CumulusUtils

[HansR]

CumulusUtils is the ideal tool for the amateur meteorologist who likes looking at the weather, but is less interested in computer technology, at least less interested to start with. It can be downloaded from here. If you are a user you may want to subscribe to this thread.

One of the main features of CumulusUtils is the Website Generator which gives the beginner a head start with respect to other website tools and templates, no PHP or other scripting involved. If you have common knowledge of a computer and have CumulusMX installed, you are set for an easy installation and quick use of the CumulusUtils Website. Prepare a website domain, accessible through FTP to start. The generated site is best for the larger monitors, although it's responsive design makes it well usable on tablets and phones as well. It also has lots of graphs showing you the past data and the site may be expanded through User Extensions in the modifiable menu.

Beyond the site generator, Cumulusutils is a modular utility which supplies a Fire Weather Index and additional (more or less) simple HTML formatted functions for websites, which are otherwise more difficult to get. Modules and generator can all be used independently. All modules and the generated site can be seen operational on my site. Read the Manual (in the distribution) for information on how to use.

The following functionalities are included:

1. A Website Generator (all modules will be used).
2. Modules:
   • A Fire Weather Index (pwsFWI) specially designed for personal weather stations (see scientific background and other blogs).
   • Website, including user extensions possibility.
   • Graphs (Rain, Temperature, Wind, Solar - when available - and Miscellaneous);
   • YADR – Yet Another Dayfile Reader (subset of all data);
   • Records, Day records and a top10 record list;
   • A system info page.
   • A Map showing Cumulus(utils) installations
   • NOAA reports
   • Forecasts
   • User Reports
   • Station Map (only useful for larger monitors)
   • Air Quality with a Table View and Graph View
     (for the Davis AirLink and my own FakeAirLink, only when sensors available)

CumulusUtils runs stand-alone, in the same environment and under the account of cumulus itself. It runs on all OSs Cumulus runs on, and may interact directly with the Cumulus program. It only uses the data (a copy of) when needed. For version 4.0.0 onwards it cooperates only with CumulusMX. On a module level it can still be used with Cumulus 1.
There is an optional internal FTP facility to upload output to wherever you like on your internet domain.
For support purposes, CumulusUtils generates a cumulusutils.log file and an FTPlog.txt file. In [the unlikely] case of trouble, please send it.

NOTE: If you use deviating units from what I personally use (e.g. imperial units) you enter untested parts of the program so be prepared to communicate with me.
NOTE: read this thread backwards for release notes and the status of the tool, read the manual for the complete release notes.
NOTE: the installation has changed as from version 4.7.0: install executables in utils/bin and run as 'utils/bin/cumulusutils.exe [work]' from the CumulusMX directory.

[HansR]

Version 3.1.1 is online.

I think it speaks for itself.

[HansR]

Version 3.1.2 is online

This is a bug fix release for the website generator only, the moon is a confusing fragile object.
Too occupied with the switching of the dashboards lately, ignoring some details elsewhere. Sorry about that.

[HansR]

Version 3.2.0 is online

This is kind of rapid fire after the fix release of this morning, but just see for yourself if you think it useful to install.

The large update of Graphs module contains the temperature statistics graph which is especially interesting for those with longer data series (I'd say at least three years). Since I have only 10 month of data, that is hardly interesting and difficult to get the experience, so I count on testing and a bit of feedback concerning the user interface and how it functions.

Another similar update for rain will come soon but I'll wait a few days for this to settle.

[HansR]

Version 3.3.0 is online

The website now has a fully responsive bootstrap 4 dropdown menu and it should work on all devices. That does not mean it is useful to use the CumulusUtils website on all devices. Especially small screens have a large distance between reports and the menu. Small screens may only be useful for the 'realtime' data i.e. the switchable dashboard. But that is a great feature I think. The 'dropdown on hover' has been abandoned.

The Yearly Rain statistics per month are now available.

Hope you like it.

[HansR]

Version 3.3.5 is now online

Appearance and skins

CumulusUtils does not know skins in the more complex meaning of giving the website a complete other look and feel than your neighbours. It was not there at the origin and not by design, so don't expect it ever to make an appearance. To compensate a bit for this lack of personalisation, it is possible to give the appearance a personal touch by colouring. All main features of the site can be configured for colour.

