3 API

The suite currently consists of 13 IDL object classes and two helper programs. The main interface to the database is provided by the AmesPAHdbIDLSuite-object, which will parse the dowloaded XML-file utilizing IDL’s AmesPAHXMLParser-object. The available PAH data is divided into four parts, each handled by its own object class and providing its own functionality.

1. The Species-object, holds the PAH molecular properties,

2. The Transitions-object, holds the fundamental vibrational transitions,

3. The Laboratory_Spectrum-object holds the raw laboratory spectrum, and

4. The Geometry-objects, holds the geometrical data.

The AmesPAHdbIDLSuite-object will return one of these object classes upon request. In addition, the AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Transitions-object returns object classes upon convolving, co-adding and fitting spectra; an AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Spectrum-, AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Coadded_Spectrum- and AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Fitted_Spectrum-object, respectively. The AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Observation-object can handle some commonly used astronomical data formats. The AmesPAHdbIDLSuite_Browser-object is a graphical user interface to the database that can be used to browse its contents. Lastly, the IDL_Object-object is a class used to inherit from in IDL versions before 8.0, allowing operator overloaded classes to still compile on these earlier versions.

The application programming interface (API) and its use is described in turn.

• 3.1 Main Interface
• 3.2 Accessing the molecular PAH data
• 3.3 Working with Molecular PAH Properties
• 3.4 Working with fundamental vibrational transitions
• 3.5 Working with Molecular Geometric Data
• 3.6 Working with Raw Laboratory Spectra
• 3.7 Working Outside the AmesPAHdbIDLSuite Object Classes
• 3.8 Creating PAH Spectra
• 3.9 Spectroscopic Database Fitting