Description

The IGRF data in apex.dat needs to be updated every 5 years. To ensure this is done, I added a unit test for initializing an Apex object with today's date (this will fail if the IGRF data in apex.dat is too old) and added a cron job to run every Monday. Installation instructions are also improved, following issue #110. Addresses #111.

Type of change

Please delete options that are not relevant.

New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
This change requires a documentation update

How Has This Been Tested?

If the current date is bad (e.g., more than 5 years since the IGRF update), the fortran code will put out an error

import apexpy
import datetime as dt

stime = dt.datetime(2034, 1, 1)
apex = apexpy.Apex(date=stime)

In ipython, this will crash with the error: COFRM: DATE 2034.0 is after the last recommended for extrapolation 1905.0. This isn't an exception that is caught by Python, so we don't test for it in the unit tests. We only check for its failure to know when apex.dat needs to be updated.

Test Configuration

Operating system: OS X Big Sur
Python version number: Python 3.9
Compiler with version number: gfortran 12.2
Relevant local setup details: N/A

Checklist

[x] Make sure you are merging into the develop (not main) branch
[x] My code follows the style guidelines of this project
[x] I have performed a self-review of my own code
[x] I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
[x] I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
[x] My changes generate no new warnings
[x] I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
[x] New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
[x] Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules
[x] Add a note to Changelog.rst, summarising the changes
[x] Add yourself to AUTHORS.rst and .zenodo.json

aburrell / apexpy

Improve testing for apex.dat #112

Description

Type of change

How Has This Been Tested?

Test Configuration

Checklist