Cumulus MX (Cumulus 3) beta test
Posted: Fri 26 Dec 2014 6:22 pm
Yesterday, I "finished" the new version of Cumulus that I have been working on for some time now, which I am calling "Cumulus MX". By "finished", I mean that I have now implemented sufficient functionality for it to be made available for release for testing. It has about 90-95% of the functionality of the current version of Cumulus. I need to do some more testing on my Raspberry Pi and Macbook before I make the first beta available, but I hope to do that in the next few days, if I don't hit any major problems.
I thought that I would post a few notes, so that you know what to expect, and can ask any questions in advance.
It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It does this by virtue of being a .NET console application (targeting .NET 4.5) and can thus run on Linux and OS X using Mono. Note that Mono is not a 'hack', it is a legitimate way of running .NET applications on platforms other than Windows (or even on Windows itself), and was written using the same international standards as .NET (large parts of which are now open source). Note that the .NET 4.5 cannot be installed on obsolete Windows XP, hence Cumulus MX does not run on XP.
Cumulus MX is a console application, i.e. it runs from the command line. It provides a GUI which runs in a browser by acting as a webserver. The GUI consists of a number of HTML pages backed by JavaScript, and it supplies JSON encoded data to the browser, via a WebSocket interface for frequently changing current data, and by HTTP 'Get' requests for other data (so it can be retrieved by Ajax calls, for example). It thus requires a relatively 'modern' browser, i.e. one capable of handling HTML5 and web sockets. The major browsers have had the required support for some years now. Because of this architecture, the UI does not have to run on the same PC as the 'engine'.
For the most part, the supplied interface is 'responsive', i.e. it will adapt to different screen sizes and will hopefully work reasonably well on mobile devices.
Cumulus MX is intended to be as close to a 'drop in' replacement to the current Cumulus as possible. I could have taken the opportunity to write a completely new redesigned application from scratch, but the thought of how much work that would involve was just too depressing, so I have basically 'translated' as much of the existing code as possible. If you are looking for something that doesn't have the 'quirks' of the the current Cumulus, you should look elsewhere.
It currently produces no image files in the way that Cumulus 1 does. The graphs are generated from JSON data using JavaScript, both in the user interface, and on the default supplied web site. The gauges, again both in the UI and the web site, are a modified version of Mark's 'SteelSeries' gauges. If you haven't seen the new standard web site already, you can see it here - http://sanday.org.uk/weather/. Most of the pages are the same as the existing ones.
Cumulus MX has the same web tag processing that Cumulus 1 has; a few of the web tags are not yet supported. There is an unfortunate issue with the 'format' parameter on those web tags which provide one. The .NET date and time format characters are not exactly the same as the Delphi ones which Cumulus 1 uses. So if you have used those anywhere, you will need to change them to work with Cumulus MX. It is possible that a converter will be produced at some point.
My intention is that Cumulus MX will replace Cumulus 1 as the current, supported, version of Cumulus. Once it is out of beta, I will start adding new features to it. It is likely that some users of Cumulus 1 will not like the new version. They can of course continue to use Cumulus 1, but I will be offering less and less support in the forum for that version as time goes on.
There are probably lots of other things that I intended to say now, but I've forgotten what they were. When I think of them, I'll post them. If you have any questions at all, please do ask them - by replying in this thread. Please don't send me a private message or email, unless your question really is something that needs to be asked or answered in private.
I'm intending that it will be a 'closed' beta. I will start a new section of the forum to which beta testers will be given access, along with the download link. If you would like to be a beta tester, please reply to this thread saying so, and please give the type of weather station that you intend to test with, and the platform (i.e Operating System) you will be running it on. Be aware that testing is not going to be easy, it may not work at all for some people; diagnosis of problems may be difficult, and I will be relying on you to provide useful information to help me. It would be of great help if you are expert in either Linux or OS X, because I know next to nothing about those.
