Weather Station Software Configuration - Rocky Mountain Weather Network

Setting Up Your Station and Site for RMWN

Thank you for joining the Rocky Mountain Weather Network!

Getting online with RMWN is a four step process:

Generate your RMWN station's data using your weather station software and upload it to your web server. Follow these links for instructions on how to configure your software:

Weather Link

Weather Display

Virtual Weather Station
Once you have your software configured, please let us know the filename you are uploading and its location so we can add you to the network. If you run into problems, feel free to email us.
After you are up and running on RMWN and your data is being show on our map, you can then add the RMWN mesomap to your own site. Click here for instructions on how to do that. *
Add a link to your RMWN map on your website's homepage. Click here for instructions. *

* We understand that not all members may be able to display the RMWN mesomap due to server limitations or other reasons. In those cases, once your weather station is up and running on RMWN, we ask you to display a RMWN logo on your site linking back to the RMWN homepage. Click here to view them.

WeatherLink Configuration

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.

Weather Display Configuration

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. Simply let us know you want to be part of the network and we will take it from there. Your clientraw.txt should be uploaded every 5 minutes or less.

If you are NOT already using clientraw.txt, save the file stickertags.txt in your Weather Display webfiles sub-directory. Set Weather Display to upload the file every 5 minutes. Once you do, please let us know the name of the file you are uploading.

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.

You should be able to see your file in action at www.yourweatherwebsite.com/VWS_stickertags.htm.

Create a RMWN Mesomap Using PHP

You can download a starter set of the code and all required files (RMWN-mesomap.zip). Just unpack the zip file and upload the contents to your website, then you can run the code generator at http://rockymountainweather.net/RMWN-mesomap.php and from there, download the graphic, the control file and the PHP script itself. Place the control file and PHP script in the root directory of your webserver, along with the graphic file and the arrows/other graphics in the ./RMWN-images directory.

Second, create a new PHP webpage using your website template. (I called mine NEWN.php, but the filename is not important). Edit the webpage to have a page title of "Rocky Mountain Weather Network", and insert two PHP include statements. In the <head> section, insert:

<?php
$doPrintRMWN = false;
include("RMWN-mesomap.php");
print $RMWN_CSS; ?>

and in the <body> section where you'd like the NEWN meso-map to appear, insert:

<?php print $RMWN_MAP; print $RMWN_TABLE; ?>

If you'd like XHTML 1.0-Strict code generated, then use:

<?php include("http://your.website.name/RMWN-mesomap.php?inc=Y&gen=xhtml"); ?>

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:

When it comes time to update the meso-map in the future, you'll only have to use the code generator at http:/rockymountainweather.net/RMWN-mesomap.php and save the new graphic and control file, and upload them to your website. If the script changes, you should download a fresh copy and upload to your website too.

Caching of current conditions has been enabled with a default life of 10 minutes. This should speed up subsequent views.
Please make sure that RMWN-conditions.txt file in the same directory as the RMWN-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 NEWN-mesomap-config.txt in the same directory. That way, you only have to change your settings once for the RMWN-mesomap.php program, and new program updates won't alter your settings. The sample RMWN-mesomap-config.txt file is in the RMWN-mesomap.zip or viewable here.

Update Your Homepage

Now edit your weather station homepage to have a link to your RMWN meso-map. If you use a text link, then please make sure the words "Rocky Mountain Weather Network" appear in the link and title= like this:

<a href="RMWN.php" title="Rocky Mountain Weather Network">Rocky Mountain Weather Network</a>

If you use a graphical link, then make sure the <img> link has both alt= and title= attributes that say "Rocky Mountain 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. The image referenced in the code below is included with the zip file. If you prefer a different format, you can select from one located here and then modify the code accordingly.

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 RMWN gets a new member) and you can relax and enjoy the snappy reparte on the RMWN forum.