Setting up Steel Series Gauges with Cumulus

[Oxted Weather]

Hello all,
I've been running a weather station for over a year now and have decided to make a bit of effort to try to put up a decent weather web site for displaying my data. After considering the software options available I have decided that Cumulus is the best solution for me. Also I particularly like the Steel Gauges presentation. Not only does it look good but also works on IOS devices (which Flash displays obviously do not).

I have successfully managed to get the standard Cumulus web site up and running.
See here:
www.oxtedweather.webspace.virginmedia.com

I have now downloaded the Steel Series files and I am attempting to implement these on my web site. I have tried to follow Mark's detailed instructions but cannot get it to work properly.

To find a solution I need to understand more about how the architecture of this system works. I have a very basic level knowledge of how web sites and html works and would like to build on that so I can develop this web site further.

Perhaps you can help me with the following questions:

1/ The ....internet/files options on cumulus. What exactly do these options do? What is the significance of the tick box options (binary, process realtime,ftp)?
2/ Should the files in my web root folder be the ones with the T or without (e.g. gauges-ssT.htm) What is the significance of the T files?
3/ When you select File/Web Update in Cumulus it presumably is supposed to load everything in your Cumulus web folder to your web space. This didn't seem to happen so I directly loaded the files to the web site via file manager. Is that correct?
During the logging of the web upload, the system tries to upload the gauges-ssT.htm file to the remote .....gauges-ss.htm file as per file options. The log then reports a FTP error. Next line it changes directory to htdocs (See last paragraph) and carries on loading the rest of the files. Not sure what is happening here.
4/ How does the web site access the scripts to display the gauges?
5/ What are the .css files for?

If I go to my web site and try to view (using browser URL field) the gauges-ss.htm file it is not there. If I try to view the gauges-ssT.htm file the gauges are displayed but none of the data is in the fields on the page. I'm probably being completely thick about all this but that is the problem with just trying to follow instructions without understanding what you're doing. What I'd really like is to see is a list of which files should be in my Cumulus web folder and which files should be in my web root folder.

One last thing: virgin media webspace seems to say that the website documents are in a subfolder called /htdocs. This is what I have put in the Cumulus ....Internet/site directory option. Is this correct? I have host name set to ftp.webspace.virgin.media.com which seems to work.

Sorry to drone on but any help with this would be much appreciated.

Best regards,
Julian

www.oxtedweather.webspace.virginmedia.com

[beteljuice]

Get your basic site working first.

There is something wrong with your ftp paths.

Your index page says 11:53, but your realtime.txt says 18/03/12 12:57:07

I assume you have done a 'manual' upload of some kind ?

xxxT.htm files are (standard) Cumulus TEMPLATE files. (your own files can be called anything you declare)

Theses are 'processed' having all the <#webtags> replaced by data and then uploaded to site.

You should NOT be uploading Template files.

Read the Help / Wiki / search the forum.

Lots of posts on not getting ftp paths right - can vary dependent upon host.

[steve]

It looks to me like you've configured the ftp path correctly, since the realtime.txt upload is working, but you haven't ticked 'auto update', so your web pages haven't updated since you did the "File --> Web update".

If you're getting an ftp error for the gauges-ss.htm file upload, then you probably haven't configured the remote file name and path correctly. What have you put for that?

Those options on the internet files screen are described in the help.

[Oxted Weather]

Steve/beteljuice,
Thanks for your quick responses.
The autoupdate seems to have fixed the timing issue.
Regarding the 2 file uploads, I have the following set up on the Internet/files page:

Local
C:\Weather Station\Cumulus\web\realtimegaugesT.txt
Remote
http://www.oxtedweather.webspace.virgin ... gauges.txt plus binary unticked and all 3 other boxes ticked

Local
C:\Weather Station\Cumulus\web\gauges-ssT.htm
Remote
http://www.oxtedweather.webspace.virgin ... ges-ss.htm plus binary unticked and all 3 other boxes ticked

Am I right in saying that at each realtime update is triggered (in my case every 10 seconds) Cumulus applies the realtime data from the Cumulus software at that instant to the realtimesgaugesT.txt template file and then names that file realtimesgauges.txt and uploads it and this over writes the previous version? Similarly the for the gauges-ssT.txt/gauges-ss.htm files?

