Author Topic: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!  (Read 9554 times)

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Offline wthrmn654

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saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« on: August 13, 2016, 04:10:05 PM »
ok, i just switched from VWS and using there website template to having meteobridge and ive been trying for a few hours now with no success to setup the dam template, site thing... idk what im doing wrong etc.. can someone please help me.. ive read and re-read the instructions so  many times.... freaking frustrating.

if i can't get it to work, im cancelling my website and giving up!

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2016, 04:24:22 PM »
The URL you listed has no Saratoga template files on it .?!?  All accesses get 404-Not Found.

What is the URL for the wxindex.php page on your new site (full URL please)?
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2016, 04:42:29 PM »
idk, im completlely lost as idk how to even figure any of that out.. it says this is the simplest thingy, i have found this to be the most confusing/ hardest hahaha 

Offline jgillett

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2016, 04:48:32 PM »
I get a 403: Forbidden when using your link above. Check with your host about that one.
John
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Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2016, 04:51:10 PM »
ignore the whole 403, its not loading to what it suppose to, and idk why. i just deleted the whole thing and trying  from scratch, however, idk what im doing as its been a while since ive had to change anything around.. and this is rather medium level in terms of difficulity!

id offer/ ask anyone to do it for me but thats not likely to happen!

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2016, 05:19:50 PM »
general rule is that the first page a website wants to go to it index.html... now idk how to get around this and yes the site im using does support php...

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2016, 06:05:03 PM »
There are a couple of differences between using the VWS built-in template and the Saratoga template that you need to understand.

The VWS html template uses .htx files (really HTML files with VWS weather tags like ^vxv007^ (for outside temperature)) in them.  VWS reads the .htx files and uploads .htm files to your site on a scheduled basis. 

The Saratoga template has files that exist on your website (.php, .txt, etc) and images in ./forecast/images (and other directories) that you upload ONCE to your site, not through VWS, but through a FTP client like FileZilla.  Then VWS is configured to process a weather tags file CU-tags.htx and upload CU-tags.php to your site (along with selected graph images), and optionally, upload WeatherFlash data files so your website can have mini-updates for some weather conditions without doing a full page reload in the browser--this is called AJAX update.

So.. to set up a Saratoga template on your website, you have to do the following:
1)get an FTP client program like Filezilla, and set it up to use a directory on your PC as 'home' (can be a subdirectory off the Documents directory for your Windows user), and then use your website's FTP userid/password to connect to your website.  Some hosters use public_html/ or www/ as the main directory for your website.  If you had VWS uploading the VWS templates, it will be the same path and credentials you had VWS use.  If you're connected with your FTP client, disconnect for a while.. the rest will take some time.
2) using http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/install.php as a guide, download Base-USA.zip, Plugin-VWS.zip, saratoga-icons.zip from the links on that page into the 'home' directory on your PC (see step 1).
3) use WinZip (or equivalent) to unzip the three .zip files into the 'home' directory -- make sure you select 'extract to here' as the option while selecting the 'home' directory.  After that is done, your home directory should look like:
files like
*.html
*.php
*.txt
*.js
*.css
*.png
*.xml
directories like:
cache/
ajax-images/
alert-images/
forecast/

4) now you can connect using your FTP client, select ALL the files and directories in the 'home' directory, and upload the entire set without making changes.
5) disconnect when the upload is finished.
6) try http://wthrmn654.bravehost.com/wxindex.php in your browser -- if the upload was correct, then you should see sample data for a VWS weather software.. yes, it's old, but it's a sample to let you try working with the site.

After 6 is successful, then you can follow the instructions here and here and here to configure the template and VWS to upload your weather data for display.

Be careful when editing .php files -- a PHP syntax error can render your site unavailable.  Only use either Notepad or a PHP-aware editor (like Notepad++) and NOT a WYSIWYG HTML editor (they tend to screw up PHP code unless specifically designed to handle it).

Yes, there is a somewhat steep learning curve to go from a HTML-only vendor-provided template to a full-featured PHP website, but as lots of weather enthusiasts have found, it is a fun learning experience and a great enhancement to the weather hobby.

BTW, there are two other PHP-based website templates besides mine.  The Leuven template offers a lot more scripting and a more modern look.  The Meteotemplate requires a database service (mySQL) on your host and has the most modern look/feel.  In order of complexity, the Saratoga template is most simple to set up, Leuven slightly more complicated, and Meteotemplate slightly more complicated than Leuven (with the added need for a mySQL server connection).

Good luck, and enjoy the learning experience.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline Jáchym

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2016, 06:11:49 PM »
Great explanation Ken as always, the only thing I would add is that I would be careful with using the built-in Notepad for editing files, I have very bad experience with that, it adds hidden symbols which can make mess on the page and it is then necessary to fix it in a different more sophisticated editor. Notepad++ is a safe bet.

