Cumulus Wiki

AnnualDataSummary

Revision as of 16:56, 26 April 2014 by Sfws (talk | contribs) (→‎Alternative PHP: added two other references)
Name: Annual Data Summary
Type: HTML & Javascript
Author: David Jamieson
Contact: DAJ
Last update: 17 December 2012
Version: 1.2 BCJKiwi

'Annual Data Summary' is a small tool to read the dayfile.txt produced by Cumulus and summarise this in a table showing a full years worth of data.

  • The tool uses HTML and jQuery (a library script that produces Javascript) and includes a CSS file.
  • The JavaScript version does not require a webserver with PHP services enabled. (Many of the free hosting services do not offer PHP so this was a solution to that problem).
  • The alternative is a PHP version (included so you have the option to use either).
  • Both provide identical looking output and functionality, however if you have PHP services on your web server use the PHP version as it is slightly faster.

An working example is here

Requirements

  • webserver space (unless you are using this tool on your own local machine)
  • Cumulus Dayfile.txt file uploaded to the webserver (for the original version of this tool, the default location is a subfolder called 'data')
  • Javascript enabled browser (all modern browsers use Javascript)
  • optionally, a tool to automate the uploading of dayfile.txt to your webserver once per day after rollover. Example, CumulusToolbox
  • optionally, PHP enabled web server if you wish to use the PHP version

The Source Code

Revised PHP

Here is a revised set of files (PHP only) ver 1.2.

These are available here and update the Ver 1.1 fileset below to eliminate errors in validation due to non-standard or deprecated code routines. They also include a couple of updates from DAJ version as advised by posts in the Forum. The files include additional notes, and explanations on the changes, where relevant.


Alternative Web Tools

Available only from either the Website Development or the Third Party Tools sections of the support forum are alternative tools that will display daily or seasonal summaries of the contents of dayfile.txt. Although they work with daily extremes and other statistics produced by Cumulus in that file, they are also designed to cope with additional information imported into that file. Consequently although Cumulus itself cannot produce nor process 'Nulls', these tools do have some capacity to handle null fields representing missing observations.

The tools are written in code to more modern standards than the original here and are generally far more flexible in what they can output.

Alternative PHP

Alternative JavaScript

This section only is by Sfws (talk) 00:53, 18 May 2013 (PDT)

An alternative Javascript/jQuery solution is in the 3rd party tools sub forum within the Cumulus forum and its advantages are fully described in a file within the package. They include standards compliance, better integration with standard Cumulus pages, statistical additions to the bottom of each month's column, and easier tailoring to your preferences on wording, language, and text colouring.

One site using in January 2013 a variant based on this alternative code, with its own look to the page, is found here.

Since this code was originally written in December 2011, my alternative JavaScript version has evolved and now none of the original code remains, and a number of additional features have been added, whilst attempting to preserve ease of customisation to suit any requirements you have e.g. on the language and level of diagnostics output. The updates on the forum are infrequent because the shared version always lags behind my latest experiments.

Original Fileset

Instructions

  • Edit the file 'readDayfile.js' or 'readDayfile.php' depending on your choice in a good text editor (for example, notepad++) and consider the variables in the top section of the script.

These are the configuration variables described below. If you need to adjust any of these settings, edit the appropriate file.

  • Copy the necessary files to your web site into a subfolder, or the root -- your choice
if using the PHP version copy datasummary.php and readDayfile.php
for the JavaScript version copy datasummary.html and readDayfile.js
  • Copy datasummary.css
  • Open datasummary.html or datasummary.php from your website in a browser


Configuration Variables

by default, the script (the file 'readDayfile.js' or 'readDayfile.php' depending on your choice) will do the following:

  • (both versions) Assume the dayfile.txt is read from a subfolder called 'data'.
  • (JS version only) Insert the table it generates into a HTML element with attribute id='tableData'
  • (both versions) Assume the date format in the dayfile is dd/mm/yy (the month is always in the middle for all Cumulus log files)
  • (both versions) Assume the data in the dayfile is separated with a comma

The last two assumptions are fine for UK based systems, however others should check their dayfile.txt and adjust as necessary

  • Look for the line 'dayfile='/data/dayfile.txt';' around line 15 and change this to point to your dayfile.txt on your webserver.
for PHP version the path should start from the / (root),
for JavaScript version the path should start from where the HTML will be stored.
  • (JS Version only) tableDiv - the HTML element id attribute on your webpage to insert the table into
  • (both versions) field_delimiter - the symbol separating each of your fields in the dayfile.txt. For most people this is a comma but (if you use comma to separate integer and decimal parts of real numbers) it could be a semi-colon (;) or other symbol.
  • (both versions) date_delimiter - the symbol separating your date format. See setup.