The Cumulus MX section of the forum is now open to all. You will need to be a registered user to download the file.
Please note: The purpose of the beta test is for you to TEST THE SOFTWARE for me! You will need to be familiar with how the current version of Cumulus works, and have some expertise in operating the platform that you intend to run MX on.
I thought that I would post a few notes, so that you know what to expect, and can ask any questions in advance.
It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It does this by virtue of being a .NET console application (targeting .NET 4.5) and can thus run on Linux and OS X using Mono. Note that Mono is not a 'hack', it is a legitimate way of running .NET applications on platforms other than Windows (or even on Windows itself), and was written using the same international standards as .NET (large parts of which are now open source). Note that the .NET 4.5 cannot be installed on obsolete Windows XP, hence Cumulus MX does not run on XP.
Cumulus MX is a console application, i.e. it runs from the command line. It provides a GUI which runs in a browser by acting as a webserver. The GUI consists of a number of HTML pages backed by JavaScript, and it supplies JSON encoded data to the browser, via a WebSocket interface for frequently changing current data, and by HTTP 'Get' requests for other data (so it can be retrieved by Ajax calls, for example). It thus requires a relatively 'modern' browser, i.e. one capable of handling HTML5 and web sockets. The major browsers have had the required support for some years now. Because of this architecture, the UI does not have to run on the same PC as the 'engine'.
For the most part, the supplied interface is 'responsive', i.e. it will adapt to different screen sizes and will hopefully work reasonably well on mobile devices.
Cumulus MX is intended to be as close to a 'drop in' replacement to the current Cumulus as possible. I could have taken the opportunity to write a completely new redesigned application from scratch, but the thought of how much work that would involve was just too depressing, so I have basically 'translated' as much of the existing code as possible. If you are looking for something that doesn't have the 'quirks' of the the current Cumulus, you should look elsewhere.
It currently produces no image files in the way that Cumulus 1 does. The graphs are generated from JSON data using JavaScript, both in the user interface, and on the default supplied web site. The gauges, again both in the UI and the web site, are a modified version of Mark's 'SteelSeries' gauges. If you haven't seen the new standard web site already, you can see it here - http://sanday.org.uk/weather/. Most of the pages are the same as the existing ones.
Cumulus MX has the same web tag processing that Cumulus 1 has; a few of the web tags are not yet supported. There is an unfortunate issue with the 'format' parameter on those web tags which provide one. The .NET date and time format characters are not exactly the same as the Delphi ones which Cumulus 1 uses. So if you have used those anywhere, you will need to change them to work with Cumulus MX. It is possible that a converter will be produced at some point.
My intention is that Cumulus MX will replace Cumulus 1 as the current, supported, version of Cumulus. Once it is out of beta, I will start adding new features to it. It is likely that some users of Cumulus 1 will not like the new version. They can of course continue to use Cumulus 1, but I will be offering less and less support in the forum for that version as time goes on.
There are probably lots of other things that I intended to say now, but I've forgotten what they were. When I think of them, I'll post them. If you have any questions at all, please do ask them - by replying in this thread. Please don't send me a private message or email, unless your question really is something that needs to be asked or answered in private.
I'm intending that it will be a 'closed' beta. I will start a new section of the forum to which beta testers will be given access, along with the download link. If you would like to be a beta tester, please reply to this thread saying so, and please give the type of weather station that you intend to test with, and the platform (i.e Operating System) you will be running it on. Be aware that testing is not going to be easy, it may not work at all for some people; diagnosis of problems may be difficult, and I will be relying on you to provide useful information to help me. It would be of great help if you are expert in either Linux or OS X, because I know next to nothing about those.
The Cumulus MX section of the forum is now open to all. You will need to be a registered user to download the file.
Please note: The purpose of the beta test is for you to TEST THE SOFTWARE for me! You will need to be familiar with how the current version of Cumulus works, and have some expertise in operating the platform that you intend to run MX on.
