USACE / USACE/cwms-data-api

Timeseries Post Fails when Vertical Datum Info Present

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bug
Dominant language
Java
Stars
28
Forks
25
Avg merge
4d 22h
Merged PRs (30d)
20

Description

Describe the bug
When trying to post a timeseries with vertical datum info present, a 400 error/"Bad Request" is returned. When trying my production instance of CDA ( 2026.02.06-testa ), adding the ?datum= param doesn't work when trying "OTHER". I still get the 400 error. Logs show java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Vertical Datum of OTHER is not currently supported.

When trying to copy data from production to dev server I get the same 400/"Bad Request", but this could be due to there not being any vertical datum information in that database.

Expected behavior
Support for "OTHER" vertical datum since it is an option in the datum param and better error reporting.

Is the idea that one would be able to post timeseries data in a different datum back to the database eventually?

CURL Commands

curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://myRedactedServer/cwms-data/timeseries?datum=OTHER&_cb=1772199763243' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'Authorization: apikey myRedactedKey' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json;version=2' \
  -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, max-age=0' \
  -H 'Pragma: no-cache' \
  -d '{
  "begin": "2026-02-27T12:30:34.182026Z",
  "end": "2026-02-27T13:37:53.366357Z",
  "name": "McGregor.Elev.Inst.~15Minutes.0.best-MSL1912",
  "office-id": "MVP",
  "units": "ft",
  "values": [
    [
      1772196300000,
      613.7199999999999,
      0
    ]
  ],
  "vertical-datum-info": {
    "office": "MVP",
    "unit": "ft",
    "location": "McGregor",
    "native-datum": "OTHER",
    "elevation": 600,
    "local-datum-name": "MSL1912",
    "offsets": [
      {
        "estimate": false,
        "to-datum": "NAVD-88",
        "value": -0.771
      },
      {
        "estimate": true,
        "to-datum": "NGVD-29",
        "value": -0.6185
      }
    ]
  }
}'

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the POST request against the /cwms-data/timeseries endpoint with datum=OTHER and review the reported IllegalArgumentException. Trace where vertical-datum-info and the native-datum value are validated. Done should include a defined handling path for OTHER and clearer reporting for unsupported vertical datums, with tests covering the request.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
api, backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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