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.