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2016, 07:01:41 PM »
Thanks, Jáchym :)

I agree that Notepad++ is much better than the built-in Windows Notepad (which tends to edit in UTF-8 instead of the ANSI character set needed for the Saratoga template).
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2016, 07:16:19 PM »
ah i must of not been clear or forgot to mention something. I am doing away with a computer system and only relying on meteobridge, VWS is no longer being used at all. i just need to get the website part working, which it isn't, and then i would possibly be fine.

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2016, 07:18:05 PM »
Just substitute MB-plugin for the VWS-plugin and follow the configuration instructions for Meteobridge .. it's that simple.  The rest still applies.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2016, 07:29:25 PM »
i guess im just dumb founded with the whole uploading crap right now lol. i give up!

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2016, 07:31:38 PM »
can u upload the base and usa files etc, then edit them on the web server? maybe thats my flaw...

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2016, 08:09:28 PM »
what exactly does it mean when it says....

Edit flyout-menu.xml for flyout-menu to replace wxindex.php with index.php in the link.
Upload flyout-menu.xml and index.php to your website.

Offline Jáchym

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #14 on: August 13, 2016, 08:18:55 PM »
can u upload the base and usa files etc, then edit them on the web server? maybe thats my flaw...

Just edit them on your PC and then upload them to the server, some webhosting providers also have a built-in FTP editor where you can change the code and save it directly from your cPanel. But you definitely cannot do this from a browser.

I highly recommend to use Filezilla, it is very simple, it is basically like a file manager, where you have two panes, one on the left is your PC, one on the right is the server and you simply transfer the files from one to the other.

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #15 on: August 13, 2016, 08:20:35 PM »
yea my host company has ftp uploader already.. i just cant figure out wtf or where the snagshit iss...
now its saying unconfigured site lmfao

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #16 on: August 13, 2016, 08:26:44 PM »
can u upload the base and usa files etc, then edit them on the web server? maybe thats my flaw...
Yes, but... make sure the webserver editor saves files in ASCII/ISO-9959-1/plain text and NOT in UTF-8 (which is the default on most web-based editors).
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline Jáchym

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #17 on: August 13, 2016, 08:32:19 PM »
Ideally edit it all in your PC and THEN upload it to your server. If you have already uploaded it that doesnt matter. Just edit it and then upload it again, it will ask you if you want to overwrite the original and you select yes

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #18 on: August 13, 2016, 08:53:57 PM »
yeah.so far nothing is working lol either im really dumb and im missing something or yeah idk!

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #19 on: August 13, 2016, 09:11:28 PM »
Just don't give up,  I felt the same way two years ago.  If you think it is all messed up then just delete it all and start from scratch,  following Ken's quite good instructions

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #20 on: August 13, 2016, 09:48:42 PM »
ive tried eveythihng i downloaded that ftp up loader, to starting from scratch.. i just can't figure out the gettting it to show up part lol

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #21 on: August 13, 2016, 09:50:10 PM »
however, i want to know what this means exactly...

When you've decided that the new site is to be made 'live', then use these steps to have it become the primary display.

    Rename (on your local disk) wxindex.php to index.php
    Edit flyout-menu.xml for flyout-menu to replace wxindex.php with index.php in the link.
    Upload flyout-menu.xml and index.php to your website.

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #22 on: August 13, 2016, 10:41:21 PM »
however, i want to know what this means exactly...

When you've decided that the new site is to be made 'live', then use these steps to have it become the primary display.

    Rename (on your local disk) wxindex.php to index.php
    Edit flyout-menu.xml for flyout-menu to replace wxindex.php with index.php in the link.
    Upload flyout-menu.xml and index.php to your website.

The saratoga template comes with a 'home' page named wxindex.php so it can be installed (and tested) on an existing website (which uses index.htm, index.html or index.php as the current home page).

The above instructions are what you need to do to make wxindex.php into index.php, and change the menu control file (flyout-menu.xml)
Code: [Select]
<item caption="Home" link="wxindex.php" title="Home Page"/>
to be
Code: [Select]
<item caption="Home" link="index.php" title="Home Page"/>
then to upload both index.php and flyout-menu.xml and your site is 'live'.

I've tried a few pages that should be on your site, and nothing is there yet -- that just means you have not uploaded the unzipped template directories to the public_html/ or www/ directory on your website.  That is why nothing is showing up yet.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline wthrmn654

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #23 on: August 13, 2016, 10:54:40 PM »
So weird, everything's uploaded to the directory..

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: saratoga template, not showing up on website ?! help please!!
« Reply #24 on: August 13, 2016, 11:04:16 PM »
So weird, everything's uploaded to the directory..
You've taken a look at http://wiki.bravenet.com/How_to_use_FileZilla, selected the web directory as home for the FTP client and uploaded the files there?
« Last Edit: August 13, 2016, 11:06:01 PM by saratogaWX »
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

 

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