Change as needed, save and test

Usage

Along the top will be a menu of the (in original version) six data sets available and on the top left of the table is the year currently being shown. Change either the year, or click one of the top buttons to change the data set. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, and your browser, the new web page may take a few seconds to be processed as it involves: re-reading the dayfile.txt file, redrawing the table, and inserting the values.

If you mouse over a particular value, it will be highlighted together with the corresponding day (row heading) and month (column heading).

Some data sets show minimum and maximum values in the cells at the intersection of the day and month headings, most just show a single value at the intersection.


Opening a specific data set when the page is first loaded

By default (in the original version) the table created will show the available daily values of the maximum temperature for the current local calendar year (see possible problems below), however you can start with any data set and any year (assuming you have those values in the dayfile.txt) by adding a 'Query String' to the end of your URL in the browser.

  • The parameter 'data' (in the original version) takes mintemp, maxtemp, avgtemp, minmaxt, rainfall, windgust. (You can add further data sets or change the language of these values - see Localization). Note the specified data will be displayed even if it is assigned 'false' and does not appear as a button.
  • You can supply both data set and year parameters, one only, or none

examples....,

  • JS version -- myserver.com/datasummary.html?year=2010
  • PHP version -- myserver.com/datasummary.php?year=2010
This will open the default (maximum temperature) data set but initially showing year 2010


  • JS version -- myserver.com/datasummary.html?data=rainfall&year=2009
This will open the rainfall data set for the year 2009.

Processing

If you select the pure Javascript solution downloaded from this section, it means the page viewer's browser is doing all the work. The complete dayfile.txt is reloaded each time you select a dataset, and your browser then filters and processes the required subset of values from it. A table is then constructed by the script at the point indicated by the HTML DIV called 'tableData', and the values are then inserted.

If you select one of the two PHP versions available from this page, the source server does all the work of constructing the HTML page and sends the result to the viewer's browser.

Customisation

Understanding the Basics

The 'tool' relies on three files for successful operation:

  1. the jQuery library routines that allow it to work in any user agent (browser)
  2. datasummary.css (the style sheet) and
  3. either readDayfile.js (the JavaScript) or readDayfile.php (the PHP version of the script).


In addition you need a carrier page to show the data. You can either use the page provided in the zip (datasummary.html or datasummary.php), or create your own page including:

  • for both JS and PHP versions you need the script library and styling:
In the <head> section.....
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="datasummary.css"  /> 
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1/jquery.js" type="text/javascript">
This loads the stylesheet; loads a jQuery library from Google servers rather than having the file on your server, (note later versions of jQuery are not supported by old versions of Internet Explorer, use the older '1.5' used by DAJ instead of '2.1' if you want to);


Please note that the table needs a good amount of space to show a full year of data (at least 900 pixels unless you start reducing the font size!)

Next you must load the Javascript to build the table:

  • for the JS version
In the <body> section where you want the table to appear first declare the element and then call the script (other code can be inserted inbetween such as anchor links to your other pages):
<div id="tableDiv">
<noscript>Your browser has not enabled the JavaScript necessary to display the table here<noscript>
&lt/div>
<script src="readDayfile.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Once the page is loaded it runs readDayfile.js and will look for your HTML element with an id attribute called 'tableData' already existing; then inserting the data table within it. You can change the DIV (or HTML5 alternative blocking elements) it inserts into (see above).
  • for the PHP version
use the code 
<?php include('readDayfile.php');?>
to include the script

Localization / Language

The script has been designed to be easily translated to your language of choice.

