Cumulus Support

I have used Cumulus for a few weeks now and now have my website up and I beginning to gradually improve and add things. Now I am a programmer by trade (started using machine code on mainframes in the late 1960's!!) and have learnt many languages so programming in PHP and HTML hold no worries but one thing I have learnt is not to keep re-inventing the wheel and to use other peoples code if it works and is available!!

I was looking at the various weather station web sites that people have, and I stumbled across http://www.valley-weather.co.uk/index.php which appears to run everything in PHP (all his code has .php extensions not .htm) rather than the HTML that Steve supplies, but Rob the guy who runs it says that this done with the help of the people on here.

So my question is "Is there a version of the Cumulus web site software that runs in PHP for which the source is available" or is this just a question of embedding the HTML code in <?php ?>? and using PHP webtags?

Check out the .php scripts/templates on Ken True's excellent site http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/index.php There is now a cumulus version.

water01 wrote:Now I am a programmer by trade (started using machine code on mainframes in the late 1960's!!) and have learnt many languages so programming in PHP and HTML hold no worries but one thing I have learnt is not to keep re-inventing the wheel and to use other peoples code if it works and is available!!

Unfortunately, although many of us have adapted Steve's HTML templates to PHP, an equivalent PHP template set has never been released...

One of the first thing I did after installing Cumulus for the first time (more than 2 years ago) was to update/upgrade the HTML templates code to the PHP format and thus the first release of the 'cumuluswebtags' template. I have since moved away from the design (presentation) of the 'standard' HTML templates by adapting the PHP code to a new template design: [link removed]. Over the years, some Ajax/JavaScript code was added to a few of the templates (pages) to offer some (almost) real-time display of often-changing weather values - I am a strong believer in using as much as possible of the server-side programming language PHP and as little as possible of the browser/user-side programming language Ajax/JavaScript - Ajax/JavaScript is now so abusively/overly used for purposes (operations) that should only be handled by server-side languages...

As suggested by sooty, you could download and install the PHP/AJAX Website Template Sets (by Ken True) but you might/will find their appearance to be somewhat outdated - the original CSS design of the templates was made in 2003 and has not been change since - the code for the templates is good (solid, reliable and regularly updated) but the "looks" really needs some 'modernisation'...

water01 wrote:So my question is "Is there a version of the Cumulus web site software that runs in PHP for which the source is available" or is this just a question of embedding the HTML code in <?php ?>? and using PHP webtags?

To your first question, a 'yes' reply, but very 'old-looking' design ... and to your second question, another 'yes' reply...

Note: Could you please add a signature to your messages, possibly using your first name ... using a first name makes for a more personal communication/exchange...

Thanks for the replies, and Ray hope the signature meets with your approval!

I will check out your suggestions. Thanks.

David, nice to hear/read from you...

water01 wrote:Thanks for the replies, and Ray hope the signature meets with your approval!

David, just having a signature, preferably with a first name, is "meeting my approval" ... ...thank you...

I have been hoping for many months (if not years) that modifications to phpBB, the software used for these forums, would include options to 'require' the new user to include not only his/her signature (preferably with his/her first name), but also the general location where the weather station is located as well as a link to the web pages...

Ray, glad it meets with your approval.

I run another phpBB site for car enthusiasts (http://www.ukpassats.co.uk) and I am also a member of the support form for phpBB (you get valuable information tracking problems ), so I know that the main developers view this type of thing as mod.

I had a quick search and cannot find one!!