Cumulus Support

Please excuse my probably stupid question, which may be in the wrong part of the forum!

I have CumulusMX running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, I don’t have, or want a web site but I’d love a Data Summary Page. I think from reading the Wiki and Forum pages that there isn’t an easy way of ‘attaching’ this page to the CumulusMX dashboard. The only way to tackle it is to build a web server to create the data summary. Is there an ‘idiot’ option for this as I don’t have knowledge of PHP etc. I’m happy to have a go but would be grateful for any steer towards the simplest option to begin with. Thank you.

Linda - Hopefully someone who has installed that data summary page can give instructions for exactly what you need to do... (but forum members here are not always that helpful ...)

As an alternative, do an online search for how to set up a very simple web server on a RPi; the search will reveal there are many such guides out there, and there should be a suitable guide simple enough for you.

Otherwise, resort to the Cumulus Wiki, start with https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Your_Own_Serv ... n_purposes. That wiki page (like many others) is probably very out of date now as software changes so rapidly, but it does list 3 servers (EDIT: ighttpd, nginx that Mark uses, and apache2; again there are online articles that compare these) that work with the Linux used on a RPi.

(EDIT: You must check which php versions that data summary works with, the relevant forum topic will reveal that). There is a guide online (EDIT: it is at https://lindevs.com/install-php-on-raspberry-pi/ that now talks about installing 8.1, but you can replace each mention of "8.1" with the version you need for your web page) for adding an extra repository that allows you to choose any version of PHP, if the default repository on the RPi only loads an unsuitable version.

I recall I had to work out for myself (because I could NOT find it online) which configuration files in /etc/php (and the sub-folder in /etc for the server) on my RPi 3B I needed to adjust on my RPi to actually use a more up-to-date PHP version, because those files are specific to Raspberry Pi O.S. and depend on web server you choose. (EDIT: e.g. if you selected the complicated Apache2 server, you have to create symbolic links in /etc/apache2/mods-available for relevant PHP version, I thought I had made some notes on the exact procedure I followed, but my notes are incomplete.)

Thank you very much for your response, and your help. I suspect the only way is to try to build a web server, I’m trying to avoid it….. I’m contemplating buying a spare ‘development’ Pi to avoid messing up the live one.

My recent experience of CumulusMX and websites might help you. I started with CMX running on a RPi v4 and just using the standard admin interface to record and view the weather data and to provide the upload facility to transfer the data to Wunderground, PWS and Windy.

In mid 2021 I started with the CumlusUtils flavour web site hosted locally on my RPi which helped to get me familiar with how web sites function, it just needed to set up Apache2 and PHP and then use the /var/www/html area to develop and view the early website. In November I migrated the website to a publicly hosted site and using filezilla you are able to adjust it as you see fit. At one point I integrated the default CMX site but this has subsequently been removed.

One thing that helped me was the understanding that your primary data recording remains at the CMX level, the websites merely act as a viewing platform for the data and any extra links you might want.

I hope this helps

A belated ‘thank you’ for all of your replies.

I’ve been looking at the various flavours of summary page available. The first step will be the web server on my Pi, I migrated that to an SSD as I was worried about the SD card wear and capacity. As suggested I can use the plentiful assistance for this. I think I’ll then try the cumulusutils as it seems the least complicated. Something to keep me busy for a while