Author Topic: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced  (Read 40921 times)

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Online johnd

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Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« on: November 27, 2017, 04:54:54 PM »
WL.com v2 should start to go live as from tomorrow. If you're about to fire up a new Connect or IP logger registration it might be in your interest to hold off doing so until Wednesday to be sure of registering on the new service (assuming things go to plan of course). This doesn't apply to existing users who will be migrated over the coming months.

I've written a quick blog post for UK users.
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Offline PaulMy

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2017, 05:11:52 PM »
Thanks John for the update, and your blog is excellent.  One question?
Quote
Free weatherlink.com 2.0 accounts can be created by any user with an email address via the Signup button at weatherlink.com and before even owning a Davis station. Owning a free account will be mandatory to view data on browser or smartphone app;
I presume this applies only to existing weatherlink.com users - i.e. users free with weatherlinkIP or other WL users who have a paid subscription to weatherlink.com.  Is that correct?

Enjoy,
Paul
« Last Edit: November 27, 2017, 05:46:36 PM by PaulMy »

Online johnd

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2017, 05:37:03 PM »
I presume this applies only to existing weatherlink.com users - i.e. users free with weatherlinkIP or other WL users who have a paid prescription to weatherlink.com.  Is that correct?

Remember this is going to happen in two phases:

Phase I: New registrants to wl.com will see v2, but existing users will continue as is;

Phase II: Existing users will be migrated across to v2 by June 2018, maybe sooner;

This is reasonably sensible and understandable I think. Accommodating only new users to start with will allow numbers to slowly build up and Davis can judge server loads etc etc. And the migration process possibly isn't totally finished and tested as yet; and even when it is, it's still probably prudent to move existing users across in batches.

One of the things that's not 100% clear as yet (to me at least) is how (local) Weatherlink users who don't currently upload to wl.com can start to take advantage of their new apparently free access to wl.com Basic. There's a small process to be explained hereabout exactly how this will work and maybe it won't happen for a bit yet, but once that's done then I've not seen anything to suggest that everyone running local WL won't be able to upload for free to wl.com, at least within the limitations of the Basic plan.

These details might become clearer later in the week.
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Offline Central Maine Weather

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2017, 06:20:51 PM »
Thanks for the heads up John. I have had my Davis VP2 for about 4 years now and just recently considered beginning to upload to weatherlink.com, so knowing this info now, I will wait and see what comes about over the coming weeks.

   - Matt
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Offline Old Tele man

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2017, 07:51:19 PM »
JohnD -- Does this change (eventually) mean that PC-based systems are headed for elimination and phone-based systems have become the "darlings"?
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Online johnd

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2017, 03:57:24 AM »
JohnD -- Does this change (eventually) mean that PC-based systems are headed for elimination and phone-based systems have become the "darlings"?

To some extent that's a philosophical question, isn't it? But my purely personal view would probably comprise 3 parts:

1. You're always going to need some mechanism to upload data locally into the cloud. That can currently be an IP logger, a Connect cellular modem or a standalone computer running software. In the future very possibly this functionality could be built into a receiver/console unit (with or without its own display) and using eg WiFi. But a phone is never going to manage the uploads AFAICS.

2. Processing & storing the data could move almost completely into the cloud, so there's no need for a PC to fill this role. There'll still be resistance from some users to handing over responsibility completely to the cloud so I'd expect the option of using a local PC will remain as an alternative for some time to come.

3. One of the things about modern browser applications is that they can be run on any device that has enough processing power and a decent screen, PC, tablet or phone - the tablet may well be a very convenient device for reviewing weather data. For the foreseeable future I'd expect the browser and smartphone apps to be developed in parallel and people will use whichever device they prefer, maybe switching from one to the other as required. So a smartphone would be what you use out and about or eg if you just quickly want to check a temperature or rainfall or forecast. But for a more thorough review of recent weather then a larger screen is surely always going to be preferred.

So until someone finds a way of building a larger screen and a better keyboard into a phone then both browser & smartphone apps will have their part to play. But of course phone developments may well happen - phones with projectors built in aren't far away and maybe Siri/Alexa will get better and better and replace keyboards much more.