Twenty parameters starting with 'Color', followed by a meaningful description describe the colour appearance of the website. You are free to make any combination but you're on your own. If you are satisfied, please share the settings on the forum. I'll make a special thread for it.

[HansR]

Version 3.3.6 is online

The parameter 'ColorMenuBackground=Lightgrey' had been erroneously set as 'Lightgrey=Royalblue'.
To avoid confusion in future, if you did already install and run, please remove the color parameters and especially the 'Lightgrey', install the new CumulusUtils 3.3.6 and rerun.
My apologies

[HansR]

Version 3.3.7 is online

This is a correction release to get the displayed version number equal to the in the forum published version number.
There is a minor functional addition (photo in the title header).
Sorry for the version number mistake .

More haste, less speed.

[HansR]

Version 3.3.8 is online

The release notes are clear I guess. Chance would have it that I had given the menu bar the same colour as the menu toggler. So when looking on a phone there was a menu, but you did not see it. The other two fixes improve the rain graphs.

[HansR]

Version 3.3.9 is online

Contains the promised correction for the Daily Rain graph Y-axis range.

[HansR]

Version 3.4.0 is online

Contains a new Forecast module.

[Edit:] I would advice, if you use module 'Forecast', to run CumulusUtils after 01h00 because the update of the API file may delay a bit and to have yesterdays day as the first entry does not seem to me what you want.

[HansR]

Version 3.4.1 is online

I changed the Cumulus Graphs (the opening graph) to accommodate 'Feels Like'. Related to the introduction of Feels Like, I introduced ini parameters in the [Website] section for Apparent, Feels Like, Wind Chill and Heat Index for the user to select show or no show (values true or false) of these temperature derivatives for human perception of the weather.

In relation to this, I would like to repeat the remark, that the user can edit cumulusutils.ini and reorder the parameters for clarity. You can NOT move parameters to other sections though, a parameter MUST stay in the section (if removed, CumulusUtils will recreate the parameter with the default value!).

[HansR]

Version 3.5.0 is online

This version implements the first phase of the transalation system of CumulusUtils and contains all existing strings used in the modules.
The next phase will add all strings used by the website (e.g. the dashboards). The gauges have their own translation.

The translation is described in the manual. A short description follows here:

1. The language used is defined in cumulusutils.ini in the section [General], running once will make appear the ini parameter Language containing the ISO two letter code for a country.
2. The language code is used for translating the gauges (which have their own translation system) and it will generate a file CUstrings[Language Code].ini which will contain all strings used by CumulusUtils.
3. The language file MUST be saved in UTF-8 encoding to accommodate all language characters, including the French accents and cedille, the Norwegian characters but also Greek and Russian. Use an editor which can save encoded!
4. Language files can be shared via the forum. Translations efforts can be shared as well of course.

Although you don't see it easily, it had quite some impact on the code so there may be an error here and there.
Let me know if there are any problems.

Happy translating.
(I won't be available tomorrow)

[HansR]

Version 3.5.3 is online

The translation approaches its completion. All strings have been added to the system but the strings in the Cumulus Charts (the charts you see when starting the site. Those charts are a bit more complicated and demand some peace around me to complete.

With respect to the translation you may have noticed that the ini parameter names have changed. I hope it did not bother you too much, That won't happen again Nevertheless, it gave you the chance to run over the texts again and reconsider. Sometimes strings have been duplicated because of the place and space where they were intended. Giving them separate entries in the inifile gives the user more freedom to play with the text. Sometimes space is limited and you have yo adapt.

Month names have always been in local language if your system locale was local. That will remain so and in future I will set the locale for the program to the locale of the language you choose (I will not make any distinction between dialects of e.g. English). Some output will then be automatically converted to your language so if you wondered why there are nog months and weekday to translate: there it is.

If you find any strings which I missed, please let me know.
I will start a sticky thread for sharing language files.

[HansR]

Version 3.5.4 is online

With this release the translation system is complete.
New strings may be added if new modules are made, but those are minor modifications.

Please notify me of any untranslated strings.
English: please notify me of spelling errors.

[Edit:] Apologies - when I said the translation system is complete, I forgot the promise of the addition of the language locale for the program. So there will be a minor addition coming up later. this week. You will be informed.