id": 0,
      "s_id": 0,
      "type": 20,
      "level": 0,
      "t": 1606333792000000,
      "label": "SPECTRA_Startf-0_Stopf-1k",
      "content": "some additional text here...",
      "meta": {
        "Resolution Bandwidth": 2.07014,
        "Stop Frequency": 1000,
        "Average Factor": 30,
        "Start Frequency": 0
      }
    }
  ]
}

The full API reference can be found here.

Data Types

XINA has a fixed set of data types which apply to attributes and fields. They are intended to provide consistent behavior across MySQL, Java, and JavaScript data types.

Numeric Types

Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
int(1) byte tinyint number signed 1 byte integer, -27 to 27-1
int(2) short smallint number signed 2 byte integer, -215 to 215-1
int(4) int int number signed 4 byte integer, -231 to 231-1
int(8) long bigint number signed 8 byte integer, -263 to 263-1 ⚠️
float(4) float float number IEEE 754 4 byte floating point
float(8) double double number IEEE 754 8 byte floating point
boolean boolean tinyint boolean MySQL treats 0 as false, non-zero as true

⚠️ JavaScript number is 8 byte float, so only -253 to 253-1 is stored with exact precision

Character Types

Character data types offer two encoding options:

Two SQL types:

Two general types:

Note, all string operations are case-insensitive by default. This can be overridden with the collate expression by specifying a binary collation.

Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
utf8string(n) string char(n) string n up to 128, uses n*4 bytes, normalized
utf8vstring(n) string varchar(n) string n up to 128, uses up to n*4 bytes, normalized
utf8string string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, normalized
utf8text string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, not normalized
asciistring(n) string char(n) string n up to 256, uses n bytes, normalized
asciivstring(n) string varchar(n) string n up to 256, uses up to n bytes, normalized
asciistring string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, normalized
asciitext string mediumtext string up to 224 bytes, not normalized

Temporal Types

Temporal data types store time data. There are two categories of temporal types:

Type Java MySQL JavaScript Notes
datetime DateTime bigint date instant with millisecond precision, as Unix time
date XDate bigint date instant at start of date UTC, as Unix time
time LocalTime int number length of time up to 23:59:59.999, as millisecond count
localdatetime LocalDateTime char(24) string full timestamp without timezone, stored as string
localdate LocalDate char(10) string date without timezone, stored as string
localtime LocalTime char(12) string length of time up to 23:59:59.999, as string

JSON Types

JSON data types store JSON data directly in the database.

Type Java MySQL JavaScript
json JsonValue json *
jsonarray JsonArray json array
jsonobject JsonObject json object

Enum Types

Enum types map a series of discrete numeric integer values to text names. Though additional values may be added in the future, existing values will not change names or IDs.

notification_level

ID Name Notes
0 none default level, no associated formatting
1 success green
2 info cyan
3 notice yellow
4 warning red
5 primary blue, elevated over none
6 secondary grey, below none

notification_type

ID Name Notes
0 post
1 task
2 request request received
3 response response to request received

post_level

ID Name Notes
0 none default level, no associated formatting
1 success green
2 info cyan
3 notice yellow
4 warning red
5 primary blue, elevated over none
6 secondary grey, below none

Sandbox Quick Start Guide

In order to streamline onboarding for new XINA projects we have created a XINA "Sandbox" environment to test data pipelines and tools. Everything in the sandbox is fully configured as a typical XINA production environment.

Step 1: Request NAMS Access

To get started, first request access through the NAMS service. The application name is "GSFC XINA Sandbox".

Step 2: First Login

Once you receive confirmation that the account is approved, perform your first login to the XINA Sandbox by going to sandbox.xina.io. This initial login creates your user account. You will initially have access to a series of default Sandbox data. If you require access for a specific project contact our team and we will help finish setting up required permissions.

Step 3: Create an API Key

To access the XINA API for importing data you will require a XINA API key. In the XINA web application, click your user name in the top right, then "User Profile" in the drop down.

user_profile.png

Switch to the "Access Keys" tab and click "Create New Key".

user_profile_key.png

Copy the entire displayed text and save it to a local file in your preferred location. You will need to reference this file when opening the XINA Tunnel to use the XINA API. A common naming convention is <mission>_xina_key.json. The key will only be displayed once upon creation, if lost you will need to make a new key.

user_profile_key2.png

Step 4: Download XINA Tunnel and XINA Import

The XINA Tunnel and XINA Import utilities are the recommended starting point for importing data. Details for each are available on their respective wiki pages.

Step 5: Import Sample Data

UNDER CONSTRUCTION