Topic: Meteotemplate - new free website template

[Jáchym]

Hey guys,

I am sorry it took so long (but at least I passed my entrance exams, which at that time was more important to me), but I guess I can finally say after months of nights spent coding that my template is ready

First I would like to thank all those that helped me not just by testing and reporting bugs, but also supporting me and ensuring me what I was doing could be useful (see the Credits page, most of all I would like to thank Tony, Tom, Carl, Paul, Marc, Ken and Brian).

So here is a quick summary of what exactly I am talking about and some important things to note:

I introduce to you my alternative template which I called simply Meteotemplate. It is an interactive website template, where there is many already present pages with weather forecasts, climate, astronomy related pages, maps etc., as well as an entire section for your own PWS with many interactive tables, graphs and basically infinite options of what you can do and display.

And now several important things to keep in mind:

• one of the biggest advantages of this template is that it uses its own database, which means you have much more options with regards to what you can calculate and you can basically make a script for any statistic and make any graph you like.
• however, one of the disadvantages of this approach is that you obviously have to create the database. I tried to make it as simple as possible by writing scripts which can automatically import your history logs so that you don't have to start with a blank database, then there are scripts for updating the database at regular intervals.
• it is probably more likely than unlikely that you will have some sort of problems that might take you a while to solve, but the good news is that I will offer as much support as possible and so far, even though most of my testers also had problems at times, we were able to get it working in the end in all cases! Also, keep in mind that once you have your database ready, the actual template requires close to no need of any set up and works “out-of-the box”. So you only set up your db at the beginning and then you just don´t worry about it any more. And in addition, you might also learn something new about MySQL if you never worked with it before and use it for some  of your own future pages as well
• there is a detailed documentation (wiki) as well as some information about how the template works, a blog where I will post about updates, new features etc., guest book, bugs reporting site, contact form, download page for downloading the core files as well as a page for choosing the plugins you want, and of course a fully-functional demo with all the available plugins installed.
• the page works best in Chrome, FF and Opera. I tested in IE11, but cannot guarantee complete compatibility and I know there are some issues with IE10, which I will try to fix in the future if I see that IE has future (which it probably does not Otherwise there is also no Flash, Silverlight or any potentially unsupported plugin used.

Even though I tried to test as much as possible with various browsers and server settings, I know that there probably still be things that need to be fixed, remember that this is version 1.0.
However, there is absolutely no reason why it cannot run alongside your already existing web.

I have relatively lot of plans, my to-do list of plugins I could make is now more than 80 items long, however I know that especially at the beginning now, there will be lot of work with helping people setting it up.

I currently have a full-time and part-time job so I do not have as much time as I wish I had, but still I WILL TRY TO HELP EVERYONE WHO NEEDS IT, even though sometimes it might take some time before I find time to everyone. But always keep in mind, that once the database is done, you never have to worry about it and you are ready and the rest will be very easy. In the mean time, I must admit I am by no means a programmer and I first time met HTML, PHP etc. about 2 years ago and learned purely by trial/error method while creating my personal webpage during nights after school and work.

Last, but not least, I would like to emphasize that the template is offered completely for free and even the webpage for download, blog, wiki etc. are completely ad-free, which surely is a nice thing.

So I hope at least some of you will like it and I will try to do as much as I can to help anyone who asks for it. I live in central Europe, but since I am a night person I stay up till at least 4 AM every day, so it makes things easier in terms of communication with the U.S and Australia. I also use Skype and TeamViewer, which often makes things easier.

Also feel free to share the link with anyone you think might find it useful, you can also subscribe to the blog or give a like the accompanying FB page and any feedback is very much appreciated.

www.meteotemplate.com

[W3DRM]

Jachym,

Congratulations on passing your entrance exams! 

Since I only run VWS, I won't be able to utilize your templates but I do wish you well in this endeavor to create yet another great template package for all to enjoy.

[Jáchym]

First of all thanks

I guess i should make a script for vws updates then 

[Bushman]

Well done!!  I am impressed.  You have a great future ahead of you.

[Jáchym]

Lol,  thank you,  I wish you were right,  although I think that if so it probably won't be because of this 

[Bushman]

You seem like a fine young person based on your posts and this effort  and I've been right in the past.  One of my young employees is now some Sr. VP of Electronic Arts.  Same sort of skills.    I should have gone to work for him.  LOL

[PaulMy]

and here it is with some minor modifications www.komokaweather.com/j-template/index.php and still some pages to personalize and localize.

Well done Jachym!
Paul

[nitrx]

Congratulations with your exam Jachym  the template looks very impressive I will start asap with it 

[weatherbee]

Jachym,
Very nice template.  I know how much hard work you put into this template.  I have it running at http://www.shermanctweather.org/meteo1/
Tom

[Jáchym]

Hi guys,

thank you very much, it really makes me want to continue in this as much as I can when you see people appreciate it.

