Weather Display Live - Getting Started

Contents

» Overview
» Installation
» Upgrading to New Releases
» Configuring
» Purchasing
» Troubleshooting
» Release History
» Appendix
     wdlconfig.xml tags

Overview

Weather Display Live works with Weather Display to provide real time viewing of your weather station data on the internet. Weather Display Live is a Flash ^{TM 1} movie which uses the file transferred to your website by FTP or other means from Weather Display. The data is displayed in your web browser which requires the free Adobe Flash plug-in ² - this is currently installed on 96% of internet-enabled desktops worldwide ³ and is pre-installed on many browsers and computers. The data can be updated on a regular configurable basis by the user but it is suggested to set it the same as the upload from Weather Display. (See the Weather Display documentation for advice on this.)

Weather Display Live is free to use on a local PC or test web server using the executable version with no restrictions. It will run on an internet web server in evaluation mode with no time limit but an Evaluation Version notice is displayed. After registering the software you will be sent a serial number which will remove this notice and allow you to use the file as many times as you wish for that particular website.

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Installation

Installation is straightforward with only one file needing to have a change made to it to get Weather Display Live working in evaluation mode. Step by step instructions are listed below.

To install Weather Display Live on your web server -

1. Open the file index.html from the folder that you installed Weather Display Live on your computer into in an html editor, Notepad, or a similar text editor, and locate the line which says "Enter your details here!!"
   
   Change the line beneath it which says -
   
                var pathToWdlconfig = "https://www.yourwebsite.com/wdlconfig.xml";
               
   so that "https://www.yourwebsite.com/wdlconfig.xml" is the path to your wdlconfig.xml file on your website.
   
   
2. Copy the wdlconfig.xml file, the index.html file, the wdlv5_04.swf and the swfobject.js file from the folder that you installed Weather Display Live on your computer into the same folder on the web server that the clientraw.txt and clientrawextra.txt files get FTP'd into by Weather Display. If you haven't configured Weather Display to do this then go to the FAQ section on the forum for the instructions.
   
   
3. That's it!

Open up a web browser and navigate to the index.html file. You should see your live weather data with an Evaluation Notice displayed on top of it.

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Upgrading to New Releases

New versions of Weather Display Live will be given a new name for two reasons: to avoid problems with browsers caching old versions and to avoid confusion over which version is being used.

If you are applying a new version of Weather Display Live all you need to do is rename the reference to it in the web page that hosts the swf file so that it now refences the new swf. With reference to the above section on installation change the line that says -

var versionOfWdl = "wdlv4_15.swf";

to the new version so that it now reads

var versionOfWdl = "wdlv5_04.swf";

Upload the index.html file again to your website and refresh your browser to see the new version.

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Basic Configuring

The wdlconfig.xml file allows many options to be set for Weather Display Live. It is an xml file which allows for great flexibility but care when altering it is required. The slightest typo can stop the software working. It is recommended you make a backup before amending any details. In addition the file is case sensitive! Open the wdlconfig.xml files in a text editor such as Notepad and have a look at the contents within it. Each configuration option is specified on a new line. For a comprehensive guide to customising Weather Display Live see the configuring_wdl.pdf file. Here are a few of the most useful tags to get you started.

If you wish to place index.html, wdlconfig.xml and wdlv5_04.swf files in a different location than the clientraw.txt, clientrawextra.txt, clientrawhour.txt and clientrawdaily.txt files then you can specify their location by amending the lines -

<clientraw></clientraw>
<clientrawextra></clientrawextra>
<clientrawdaily></clientrawdaily>
<clientrawhour></clientrawhour>

Enter the full path to the files ie https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientraw.txt and https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientrawextra.txt as appropriate -

<clientraw>https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientraw.txt</clientraw>
<clientrawextra>https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientrawextra.txt</clientrawextra>
<clientrawdaily>https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientrawdaily.txt</clientrawdaily>
<clientrawhour>https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientrawhour.txt</clientrawhour>

To change an option such as the temperature units that Weather Display Live starts with find the line -

<initTempUnits>C</initTempUnits>

Change it so that it now reads -

<initTempUnits>F</initTempUnits>

Be careful when changing settings in this file as you can easily stop Weather Display Live from working with the smallest of typing mistakes. The xml file is case sensitive! Refresh your web page to reload Weather Display Live and see the new temperature units.

In the same way you can change the barometric pressure, rainfall, altitude and wind units at start up.

It is recommended that you set the frequency with which Weather Display Live attempts to update data to be the same as the clientraw.txt file gets updated from Weather Display. Therefore if Weather Display sends a new clientraw.txt file every 10 seconds change the line that says -

<refresh>4</refresh>

to say -

<refresh>10</refresh>

If after changing this setting or any other in the wdlconfig.xml file your browser does not reflect the change see the Troubleshooting section below.

The full set of configuration tags in the wdlconfig.xml file and comprehensive instructions for customising Weather Display Live to look exactly the way you want are described in the configuring_wdl.pdf guide included in the installation folder. There are also a number of sample files available for you to use or modify in the Weather Display Live installation folder.

You can change the size of Weather Display Live by amending the width and height tags in the index.html file. For example if you wish to make the display a fixed size enter the values 550 and 400 for width and height respectively. Alternatively you can make Weather Display Live automatically fill the screen by setting the values to a percentage. Enter 100% for both the width and height tags. It's best to keep the values relative to each other or the display will appear distorted due to the incorrect aspect ratio.

You can change the background colour of the display or place a background image by changing the <body style="background:#ffffff"> tag. For example to give Weather Display Live a yellow background you would change the tag to <body style="background:#ffff00">. For more information on any of this visit the Flash pages on the Adobe website ⁴ or any decent html book.

