Your LOCAL public website

Here you will be taken through the steps needed to put the supplied public website into the web host you set up on the last page. This will enable you to view and edit it before you configure CumulusMX to upload data to the public website.

During this process I will introduce various options that might make managing your site easier.

Default Setup

This setup is based on the default setup for your public website where all data and html pages are located in the same folder.

However, so that you can develop other sites locally, these instructions put the local site in a sub-folder of your local host called default1).

Step 1

Copy the contents of the CumulusMX/webfiles folder to /var/www/html/default/ *

cp -r ~/<cmxfolder>/webfiles/ /var/www/html/default/

This copies all the files needed to construct the site. The next step will make CumulusMX process and copy all the required datafile to this sub-folder.


Step 2

In the CumulusMX Interface navigate to: Settings ~ Internet Settings ~ Web/Upload Site

In the first option Enable file copy of standard files, make sure this is checked and enter the path /var/www/html/default/ *


Step 3

Setting your Normal Interval settings The interval is the period of time between readings of all your attached sensors. It is measured in minutes.

Under Interval Configuration, check the option I want to use the suppled default website. This will set all the basic settings for you.

Under the heading Normal Interval Settings:-

  • Make sure that interval is checked.
  • Enter a suitable interval2).

Under the heading Realtime Interval Settings

  • Make sure Realtime is checked
  • Set a suitable time in seconds between readings3).

Realtime data is used by the gauges.


Step 4

This step sets up your moon image which is displayed in an 'Almanac' popup on the default site.

In the section Moon Image:

  • Generate Moon Image: - Checked
  • Copy File: - Checked
  • Copy Destination Folder: /var/www/html/default/images/moon.png

Step 5

Save your settings by clicking the Save Settings button at the bottom of the screen.

More Detailed setup

In this setup, I show you how to limit the data that is copied. It is entirely up to you. In Step 3 in the default setup, you simply indicated that you wanted to use the default supplied website. This is a bit of a sledge hammer approach in that everything gets selected for copying.

In this setup, you take a more detailed look at what is being copied and whether it is needed or not.


Step 3 revisited

Navigate and open the Normal Interval Settings section and click on Standard File Settings and then Graph File Settings

You will find that every graph type is listed and selected to be copied. Unless you have every sensor available, it is unlikely that you need all of these files.

Graph File Sensor required
graphconfig.json Needed by all graphs
availabledata.json Needed by CumulusMX
tempdata.json Temperature sensor
pressdata.json Pressure sensor
winddata.json Anemometer
wdirdata.json Anemometer
humdata.json Humdity sensor
raindata.json Rain guage
dailyrain.json Rain gauge
dailytemp.json Temperature Sensor
solardata.json A Solar sensor
sunhours.json UV / Solar sensor

The remaining graphs all require additional sensors not normally included or connected to your weather station so if you don't have any, you don't need to copy them. Un-check the option boxes.

Daily Graph File Settings

In this section, you may not need the file alldailysolardata.json if you don't have a VU/Solar sensor and, unless you are manually entering snow data, you won't need the alldailysnowdata.json file either.

Review

If you navigate to /var/www/html/default/ you should see five folders, a number of *.htm files, and, most importantly, a number of *.json files. If the *.json files don't start appearing then you need to go back over your settings checking that you entered the paths correctly.

Viewing the site

If everything has worked as expected, you should be able to enter:
localhost/default/ into your browser on the rPi, or
<rPi_IP_Address>/default/ into a browser on a machine on your network,

and view the default website. Do remember that it could take a day, before all the data is made available, unless you use the FTP/Copy utility in the Interface to upload all the required data now.

1)
You can choose any folder name you want but remember to then use your chosen folder rather that default in all following instructions.
2)
This is usually somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes and also depends on how frequently your weather station sends data to CumulusMX.
3)
Again, check how frequently your weather station sends data to CumulusMX.