Edited to add:
I've just noticed there is no gauges-ss.htm file appearing with the other web files on the site, only gauges.htm. However in the Cumulus web folder there are:
gauges.htm
gaugesT.htm
gauges-ssT.htm
gauges-ssT.htmtmp

but NO:
gauges-ss.htm

The site would all appear to be working correctly with the standard cumulus gauges and realtime wind display, but not the ss gauges.
Thanks for all your help on this.
Julian
http://www.oxtedweather.webspace.virginmedia.com/

[steve]

Am I right in saying that at each realtime update is triggered (in my case every 10 seconds) Cumulus applies the realtime data from the Cumulus software at that instant to the realtimesgaugesT.txt template file and then names that file realtimesgauges.txt and uploads it and this over writes the previous version? Similarly the for the gauges-ssT.txt/gauges-ss.htm files?

Yes, that's right.

The problem with the gauges-ss.htm upload is that you've put an HTTP URL for the remote file. The file is uploaded using FTP, not HTTP. You have to put a path that the FTP server will understand. These are probably:

htdocs/realtimegauges.txt
htdocs/gauges-ss.htm

[steve]

Your graphs and other images aren't updating. Do you still have 'include standard images' ticked?

[Oxted Weather]

I have changed the path for the remote files to just the htdocs/.... as you have suggested.
There is no gauges-ss.htm file generated in the Cumulus web folder. Therefore no gauges-ss.htm file to upload to the site. Shouldn't this file appear in the cumulus web folder for upload?

Also I have now ticked the "include standardimages" box as you suggest.

Julian

[steve]

I have changed the path for the remote files to just the htdocs/.... as you have suggested.
There is no gauges-ss.htm file generated in the Cumulus web folder. Therefore no gauges-ss.htm file to upload to the site. Shouldn't this file appear in the cumulus web folder for upload?

FTP doesn't work that way. There doesn't have to be a file on the local system with the same name as the destination file, the filename is specified as part of the protocol. When Cumulus processes a file on the files tab of the internet settings, the processed file has a filename the same as the 'template' file, with 'tmp' tacked on the end. So, if you've specified a local file of gauges-ssT.htm, Cumulus creates a processed file called gaugesT.htmtmp. It then uploads the contents of that file to the FTP server, and tells the server to give it the name that you've specified in the 'remote filenames' column of the files tab.

So, if you've specified a local file of 'C:\Weather Station\Cumulus\web\gauges-ssT.htm' then provided that file exists, and you've ticked the 'process?' box, Cumulus should be generating a file called 'C:\Weather Station\Cumulus\web\gauges-ssT.htmtmp'.

Edit: It looks like you have it working now?

[Oxted Weather]

Thanks so much for your help with this Steve. Now I can understand what it's doing it make a lot more sense.
Now to edit the gauges.js file and amend the other pages!

Julian

[KegRaider]

Wow, thanks for these cool gauges!

It took me a few minutes to figure out where to change stuff and upload to my FTP, but after CAREFULLY reading (had a man look to start with), it is running great!

Sorry for thread hijacking, but I'm excited

_KegRaider

[etooso]

Hi
Where do I download the Steel Series files for Cumulus?

Regards
Øystein

[gemini06720]

Øystein, the forum for the downloads of the SteelSeries gauges is SteelSeries Announcements.

But if you bookmark this SteelSeries Gauges link you will have root access to all the conversations about the SteelSeries gauges...

[William Grimsley]

Hello there, I've got a problem with my Steelseries gauges. My forecast doesn't seem to work and doesn't display at the top of the page. Instead it just says"Downloading..." when it updates and then it dissapears with just a blank box and no forecast text. Please can you help?

Thanks

Page URL with problem: http://www.newton-poppleford-weather.co.uk/gauges.htm

Will

[mcrossley]

Will, normally it is best to start a new topics for a new problem. I have already replied to this question in this topic.