Scitacean

Scitacean is a high level Python package for downloading and uploading datasets from and to SciCat.

To get started, read the User Guide.

Why Scitacean?

Scitacean abstracts away the SciCat HTTP API and makes it usable via a small number of Python functions. However, it is not the only package that does so. In particular Pyscicat has a similar but lower level abstraction. Compared to Pyscicat, Scitacean offers:

• An easier to use and harder to misuse interface.

• Combined handling of metadata and files.

• Automated handling of a number of fields and some database details like data blocks.

• Basic validation of metadata.

• File upload and download utilities.

While Scitacean provides access to a lower level interface similar to Pyscicat, it only supports a small subset of the SciCat API. Consider using Pyscicat if you need to access, e.g. sample metadata, proposals, job information, etc.