Tom I looked at your web and I see there are some slight issues with trying to implement the banner on top, the CSS and allignment are not ideal, but in fact you did exactly what I planned to do in the future - a plug in that will add the interactive banner on top. And I will try to make it fully compatible with the rest, yours look almost perfect, but if I manage to fix that allignment issue you can then update to that

[KapitainOne]

Looks fantastic, unfortunately I can't use it since I use wview.

Congrats on passing your exams!

[virusdunil]

Maybe you could...using a Cron Job 

[weatherbee]

Jachym,
Getting the banner to work was tougher than I thought.  I have it working but I'm not happy with how I did it.  I'm sure there is a simpler and better way. 
Tom

[Jáchym]

Looks fantastic, unfortunately I can't use it since I use wview.

Congrats on passing your exams!

Hi,
well this was the first "try" and my idea was to see if people are interested in the template at all and if yes then I can make it compatible with other SW as well, not just WD and Cumulus and Meteobridge.

The database import can be done with any SW already using the CSV method.

With regards to current conditions upload:
all I need is a copy of one of the TXT files generated by whatever SW to see its structure and adjust the scripts accordingly. Then, the regular DB update can be done for any SW universally using the CRON method

[KapitainOne]

I realize this is version 1.0 and there is more to come

wview uses a SQLite3 database so it may be easier to manipulate the data from that into the MySQL database your template uses rather than mess with the txt files!

Just a thought!  I'll attach one of the txt files for you to look at.

No panic, something to go on the back burner while you're helping those with WD etc get up to speed.

[Jáchym]

Hi,

in terms of the data inside, this is ideal. So let me just make this clear, these are like daily logs? So you have a folder with hundreds of these daily logs?

And then, is there some kind of a separate TXT file with just the most recent conditions? Or do the templates like Saratoga etc. open this daily log and always get the last row as the current conditions?

[KapitainOne]

Hi,

in terms of the data inside, this is ideal. So let me just make this clear, these are like daily logs? So you have a folder with hundreds of these daily logs?

And then, is there some kind of a separate TXT file with just the most recent conditions? Or do the templates like Saratoga etc. open this daily log and always get the last row as the current conditions?

Let's try this again, the first time it wouldn't let me post a reply for some reason!

Yes these are the daily archives and I've got them going back to 2010-07-26

There is a separate files uploaded with the current conditions and some other stuff.  There are two so far, one for the Saratoga template and on for the Leuven-Template. It would be easy enough to add a third if needed.

I'll try to upload a sample of the Saratoga one

Bill

[Jáchym]

Hi,

makes sense. In that case my first idea is this:

Import:
I would probably make a script that will take all files from a given folder and insert their values into the db. So you would then move all your daily logs into that folder and it would go one by one.

Update:
I looked at the saratoga and I guess I would prefer if it was possible to have this as a txt file with just the current conditions. In other words, a text file that would contain the latest temp, humidity, pressure, solar, rain, wind, gust etc. plus date/time.
Then you would set up your CRON and this script would be executed at the specified CRON interval and always take these values, check them and if they are ok, save them into db. If this was not possible then I guess it could also work if the current daily log was available on the server, it would then simply take the latest value, but I would rather use the first method.

[KapitainOne]

Hi,

makes sense. In that case my first idea is this:

Import:
I would probably make a script that will take all files from a given folder and insert their values into the db. So you would then move all your daily logs into that folder and it would go one by one.

Update:
I looked at the saratoga and I guess I would prefer if it was possible to have this as a txt file with just the current conditions. In other words, a text file that would contain the latest temp, humidity, pressure, solar, rain, wind, gust etc. plus date/time.
Then you would set up your CRON and this script would be executed at the specified CRON interval and always take these values, check them and if they are ok, save them into db. If this was not possible then I guess it could also work if the current daily log was available on the server, it would then simply take the latest value, but I would rather use the first method.

Give me a couple days to play with it and I'll see about generating a txt file with just the current conditions. Off the top of my head I don't see a problem but you never know until you try.

[virusdunil]

I wonder where Jachym is finding time to eat and rest...i imagine his desk with a bunch piled pocket pizza box leaning on the corner of the desk and falling asleep drooling on his note pad   

[Skyview]

First, congratulations on your entrance exams!

Second, great work on this! Even before I configured it and got everything uploaded, I could tell how much time and effort has been put into this just by looking through the files/folders/code. And I (and other detail oriented anal retentive people) appreciate your attention to detail.

I must admit I am by no means a programmer and I first time met HTML, PHP etc. about 2 years ago and learned purely by trial/error method while creating my personal webpage during nights after school and work.

I think I'm going to have to call you out on this one  Either that, or you have us all fooled pretty well.

