function [mvals]=get_whfc_varmeta(url,mvals);
% GET_WHFC_VARMETA  Get variable names, long_name and units from an WHFC time series file
% return a structure of useful stuff for use in supplying TDS metadata
%
% must be called after get_whfc_time so mvals is established
% RPS & ETM 9/07
%
% etm 3/2010  modified to use mDataset from njtools
%
if(strncmp(url(end),'<',1))
    url=url(1:end-1);
end
% can't do burst files of any sort since no lat and lon coords
% this condition shouldn't be necessary here since do_sta2ncml_tdsmeta (the
% calling program) tries to deal with skipping the bursts...
if ~isempty(strfind(url,'b-cal'))
    mvals=[];
    disp(['skipping ' url])
else
    disp(url)
    nc=mDataset(url);      % uses njTools- doesn't work fully Apr. 2010
    %nc=netcdf(url);         % old way uses mexnc_linux_r14_dap/mexnc.mexglx
    if isempty(nc)
        respns=input('there is nothing in nc- want to continue?','s')
        if strncmp(lower(respns),'n',1)
            disp('exiting program')
            return
        end
    end
    
    mvals.varname=getVarNames(nc);
    kk=1;
    % don't process things likely to be coordinate variables- 1st find them
    for ik=1:length(mvals.varname)
        c1=strcmp(mvals.varname{ik},'time') | strcmp (mvals.varname{ik},'time2');
        c2=strcmp(mvals.varname{ik},'depth') | strcmp(mvals.varname{ik},'burst');
        c3=strcmp(mvals.varname{ik},'lon') | strcmp(mvals.varname{ik},'lat');
        if (c1 | c2 |c3)
            idx_coordvar(kk)=ik;
            kk=kk+1;
        end
    end
    allindx=[1:1:length(mvals.varname)];
    ncidx=setdiff(allindx, idx_coordvar);  % only the indexes of non-coord vars
    clear ij kk jj
    for ik=1:length(ncidx)
        eval(['mvals.varnames{ik} = ''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} ''';'])
        %this worked OK for most
%         eval(['mvals.long_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name(:);'])
%         eval(['mvals.cf_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name(:);'])  
       % this works OK for PVSHELF07/8521wh-a.nc
        eval(['mvals.long_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name;'])
        eval(['mvals.cf_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name;'])    
         newname=lookup_cf(mvals.long_name{ik});
         if isempty(newname)
             if (1)     % some condition may be needed here to get to the else
              eval(['mvals.cf_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name;'])
             else
               eval(['mvals.cf_name{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.long_name(:);'])                 
             end
             
           mvals.cf_sub{ik}=0;
         else
           mvals.cf_name{ik} = newname;
           mvals.cf_sub{ik}=1;
         end
        eval(['mvals.units{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.units;'])
        if isfield(mvals,'sensor_type')
            eval(['mvals.sensor_type{ik} = nc{''' mvals.varname{ncidx(ik)} '''}.sensor_type;'])
        end
    end
    mvals=rmfield(mvals,'varname');
    % now add the generic stuff we thought would be inherited
    % getInfo returns a string, getAttributes returns a structure- plan
    % accordingly!  EXPERIMENT is always present, but is sometimes empty,
    % if it's empty and it's referred to as nc.EXPERIMENT it bombs
    % the commented condition works for most but some are actually missing the
    % EXPERIMENT attribute, so hopefully the new one will work.
    %if ~isempty(getfield(getAttributes(nc),'EXPERIMENT'))
    if isfield(getAttributes(nc),'EXPERIMENT')
        if ~isempty(getfield(getAttributes(nc),'EXPERIMENT'))
           mvals.title=nc.EXPERIMENT;
        else
           mvals.title='unavailable';    
        end
    else
       mvals.title='unavailable';  
    end
    % the SciPi attribute is only in newer datasets- needs to be hand edited for older ones
    if ~isempty(strfind(getInfo(nc),'SciPi'))
       mvals.scipi=nc.SciPi;
    else
        mvals.scipi='unavailable';
    end    
    close(nc);
end