As in Instructions above, edit the readDayfile.js / .php

  • variable mn is a list of the 12 months of the year, in an abbreviated format. You may change these as necessary, but try to keep it to an abbreviation as there is limited space.
  • 'label_items' is a list of all possible data sets to be displayed. Again you can change these to suit. However, the format is a little more involved and you should take some care. Each row represents one data set, with 4 columns of settings for that data set; so the default list is an array of four by six.

Example of a row,.... 

['maxtemp','Max Temp','Maximum Temperature',true]
  • The first element, in this case 'maxtemp' -- is a system variable to identify the data set, used for the URL parameter option, used by the Switch coding (so any change here needs to be reflected there), and also tested elsewhere in the code (in the Rainfall and Windgust data sets a particular style is applied to their zero values).

However, if you add a new data set, then your new first element should be a unique identifier.

  • Second, Max Temp is the text to be displayed in the button at the top of the table. You may change this to your own language

If you add a new data set, remember to consider how many buttons can be fitted across the top of the table, you may wish to split into multiple rows.

  • Third, Maximum Temperature is the text shown at the top of the table to describe the current data set; again you may change this
  • Finally, 'true' will display this button at the top; 'false' will hide it. Therefore, if you do not wish to allow users to jump to the 'Rainfall data set' change the 'true' to 'false' in the 'rainfall' element of the variable. (true/false MUST be lowercase)

(NOTE: Sfws 12:22, 31 December 2012 (UTC) The switch part of the coding identifies the columns in dayfile.txt for the values to be displayed. If you wish to add new data sets then see the alternative JavaScript version in the forum for more explanation about the original coding, and an alternative way to specify the columns in a revised version of the above array.)

Styling

The table styling is completely configurable using the included datasummary.css Stylesheet. By default it is using similar colours to the standard Cumulus website. Below are a few of the key entries to consider when adjusting settings (typically colouring)... Also see support forum thread about colouring with php

In the 'datasummary.css' file:

CSS Element Description
#table_container .highlight Used to highlight the mouse position within the table, and also the row and column header of the data cell.
#table_container .smallfont Adjusting the font size to something smaller when showing both Max & Min temp on one data cell
#table_container .zerovalue In the Rainfall and Windgust data sets this style is applied to any values of 0. By default, the colour is set to a lighter grey but you could add 'display:none;' to hide zero values completely
#table_container table th Colouring for the top header (Month names) and left header (day numbers)
#table_container table td,table th The width of each data cell in the table. Be careful adjusting this as making it too small will stop the data being displayed completely
#table_menu li The styling for the buttons at the top of the page (those for changing the data set)
#table_container Set the overall font size and style used in the table, as well as the text colour; table positioning and maximum width


Possible problems

  • Version 1.1 has been tested and runs on IE 7, IE 8, IE 9, FireFox 3 to 14, IceDragon, Chrome/Dragon/SRWare Iron, and Safari -- running on the non IE browsers for both Windows and the Mac.
  • IE7 is notoriously slow for Javascript processing so there will be a longer delay as you change the data set (a few more seconds in some cases)
  • Non-standard attributes 'datacol' and 'datarow' are generated by the original javascript and php routines that will not pass validation against standards (in HTML5 these can be made to validate by changing to 'data-col' and 'data-row').
  • In version 1.1 of this tool, jQuery version 1.5 is called, this permitted use of '.attr' object to add/remove the highlight; from jQuery version 1.6 that was deprecated and the '.prop' object is now specified for the same purpose.
  • Version 1.0 and 1.1 default to showing a table for viewer's local current calendar year. Remember the dayfile.txt (even if updated each day) only contains records up to the day ending at the last rollover time using the timezone local to the weather station. Timezone differences when combined with rollover time variations can lead to a period of 2 days discrepancy. At New Year a blank table will be displayed during this period by default. For example, 30 or 31 (depending on whether rollover has occured) in December of the last year could be the latest available for a site in USA whilst the original version of the code is showing a blank table of the next year during early morning on 2 January in Austrailia. Even when station and viewer are in same timezone, there will be a blank table until the first rollover on 2 January.

Version Control

(Alternative JavaScript and PHP versions not listed here - see forum references above)

1.2 This revised PHP only version can also be downloaded above

1.1 PHP version included with JavaScript version in new download package

1.0 Public launch (JavaScript only, no longer available for download)


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