Weather Station Software Configuration
Before your weather station data can be used by the Western Canada Weather Network (WCWN), you must configure your chosen weather station software to upload data in a format our server can read. Currently we can process data from WeatherLink, Weather Display, and Virtual Weather Station. Please see the appropriate section below on how to configure your software. Once you have completed these steps, please let us know so we can add you to the network. If you run into problems, feel free to contact us.
- Weather Link
- Weather Display
- Virtual Weather Station
- Weather Underground HeavyWeather Uploader (WUHU)
- Cumulus
- How to install WCWN Mesomap (PHP process)
- How to install WCWN Mesomap (HTML process)
- Update your HomePage
- Save the file WL_stickertags.htx to your WeatherLink template directory - usually c:\program files\weatherlink\[stationname]\templates.
- In WeatherLink, Click on setup, Internet Settings dialog.
- For the configuration you're using to FTP Weatherlink html file(s), press the Configure button.
In the Data Upload Profile, press Select Template Files, then use ADD button to select the WL_stickertags.htx file, and press Open. - The WL_stickertags.htx file should now appear in the Weather Template Files for Data Upload dialog. Press OK., and press OK on the Data Upload Profile, then OK on the Internet Settings dialog.
- The WL_stickertags.htx file will be uploaded at your next update cycle with a filetype as specified in the Data Upload Profile.
- Please set the upload for the data page to every 5 minutes.
- Simply join and we will take it from there.
You should be able to see your file in action at www.yourweatherwebsite.com/WL_stickertags.htm
If you are doing real-time update using clientraw.txt (such as for Weather-Display Live) or one of the AJAX templates, no additional configuration is required. Your clientraw.txt should be uploaded every 5 minutes or less. Simply join and we will take it from there.
If you are NOT already using clientraw.txt, setup Weather-Display to upload the clientraw.txt file Be sure to set Weather Display to upload the file every 5 minutes. Once you do, simply join and we will take it from there.
You should be able to see your file in action at www.yourweatherwebsite.com/clientraw.txt
Virtual Weather Station Configuration
- Save the file VWS_stickertags.htx to your VWS templates folder (c:\vws\templates is the default).
- In VWS, pull down the Internet tab, and click on "HTML Settings".
- In a empty location on the left (Templates) side of the HTML Settings menu, enter c:\vws\template\VWS_stickertags.htx, editing this as necessary for drive and folder.
- On the right (HTML filename) side of the menu, on the same line, enter the file location that you use for your other .htx files, followed by \VWS_stickertags.htm.
- Click the On* box to put a check mark in it.
- Now in VWS, pull down the Internet menu and click on FTP Upload File (Send) and in an empty row on the LEFT put the same contents as you'd done in the Right side of the HTML Settings dialog. (e.g. "c:\vws\root\VWS_stickertags.htm").
- On the Right side, put "[directory]/VWS_stickertags.htm" where [directory] is
the same directory you use for the rest of your website. It would be '/VWS_stickertags.htm'
if you're uploading to the document root of your website.
At the bottom of the window, set the update time to 5 minutes. Click Update and Upload Files to Internet. - Simply join and we will take it from there.
You should be able to see your file in action at www.yourweatherwebsite.com/VWS_stickertags.htm
Weather Underground HeavyWeather Uploader (WUHU) Configuration
NOTE! Needs WUHU 216 Beta 40 or newer !!- Save the file WUHU_stickertags.txt to folder of your choice.
- Expand WUHU and click the Alerts/Actions-button. A new window will appear.
- In Main Action/Alert, select Enable Actions and Repetitions and set the value for Selections to 1.
- In WUHU Operation Alarms/Actions, select On Weather Update. If you want to update the file ie. every 2 minutes, select also On Update Seconds and set the value to 120.
- Click on Sound/Action-button (below Weather Update). A new window will appear.
- Write the next string in Action on Activation:
template:"X:\(where_you_have_saved_WUHU_stickertags.txt)\WUHU-stickertags.txt" "X:\(where_you_want_to_save_the_file)\WU_stickertags.txt"
X: is the partition-letter. The above string is an example, configure to match your own computer. - Confirm by clicking OK
- Save the changes with Save Changes
- Simply join and we will take it from there.
