deriving time dimension from metadata

[jorritscholze]

Currently, zappend requires a time dimension to be present within the product itself or a custom slice source needs to be given to create the time dimension. It would be beneficial for zappend to also utilize the metadata fields for creating the time dimension.

[forman]

@jorritscholze Good point! How would you like to see that implemented/configured? Names of time metadata fields may differ, and the format of time values as well.

[forman]

For maximum flexibility we may use Python expressions in the configuration, see also here. Suggestion:

{
  "append_dim": "time",
  "append_coords": {
    "time": {
        "dims": ["time"],
        "values": "{{ [to_datetime(ds.attrs['START_TIME'])] }}",
    },
    "time_bnds": {
        "dims": ["time", "bnds"],
        "values": "{{ [to_datetime(ds.attrs['START_TIME']), to_datetime(ds.attrs['STOP_TIME'])] }}",
    }
  }
}