ESO Archive Frequently Asked Questions

How do I retrieve/download the data programmatically?

  • It is possible to get the list of request ids/numbers (+ status and date of completion) of your recent requests submitted (recent = 5) or of all your requests submitted using a wget command.
    1. List of recent requests:

      2. > wget -O RecentRequests.txt --header="Accept: text/plain" --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASSWORD http://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/recentRequests

      > more RecentRequests.txt | tr ',' '\n'

      113864 2014-05-22 14:37:10.893 COMPLETE
      112856 2014-05-16 08:36:46.636 COMPLETE
      112854 2014-05-16 08:32:47.603 COMPLETE
      105870 2014-03-27 10:13:38.22 COMPLETE
      105863 2014-03-27 09:27:16.28 COMPLETE

    2. to get the list of all the requests ever submitted:

      3. > wget -O AllRequests.txt --header="Accept: text/plain" --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASSWORD http://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME

      > more AllRequests.txt | tr ',' '\n'
      113864 2014-05-22 14:37:10.893 COMPLETE
      112856 2014-05-16 08:36:46.636 COMPLETE
      112854 2014-05-16 08:32:47.603 COMPLETE
      105870 2014-03-27 10:13:38.22 COMPLETE
      105863 2014-03-27 09:27:16.28 COMPLETE
      105862 2014-03-27 09:17:13.103 COMPLETE
      105861 2014-03-27 09:10:45.61 COMPLETE
      105860 2014-03-27 09:09:17.416 CANCELLED
      105858 2014-03-27 09:03:57.53 COMPLETE
      105857 2014-03-27 09:02:10.363 COMPLETE
      105855 2014-03-27 08:46:18.553 COMPLETE
      105746 2014-03-26 10:47:56.486 COMPLETE
      105745 2014-03-26 10:47:56.41 COMPLETE
      ......

  • Knowing the request ids/numbers, it is possible to retrieve the download.sh script created for every single request, consisting of a list of wget commands to download the files themselves.

    wget -O downloadRequestREQUESTNUMBERscript.sh --auth-no-challenge --no-check-certificate --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASSWORD https://dataportal.eso.org/rh/api/requests/USERNAME/REQUESTNUMBER/script

    This downloadRequestREQUESTNUMBERscript.sh is the same as the one available on the data portal interface when checking the content of a request (at the URL http://dataportal.eso.org/rh/requests/USERNAME/REQUESTNUMBER)

    It contains a list of wget command lines, one line per accessible file, which will enable to download the whole request or part of it.

  • To download the files in your current directory (or cd to a folder where you have enough disk space), you can execute the downloadRequestREQUESTNUMBERscript.sh script. You need first to make it executable:
    > chmod u+x downloadRequestREQUESTNUMBERscript.sh
    > ./downloadRequestREQUESTNUMBERscript.sh