Dear Stephan,

> *   have a panel in HIPE to launch Aladin (similar to the Aladin button
> to call SPLAT)
> *   display Herschel PACS and SPIRE maps available within HIPE in Aladin

Thank you for your first requirements. Could you send me some sample 
Herschel PACS and SPIRA maps, so I can check if they load fine in Aladin
?

> I don't know whether Aladin permits to modify images. If so, then it
> should be possible to sent the modified image back to HIPE for further
> processing.

Yes, Aladin can modify images, thus we have to take this use case into
account.

I will be off for 2 weeks, but in the meantime, here are some technical
informations for Paul and Jaime :

There are basically two possible options in order to bind in Aladin into
Herschel Data Analysis Software (HDAS) :

- The first option is to launch Aladin directly from HDAS. As HDAS and
Aladin are both written in Java, this should be as straightforward as :
aladin = cds.aladin.Aladin.launch();

In that case, both applications would run in the same Java Virtual
Machine.
Once Aladin is launched, interactions are performed through the 'VOApp'
interface, detailed here : http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/FAQ.htx#VOApp

This option is the one currently used used by APT - the HST Astronomer
Proposal Tool - to interact with Aladin

- The second option is to launch Aladin in a separate process, and use
PLASTIC to make HDAS talk to Aladin. This is similar to how Aladin
interacts with VOSpec or SPLAT for instance.
In that case, HDAS and Aladin would run in different JVMs.
Launching Aladin would be something like :
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("javaws
http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/aladin.jnlp");

The IVOA note describing the PLASTIC protocol is available here :
http://ivoa.net/Documents/latest/PlasticDesktopInterop.html
You will also find useful informations about PLASTIC on the following
site : http://plastic.sourceforge.net/


I think that both options have to be considered.
The first one might be easier and quicker to implement, but the second
one is more flexible : once your application is PLASTIC-compatible, it
is able to interact with any other 'PLASTICized' app, not only with
Aladin.

Best regards,

Thomas