Topic: Are you interested in a AJAX/PHP template set for WL, VWS, Cumulus, ...etc?

[saratogaWX]

It's been almost 3 years since the Weather-Display AJAX/PHP template sets were released, and I'm wondering if folks who run WeatherLink, VWS, Cumulus, WU_HU or WXSolution would like to see similar template sets supporting their software.

I'm thinking of having 3 basic regional templates  (USA, Canada, World) with plugin page packs to support the features of a specific weather software package.  Each template would have the region-specific PHP scripts built-in, as the current Weather-Display templates do.
Both the Canada and World templates would have built-in multilingual capabilities as the current WD/AJAX/PHP templates do.

Please let me know what you think about the idea by responding to the poll questions above.  If I've overlooked a specific weather software package, please let me know by a reply to this post.

Best regards,
Ken

[spweather]

Ken,

Yes, I would very much, like to see your templates for WeatherLink.

Dennis

[ocala]

I voted WL. Heck this might even get me to get the website back up again.

[kray1000]

You may only select up to 5 options.

You mean we can't vote for an option more than once? 

I'm guessing the VWS version would be based on WeatherFlash?

[saratogaWX]

For an option more than once, nope.. for several options, once each, yes

Yes, the VWS version would use the WeatherFlash uploads from VWS as the source for the AJAX updates (but it doesn't mean you have to buy the WF product itself.. just use the VWS uploads).  This is the same as with Weather-Display and the clientraw.txt uploads used by the AJAX script and by the optional WDLive application.

It's a bit more tricky with WeatherLink which doesn't have a 'realtime' feature except for the Wunderground RapidFire module (which we can't really use).  So that AJAX update will be limited to once-per-minute which is the smallest interval for which WeatherLink FTP can be scheduled.

Best regards,
Ken

[Stetson1]

I'd love to see a Cumulus version, tried doing some of the work last year when I first got the system but decided on Weather Display instead. Would be a nice option for a lot of folks.

T

[dasman]

I'd like to see it for VWS

[n3ouc]

Hey Ken,
Would love to see the templates for VWS!

Thank You,
Mike
http://macungieweather.net/a/index.php

[kray1000]

You may only select up to 5 options.

You mean we can't vote for an option more than once?  

For an option more than once, nope.. for several options, once each, yes

But you only have 5 options.   I can't believe I had to explain that one.  

Add another vote for the VWS templates.

[saratogaWX]

Sorry Kevin, I guess I misunderstood your question   

I'd meant that each person can vote for one up to five software packages to be done, but each person can only cast one vote for a specific software package.

Just a by-the-way.. I've been working today on the World-ML version of the starter package.  When it's finished, the Canada-ML and USA basic packages will be next.   The the plugins for specific weather software will be done, in the order of most votes to least.

The basic packages (Canada-ML, USA, World-ML) will likely need PHP5+ as some of the scripts already use PHP5 functions (and PHP4 is already deprecated by the authors anyway).

The weather software plugins will need the following for operation:

WeatherLink:  a WLtags.htm file (uploaded through WeatherLink) with an optional WLrealtime.htm file if you want to use AJAX
VWS: a VWStags.php file (uploaded through VWS) with optional use of WeatherFlash wflash.txt/wflash2.txt for AJAX updates
Cumulus: a Cumulustags.php file (uploaded through Cumulus) with optional use of the realtime.txt for AJAX updates
similar for WXSolution and WUHU.
The design relies on the Settings.php file to control sitewide+builtin scripts, and a Settings-weather.php file associated with the specific weather software.  That way, you can slap on a new weather software plugin, and the site can change easily to a different weather software.

When I'm a bit further along, I'll let y'all have a peek at the work in progress.

Best regards,
Ken

[kray1000]

Sorry Kevin, I guess I misunderstood your question    

I'd meant that each person can vote for one up to five software packages to be done, but each person can only cast one vote for a specific software package.

I understood.  Actually the original question was more a joke than a question.

And how would you vote for one more than once anyway?    (That was a rhetorical question too, but I have an uneasy feeling I'll get a response.)

Thanks for working on these.  I like the modular design of your scripts.  Looking forward to trying them out.

 

[saratogaWX]

Thanks for the clarification, Kevin.  Sometimes my density (which DW thinks borders on neutronium sometimes) makes me miss things. 

For folks who'd like to 'kick the tires' on the basic templates (without the weather software plugin) and see what's built-in each set.