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Purchasing

To purchase Weather Display Live please -

Or

The URL of your website is the webserver/subdomain + domain. For example if your website is at https://www.myweb.com/ the serial number will be registered to www.myweb.com; if your website is https://members.mywebsite.org/weather the serial number will be registered to members.mywebsite.org.

Once I've received your payment I'll email you a serial number as soon as I can - usually within 24 hours. When you receive the serial number replace the serial number line in the wdlconfig.xml file so that the word 'evaluation' is replaced by your serial number. Refresh the web page in your browser to remove the evaluation notice.

For more information on purchasing visit the Weather Display website at https://www.weather-display.com/order.php

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Troubleshooting

If Weather Display Live fails to load correctly in your web browser please carefully check the following -

• Weather Display Live requires Flash player 8 to work correctly. You can download this version from the Adobe website at https://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer
• You have changed the line in the index.html file to reflect the location of your wdlconfig.xml file.
• You have put the wdlv5_04.swf file and the index.html file in the same folder as the wdlconfig.xml and clientraw.txt file on your web server, or you've specified the location of the clientraw filesin the wdlconfig.xml file.

If you have made changes to the wdlconfig.xml file and they are not showing up in your web browser this is usually because the file is being cached somewhere, either by your web browser or a proxy server somewhere in the chain. This is commonly hosted by your Internet Service Provider to reduce internet traffic. There are four things you can try if your browser is caching -

1. Refresh the page. In Internet Explorer press F5.
2. Force a refresh of the cache in your browser. In Internet Explorer press Ctrl + F5
3. Restart your browser.
4. Empty your browsers cache completely. In Internet Explorer go to Tools - Internet Options - General and click on 'Delete Files'.

Flash will not load data files which reside in a different domain to the actual swf file for security reasons. Therefore make sure your swf, wdlconfig.xml and clientraw.txt files all reside in the same domain.

For all features to work correctly you must be using Weather Display v10.37i or greater.

For any other issues please post to the Weather Display forum at https://www.weather-watch.com/smf/ where I'll do my best to help.

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Release History

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Appendix

1. Flash is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

2. Available from Adobe at https://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

3. Adobe current statistics. You can view the latest figures at https://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/

4. Adobe website for Flash is at https://www.adobe.com/flash

5. Wdlconfig.xml configuration tags :

Please take care changing entries in this file. The slightest typo can stop the software working. It is recommended you make a backup before amending any details. The file is case sensitive!

This is a list of some of the configuration tags and their settings to get you started. See the configuring wdl.pdf guide for more on customising Weather Display Live and for a complete list of tags.

Enter your serial number here.
<serialno>evaluation</serialno>

Enter the language displayed in WDL. Note that the current conditions text are provided directly from Weather Display or a Metar. Options are currently english(default), finnish, danish, dutch, french, swedish, german, spanish, norwegian, italian, portuguese, estonian, faroese, frisian and catalan.
<language>english</language>

Specify the date format displayed by the all time records page
Options are dd/mm/yyyy(default), mm/dd/yyyy, yyyy/dd/mm, yyyy/mm/dd, dd,mm,yyyy, mm,dd,yyyy, yyyy,dd,mm, yyyy,mm,dd, dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-dd-mm, yyyy-mm-dd
<dateFormat>dd/mm/yyyy</dateFormat>

Specify the location of the clientraw and clientrawextra files if they are not at the same location as the Weather Display Live swf and wdlconfig.xml files. You must specify the full path ie. https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientraw.txt and https://www.mywebsite.com/weather/data/clientrawextra.txt as appropriate.
<clientraw></clientraw>
<clientrawextra></clientrawextra>
<clientrawdaily></clientrawdaily>
<clientrawhour></clientrawhour>

If you have a lightning detector you can enable a lightning activity animated icon by setting this tag to a number other than 0. The number you set corresponds to the number of strikes/minute recorded by your detector and Weather Display. When this threshold is reached the animated lighting icon is displayed.
<lightningAlert>0</lightningAlert>

Enter the initial temperature units here.
Options are - C or F.
If nothing is entered it will default to c - celsius.
<initTempUnits>F</initTempUnits>

Enter the initial wind units here.
Options are - mph, km/h, knots or m/s.
If nothing is entered it will default to mph.
<initWindUnits>mph</initWindUnits>

Enter the initial rain units here.
Options are - mm or in.
If nothing is entered it will default to mm.
<initRainUnits>mm</initRainUnits>

Enter the initial snow units here.
Options are - cm or in.
If nothing is entered it will default to cm.
<initSnowUnits>cm</initSnowUnits>

Enter the initial pressure units here.
Options are - mb, inHg or hPa.
If nothing is entered it will default to mb.
<initPressureUnits>mb</initPressureUnits>

Enter the inital cloudbase height here.
Options are feet (ft), metres (m) or yards (yds)
If nothing is entered it will default to ft.
<initCloudbaseUnits>ft</initCloudbaseUnits>

Enter the inital heat type here.
Options are humidex or heatindex.
If nothing is entered it will default to humidex.
<initHeatType>humidex</initHeatType>

Enter the refresh rate in seconds. This should match the frequency with which you update the clientraw.txt file within Weather Display.
If you don't enter an option it will default to 4 seconds.
Maximum rate is 4 seconds, minimum is 60 seconds.
<refresh>4</refresh>

Enter 0 to hide the compass heading.
Enter 1 to show the compass heading in letters.
Enter 2 to show the compass heading in degrees.
Enter 3 to show both.
<showCompassHeading>1</showCompassHeading>

Enter the display of data date/time next to station name
Enter 0 to hide station name, date and time
Enter 1 to alternate between date and time
Enter 2 to display date only
Enter 3 to display time only
<stationdatetime>1</stationdatetime>

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© Julian Best 2008