Cumulus Support

I have only had Cumulus (1.8.9 bld 930) for a few days. I am not a "programmer", but was able to add
"Temperature Trend" in the blank area right of "Heat Index" in indext.htm. This might be a candidate for update to the distributed version of Cumulus. Thanks Steve for a great product.
Anybody else made small useful changes? John

Changing the supplied web templates isn't high on my list of priorities, as it's something that anyone can do for themselves - and a lot of people choose to replace them completely (as I had hoped). The supplied ones are really just 'examples', to be used as a quick start to get up and running.

What I do propose to do in Cumulus 2 (eventually) is improve the facilities for uploading your own web pages; the current scheme isn't nearly flexible enough.

John,

I too had a go at this and have put the Temperature Trend above Dew Point and slipped the Dew Point and Humidity down.
http://members.aussiebroadband.com.au/muster/index.htm

I also added a menu at the top (have left the bottom menu in place) as I found myself having to scroll to the bottom on some pages. Also added a button to Real Time data that opens in a new browser window to display the MS Silverlight realtime data.

I've also added iphone access to my website using the information and downloads available on the forum. A fortnight ago I would not have been able to master these things.

I'm learning the html as I go and the Cumulus standard webpages and help on this forum have given me the opportunity to learn some new code and play with it. Next to master is a banner.

Thanks Steve for a wonderful piece of software (and the associated website stuff) plus a big thankyou to all the other forum members for their help along the way. This is a fantastic web community that I am pleased to be part of.

Bob

I edited my webcam page. I had seen enough of Steve's back yard!

I also created a "links" page to other things I found interesting. You're both right I couldn't have done any of it without help from Steve, Daj, tnetweather and other members of this forum either!

So far I have kept the basic templates, but I've changed the 'now' and 'gauges' pages to self update every minute.

Mark,

I've been trying to work out how you have set up your guages page. Love it. Unfortunately, I'm not up with modifying the html and adding various scripts to the level you are. I've been looking at the source, can't figure it out. I assume you have a GuagesT.htm that is processed by Cumulus and uploads.

Bob

tjaliwalpa wrote:Mark,
... I assume you have a GuagesT.htm that is processed by Cumulus and uploads....

No, Cumulus no longer processes those pages, the javascript within the page downloads an 'enhanced' version of realtime.txt (actually a modified version of the cumulswebtagsphp file), and populates all the fields on the page (or gauges) from the data in that file.

steve wrote:a lot of people choose to replace them completely (as I had hoped). The supplied ones are really just 'examples', to be used as a quick start to get up and running.

Steve,

Your post has reminded me how I felt back in December 2009, having just installed your 'example' pages and being so pleased with displaying your Cumulus data on the web! But then, of course, naturally, as many do, want to make a few small 'tweaks'. Your example pages were great, but also so straight forward to understand and 'develop'.

But I must admit, when first started 'tweaking' your example pages, I felt guilty! I don't know why, but I just had trouble 'moving to far away' from your template! As it happens, after 6 months, my pages are still based on your templates as I like the layout, I've just added a few bells and whistles (and learnt so much on the way!).

Thanks again for the opportunity to learn so much!

j675 wrote:...but was able to add "Temperature Trend" in the blank area right of "Heat Index" in indext.htm...

John, it might have been a good idea had you included a link to those Web pages ... as you were somewhat negligent not entering some profile information for your Location and your Website...

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I too had a go at this and have put the Temperature Trend above Dew Point and slipped the Dew Point and Humidity down...

Bob, well done ... and the new and modified HTML code is clean (right code at the right place the right way) ... good work.

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I also added a menu at the top (have left the bottom menu in place) as I found myself having to scroll to the bottom on some pages. Also added a button to Real Time data that opens in a new browser window to display the MS Silverlight realtime data.

Indeed, Bob, having menus at the bottom only is, in my view, 'poor programming' unless a button/pointer is provided to quickly go to the bottom of the page. Having menus at both the top and the bottom of a page is a great solution.

The Real Time Data button is a nice touch - you do realise thought that you could have put that link within the already available menu items...

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I'm learning the html as I go and the Cumulus standard webpages and help on this forum have given me the opportunity to learn some new code and play with it. Next to master is a banner...

Bob, may I suggest that you venture into PHP as it offers so much more flexibilities and possibilities that you will never be able to accomplish with HTML 4 (HTML 5 is another story, although not yet 'officially' released and not yet 'fully supported' by all browsers). As for adding a banner, a combination of PHP and JavaScript code is what you will need...

mcrossley wrote:...So far I have kept the basic templates, but I've changed the 'now' and 'gauges' pages to self update every minute...

Mark, unfortunately, the gauges page still momentarily freeze my Firefox...

Mark, have you had a chance of passing the code of your pages through the W3C Markup Validation Service - it indicates 9 errors and 10 warnings...

