The backbone of WIRED 4 is the HepRep2 standard. In principle this is the only "format" that WIRED 4 accepts. However, additional plugin modules make HepRep1 and older formats also available to WIRED 4. If you were to write a plugin module to make your data accessible in HepRep format, HepRep2 would be the better choice.
The HepRep2 format stores information such as points in a tree structure. Special drawing attributes are attached to the tree to show how to represent the points (as symbols, as lines, as polygons, cylinders, etc). With this information WIRED 4 can do a projection and make a drawing on the screen. Additional information of any type, including physics attributes, can be attached. This information can be shown on the screen in picking mode, or be used in future for cuts.
HepRep2 data can be read from files, either in the form of XML HepRep (.heprep) or in the form of Binary HepRep (.bheprep). XML files tend to be fairly large while Binary HepRep files are quite a bit smaller and faster to parse. Both XML HepRep and Binary HepRep files can be compressed using gzip format (.gz extension). However, to allow multiple events to be stored in one file, HepRep2 uses the zip format (.zip extension), which allows semi-random access to the events and compression at the same time. The HepRep plugin handles all these different file combinations.
HepRep1 files can also be read. The same applies for compression and multi-event handling as for HepRep2, but no Binary HepRep exists for HepRep1. HepRep1 data, once read in, is converted on the fly to HepRep2 data.
HepRep files can be opened by selecting Open Data Source... from the File menu and selecting the HepRep XML wizard.
HepRep data can also be accessed using the WIRED CORBA HepRep Client Plugin. This plugin is a client of the HepEventServer and JProcMan systems and needs to be separately installed.
HepRep CORBA connections can be created by selecting Open Data Source... from the File menu and selecting the HepRep CORBA Servers wizard. Appendix A: BaBar and Appendix B: GLAST explain how to select data from a CORBA server.