You should be able to see your file in action at www.yourweatherwebsite.com/WU_stickertags.txt
If you are using Cumulus weather station software, make sure your realtime.txt conditions file is uploaded regularly to your website, then let us know the URL of your realtime.txt file on your website and we'll do the configuration from here.
You can download a starter set of the code and all required files (WCWN-mesomap.zip). Just unpack the zip file and upload the contents to your website. Place the control files and PHP script in the root directory of your webserver, along with the graphic file and the arrows/other graphics in the ./WCWN-images directory. Be sure to customize the mesomap-update-utility.php script in the package so you can use it in the future to keep your control file, graphic and mesomap PHP file up to date.
Second, create a new PHP webpage using your website template. (I called mine WCWN.php, but the filename is not important). Edit the webpage to have a page title of "Western Canada Weather Network", and insert two PHP include statements. In the <head> section, insert:
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
<?php
$doPrintWCWN = false;
include("WCWN-mesomap.php");
print $WCWN_CSS; ?>
and in the <body> section where you'd like the WCWN meso-map to appear, insert:
if you'd like XHTML 1.0-Strict code generated, then use in the <head> section:
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
<?php
$doPrintWCWN = false;
$_REQUEST['gen'] = 'xhtml';
include("WCWN-mesomap.php");
print $WCWN_CSS; ?>
Save the file and upload it to your weather website.
If you'd like to center the map in your page, don't use the <center> tag .. it will move only the upper graphic and not the background graphic, so the legends will be displaced. Instead, use a <table> like this:
<tr><td align="center">
<table width="620">
<tr><td style="text-align:left">
<?php print $WCWN_MAP; ?>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>
<?php print $WCWN_TABLE; ?>
</td></tr>
</table>
</td></tr>
</table>
When it comes time to update the mesomap in the future, you'll only have to use the mesomap-update-utility.php on your website to keep the files current with the master set.
Cacheing of current conditions has been enabled with a default life of 10 minutes. This should speed up subsequent views.
Please make sure that WCWN-conditions.txt file in the same directory as the WCWN-mesomap.php is writable by PHP (permissions of 666 or 777) -- it's used to store the local cache of conditions reports for display.
Also, a config file option has been implemented which allows you to store your settings in WCWN-mesomap-config.txt in the same directory. That way, you only have to change your settings once for the WCWN-mesomap.php program, and new program updates won't alter your settings. The sample WCWN-mesomap-config.txt file is in the WCWN-mesomap.zip or viewable here.
How to install WCWN Meso-map (HTML process)
NOTE: please use this method ONLY if you don't have PHP available on your web hoster. This method will cause load on our Western Canada Weather Network home site (which we can handle for a few sites), and may not provide search engines with the links to index as does the PHP method (so your site won't get the 'publicity' on the search engines as the sites using the PHP map will).
First, create a new WCWN meso-map webpage using your website template.
Edit the webpage to have a page title of "Western Canada Weather Network", and put this HTML in the <body> section of the page where you'd like the mesomap to appear.:
<iframe src="http://westerncanadawx.net/WCWN.php" width="620" height="680"
frameborder="0" scrolling="auto">
</iframe>
<br clear="all">
</div>
Now upload your WCWN meso-map page to your website.
Now edit your weather station homepage to have a link to your WCWN meso-map. If you use a text link, then please make sure the words "Western Canada Weather Network" appear in the link and title= like this:
If you use a graphical link, then make sure the <img> link has both alt= and title= attributes that say "Western Canada Weather Network" in them. Search engines will read the alt= and title= tags for keywords, and we want to make sure they pick up our full name.
<img src="WCWN_logo_100.png"
alt="Western Canada Weather Network"
title="Western Canada Weather Network"
width="100" height="100" style="border: none;" />
</a>
Save the edited homepage and upload to your website (which may mean editing a .htx or .txt file with the html for upload by your weather station program). Now you're finished (until the WCWN gets a new member) and you can relax and enjoy the snappy reparte on the WCWN forum.