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

This screenshot is easier to see....

Wooohooo!
We got Day/Night icons to work properly in WM! Thanks to the sample code mark76uk supplied it works and we are now using close to 60 different icons. The code mark76uk wrote is:

[default icons]
IF (%_CurrentTime_Hour_24% > 19) OR (%_CurrentTime_Hour_24% < 6)
{
Sun = clearmoon.png
Clouds = cloudymoon.png
Lightning = stormynight.png
}
ELSE
{
Sun = sunnyday.png
Clouds = cloudyday.png
Lightning = stormyday.png
}

This is to go in the skin.ini file.
So there it is ladies and gentlemen. Well the next thing we are trying will be having a third WM to show Sunrise, Sunset, etc.

HMSS Q Section

That's great! I had no idea the skin.ini supported any sort of programming language. This opens up all sorts of possibilities! What language is that? They syntax looks a little like C++ or JavaScript, but the variable format doesn't look familiar.

Are you sure it works night and day, QSection? You see, I
never thought that code would work with the present
version. I can only imagine that Weather Monitor is ignoring
half of those code lines and is showing you something
based on the others? Apologies if I have misled people.

The idea was to show how useful a few lines of simple code
could be *if* some kind of macro language was added to a
future version.

Yes, I agree, it would be an exciting prospect if code like
that worked. That was my purpose, to campaign for it by
showing people nice examples of how it could be used (I may
do some more soon.)

What language is that? They syntax looks a little like C++ or JavaScript, but the variable format doesn't look familiar.

The code is generic. Allowing people to follow it easily was my main aim.

/Mark

Hi mark76uk

Well we *almost* had it. At the time we tried it (nighttime) WM was displaying daytime icons. We changed/added that code and voila - nightime icons. That is when we posted last. When checking the next day (daytime) lo and behold the icons were still in the nighttime mode. :0
So since we were just about to contact you perhaps you can render some assistance here with this day/night thing.

Thank you,

HMSS Q Section

I'll try to find a solution, based on the idea by Shapeshifter..

You could have, for instance, a "Clear Night" icon, but the problem would be finding a web page that reports the conditions and Day/Night cylce relatively close together in the page (ideally: adjacent).

I'm not really expecting that this 'ideal page' will exist though. Otherwise, well..

Yes, the next version of the WM will support day/night icons

Yuri seems to be a fast worker. I wouldn't be surprised if we get the new version within a month.

Really though, until a simple macro language is added, nearly every one of us (except the serious programmer types) will be heavily dependant on Yuri to solve these type of niggling problems.

/Mark

Well we *almost* had it. At the time we tried it (nighttime) WM was displaying daytime icons. We changed/added that code and voila - nightime icons. That is when we posted last. When checking the next day (daytime) lo and behold the icons were still in the nighttime mode.

All right the only format for .ini files is:

Code:

<name> = <value>

So TLB always find moon picture

BTW it is possible to make day/night icons right now. If provider show different icons for day and night you can take (parse) the picture file name from webpage into Conditions value and show needed icon on weather monitor.

mark76uk

FYI - We use this page:
http://www.aws.com/aws_2001/asp/obsForec...V&obs=full
See if you can tell if there is a useable code on viewing the source code.

Hello Yuri
We have all the icons needful - a complete day set and a complete night set. They are all together in the icon file. Their names for example are
partlycloudy.png
nt_partlycloudy.png
A reminder - we have all the icons now displaying properly except not at the proper time.
So right now - local time is daytime and the night Partly Cloudy icon is displayed. It is listed in the skin.ini file under
[instaweather]. We only have the default 8 icons listed under
[default icons].

We guess we will just wait patiently for WM 1.3 unless you have any further ideas for us.

HMSS Q Section

I think I found the elusive 'ideal page' layout. It's only featured on wunderground.com pages, however - not your preferred aws service.

This screenshot is from near the bottom of a city weather report's left hand navigation bar. The important text is highlighted. I'll see if it works..

What is not understood is why and (how close) the conditions and the time need to be close together. On our favorite page the two items are very close are they not? Here is a part of the code from the page:
<td bgcolor="ccccff" colspan=2>This Afternoon</td>
</tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top"> <img src="icons/partlycloudy.GIF" alt="Partly Cloudy"></td>

The reason we do not prefer Weather Underground is that there are no weather stations anywhere near us. When we check the 4 closest weather underground stations against a weather station from AWS (2 km from us) the temperatures, pressure and humidity are all off appreciably due to being out of proximity.

HMSS Q Section

You may be right there , but only assuming that the "this afternoon" heading disappears at the end of the afternoon. Maybe so? /Mark

It goes in this progression something like:

This Morning
Today
This Afternoon
Remainder of Day
This Evening
Tonight
Wednesday

HMSS Q Section

It was interesting to try, but I'm thinking that Weather Monitor cannot take multiple lines of HTML as conditions to look for. I am having no luck with my experiments.

Fact is that

Code:

Partly cloudy night

is a lot different from

Code:

Tonight</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top"><img src="icons/nt_partlycloudy.GIF"

actual aws code, but doesn't show the true extent of the nasty carriage returns and code spacing

There is a tiny chance that this could work with the correct amount of luck or fiddling, but I'm thinking not. To me, having nice moon icons at night is not worth a lot of work.. particularly considering that the next version will be along in weeks or months.

Oh well.. save your icons for then

/Mark

'One last try' syndrome took over me and I think I found a solution. Try this code which relys on aws' gif icon names!

This demo code includes just two of their icon names, 'nt_partlycloudy' and 'partlycloudy'. Any icon prefixed with 'nt_' is going to be night, so this can be looked for to make Weather Monitor display a night icon! It may take you a while to collect the icon names for all the night and day weather conditions!

Code:

[options]
name = Night Or Day Weather
starturl=http://www.wunderground.com/
SendCookies = 0

[Conditions]
find0 = "<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 bgcolor="ccccff" width="100%">"
find1 = "<img src="icons/"
delim = ".GIF"

[Sun]
nt_partlycloudy

[Rain]
partlycloudy

this file is also attached

<phew>
/Mark