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More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 4:25 pm
by steve
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?

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 5:02 pm
by laulau
For the moment the graphs window is smaller than the console, then add a row should not pose problems!
But i like well the idea of a scrolling set of thumbnails.
Regarding records i think tabbed interface would be nice.

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 6:18 pm
by wd40
A third row of graphs works for me as well.

The record's window is in my opinion the weakest of all windows in Cumulus in terms of comfort to the eye. As suggested Tabs would be nice to group the records.

I tell you what, Cumulus makes the most out of my hundred buck weather station now and you are adding even more.

A big thanks for that.

Randy

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 7:42 pm
by steve
This is the sort of thing I had in mind for a tabbed all-time records:
tabbedATR.png

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 7:56 pm
by Synewave
I really like that.

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 8:34 pm
by DaveNZ
Looks nice. Any chance of adding high/low dewpoint :mrgreen:

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 8:44 pm
by steve
DaveNZ wrote:Any chance of adding high/low dewpoint :mrgreen:
Yeah - it was just a quick mock up :)

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 8:48 pm
by Synewave
Logically, I think the 'tabbed' approach is best. When looking at records, I would like to only see temp, wind, pressure etc one screen at a time.

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 8:49 pm
by wd40
steve wrote:This is the sort of thing I had in mind for a tabbed all-time records:
Now you are talking!
8-)
Randy

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 10:00 pm
by beteljuice
"All Time" ...

How about that as a sub-set of Today | Yesterday | This Month | This Year | All Time ?

Naturally those with the wherewithall will (already) be manipulating data and display so they can show any period, but I think the above would be more than enough for any new (client side) template.

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 10:01 pm
by RayProudfoot
A tabbed solution works for me Steve.

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 10:03 pm
by daj
I agree -- Tabbed is the way to go. There is only so much you can put on one page without it getting too 'busy'

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Thu 14 Oct 2010 10:10 pm
by beteljuice
You could tab the graphs .............

Re: More data - where to put it?

Posted: Fri 15 Oct 2010 11:09 am
by Meteoalmoster
I agree that tabs are a great solution. In any case, let me mention that, if something were to be "sacrifized", all-time high humidity doesn't really make so much sense for places where 100% can be reached relatively often.

And also like the idea of having subsets of the "all-time" for current week, month and year. And as many corresponding tags as possible would be great for customizable web page display ;).

Thanks once again for your incredible openness and for being so generous to give us users the opportunity to influence so much in your program.