Mark, your next step: Converting your pages to PHP and only needing to upload 2-3 files/updates...

gemini06720 wrote:

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I too had a go at this and have put the Temperature Trend above Dew Point and slipped the Dew Point and Humidity down...

Bob, well done ... and the new and modified HTML code is clean (right code at the right place the right way) ... good work.

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I also added a menu at the top (have left the bottom menu in place) as I found myself having to scroll to the bottom on some pages. Also added a button to Real Time data that opens in a new browser window to display the MS Silverlight realtime data.

Indeed, Bob, having menus at the bottom only is, in my view, 'poor programming' unless a button/pointer is provided to quickly go to the bottom of the page. Having menus at both the top and the bottom of a page is a great solution.

The Real Time Data button is a nice touch - you do realise thought that you could have put that link within the already available menu items...

tjaliwalpa wrote:...I'm learning the html as I go and the Cumulus standard webpages and help on this forum have given me the opportunity to learn some new code and play with it. Next to master is a banner...

Bob, may I suggest that you venture into PHP as it offers so much more flexibilities and possibilities that you will never be able to accomplish with HTML 4 (HTML 5 is another story, although not yet 'officially' released and not yet 'fully supported' by all browsers). As for adding a banner, a combination of PHP and JavaScript code is what you will need...

Ray,

Thanks for the feedback in your previous posts. I'm aware of the term PHP but haven't figured it out how to use it or imbed it yet (my terminology may be way off). I'll have to do some research. As for Java, I've fiddled with some of the code in order to make some changes to the Gadget I downloaded from the Sandaysoft downloads, but as to understanding the syntax and the logic, I am in the dark. All I have done is look at what is there, copy, add, adapt and delete to achieve a result. Hey, but then again, I first got my weather info on the web twelve days ago, so I'm not doing too bad.

By way of introduction, I do some IT teaching to primary (elementary) school kids and have taught some basic HTML as an introduction to how the web works, so I'm not a complete novice. In addition, I manage an Intranet HTML web catalogue in a school library and have messed with some code to get different layouts.

Once again, thanks for all the help the forum has given me and the feedback.

Bob

tjaliwalpa wrote:I'm aware of the term PHP but haven't figured it out how to use it or imbed it yet (my terminology may be way off). I'll have to do some research

Bob, indeed, you need to do some research...

PHP is a server-side (as in Internet server where Web pages are placed) programming language. It (technically) cannot be imbedded into HTML - on the contrary, HTML can easily be included into PHP code. PHP is much more intuitive than HTML - it will tell one that one has made an error in the code and will display the line number where that code error is located (although, sometimes, a code error, such as a punctuation, might be made a few lines above but will not detected until PHP reaches a few line further down the code). PHP is also quite flexible - PHP can create images using data. PHP is also 'transportable' as the same code can be (and should be) used on different operating systems (such as Windows, Linux, Apple to name a few).

When I write that PHP is a server-side programming language, I mean that the PHP script is only running on the Internet server and not on the user's computer - what the user sees in his/her browser is the resulting output of the PHP script and not the script itself. With PHP it is quite easy to seamlessly 'include' external functions and/or other bit of PHP code.

tjaliwalpa wrote:As for Java, I've fiddled with some of the code in order to make some changes to the Gadget I downloaded from the Sandaysoft downloads, but as to understanding the syntax and the logic, I am in the dark.

Bob, you are not the only one...

I have tried to get my head 'around' JavaScript and to this day, I find the language quite 'unfriendly' to say/write the least...

tjaliwalpa wrote:...and have messed with some code to get different layouts.

Bob, now you have to get your hands 'dirty' learning CSS (cascading style sheet)...

Thanks for that Ray,

I am aware of ccs as I have used it at work and have a very good HTML reference (A beginner's guide to HTML. Fouth edition / by Wendy Willard).

I couldn't work out PHP. I looked at some examples and tried to see what it did. Now that you have explained PHP is sideserver based and explained its basic operation clearly, I think I will be able to proceed my research with some confidence.

Thanks
Bob

gemini06720 wrote:Mark, unfortunately, the gauges page still momentarily freeze my Firefox...

Mark, have you had a chance of passing the code of your pages through the W3C Markup Validation Service - it indicates 9 errors and 10 warnings...

Mark, your next step: Converting your pages to PHP and only needing to upload 2-3 files/updates...

Ray, they are still a work in progress, I haven't checked them for compliance at all yet. Firefox is just slow and seems to have some critical single threaded processes! I was also surprised how poorly it performs with <canvas> objects too - compared with Chrome, some of the comparison figures on the web are quite disappointing. Still at least it does support them natively unlike IE.

PHP conversion is another step for the future, first I want to sort out what data I want presented, and in what format. Converting all graph rendering to the server is step yet to be taken. However my weather website isn't at the top of my priority list at the mo.