HDF Java Products

The HDF Java Products include a visual tool for browsing and editing HDF files, a Java package providing an object-oriented interface to HDF data objects, and Java Native Interfaces to the standard HDF libraries. The HDF Java Products work with both HDF4 and HDF5 files.

Product Description

HDFView A visual tool for browsing and editing HDF4 and HDF5 files.

Java HDF Object Package A Java package that implements HDF4 and HDF5 data objects in an object-oriented form. The Java HDF Object Package provides a common Java API for accessing HDF4 and HDF5 files.

Java HDF Interface (JHI) The Java Native Interface to the standard HDF4 library. Java HDF Interface (JHI) is used to access the HDF4 library.

Java HDF5 Interface (JHI5) The Java Native Interface to the standard HDF5 library. Java HDF5 Interface (JHI5) is used to access the HDF5 library.

Product	Description
HDFView	A visual tool for browsing and editing HDF4 and HDF5 files.
Java HDF Object Package	A Java package that implements HDF4 and HDF5 data objects in an object-oriented form. The Java HDF Object Package provides a common Java API for accessing HDF4 and HDF5 files.
Java HDF Interface (JHI)	The Java Native Interface to the standard HDF4 library. Java HDF Interface (JHI) is used to access the HDF4 library.
Java HDF5 Interface (JHI5)	The Java Native Interface to the standard HDF5 library. Java HDF5 Interface (JHI5) is used to access the HDF5 library.

Current Release

The current version of hdf-java takes advantage of many of the improvements introduced in HDF5 Release 1.8.0. However, since it relies on the 1.6 APIs, this version of hdf-java does not include the 200+ APIs introduced with HDF5 1.8.0, and cannot use features that are only accessible via those APIs.
HDF5 files created with HDF5 1.8.x APIs can be opened, but objects that use new file format features will not be accessible with the hdf-java products. All files and objects written by teh current version of hdf-java of the hdf-java products will be readable by applications linked with 1.6.x or 1.8.x versions of the HDF5 library.

Please refer to the related HDF5 documentation for details:
What's New in HDF5 1.8.0

API Compatibility Macros in HDF5

New Features in HDF5 Release 1.8.0 and Format Compatibility Considerations

Full support for HDF 1.8 will be provided in the next version of the HDF Java Products. That version will: (1) Implement HDF5 Java Native (JNI5) with new HDF5 1.8 APIs. (2) Use new APIs in the hdf-java object package. (3) Add features supported by the new APIs.

Download HDF Java Products

Packaged

HDFView is packaged with an installer for easy download and installation on a variety of platforms.

An older release is also available at http://www.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/hdf-java-2.5/hdfview/

Source Distribution

The source distribution is available from http://www.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/hdf-java/src.

The source distribution includes the Java code to build HDFView, the Java HDF Object Package, and related HDF4 and HDF5 Object Packages. The source distribution also includes Java classes that declare the native methods for Java HDF Interface (JHI) and Java HDF5 Interface (JHI5), and C code that implements the native methods.

JHI requires the HDF4 library (binary) and JHI5 requires the HDF5 library (binary), which are not included in the HDF Java Products source distribution. The HDF libraries can be obtained from the HDF Downloads page.

Building the HDF Java Products from the source distribution is not an easy endeavor. Refer to the following the instructions for more details:

Pre-Built Binaries

The pre-built binaries are available from http://www.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/hdf-java/bin.

The pre-built binaries include all of the HDF Java Products listed in the table above, as well as the HDF4 and HDF5 libraries required by JHI and JHI5. Binaries are provided for linux, macosx, solaris, and windows in the corresponding platform subdirectories of the ftp site.