New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Management => Site Rules, Announcements and Suggestions => Announcements => Topic started by: JennyLeez on July 26, 2013, 03:42:55 PM
-
After months of work and a lot of trial and error the new Data Reporting Tool is finally live.
As with the NZLWF Live Map, we have added a new button to the top menu called ‘Station Data’ plus there is also a link under the New Zealand Local Weather Network.
The new Summary layout always loads with the most current day which will be yesterday’s data. All going to plan, this should be edited by mid day each day. This forum and the data collection began back in February 2012 and as you will see by clicking through each day the forum grew fairly rapidly in the first few months.
The columns are able to be sorted in both the Day and Month view so you are able to see which station had the highest or lowest by clicking on any of the weather conditions.
To view any station’s month data, click on that Donor Station’s name. Many stations have a banner or image at the top of their page. If you would like your banner or image added, just message me.
Also if any owner wishes to fill in any missing days due to being offline etc, please send me the data with the corresponding date and I will add it in.
On behalf of the NZLWF members I would like to thank beteljuice who has built this amazing new Summary Layout for our forum. He has spent months developing the scripts that run the new Highs and Lows Summary plus editor’s scripts and the High Chart Graphs that will be added shortly.
This new layout is unique to the New Zealand Weather Forum. A few other Weather Networks also display summaries but I have not been able to find one that has any resemblance to ours.
Thank you beteljuice :)
NZLWF Member Historical Data - NEW Summary Frontend (http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/nzlwf-member-historical-data/)
-
Yes thanks beteljuice it is a great addition to the site.
-
A big Kudos to "the beteljuice".
Nicely done. 8)
-
Yep - I've only seen half the work that has gone into this as it was well advanced before anything got let out of the bag :)
From the work I have seen, this has been a big job, and primarily it's been done between beteljuice and JennyLeez. I've also seen others involved in comments on layout and the like, which is good to see the NZLWN community getting involved in these initiatives. Awesome work guys and a big thanks to everyone involved especially to the beteljuice and JennyLeez in particular, for your efforts
-
Well done!
I guess with this summary now in action, it sort of makes the yesterdays high & lows postings a little redundant. Are you going to close off that thread?
cheers
TC
-
Yes it's been a long time getting approval and many thanks to all who have made suggestions and to JL who has managed the data every night around midnight originally but I believe the beteljuice has made a semi automated method to grab the data and place into a database for some editing - and sometimes, its not minor either with some stations giving erroneous data or none at all or the same as two days ago repeated.
Still it is a wonderful presentation and a special first for these networks, and I believe there are more wonderful presentations to come so many thanks to the betel for all his tireless and frustrated midnight oil he burned! All praise to the beteljuice !! 8) ;D
-
thanks alot for all the hard work by everyone involved.
a truly great resource.
-
working well and looking great
kudos :)
-
I am not ignoring your query Tony, I just have not decided on this one yet.
That Daily Summary Post draws 1000 plus views each month so I am a little hesitant to stop these. With the way the new Layout is, the Search Engines as with Google Search, are not going to find it as readily and hence bring traffic to the forum.
My thoughts are to keep the Daily Summary going and see if the monthly Views decline any and go from there.
Beteljuice reminded me today that if Donors are comparing what we are reporting with their logs they may not see the same figures. So as a foot note the new Layout allows like-for-like comparisons across different weather software packages. We went to great lengths last year, when Beteljuice wrote the first script, to ensure the correct values were being lifted regardless of what the ‘Owner’ had set. Hence if your own logs differ you will know why.
Totally remiss of me was not thanking Mr Hamilton, the Weather Display Author, in my initial post. In trying to find common values between the Weather Display and Cumulus Software, Brian assisted heaps by adding values to the Clientraw txt file allowing us to line up with what the Cumulus realtime txt file carried. Those values added to the clientraw txt file also reduced a lot of the manual input and I was most appreciative.
Thank you Brian for your help back then.
Cheers
-
Indeed - Many thanks to Brian, not least for seeing the potential of what we were trying to do and being accomodating enough to experiment with HIS software without taking hubris (http://www.beteljuice.com/compost/notworthy.gif)
Although it is impossible to truly create a level playing field, I feel we have done better than most !
.... and if the beteljuice does allow the next lot of rather clunky charts to escape, then some of you will see why Jenny has being gently suggesting that some of you recalibrate or change what you are reporting. Although of course there will always be one or two who will carry on regardless either through genuine lack of knowledge or sheer
b l o o d y mindedness.
So many, many thanks should go to Jenny !
Who everyday 'health checks' the figures (tweaks some :o), then publish and be #&@%ed ;)
-
the Mr Hamilton bit is like being called Sir at the check out at the supermarket, LOL
(I actually got asked for my gold card even)
LOL
ps.
Administratix
sounds like?
(something starting with domin)
LOL
(just saying)
anyway, good stuff guys
-
The difference is, that is a paid for service ::)
-
So Jenny, those of us using an older version of WD may need to perform an upgrade so better data is available - is that correct?
-
There are some old versions we are getting data from eg. Cheviot C10.37R37j.
BH would have to confirm the actual build number, but basically (as far as this is concerned) if you can see your Windrun figures in the tables you are OK.
... but of course you should be keeping your software of choice upto date with any latest stable version as a matter of routine.
-
The changes to assist us were made towards the end of May last year 2012 and thankfully we only have 3 stations left who need to update.
Finding harmony between the software packages was a mission. The wind speed was a challenge with a 1 min 5 min etc etc and we needed the clientraw stations to untick boxes for us :) The pressure readings reported are and always will be the biggest nightmare especially for those just beginning their weather hobby. They dont realise putting in the batteries and standing the console beside their PC is NOT all there is to it :)
Another thing we also cycled around was a WX Yesterday Page for the Php/Ajax template stations to make the checking easier for us.
So there was lots of small tweaks and help from the station owners to gain an as accurate comparison as possible plus help with editing.
The forum has been lucky as our members have been very obliging :)
-
Just looked in ,busy yesterday.What a great piece of working data ect. well done.Nice and Clear to understand.
-
Update:
Beteljuice and his magic fingers has added a bit of colour to the Station's Data Summary :)
You will see now the extremes are now highlighted with a colourful square.
At a glance readers can now see the highs and lows for not only each day but also for the month.
Readers also have choices as to how they wish the menu to be displayed. This probably more of a play thing than useful :D
At the rate Beteljuice is 'inventing' I am going to be redundant and out on the street looking for work ::)
As always thanks Beteljuice. I for one know how many many hours of work has gone into designing/encoding the Summary and now the added enhancements :)
-
I don't think you should go looking for work on the street, we have discussed this before! We actually need you here anyway, and our thanks and praise should be sufficient reward... :)
-
did someone say Fort street? :P
-
the high lighting is excellent, great touch, well done :D
-
I am not sure where to post this bit of info so I am tacking it on to here.
Wolfie not only has taken over doing the Bonus Game but he also helping with the Data Summary adding some of our manual inputs before work in the morning.
Although he feels what he is doing is insignificant, in fact it is not. I have gained another 15 minutes of time I can use else where like watching the tennis, I mean like the scheduling or filing :)
Thanks Wolfie.
Wolfie, I am waiting for the beteljuice to return from his sabbatical and hopefully we can deal with our coloured boxes :)
"sabbatical (from Latin sabbaticus, from Greek σαββατικός sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a "ceasing") is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from two months to a year.
:o :o :o