Meteotemplate 9.0 Avocado

Hi guys,the time has come to another major template update. Introducing Meteotemplate 9.0 Avocado. This update is not a revolutionary, but rather evolutionary update. It brings some new features that will make your life as a webmaster even easier and more efficient, it includes a few bug fixes, but there are still also some new pages and some improvements for homepage layout. And last but not least, one of the main reasons I wanted to do this update is because I made some changes in the backend that will allow creation of some new blocks and plugins I have in mind.

New

• interval summary – new page for your weather station data. This page allows you to choose any date interval and will calculate summary statistics for this custom interval as well as show graphs. There is also a new feature for the graphs, which can now be resized easily by simply dragging the graph with a cursor.
• subblocks – this is another new feature or rather block type, that will complement the already existing multiple and menu block. The way this works is described in detail in the updated wiki. In summary – imagine you have a multiple block. However one of the blocks is really big and so the other multiple block slot, looks quite empty. This subblock feature allows you to nest more than one block on top of each other in each multiple block slot.
• admin menu – whenever you are logged in as administrator, the menu will contain one more drop down with links to some common admin actions (main setup, block setup, plugin setup etc.).
• set up blocks on-the-fly – if you are logged in as administrator, you will see a small icon at the bottom of your desktop homepage, from which you can directly set those blocks that are currently shown on the homepage
• block/plugin update notifications – in the main setup is now a new section where you can enable/disable block/plugin notifications on homepage. When you enable this, every time you view your desktop homepage as the administrator, the template will check if there are some updates to the blocks and plugins you have installed and if so, it will show you a little notification at the top of your homepage. The script checks for new data once a day and caches it. As mentioned previously, this can be disabled.
• freezing line – in some graphs (eg. interactive graphs) you can now toggle on/off the option to show freezing temperatures with a different color (red/blue)
• sun theme – the “sun” theme is back, i.e. you can set the theme to change between light and dark depending on whether it is day or night time
• possibility to disable block elements – if for some reason you sometimes want to temporarily disable a block (or the whole multiple/menu block element), you can now do so by simply placing “//” at the beginning of that line in homepage creation page. Deleting the // will again enable it.
• new font – one new font type to choose from (Patrick Hand SC)
• backend changes – I made some changes in the backend that will allow creation of certain new blocks and plugins.
  • auto-load – there is now a new folder to which you can place any script and this script would then be loaded on each page of your template. This can be useful for some plugins and blocks and instead of having to change things in the header, you simply paste the script inside this new directory and the header scans that directory and will execute whatever is there. It will be used in the future.
  • cron – this folder is similar to the load folder, it will be used for cron scripts (all but the update one, that will remain separate). There are already a few plugins that need a Cron job. The more of these there are the more problematic it would be because you would have to create a cron job for each of these. This new feature will unify these into one single cron. That script will like the header, scan the “cron” directory and execute whatever is there. In the future I will update for example the webcam plugin and also create new blocks/plugins that will require a cron job and instead of having to create a new job, you will just paste a new script to that cron directory.
• bug fixes
• compatibility checked with HTTPS as well

Update

1. Make a backup copy (you can use the Control panel for this to backup the settings files), but make sure that the zip file is correctly created and contains all the important files.
2. Copy the load folder from the update package to your template root folder
3. In the following folders, replace/add the corresponding files. DO NOT delete the original folder and upload the new one. The update package only contains the updated files! Open each directory and replace the files in the corresponding path. Some files are new, in such case simply copy them too to the corresponding directory.
   Do this for folders: css, homepage, icons, install, lang, mobile, pages, scripts
4. Replace files footer, header, indexDesktop, indexMobile in template root
5. If you are using the default template menu replace menu.php. If you are using your own menu file you will either have to keep it or try to make the changes from the new menu. The new menu.php for example has the feature of showing admin section and links if you are logged in etc. Also make sure that if you are using your custom menu you add a link to the new “Interval summary” page. The page to link to is pages/station/intervalSummarySelector.php.
6. Now go to the Main setup page and enable/disable the update notifications on the homepage in the new section, which is close to the Google Analytics section. Save changes to update config.
7. Optional: there is a new font (Patrick Hand) so if you like it you can enable it
8. Optional: I added back the “sun” theme for homepage theme where the light/dark switch depending on time of the day.
9. Optional: make sure you read the updated wiki section about blocks and subblocks in particular and if you want you can change your homepage layout to use the subblocks (they will work in both desktop and mobile version).