It's certainly possible to imagine a phone taking over the role of a primary console display - some phones must be pretty much the size of eg a Vue display, so why wouldn't you use a bright full-colour display that's (typically) always with you. And the phone is also likely to take over the role of a set-up device for hardware where needed. It's already the case that setting up the Davis EM gateways and nodes is done via a smartphone app and Bluetooth connection to the device.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2017, 04:23:44 AM by johnd »
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Offline Mattk

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2017, 04:27:57 AM »
"The Cloud" rolls so well of the tongue but is nothing more than the next dictator of computing much like Microsoft and the way they will enforce updates, like who the hell do some of these organisations actually think they are, like as if people really need to be held by the hand but then it's not for the people's benefit is it? Had the displeasure yesterday of experiencing the "digital" version of explorer, honestly the world is going mad if this is the future 

Offline Old Tele man

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2017, 11:53:00 AM »
JohnD -- Does this change (eventually) mean that PC-based systems are headed for elimination and phone-based systems have become the "darlings"?

To some extent that's a philosophical question, isn't it? But my purely personal view would probably comprise 3 parts:

1. You're always going to need some mechanism to upload data locally into the cloud. That can currently be an IP logger, a Connect cellular modem or a standalone computer running software. In the future very possibly this functionality could be built into a receiver/console unit (with or without its own display) and using eg WiFi. But a phone is never going to manage the uploads AFAICS.

2. Processing & storing the data could move almost completely into the cloud, so there's no need for a PC to fill this role. There'll still be resistance from some users to handing over responsibility completely to the cloud so I'd expect the option of using a local PC will remain as an alternative for some time to come.

3. One of the things about modern browser applications is that they can be run on any device that has enough processing power and a decent screen, PC, tablet or phone - the tablet may well be a very convenient device for reviewing weather data. For the foreseeable future I'd expect the browser and smartphone apps to be developed in parallel and people will use whichever device they prefer, maybe switching from one to the other as required. So a smartphone would be what you use out and about or eg if you just quickly want to check a temperature or rainfall or forecast. But for a more thorough review of recent weather then a larger screen is surely always going to be preferred.

So until someone finds a way of building a larger screen and a better keyboard into a phone then both browser & smartphone apps will have their part to play. But of course phone developments may well happen - phones with projectors built in aren't far away and maybe Siri/Alexa will get better and better and replace keyboards much more.

It's certainly possible to imagine a phone taking over the role of a primary console display - some phones must be pretty much the size of eg a Vue display, so why wouldn't you use a bright full-colour display that's (typically) always with you. And the phone is also likely to take over the role of a set-up device for hardware where needed. It's already the case that setting up the Davis EM gateways and nodes is done via a smartphone app and Bluetooth connection to the device.
JohnD -- Thanks for the reply. You DID notice that I purposefully included "...(eventually)..." as my nod & wink toward the aspect that blue-sky guessing is probably appropriate...I hope...ie: "reading the tea-leaves" in the bottom of your/our coffee cups (wink,wink).

« Last Edit: November 28, 2017, 11:55:11 AM by Old Tele man »
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Offline jgentry

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2017, 11:09:11 PM »
WL.com v2 should start to go live as from tomorrow. If you're about to fire up a new Connect or IP logger registration it might be in your interest to hold off doing so until Wednesday to be sure of registering on the new service (assuming things go to plan of course). This doesn't apply to existing users who will be migrated over the coming months.

I've written a quick blog post for UK users.

I saw a hourly forecast on the new WeatherLink website and I’m curious to know if it’s generated by the weather station itself or is it coming from the NWS, WeatherUnderground, etc.?
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Offline Mattk

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2017, 12:01:05 AM »
WL.com v2 should start to go live as from tomorrow. If you're about to fire up a new Connect or IP logger registration it might be in your interest to hold off doing so until Wednesday to be sure of registering on the new service (assuming things go to plan of course). This doesn't apply to existing users who will be migrated over the coming months.

I've written a quick blog post for UK users.

I saw a hourly forecast on the new WeatherLink website and I’m curious to know if it’s generated by the weather station itself or is it coming from the NWS, WeatherUnderground, etc.?

Davis VP2 family have a 12 hour built-in weather forecast capability based on recent/live data and other values, WeatherLink.com has the same capability. 
« Last Edit: November 29, 2017, 12:03:16 AM by Mattk »

Online johnd

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2017, 04:01:35 AM »
I saw a hourly forecast on the new WeatherLink website and I’m curious to know if it’s generated by the weather station itself or is it coming from the NWS, WeatherUnderground, etc.?

The 7-day forecast will certainly be sourced externally, but AFAIK the exact source has not been disclosed as yet.
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Offline miraculon

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2017, 08:29:45 AM »
I tried to go to the new weatherlink.com and "sign up". It detected my username was already on the old system and said my station will be migrated, just as johnd indicated.

I clicked on the various WL stations on Davis' roof, but the old blue sky/cloud display came up. Are there any stations online with this yet? I was hoping that Davis would have a test station up and running on it. I know that it is premature to expect any stations from private individuals at this point.

