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How to skin for different symbols? - Wind direction, rather than weather type - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: How to skin for different symbols? - Wind direction, rather than weather type (/thread-616.html)

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- mark76uk - 02-17-2003

--EDIT--sorry, no idea how this escaped the weather plugin thread--

Is the icon displayed (e.g. Sunshine) tied to the variable [Conditions]? Does [Conditions] have to equal one of the weather types like "Sun" or "Clouds"?

I've tried changing corresponding parts of the provider.ini and skin.ini, but no icon is displayed if i don't follow the above rules.

I see that neither the NASDAQ or TLB Version skins use changing icons.

I'm trying to put a wind direction icon over a local map background. I cycle everywhere, and the wind can make a lot of difference. Here is an early screenshot:-

[Image: windindicator.gif]

- mark76uk - 02-17-2003

Just to clarify, i'm fine with:-

(i) Retreiving the wind direction from weatherunderground.com
(ii) Grouping results like NNE and NNW under [Sun]
(iii) changing the skin icon for the [Sun] group to a north arrow.

What i cannot do, is:-

(i) Get a group working with a name like [North] instead of [Sun] or [Clouds]
(ii) Add more categories like [NorthWest] or [SouthEast]

- shapeshifter - 02-17-2003

I believe the "icon" is a special case tied only to the overall weather conditions. Maybe in a future version (hint hint, Yuri Wink ) this will be more flexible.

I agree that what you are trying to do could be very useful, but more importantly, would require that the plugin be more flexible, which would open countless doors. I'm all for altering the plugin to accomodate something like this.

- Yuri Kobets - 02-18-2003

mark76uk
You can make this right now. You need to create new provider and skin. Provider file must contain [Conditions] section and this section must retrieve the wind strings (NNE, NNW etc.) Group results under std sections (Sun, Clouds etc.):
Code:
[Conditions]
find0 = "<td>Wind</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[sun]
NNE

[Clouds]
NNW

....

In the skin define icons for wind direction:
Code:
[default icons]
Sun=nne.png
Clouds=nnw.png
.....

Now you replace weather condition by wind direction Wink and WM will show icon of wind.

- mark76uk - 02-18-2003

Thanks, I'll see what I can do. See if it will be useful releasing as a skin.

Sun = South Wind = West

I may have to put on my pointy hat and dance around the stone circle Big Grin

/Mark

- mark76uk - 02-19-2003

OK, I got it working Smile Weather Monitor collects the wind data from a nearby weather station and displays it over a pop-up map of my local area.

[Image: windindicator_earlyversion.gif]

Riding my bike, the wind can make the difference between a struggle and a cruise. Quite often, strong winds slow me down on the 4 mile journey to work each morning. Now I can easily know what to expect Smile

It would be very simple to swap this to a map of your favourite boating lake or kite flying space Wink Anyone interested? I'm not sure it's worth putting on the TLB skins area, maybe I'll just make it available from my personal website?

A trivial thing I can't get working is the "MPH" on the wind speed.

/Mark

- Q Section - 02-20-2003

Mark76uk -
Woohoo! Wow what a brain! Way to go. Eventually when we get simpler projects set we will try it also.
Smile

- mark76uk - 02-20-2003

QSection Wrote:Woohoo! Wow what a brain! Way to go.
Look at Yuri Kobets work on the entire TLB program for better inspiration. He put the architecture in place so that people with less time and talent can create these interesting little projects.

/Mark Smile

- mark76uk - 02-23-2003

I've worked out how to show more than one graphic with the weather monitor. It's simple, you use two plugins squashed close to each other! It looks entirely convincing if you design carefully.

Although I'm designing my wind conditions skin for use in a menu - I'm quite sure this could be done on a toolbar. For that, you would have to change the horizontal or vertical spacing in the metrics options. Reduce the gap between icons to zero.

Using this method, you will be able to show graphics for two or more different variables collected by Weather Monitor.

In the screenshot, what you are looking at are two Weather Monitor plugins. The map background is also cut in two. To the top right, I've added a dotted line to show the otherwise invisible divide between the two plugins.

Here, the top plugin shows a wind direction arrow graphic and numerical temperature (normal text.) The Bottom plugin shows a text graphic according to the wind speed. The words are based on the Beaufort Scale (rather than a useless numerical speed.)

/Mark

- bbfi - 02-23-2003

Mark,
I basically did the same thing last night. In order to have today's weather plus the seven day forecast, I had to set up 8 plugins, one above the other.

[Image: weather_monitor_7_day.jpg]

- mark76uk - 02-23-2003

Very nice Smile Very professional looking. /Mark

- Yuri Kobets - 02-23-2003

I agree Wink

- bbfi - 02-23-2003

Thanks Mark and Yuri. I've been looking for a real good weather program for a long time. For years I was using Weather Bug and with the free version, you get a ton of ads. Plus, it had to open the program when you click on the little icon in the System Tray before you could view the weather. I also tried quite a few others in the past. Weather Monitor is the tops. It can be configured into any format to display whatever info you want. Keep up the good work Yuri and all the others who contribute in adding to TLB and its plugins.
Smile
If anyone wants to know how I accomplished my setup of Weather Monitor, feel free to ask.

