Skip to main content

First access and interface

You can access the ESA MAAP coding environment (Experiment) from the ESA PAL page. Once there, you can scroll down and click on "Coding (Experiment)". 

image.png

Next, you can choose between four different environments:

  • Minimal: the simplest one, with the minimum number of pre-installed packages and libraries.
  • Datascience: it comes with Python, R and Julia, together with some scientific packages already installed on it.
  • MAAP: it comes with some specific pre-installed libraries for MAAP users. Python is the only language installed.
  • Rtools add-on: it comes with both Python and R, with the R tools already installed.

Interface

As you can see from the image below, the ESA MAAP coding environment is based on Jupyter. This means that most of the functionalities related to writing codes, interacting with the terminal or managing the file browser, are exactly the same. So, the main aspects will be covered in this guide, but in case you need a deeper understanding you can refer to the Jupyter documentation.

Once the workspace has loaded, you can see the Jupyter interface, characterized by the Launcher, the file browser and the sidebar.

Launcher

The launcherLauncher is the central part of the screen, where the available kernels are displayed.

To display a new Launcher page, you can click on the blue icon “+” on the top left.

From the Launcher, you can:

  • Create a new notebook file 

  • Write commands by console

  • Open the terminal

  • Create new text and markdown files

  • Create new Python files (.py)py) or, depending on the chosen environment, create also R (.r)r) and Julia (.jl)jl) files

Notebook files

To create and edit a new notebook file (.ipynb)ipynb), you can click on one of the kernel icons under the “Notebook” section, depending on which programming language you want to use. The new notebook file will appear on the left side, initially named “Untitled.ipynb”ipynb. The new file will be saved under the current working directory.

Console

By clicking on one of the icons under the “Console”Console” section, you can write commands in the language you selected. Commands can be written in multiple rows (by clicking Enter) and they can be sent by clicking Shift + Enter.Enter. 

Terminal

The terminal is accessible by clicking on the “Terminal” icon, under the “Other” section, and it will be opened referring to the current working directory. You can assess your current directory by typing the “pwd”pwd command. The user’s Jupyter home directory (~) is mounted to /home/jovyan.jovyan. Files in here persist across sessions and exist across the workspaces. Other folders can be created in /home/jovyan (e.g. /home/jovyan/new_folder)new_folder) to organize files in a persistent way.way. See the related documentation to learn more.

Sidebar

On the left part of the screen, you can find the Jupyter Sidebar, which includes:

Note: the Git repo interface is not available in the “Minimal Environment”.

 

Back to top