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1.1 General-Purpose Folder Structure for Data Files

  • Exercise Title:  General-Purpose Folder Structure for Data Files

  • Abstract:  To manage the many files used by these exercises and the products that are created, some sort of "standard" folder structure is required.  In this exercise you will create a "basic" folder structure, consisting of the top levels only (2 or 3 levels within the main folder).  During the exercises to follow, you will be asked to save files to folders in this structure.  Feel free to add subfolders or change the folder names, however you wish.

  • Just make sure to use long filenames that uniquely specify your files (in your own invented system, if you wish).  The smaller your folder structure, the more important long filenames become.  There's a link just below to a helpful article

  • Preliminary Reading:  N/A

  • Required Software:

    • Use Windows Explorer

  • Other Resources: 

  • Author:  Murray Brown

  • Version:  November 2021
1.  This exercise is extremely important. Follow it to prepare for the rest of this Workbook. When finished, immediately copy it to another folder named C:/GENERAL-FOLDER-TEMPLATE for future use in your own projects. The top level folder should be C:/PROJECTS
2.  This is the structure we recommend for creating a general-purpose data collection for any selected marine area.  We've tested various similar structures for many years, and this is the best one. 

Make a similar folder structure of the BOLD CAPITALIZED items only. Embellish it however you wish. There is nothing sacred about this structure. We will probably change it during this course.

 

  • PROJECTS

    • LIBERIA - Project files for this Workbook area.  Use a different area (e.g. Kenya) if you already know exactly where you prefer to work.

      • DATA

        • GEOSPHERE

          • BORDERS - Shapes for mapping; especially coastlines and countries

          • GEOLOGY - Sediment thickness and type, etc.

          • RELIEF- Bathymetry and topography

          • GRATICULES - Latitude/longitude frames

          • Etc.

        • HYDROSPHERE

          • WOA - World Ocean Atlas

          • WOD- World Ocean Database

          • Etc.

        • BIOSPHERE

          • WOD - World Ocean Database

          • Etc.

        • REMOTELY SENSED - Can be integrated into the above, if that works better for you

          • Landsat

          • GOES

          • Earth Explorer

          • Aquarius

          • Etc.

        • [OTHERS] - As needed

      • METADATA - Detailed information about any of these datasets, often provided with the data during downloading. Can also be integrated into the above folders

      • PRODUCTS - Files created by the following main programs

        • IDV (Integrated Data Viewer)  - Synthesis program for many operational datasets especialy remotely sensed data grids, and some GIS obje cts

        • SNAP (Sentinel Application Platform) - Very similar to IDV

        • SAGA - Grids and vector products made by our "workhorse" public domain GIS program

          • AUXILIARY - Saved settings (properties files) for the display of shapes or grids, and other similar helper files

          • GEOIMAGES - Geo-referenced images, using either world files or KML/KMZ for positioning; includes also TIFF grid rasters (for WMS use only)

          • GRIDS - grids in Saga format, including template grids

          • PROJECTS - A special sort of file that contains lists of objects to place in one map, including the display properties of the objects

          • TABLES - tabular data from within shapes, and also created alongside them for display management

          • VECTORS - points, lines, contours, polygons, graticules, wind arrows, current arrows; all as either ESRI shapes or Google KML/KMZ

        • Ocean Data View (ODV) - This new Workbook focuses on data levels above the station data which were the focus of Ocean Data View work in prior years. You are referred to levels 1.0 and 2.0 for training there

    • OTHERS