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MX Administrative Interface: Difference between revisions
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Revised introduction
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=Terminology=
This Wiki page has the title "MX administrative interface". That name is fully descriptive of the purpose of the functionality documented on this page. In subsequent references this is shortened to "admin interface".
When Steve Loft made his original cumulus software (legacy cumulus 1) available for others to use, it was natural for him to use "user interface" as a collective term for all the [[Cumulus_Screenshots|various screens]] that he included with that software.
When he worked on Cumulus 2 alpha builds, he needed to explain how the design of his new software was different, and he talked about it separating "engine" and "user interface". Basically, the engine read information from the weather station, calculated derivatives, and monitored extreme records. The user interface was a web server generated by the engine, here you could amend settings, and see a basic output (the alpha Cumulus 2 never had ability to feed any information to an external web server).
Thus Steve Loft used the same terminology (engine and user interface) for his Cumulus 3 beta (also known as MX). When Mark Crossley took over development and brought MX out of beta, he added much more to the web server that the engine generated, and he talks about "the code" where Steve used "engine" and he uses "admin interface" for the enhanced collection of web pages generated by the code allowing you to do administrative tasks like correcting log files (both data logs and extreme record logs). The new interface also displays your data in more ways.
=How to see and use the Admin Interface=
#Type the URL which is displayed (when MX starts running) into your browser (replace the * with the IP address, or use 'localhost') and the '''admin interface''' should appear.
# As the admin interface can both display and change settings, it must not be exposed on the internet.
# However, it is available on the device running the MX code (engine).
#*If the only web server running is the one generated by MX, you can replace the "*" shown by <tt>localhost</tt>
#The admin interface is also available to any device connected to your local (wired or wireless) network.
#*In this case, what you type might be something like <tt>http://192.168.1.xy:8998</tt>
#** You may need to look at your hub or router to see what to use for x and y as they represent the device where MX is running.
#*If this is a 'clean' installation, ''i.e. you don't have an existing [[Cumulus.ini]] file defining station type and units to be used'', the first thing you will need to do is to go to the '''settings''' screen.
#When that page is displayed it always shows the options to set the station type and units.
#Now go to bottom of this page and click the 'Save' button.
Having set the station type, and other settings, you will need stop Cumulus MX and start it again.
=What does the admin interface contain?=
Essentially, the admin interface contains some web pages allowing you to view your weather data locally (there is an option in MX to upload data to a separate web server that might be provided externally). The data shown is provided via an "application programming interface" or '''api''' and that is described next.
The admin interface web pages that Mark has either added, or redesigned significantly, are those that allow you to edit the data log (.txt) files, to edit the extreme record (.ini) log files, and to input and modify configuration settings. These have changed a lot as Mark has developed MX, and the documentation of these later may not be kept up to date with the latest changes.
== The API interface ==
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