ESO Archive Frequently Asked Questions

How do I submit a request to the Archive programmatically?

It is possible to submit a request using a wget (or curl) command line with a list of files. It's not possible to submit an empty request.

It is important to remember that as wget does not perform any url encoding, reserved characters like + shall be "manually" encoded in post parameters (+ url encoding being %2B).

  1. Example to request two files - without processing options (see table below):

    The 2 files are e.g. UVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246 and UVES.2006-11-08T10:04:17.147

    wget --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --post-data="requestDescription=My_Request&dataset=SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246,SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-08T10:04:17.147" --header="Accept:text/plain" --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=USERPASSWD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/submission

  2. Example to request one file - with one or more options : CalSelector/ selective_hotfly from a command line. (see table below)

    • Example with SELECTIVE_HOTFLY:

      wget --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --post-data="requestDescription=My_Request&dataset=SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246&requestCommand=SELECTIVE_HOTFLY " --header="Accept:text/plain" --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=USERPASSWD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/submission

    • Example with CalSelectorRaw2Raw:

      wget --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --post-data="requestDescription=My_Request&dataset=SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246&requestCommand=CalSelectorRaw2Raw " --header="Accept:text/plain" --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=USERPASSWD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/submission

    • Example with CalSelectorRaw2Master(*):

      wget --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --post-data="requestDescription=My_Request&dataset=SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246&requestCommand=CalSelectorRaw2Master " --header="Accept:text/plain" --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=USERPASSWD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/submission

    • Example with SELECTIVE_HOTFLY AND CalSelectorRaw2raw:

      wget --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --post-data="requestDescription=My_Request&dataset=SAF%2BUVES.2006-11-12T10:28:41.246&requestCommand=SELECTIVE_HOTFLY&requestCommand=CalSelectorRaw2Raw " --header="Accept:text/plain" --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=USERPASSWD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/submission

    3. requestCommand description
    SELECTIVE_HOTFLY Selective Header-on-the-fly correction: will be performed only if needed
    CalSelectorRaw2Raw Associate raw calibration files to raw science files.
    CalSelectorRaw2Master(*) Associate processed calibration files to raw science files.

Notes:

(*) if appropriate processed calibrations are not available, the system will try to associate raw calibrations instead. It is not advised to run both the processes CalSelectorRaw2Raw and CalSelectorRaw2Master concurrently: the result may be erratic and one may get different results submitting several times the same request.