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2017, 08:42:57 AM »
I suspect that it's taking a few days to switch the system across and that features will appear in stages over the coming days. Certainly one drawback at present seems to be that the system is remembering too strongly what you might have been looking at on a previous browser access and it's more tricky than it ought to be to backtrack eg to a different station - hopefully this might get sorted out.

I really don't want to encourage anyone to create a lot of subsequently-unused logins but remember:

1. Anyone who wishes to view wl.com data in future will need their own login;
2. But you can get a free login irrespective of whether or not you have a signed-up station just by registering a new account with (a previously unused) email address and name;

Then if you go to weatherlink.com (just that) and sign in as a virgin user you'll be able to access the map and hence see the Bulletin data for all public stations. Remember also that this new wl.com2.0 covers both EM AND Vue/VP2 stations, so most of what's on the 2.0 map right now are the small number of EM stations that have been activated and are public. This will obviously change dramatically once the full migration gets under way next year.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2017, 02:26:05 PM by johnd »
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Offline Aardvark

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2017, 09:34:57 AM »
I am using the Leuven template to get the data from what the IP  sends to the Davis site.   i wonder if  that will change or is it only that they have redone their site rather than their information our station is presenting.

Does anyone have the url of any site that has the new look to share?


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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2017, 09:58:33 AM »
I am using the Leuven template to get the data from what the IP  sends to the Davis site.   i wonder if  that will change or is it only that they have redone their site rather than their information our station is presenting.

It depends whether your template uses the XML or binary packet download or simply scrapes the HTML from the blue-sky page (latter unlikely I would have thought). It's not 100% clear as yet but I'm expecting that the binary API and very possibly also the XML API will continue as now, though this is to be confirmed. But any HTML scraping obviously cannot continue post-migration. But don't forget that nothing will change in any event until your site migrates next year at some point.

Quote
Does anyone have the url of any site that has the new look to share?

As per my reply above, you will need to acquire a free login to the new site. Once you have that then you can see the data from Davis HQ.
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Offline wvdkuil

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #15 on: November 29, 2017, 10:14:23 AM »
I am using the Leuven template to get the data from what the IP  sends to the Davis site.   i wonder if  that will change or is it only that they have redone their site rather than their information our station is presenting.

It depends whether your template uses the XML or binary packet download or simply scrapes the HTML from the blue-sky page (latter unlikely I would have thought). It's not 100% clear as yet but I'm expecting that the binary API and very possibly also the XML API will continue as now, though this is to be confirmed. But any HTML scraping obviously cannot continue post-migration. But don't forget that nothing will change in any event until your site migrates next year at some point.
Both Saratoga and Leuven use the documentend XML (with userid and password) to retrieve the stations data. As numerous other scripts do to populatie ones own website with the stationsdata.

As I read the posts the userid is replaced with the DID, but how for Weatherlink-PC users with an USB logger who obviously have no DID?

DAVIS is changing the ballgame rules without telling the players (script writers) what the new rules are.

Wim

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2017, 10:34:10 AM »
Both Saratoga and Leuven use the documentend XML (with userid and password) to retrieve the stations data. As numerous other scripts do to populatie ones own website with the stationsdata.

As I read the posts the userid is replaced with the DID, but how for Weatherlink-PC users with an USB logger who obviously have no DID?

Users uploading from local WL do have a DID - it's assigned as part of the registration process.

OK, the API's may need a subtle change from station name to DID in the relevant parameter of the web download protocol for instance.
But hopefully the existing APIs will continue to be available, albeit in slightly updated forms, alongside a probable new API.

But any changes for existing stations are still several weeks if not months away. The migration is described as happening Q2 2018 but whether that's by Q2 (ie by April and potentially starting Jan/Feb) or starting Q2 (ie starting April) isn't clear yet, to me at least.

This move to 2.0 is a big change behind the scenes, in part involving a migration of 26000+ users, and then the split into Basic and Pro tiers etc. So I guess it's inevitable that some details will take a while to emerge. I'd like to think that in a week or two the sign-up process for new users will be clearly available, but then there will be other issues of how the upgrade from Basic to Pro is to be managed, let alone implementing the migration of existing users. So I can imagine that the APIs are not top priority right now.
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Offline Aardvark

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2017, 10:37:53 AM »
I am guessing... that if there is a change and things do not work as it used to , I can always switch to either Weathercat or Weatherdisplay .  However,  I guess this will be one of those wait and see events.

