Version 2 of the Rainfall Intensity software is now available! It corrects many of the "bugs" reported in the previous version.

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EXACT Home

USER'S MANUAL

REQUIRED DATABASES

Create a "rainfall" database

Create a "rainfall_stats" database

Set each database as a System DSN to allow connection to the RAIN software

RAINSTART

Open the RAIN software

Log On to RAIN software programs

RAINDIGITIZER

Getting Started - Things to Do Before You Begin Digitizing

Log On

Link to your "rainfall" database

Digitize a strip chart and save as an x,y ascii file on your hard drive

QC the digitized strip charts

Load digitized ascii file(s) to your "rainfall" database

Convert digitized ascii file(s) to meaningful rainfall data (time-depth series) and store in your "rainfall" database

RAINPLOT

Select a dataset (select data to analyze)

Quality control the selected data (view raw rainfall data)

Analyze the selected data using predictive statistical curve fits (includes IDF analysis)

Create a report (automated reports showing various results)

Show monthly and seasonal summaries

Display data on map using RAINMAP

Edit hydrologic default settings (customize program settings such as "months that comprise a water year" and others)

RAINSHARE

Log On

Edit, add, or delete data in your "rainfall" database

Export or import your "rainfall" database

Instructions for RAINSHARE

RAINSHARE allows you to add, delete, and edit data in your "rainfall" database, and allows you to share the contents of that database with others by importing or exporting your database tables as *.xml files. From the main menu of RAINSTART, click the 'RAINSHARE' button and the following login dialogue will appear.

Log On

To log on to RAINSHARE a user must enter a valid user name and password. The program is set up to initially allow a user called "Default Administrator" to log in with a password of 1234. For security purposes, this user should be deleted after new users and passwords have been established. To assign new users and passwords, see the 'Add Users' section of 'Log On to RAIN software programs'.

Once you log on to RAINSHARE, the following window will open.

Click the 'Select' button beside the 'Current Data Source' box in order to choose a database from which you will edit or export data.

This will open a small window that allows you to choose a database from a pull down menu. The databases available in the 'DSN' pull down menu are those that you previously set as System DSNs. Select a database from the menu and click 'OK'.

To view the contents of your database, select a table by using the pull down menu for the 'Select Table to View'.

The example below shows the contents of the "instrument" table of a database called EXACT Rainfall SQL.

To edit, add, or delete data in your "rainfall" database

Click 'Add Record' to add a new record to the table. The new record will appear as a blank line of cells at the bottom of the spreadsheet. After the new record has been populated, click the 'Save Changes to Database' button that will appear once any changes are detected by the program. To delete a record, use the backspace key to delete the contents of all the cells, and then click the 'Save Changes to Database' button that will appear once any changes are detected by the program. To edit a record, double click a cell and make any necessary changes using the backspace key, and then click the 'Save Changes to Database' button that will appear once any changes are detected by the program.

To export the contents of your "rainfall" database

To export the contents of the table that is shown in the spreadsheet click 'Export Current Table as XML'. A message box will appear stating a) the number of records that have been saved, b) the table of which the records were saved, and c) the location and file name in which the xml file was saved.

The file now exists on your hard drive and contains all of the database records (60, in the example above) for that table.

To export the contents of all tables in the currently connected database, click 'Export All Tables as XML'. A spreadsheet will appear, allowing you to select one or several tables to export. Select tables to be exported by clicking the gray box beside each table name. You may also click the 'Select All' button. Click 'Export Table(s)' to complete the process. The path and file name to which the exported files were saved will appear in the center column of the spreadsheet, and the number of records exported for each table will appear in the right column.

Each table (that contains data) will generate a separate xml file. The *.xml files now exist on your hard drive and contain the data from the tables that you selected. An example of an XML file is shown below.

The names of the xml files are the same as the tables that you exported. For example, if you exported data from the station, instrument, and chart tables, the following xml files would be created:

station.xml
Instrument.xml
Chart.xml

Tables that contain no records are not exported. You may copy the xml files from your hard drive to a CD, and later use the CD to re-create your database records on other computers using the 'Import' function described below.

To import the contents of a "rainfall" database

To import a database, ensure that a database with the proper "rainfall" database structure already exists in your hard drive ("rainfall" database). Set the empty database (that is, the database that will receive imported data) to be the working database. This database will now be overwritten by data in the xml files that you previously exported from another rainfall database. All records that do not duplicate existing records in this database will be imported.

Note: The import utility may take a long time to run if there are a large number of records to be imported. Once the import is complete you will get a status of the number of records that were successfully imported.

The process of importing data is as follows. Ensure that you have a valid "rainfall" database. Click 'Import XML File to Database'. This will open a window that allows you to select an xml file from your hard drive. Click on any one *.xml file. Click 'Open'. The current database will be populated with the entire contents of the database contained within the xml file on the CD.

The database will be populated with any records in the xml file that do not duplicate existing records. A message box will appear stating a) the number of records from the xml file that were saved to your database, and b) the path and xml file name from which the records were imported.

To view the contents of an xml file on your hard drive, click the 'View XML File' button. This will open a window that allows you to select and view an xml file from your hard drive. Select an xml file from the file directory tree, and click 'Open'. The selected xml file will be opened as a spreadsheet.

To close the spreadsheet click the 'x' in the top right corner of the window.

Go to the main User's Manual instruction page.