There are three different kinds of HTML data returned by a DODS server. Clients that request these data should be prepared to display the HTML to the user.
usage) One kind of HTML data is returned in response to a request for
server information (using the .info URL suffix), and contains
usage information for the server, including a formatted version of
the dataset DAS and DDS. This information is formatted by the
usage service program, invoked by the server.
The forms-based DODS WWW interface returns HTML data to the client.
This can either be a form a user can use to create a DODS contraint
expression or a DODS directory listing, depending on whether the URL
indicates a file with the .html suffix, or a directory
containing other files.
A badly formed URL will result in a DODS error message, which is
simply some HTML text describing the supported URL suffixes. (See
DODS_Dispatch.pm.) Note that though an error message could
in theory be returned to any client, whether or not they can display
HTML, in practice, only web browser clients are prone to these kinds
of errors. Aside from web browser clients (e.g. Netscape), the DODS
clients issue their server requests through the DODS client core
libraries, which format the URL according to the DODS conventions.
NOTE: There are two kinds of DODS error messages. The particular one described above is issued in response to a badly formed URL. Other kinds of errors are returned as ASCII data within a DODS data document. See Section A.1.3.