First Public release of Cumulus Toolbox

[daj]

I am excited to announce the first public release of Cumulus Toolbox, a small, but ever expanding, suite of tools to run as a Companion to Cumulus

A quick summary of what is currently on offer:

• Design your own ‘rules' based on 185 Cumulus variables. When a Rule is met the system will email any number of addresses with a customized warning message.
• Check to ensure Cumulus is running and also that Realtime processing is updating – again notification via email if this fails.
• Upload (FTP) any number of files to your webserver at regular intervals, or a specific time each day. Append to the file on the webserver, or overwrite it.
• Take a copy of the realtime.txt file being produced by Cumulus and keep a running log of this valuable data. Upload it to your website for processing too!
• Send an email into ‘Toolbox’ which will in turn update the Current Condition within Cumulus and therefore your website. For example, send it ‘Very windy’ via email and have it appear to your website viewers.

I am also currently testing texting to/from your mobile phone and the Toolbox.

Full details and installation here....http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/Toolbox

Please remember this is still in beta testing. I have done quite extensive testing but there is a lot going on and several different technologies/communication in play here so be careful out there

To all my original beta testers -- many thanks and there are several exciting new feature you have not see yet! Note, you need to update to the latest Webtag file for this release. More in the wiki


Enjoy, and please feed back anything to me via PM, on the forum, or email

thanks ya' all !

[daj]

Build 36 available

* Minor bug fixed
* Added ability for 'Toolbox' to check Cumulus is running on another PC on your network if you run Toolbox and Cumulus on different PCs

[gemini06720]

David, release 36 seems to be operating "within normal parameters"...

May I suggest a couple of options:

- a new option whereas one could choose to either close/exit Toolbox (as it is now) or send Toolbox to the system tray when clicking on the top-right-hand-side 'X' (close button);

- a new options whereas Toolbox would start minimized - with the obvious possibility of restoring its minimized action using the right-click menu available when hovering on the system tray Toolbox icon.

[daj]

May I suggest a couple of options:

- a new option whereas one could choose to either close/exit Toolbox (as it is now) or send Toolbox to the system tray when clicking on the top-right-hand-side 'X' (close button);

- a new options whereas Toolbox would start minimized - with the obvious possibility of restoring its minimized action using the right-click menu available when hovering on the system tray Toolbox icon.

Ray, your wish has been granted!

The next build will be available in a few hours, I am testing another new feature

[daj]

Build 37 is now available for Public consumption
(See first post for the URL)

Today I add another exciting new feature...scheduled HTTP requests.

For example, I have a PHP script which I run on my web server, this reads the Cumulus 'dayfile.txt' and imports it into an SQL database. Now using 'Toolbox' I can automate that process. Any event that is triggered by a normal web address (URL) can be scheduled in 'Toolbox'. It can run hourly or at a specific time each day. You can chose to ignore any feedback from the URL or you can capture this back to a file on your local PC !!

Try an example -- schedule, or test a HTTP request to

Code: Select all

 www.grantownweather.co.uk/data/ping-query.php?name=David

the ?name= can be anything. It was simply to show it passing a parameter as part of the request.

Ask 'Toolbox' to 'try it now', Ignore the response, or Store the response in a file

Don't forget that 'Toolbox' can upload files too, so now I have the complete package. Using 'Toolbox' I upload the 'dayfile.txt' at 12:15am and then it runs my script to import the file. The result is captured on a file on my Cumulus PC which I can check the following morning

Also added to Build 37....

*Minimize to System Tray
*Start up Minimized
*Confirm Close
*Auto check for new updates of Toolbox


Enjoy

[steve]

Excellent

I want to have a play with this - when I get time!

[gemini06720]

I want to have a play with this - when I get time!

Sorry Steve but that program is only for 'geeks' members...

And there is no way you will find any time soon ... spring is coming and the outside of the house need repairs...

[daj]

Build 38 is now available.
(See first post for the URL)

In this release I have added a file viewer and editor for the key Cumulus files.

*dayfile.txt
*Monthly Log files
*today.ini
*yesterday.ini
*cumulus.ini

The default is to View, however you are able to Edit if required, and Save. When saving, 'Toolbox' will create a backup of the file.... starting the file name with 'backup'

You can not edit if Cumulus is currently running, but you can view
(note, those running Cumulus on a different PC from Cumulus will not get this check!)

[nitrx]

Error in latest version I think

The file for editing or viewing from the month logfile puts more as one value in a cell

See attachment:

Hope you can fix this

[daj]

What is your field delimiter ? I'm guessing it is not a comma

[nitrx]

Good guess its's a ; (semicolon) I've a German PC with China parts and US-Parts running Win 7 Ultimate Dutch

[daj]

Build 39 available

*Should now take into account your PC regional settings for the field delimiter

[nitrx]

Great job this makes it much easier to correct 'defects'

[gemini06720]

David, if I may, I would like to make another suggestion...

The default is to View, however you are able to Edit if required, and Save. When saving, 'Toolbox' will create a backup of the file.... starting the file name with 'backup'

May I suggest that the file be saved, not with the word 'backup' preceding the name but with the date in the format '_YYYY-MM-DD_00':

- first, underline character, followed by 4-digit year number, followed by 2-digit month number, followed by 2-digit day number, followed by underline character, and finally followed by the save number starting with a double zero.

Example:

- first time the file is saved today (ie: January 30, 2020): 'cumulus_2010-01-30_00.ini'
- ...
- fifth time the file is saved today (ie: January 30, 2020): 'cumulus_2010-01-30_04.ini'

On my system, any backup file with an ending number of '_00' means the first backup of the original file - I know, I could have started my count at '_01' but looking at a folder/directory with a large number of modified files (such as used for my Web pages, where every saved file is being renamed using the above mentioned standard), the extensions ending with '_00' seem to stand out ... maybe it has to do with the binary '00'...

I have used that format for years, and more so when I do modification to scripts and templates - it allows me to follow the progression of my work (in a very few cases, that ending file count went into 3 digits ... all in one day) and, if something goes wrong, I can go back 1 or 2 or 3 (or more) previously saved file - also, that format make it easy to sort by file name...

Just another of my suggestions...

[hills]

The file editor facility is brilliant, can the template web files be included too?