USA:  http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/USA/wxindex.php

Canada:  http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/Canada/wxindex.php

World:  http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/World/wxindex.php

I decided to put the multilingual capability into the USA template so if folks want to add a language or two to their site, it will be easy to do.

Best regards,
Ken

[mackbig]

Even though I went over to the WD side when I got my VP2 (as did Lars a while ago), I'll cast a vote for VWS.   My VWS driven sites are still up even though they are missing wind measurements right now.

Andrew

[Axelvold]

As I run both WD, VWS and Weatherlink this could be very intresting, I did cast my vote for VWS.

I know this has been said many times before, Ken you are doing a fantastic work with those template sets, It's a lot of help to us non expert in html or php.

Thanks Ken 

[DaculaWeather]

While I don't need the template, if you need help testing them Ken, I could help with the VWS version.

[saratogaWX]

Thanks Steve.. I will be looking for brave souls to try them out a bit later

Right now, I'm working on a massive concordance amongst the weather software packages for variable names .. each package has it's own special naming convention, and in order for me to NOT have to rewrite the ajax-gizmo, ajax-dashboard, and a few other pages, I'm doing a two-step process for fetching variables by running a [WXname]tags.htx file through the [WXname] software and uploading as [WXname]tags.php .. this uses the native names and puts the data in a $WX['...'] array using the native name as the key.
See the samples on my station if you like:

VWS:  http://saratoga-weather.org/VWStags.php?sce=view and
         http://saratoga-weather.org/VWStags.php?sce=dump to show the $WX[] array contents

WL:   http://saratoga-weather.org/WLtags.php?sce=view and
        http://saratoga-weather.org/WLtags.php?sce=dump to show the $WX[] array contents

Using this method to capture the data is fairly efficient (on FTP uploads) and allows you to add software-specific
data processing for the unique tags provided by your software package.  The $WX[] array is a global.

Then there's a small 'plug' software that I'm generating (only the WeatherLink one is currently ready) that loads the corresponding values into Weather-Display named variables (ala the infamous testtags.php used by the WD template set)
so I won't have to rewrite (much) to get the basic displays working with each software package.

See the WL defs file at http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates/WL/WL-defs.php?sce=view

So progress is being made, but it's a slow slog to generate the correspondence for the variable names.  I will have an Excel spreadsheet and a set of PHP scripts to generate both the scripts needed for a particular weather software.

If you haven't already voted, please do indicate your preference in the poll at the top of the thread.  It's looking (so far) that VWS, WeatherLink and Cumulus are the top vote getters, so those are the ones I'm working with for now.

Best regards,
Ken

[saratogaWX]

Well, progress is being made, slowly but surely.
I now have the VWS and WeatherLink variables available, and am working through the pages on a test World site (with VWS driving).

The ajax-dashboard now works with VWS (using the VWS-defs.php file to map VWS->WD variable names)
I've added in a moon info script (from WebsterWeather's alternative dashboard, via Bashewa's V9 WD AJAX JavaScript), so that moon data for both the dashboard and the astronomy page can be available when not provided by the weather software itself.  Now to do a similar script for the seasons

[jay_hoehn]

Looks great, Ken.    Keep slogging away. 

Jay

[dasman]

Ken it looks great!

[saratogaWX]

Thanks folks!

Today was more work on the 'shim' software .. the bit of glue that ties VWS conditions variables to WD variable names used in the dashboard and gizmo.  I now have the current condition icon and text from VWS (via a bit of translation into WD icon numbers).
Tomorrow, more work on the astronomy section and a trends page for WD.

The WeatherLink set will need much of the work being done on the VWS side, and a METAR fetch/decode (already have) for the conditions icon/text displayed in the dashboard and gizmo areas.

Keep on votin' .. it is great to see the interest in the upcoming template sets

[PaulMy]

Keep on votin' .. it is great to see the interest in the upcoming template sets

I wish I could..., again 

[Andy Thompson]

Yes! I would definitely be interested in using this as my website!

[130dB]

Any chance of getting one for wview?

Dave

[saratogaWX]

If you mean http://www.wviewweather.com/ for Linux (etc), then yes, it's possible..
I'd need a listing of the HTML substitution tags available (along with the meaning of each tag) to provide a WV-defs.php file for it.  If you have a tags listing, please send it to me at webmaster at saratoga-weather.org

Thanks,
Ken

[130dB]

Yes wview on Linux. I sent you an email with what you requested.

Thanks!
Dave