This is the source distribution for aXe2web version 1.2
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1. The aXe2web software
-------------------------

aXe2web is an extension of the aXe-spectral extraction software. Its
purpose is to visualize the output created by aXe. This is done by
creating html-pages where the reduced data is displayed. Each object
in the catalogue is shown in a single row of a html-table. The
different columns show some basic information like the object
magnitude and object coordinates as well as stamp images extracted
from the direct and the grism images. Of course the most important
output, extracted spectra in counts and in physical units is also
given. Besides the pages which show the details on individual objects
there exists an index page, a page with an overview over all objects
as well as an info page which shows the files/data and parameter
settings used for the aXe2web-run. All pages are crosslinked to enable
fast navigation within the data-set.

aXe2web is NOT a program to analyze you data. However it is a tool
to quickly get an overview on your extracted spectra. Looking over the
webpages created by aXe2web you can address and pinn down problems in
the data reduction or pick out intersting objects out of the large
amount of reduced data or compare the output of two different aXe-runs
on the same input data.


2. Requirements
----------------
- pyfits
- PyRAF/IRAF
- numpy
- matplotlib

Please install those packages according to the instructions given with
the respective distribution.

In case that you do not have the privileges to install the packages at
their default location (usually at the 'site-packages' close to the
location of python) it may be wise to install them at a common
location, e.g. under "/yourpath/pythonlibs/", where "yourpath" is the
location of a directory accessible to you. In this case do not forget
to:

- put the path to those packages on your variable '$PYTHONPATH'.
  Then python can find and load them.


3. Installing aXe2web
----------------------
Installing aXe2web should be easy and straightforward.
Simply type:

python setup.py install

and the disutil package of python should do the rest for you! By
default aXe2web is installed next to the 'python' script and in the
site-packages of the python distribution.

If you do not have write access to those directories, you can redirect
the installation directory using the option 'python setup.py install
--prefix=<dir>' with <dir> a directory of your choice. Use 'python
setup.py install --help' to get information on all install options.

4. Using aXe2web
-----------------
The general usage of aXe2web is of the form:

aXe2web --setting1 value1 --setting2 value2 ...

For convenience some settings can be collected in a parameter file and
given to the program with the setting '--parfile filename'.

There is only a small number of mandatory settings. Most of the
settings have an effect on the appearance of the output-webpages. For
the not mandatory settings reasonable default values are taken in case
that they are not explicitly given.

For a detailed description of all the settings look at the
documentation which comes along with this distribution, or simply
invoke the online-help typing 'aXe2web --help'.


5. Documentation
-----------------
The available documentation is in the subdirectory
'<yout_path>/site-packages/aXe2html/doc'.
There you find the file 'aXe2web_help.html' which contains a
detailed description of the usage of aXe2web. 

For new releases and/or new features of aXe2web, please look at:
http://www.stecf.org/software/slitless_software/axe/axe2web.php

7. Contact and information
---------------------------
In case of problems with this source distribution, or to get further
help and more information concerning aXe2web and its use, do not
hesitate to contact us at stdesk@stecf.org

M. Kuemmel
August 1st 2010