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2017, 10:49:31 AM »
I still dont understand why users are forced to use WL. Why can data not be sent to my own server.... When I see a service/product that relies completely on a third party, I try to avoid it. Just look at what WU did recently. You have absolutely no guarantee what will happen, when it will be discontinued, changed etc.

Offline Aardvark

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2017, 11:00:25 AM »
I still dont understand why users are forced to use WL. Why can data not be sent to my own server.... When I see a service/product that relies completely on a third party, I try to avoid it. Just look at what WU did recently. You have absolutely no guarantee what will happen, when it will be discontinued, changed etc.

this is true what you say, but I don't have my own server .  With Weather Underground getting rid of their webcam and WeatherLink updating their IP site these things happen.
Since Davisnet isn't going to upgrade their PC/Mac software, I am getting to believe that they are going for the IP site stuff as being the whole thing.    I mean I can  roll with the punches, do a site forwarding on my end and be happy.

Or I could start running Weathercat 24/7 and seeing how it does on this mac.  I did add max memory.  ;(

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2017, 11:03:25 AM »
I still dont understand why users are forced to use WL. Why can data not be sent to my own server.... When I see a service/product that relies completely on a third party, I try to avoid it.

Not really sure what you're saying?? No-one is forced to use WL, if you prefer to use Cumulus/WD/WeatherCat etc then use them. If you want to upload data from local WL to another server or cloud platform then you can do that - you just have to construct a suitable text file template from the available weather tags.

And what third-party is involved here, well Amazon (as in AWS) I suppose, but I suspect that AWS is always going to have greater resilience than any standalone server I'm likely to run. But other than AWS as the cloud platform, it's an in-house Davis operation. Davis aren't going to let it go the way of WU - that would be suicide for them as makers of weather stations. Is it proprietary rather than open-access? Well, yes, but Davis are a business - if there are better options elsewhere then users will vote with their feet/wallets.
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #21 on: November 29, 2017, 11:24:00 AM »
Hi John,
Im not saying this option shouldnt be there, but AFAIK or from what I was told, some Davis users can only send data to WL (assuming they dont want to have a PC on 24/7 and use an extra software). So my question then is, is it possible to send current conditions directly to some server (not wl.com), with no intermediate software?

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #22 on: November 29, 2017, 11:35:09 AM »
Ah OK, you're talking specifically about WeatherlinkIP and not local WL on a PC? No you're right WLIP can only upload to wl.com.

But that's fairly unsurprising - WLIP is a relatively primitive device computationally. It's not really an SBC in any conventional sense and is a minimal configuration just to fulfill its own hard-coded role. But there's nothing to stop anyone using some other really cheap SBC like a Pi0W for instance attached to a USB logger and which I'm guess could run eg CumulusMX. Or Meteobridge is another obvious alternative. As I say, I don't find this surprising: for flexible, customisable uploads you surely need a standalone SBC running its own operating system and programs, which the IP logger is not.
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #23 on: November 29, 2017, 11:47:19 AM »
John it doesnt matter how primitive it is. Just like it sends data to WL, it can send data elsewhere in the same format, it is a matter of changing the fixed built-in IP. You are right MB can do it, but we are talking about extra costs and about a product which more or less Davis wished never existed and probably hoped no-one will ever develop. Im 100% sure the idea was everyone will have to use WL. Then came Boris with his MB, which solves this, but at extra cost, even though technically you dont need it, it could be done by the existing HW.

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Re: Weatherlink.com 2.0 announced
« Reply #24 on: November 29, 2017, 12:58:35 PM »
Hmm Jáchym, I don't actually agree with much of that.

AIUI (which could be wrong, but I don't believe so) the code in WLIP uploads to a specified server and not to a fixed IP (ie it uses DNS). So at a minimum, a web interface would need to be added that allows a text URL to be entered, edited and, presumably, tested. Not a big deal, but it's still a substantial enhancement of what's there currently and for circuitry that I suspect runs on microcode not a higher level language. And it would inevitably increase support calls whenever new users couldn't get their preferred service to run at the first try.

And there certainly are areas where I think Davis could do better, but willingness to accept third-party add-ons is not one of them. For instance Davis are happy to publish a public API for their loggers, which some other manufacturers refuse to do. And there is a longish list of Davis 'Product Partners'.

I say again: If some wished to take a Raspberry Pi (or better still a Pi Zero) and write some equivalent but more flexible code to the IP logger for that then I don't think you'd find any objection from Davis. Sure, they'd prefer you to use wl.com but they won't try and stop you from providing an alternative. Why doesn't someone do this - it can't be difficult?
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anything