I have a list of suggestions, but I should probably just PM those to you vs posting them here unless you would prefer that. I may have to make another donation to encourage further development 

[Jáchym]

Hi,

I wonder where Jachym is finding time to eat and rest...i imagine his desk with a bunch piled pocket pizza box leaning on the corner of the desk and falling asleep drooling on his note pad

Well not really, I dont like pizza  OK, seriously, the thing is, my day looks like I work from around 9AM till 7PM, then I usually do part-time work (I tutor or do translations) from about 8/9PM till around midnight. Then I come home and I start doing stuff I like - i.e. my website and all stuff related to it, and I do this usually from about 12AM till 4AM and then I go to bed before 5... And when I was still at uni I only worked part-time obviously and spent the time there instead... yes I know this is a very odd daily regime, but I found that as a night person I do twice as much than if I went to bed earlier and got up at 6. The other thing is I am ok with 4hrs of sleep, I usually then sleep about 8hrs on Saturdays and on Sundays, even though I could sleep 8 again, I wake up after 4 and feel refreshed You just have to learn to sleep quickly so that you dont waste time 

And with regards to programing, I really havent done anything before that. I had a very simple webpage with some photos, but I did that long time ago and it was completely done in Microsoft FrontPage, where you basically dont see the code at all. But I think that actually the most important thing is that I really enjoy this so I learn quite quickly and I love when it finally does what you want it to do, even though it sometimes takes you ages before you find out there is somewhere one extra comma or missing semi-colon Everyone learns much more efficiently if they like it and there are many things I had to learn which I didnt like and that was a different story then I was always very good at maths and natural sciences (chemistry and bio), so I wanted to study mathematical biology, but that was not available where I studied, so I chose genetics (at that time I wasnt so much into meteorology). But on the other hand.... it is for example absolute disaster when it comes to art - things like music classes, art classes, drama.... I draw like a 5-yr old And I also didnt like subjects such as history, social studies, philosophy etc. For example I dont understand poems (I only get the literal meaning, not the metaphors), I hardly ever read something apart from meteo encyclopedias, I dont really like watching movies or some TV shows - I only enjoy documentaries and I watch the news just to know what is happening, otherwise I havent seen TV in the last 5 yrs at all, and maybe this is also why I can spend all my free time doing this (and of course sometimes I go out with friends etc., but when Im alone, I dont read, I dont watch TV shows etc.).

Anyway, back to the template Im sure you have many ideas for things to add and I have my list too, I am already working on 3 new plugins which will be available soon and I think at least two of them will be quite useful, I suggest you subscribe to the blog so that you get email updates when new stuff is ready and feel free to send me any suggestions you might have and if they are not on my list already, I will add it

[tstorm]

Jachym,

  Thanks for sharing the template. I have it running at http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/meteotemplate1.0/.  I have done some customization to the home page.  I need to figure out how to get the text for watches/warning/advisory (WWA) bigger in the box above the radar loop and when you click on a WWA the redirect to the detailed page has text in blue (black would be better) which makes it hard to view.

John

[Jáchym]

Hi John,

very nice.

Q1:
<!-- nws-alerts box -->
<div style="width:99%; font-size:10px; border:solid thin #000; margin:0px auto 0px auto;">

change to
<!-- nws-alerts box -->
<div style="width:99%; font-size:14px; border:solid thin #000; margin:0px auto 0px auto;">


Q2:
Not exactly sure what you mean, maybe this?

<a href="http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/wxsat_2.php"><span style="color:#5A05B2; padding-top:7px; font-size:9px;"><u>Click Here to Animate</u>

change to:
<a href="http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/wxsat_2.php"><span style="color:#ffffff; padding-top:7px; font-size:14px;"><u>Click Here to Animate</u>

[tstorm]

Hi John,

very nice.

Q1:
<!-- nws-alerts box -->
<div style="width:99%; font-size:10px; border:solid thin #000; margin:0px auto 0px auto;">

change to
<!-- nws-alerts box -->
<div style="width:99%; font-size:14px; border:solid thin #000; margin:0px auto 0px auto;">


Q2:
Not exactly sure what you mean, maybe this?

<a href="http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/wxsat_2.php"><span style="color:#5A05B2; padding-top:7px; font-size:9px;"><u>Click Here to Animate</u>

change to:
<a href="http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/wxsat_2.php"><span style="color:#ffffff; padding-top:7px; font-size:14px;"><u>Click Here to Animate</u>

For Q2 what I'm talking about is for the alert box you can click on a Watch/Warning/Advisory.  In the case which is showing now on my webpage it would be:

http://www.harpersferry-weather.com/meteotemplate1.0/nws-alerts-details-inc.php?a=MDZ004#WA2

What I would like is that the text except for Severity level (in the case above Heat Advisory) be in black.