Section: 5.4.1 Creating a Weather Text Data Chooser

5.4.1 Creating a Weather Text Data Chooser

Let's see how we can access weather text bulletins from an ADDE server.

Start the Example IDV
From the Dashboard, select the Data Chooser tab.
Select the URLs Chooser. The IDV can use the ADDE URL syntax to access weather text on a remote server.
Paste the following URL into the text box:
```
adde://adde.ucar.edu/wxtext?apro=zfp&astn=mkx
```
and click the Add Source button.
In this case, the IDV handles the URL as an input stream and by default displays it in the TextDisplayControl. However, having to type in an obscure URL syntax is not the ultimate User Interface.
Exit the IDV.

Let's create a chooser that allows the user to select from some predefined products.

cd to /home/idv/idv/ucar/unidata/apps/example
Open WxTextChooser.java in an editor and let's look what's there.
Exit the editor and compile the class
Copy chooser.xml from the resources directory to the current directory. cp resources/chooser.xml .
Open the file in an editor and look at what's defined.
Exit the editor.
Start the IDV.
From the Dashboard, select the Data Chooser tab. Notice that our chooser is there. Select a server, product and station and click the Add Source button. Try this with different products. If you know some codes and station ids, try them as well.
Now let's look at having a custom Data Source to handle our data.