Website Customizing - Is it Possible...

[MD3WSP]

Hi Steve and Others.

I would like to put the information uploaded to the website within my own templates....

First off, do you mind me doing this? and if not is it possible?

And I do suppose that I am also asking for a slightly idiots guide to what I need to copy over to my own templates?

Thanks again

James

[broadstairs]

Yes it is possible to use your own files, click on my sig banner.... these are justa quick mod to the standard files. To upload them use the second tab on the internet panel specifying the names you want the tags resolved in and the remote file names.

Stuart

[steve]

First off, do you mind me doing this?

Not at all, the supplied pages were intended to be a quick start to get you running and an example of what you could do; they're there to do as you wish with. Many people seem happy to use the default pages, though, and that's fine, I don't mind either way. Stuart's pages are a good example of the sort of thing you want to do, if I understand you correctly, then there's the stuff Kevin's been doing, and others have web sites they've designed themselves also.

Modify the existing pages, turn them into PHP, start from scratch, anything you want.

Retaining a link back to Sandaysoft/Cumulus in some way is appreciated but not required.

[arthurhh]

My little fiddle with steves page code produced

http://chh-p.dyndns.org/test.htm

[philcdav]

Hi James.

I mashed the data and generated this ..

http://www.maghull-scene.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gg_wx.htm

Not finished but it conforms to the rest of the site plan haha

Regards - Phil

[MD3WSP]

Thanks Guys and especially Steve, much appreciated...

James

[TNETWeather]

The pages that are viewable at the URL below are actually a complete template system that mimics the original pages that are normally uploaded by Cumulus.

http://cumulus.tnetweather.com

The big difference is that the pages themselves are not uploaded at all any more, just a data file and the images.

This was one of the reasons why I asked Steve to add the ability to selectively turn on and off the uploading of the normal web pages and the uploading of the normal images. After you have a template, you wouldn't need the generic pages uploaded any longer.

A file is placed on the Cumulus workstation which contains a stub of a file that contains all the known tag fields in it in a format that makes it easy to be parsed once it is processed and uploaded to the web server.

On the server is another script that stays there that when called reads the current data stub and exports what it finds into an XML formatted data file.

You can see the fields that are made available with the following URL:

http://cumulus.tnetweather.com/cumulus-xml.php?desc

Kinda of self-documents the fields as well.

The template pages use the output of the XML formatted data to get what they need to produce the pages the visitor sees dynamically with a lot less data being uploaded.

The other difference is that the pages use included common sections so that it is easy to change and add new pages.

I'm having some problems with the XML file for reasons I've not yet figured out. Every now and then it seems to have trouble loading and ends up erroring which caused the page generation to fail. Not sure what is going on yet. I hope to have it figured out soon though.

The XML data file would be usable by any PHP based script to gain access to a number of variables that Cumulus can export as well as a number of new fields that Cumulus doesn't provide like support for a Metar stations info.

With some coordination with Steve, any new fields that Cumulus comes up can easily be added to the data stub file to provide the new fields as the come available. Additional "Plugins" can be created as well that work on the server side to provide additional information.

Both the XML stuff and the web pages will be available soon so that others can take advantage of them. Then I will work on a more complete new template script.

[MD3WSP]

OK, Have tried and failed!

My web knowledge is very basic, I am a graphic Designer and most of my work is for websites and 3D Animations for Broadcast and Film, but when it comes to actual website programming, I am still very much HTML and CSS.

Does anyone have an idiot's guide to what I need to enter into the pages.

I have tried to copy the original tables from the 'web' program directory and paste them into my own template but this obviously fails, can anyone put into plain english what I am missing....

[steve]

I have tried to copy the original tables from the 'web' program directory and paste them into my own template but this obviously fails, can anyone put into plain english what I am missing....

I haven't tried myself, but I would have thought that was pretty much all you needed to do. What went wrong, exactly? If you want to send me what you have, I can have a look. Well, actually, I can ask Mrs L to have a look

[TNETWeather]

First, where are your current web pages located.

Second, if you are using the templates that come with Cumulus, you don't copy them to your webpage, you modify them on your Cumulus workstation.

The template files are located in the web directory and have the letter T at the end of them.



You would first make a copy of them (so you can go back and see something if you make a mistake) and then change those pages to become what you want them to be.

[MD3WSP]

I have a local copy of my website on my PC, I edit those pages and then upload them to my website in the UK.

All of the webpages are made up from a single CSS template.

I have not tried using the ####..T files, will try now and let you know.

Thanks for the help.

[MD3WSP]

Tried using the indexT.htm and copied over a few lines of text, then saved this as index.htm and uploaded it, this did not work, so I take it that was wrong!

[MD3WSP]

Please check out my website http://www.manxdesigns.im/weather and you will see what I am getting...

[steve]

I'm assuming your problem is not html, but getting the data values inserted?

To get the data values to be inserted into the files before upload, they have to be processed by Cumulus. The standard files (the ones with T in them) get processed automatically (if you have the default 'include standard files' option selected).

If you create your own files and want Cumulus to process and upload them, then you need to specify them in the Files tab on the internet settings page, making sure to select 'Process?' if they have web tags that need processing.

Steve

[steve]

Please check out my website http://www.manxdesigns.im/weather and you will see what I am getting...

Yes, my assumption was correct. Hopefully my previous post is some help?