More data - where to put it?
Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 4:25 pm
I've already added a few items in 1.9.1 which are currently displayed in Cumulus itself, and are only available via web tags. I want to add a lot more, and also some new graphs. The question is, where to put everything?
First, graphs. I want to add some new graphs, for solar data and anything else that might be useful. The solar data will be at least 3 new graphs: ET, solar data, and daily sunshine hours. One way to fit new graphs in would be to start a third row of "thumbnails" just like the existing ones. This would mean that the window would be too high for some people's screens (maybe it is already?) and so they would get scroll bars.
Another possibility would be to keep the thumbnails and use something like those photo navigation things that you see on the web, with a scrolling set of thumbnails, e.g. something like this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11499822. This assumes I can find a way to achieve it, of course.
A third possibility would be to remove the thumbnails and introduce a different method of selecting the graph - a simple drop-down box, for example. There would have to be some sort of corresponding change for the standard trends.htm web page.
Next, all-time records. This has the same problem, the window is 'full'. There are a few alternatives:
First, I can just keep going, and again this would introduce scroll bars for some people.
Or, I could put them into a 'grid' (like the data editor in Cumulus 2, or the Cumulus Toolbox). But of course, this would have scroll bars of its own. And it may mean that the flashing lights would have to go, depending on the actual grid I use.
Another possibility would be to have a 'tabbed' interface, where records of a particular category are grouped together.
I also intend to add highs and lows for the current month and year, so I'm thinking of having new windows equivalent to the all-time records for these, and also a similar window for "today" and one for "yesterday", with more items than are currently displayed on the main screen. These would all have the same interface as the all-time records window, whatever that turns out to be.
Any thoughts on the above, or suggestions for other ways of handling it all?
First, graphs. I want to add some new graphs, for solar data and anything else that might be useful. The solar data will be at least 3 new graphs: ET, solar data, and daily sunshine hours. One way to fit new graphs in would be to start a third row of "thumbnails" just like the existing ones. This would mean that the window would be too high for some people's screens (maybe it is already?) and so they would get scroll bars.
Another possibility would be to keep the thumbnails and use something like those photo navigation things that you see on the web, with a scrolling set of thumbnails, e.g. something like this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11499822. This assumes I can find a way to achieve it, of course.
A third possibility would be to remove the thumbnails and introduce a different method of selecting the graph - a simple drop-down box, for example. There would have to be some sort of corresponding change for the standard trends.htm web page.
Next, all-time records. This has the same problem, the window is 'full'. There are a few alternatives:
First, I can just keep going, and again this would introduce scroll bars for some people.
Or, I could put them into a 'grid' (like the data editor in Cumulus 2, or the Cumulus Toolbox). But of course, this would have scroll bars of its own. And it may mean that the flashing lights would have to go, depending on the actual grid I use.
Another possibility would be to have a 'tabbed' interface, where records of a particular category are grouped together.
I also intend to add highs and lows for the current month and year, so I'm thinking of having new windows equivalent to the all-time records for these, and also a similar window for "today" and one for "yesterday", with more items than are currently displayed on the main screen. These would all have the same interface as the all-time records window, whatever that turns out to be.
Any thoughts on the above, or suggestions for other ways of handling it all?