- bbfi - 02-23-2003

I just got done replying to someone who asked me by email about the configuration. So, if anyone else is wondering, here is how -

I had to use two different weather sites. For the main weather box with most of the info, I used the default one included with the plugin (Weather Underground at http://www.wunderground.com). For each day forecast, I used Weather For You at http://www.weatherforyou.com which gives a seven day forecast with hi and low temperatures in a usable format, whereas the format that Weather Underground uses for seven days is difficult to configure in the .ini file.

Also, make sure you use the skins from the Full 32 C Weather Monitor skins pack at http://www.truelaunchbar.com/plugins/bin/weatherpack.zip

In the Providers folder, I used the wunderground.ini and I created an additional seven files called weatherforyou-sun.ini, weatherforyou-mon.ini, weatherforyou-tue.ini, etc. through weatherforyou-sat.ini

The weatherforyou-sun.ini is -
[options]
name = Weather For You - Sunday
starturl=http://www.weatherforyou.com
SendCookies = 0

[Conditions]
find0 = "<b>Sunday</b>"
find1 = "<font face="verdana,arial"><small>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam0]
name = Hi Temp
find0 = "<b>Sunday</b>"
find1 = "<font color="red" face="verdana,arial"><small>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam1]
name = Low Temp
find0 = "<b>Sunday</b>"
find1 = "<font color="blue" face="verdana,arial"><small>"
delim = "<"

[Sun]
Clear
Sunny

[Clouds]
Overcast
Mostly Cloudy
etc.

So, for each of these .ini files, just change every reference of the day to the day of the week that the file is named.

The main weather box uses wunderground.ini which is -
[options]
name = Weather Underground
starturl=http://www.wunderground.com
SendCookies = 0

[Temperature]
unit = F
find0 = "<td>Temperature</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[Humidity]
find0 = "<td>Humidity</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "%"

[Pressure]
unit = in Hg
GroupSymbol = ","
find0 = "<td>Pressure</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[Conditions]
find0 = "<td>Conditions</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam0]
unit = F
ValueType = INT
name = Dew Point
find0 = "<td>Dew Point</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam1]
name = Sun Rises at
find0 = "<td>Sunrise</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "EST"

[CustomParam2]
name = Sun Sets at
find0 = "<td>Sunset</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "EST"

[CustomParam3]
name = Length of Day
find0 = "<td>Length of Day</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam4]
name = Updated
find0 = "<b>Conditions</b>"
find1 = "Updated:"
find2 = "<b>"
delim = "on"

[CustomParam5]
name = Observed at
find0 = "<b>Conditions</b>"
find1 = "Observed at"
find2 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam6]
unit = F
ValueType = INT
name = Windchill
find0 = "<td>Windchill</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "<"

[CustomParam7]
name = Wind Speed
find0 = "<td>Wind</td>"
find1 = "<td>"
delim = "/ "

[CustomParam8]
name = Visibility
find0 = "<td>Visibility</td>"
find1 = "<b>"
delim = "/ "

[CustomParam9]
name = Wind Gust
find0 = "<td>Wind Gust</td>"
find1 = "<td>"
delim = "</td>"

[CustomParam10]
name = Advisory
find0 = "<b>Active Advisory:</b>"
find1 = "">"
delim = "</td>"

[Sun]
Clear
Sunny

[Clouds]
Overcast
Mostly Cloudy
Mist
etc.

In the Skins folder, use the Full 32 C folder for the main weather box and create seven new ones, calling each one a day of the week (Sunday, Monday, etc.). Using the folder named Sunday, for an example, include the following in it - a folder called icons, the background png, and the skin.ini which for me is the following -

[options]
name=Sunday
author=TrueSoft
email=support@tsoftcentral.com
url=http://www.truelaunchbar.com
version = 2

[general]
Background=bg-sky-sunday.png
iconPos = 255 9

[DataSlot0]
param = CUSTOM
SkinText = 0
rect = 80 5 290 22
LabelType = short
LabelRect = 0 0 10 10
font=Arial
bold=1
italic=0
align=left
ShowUnits = 1

[DataSlot1]
param = CUSTOM
SkinText = 0
rect = 80 21 290 36
LabelType = short
LabelRect = 0 0 10 10
font=Arial
bold=1
italic=0
align=left
ShowUnits = 1

[DataSlot2]
param = CUSTOM
SkinText = 0
rect = 150 21 290 36
font=Arial
bold=1
italic=0
align=left
ShowUnits = 1

[default icons]
Sun=sunny.png
etc.

With version 1.2 of Weather Monitor, you have to put the Parameter names (Temperature, Humidity, etc.) in the png graphics (a lot of going back and forth between the skin.ini and the graphics to line everything up correctly). Yuri promised that a future release of Mail Monitor will allow you to display the info by adding it to the skin.ini files.

After you created your png backgrounds and weather icons (and everything works and lines up), you have to create a menu button for the Taskbar and call it Weather Monitor (or whatever you like). Then, just add each of the Weather Monitors (8 in all) to the menu.

BTW - there are quite a few nice weather icons at http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/trivia/weather-icons.html
I used some of them and changed them in a paint program to my liking.
Wink

- nickroberts1 - 02-23-2003

Wow! Great thread!

I agree with the previous posters. True Launch Bar is unique that the weather plug-in is more customizeable than any of the other weather utilities out there. All of them only give you current temperature anyway and not conditions in the system tray (and the font's are terrible.)

I used a new skin, took old icons from a version 1 skin...and created what I call a minimalist weather tray...

Look at the screenshot below and you will see how true launch bar with the weather plug in looks seamless with my desktop.