Hi guys,

new version of Meteotemplate is now available – Meteotemplate 17.0 Nectarine. It is not a major update but it does include one major new feature and a few tweaks and bug fixes.

I´ve heard it so many times – Jachym, the mobile homepage is not working correctly on my phone… I explained that this is not because I was unable to make a 100% responsive website, but rather because it is simply impossible to optimize something you don´t know – in this particular case optimize a page, where I have no clue which blocks you used, which layout, columns etc. So I decided to give you the choice. The original mobile homepage is still included, but there is a new homepage, a 100% responsive one, which uses Bootstrap and the most recent technologies used for mobile web. It includes the most used and important things – current conditions, forecast, weather map, station history and astronomical summary. That´s it. No blocks, no layout customization. Because I know exactly what´s on this page it should work perfectly on any phone or tablet. That said, please do not ask me “can you add this, can you add this” – I will not. This is the whole point. As soon as I start giving you the choice it would all break apart again, current trend in webdesign is responsiveness, simplicity and thats exactly what this new mobile page offers. If you prefer having the choice simply use the other homepage, that one is still available in the template and you can now switch from one to the other in the Main setup. This new mobile homepage also does not include any regional radars etc. (there is a map though) simply because again – look at how many Radar blocks there are… impossible to make this consistent and look nice for any. You will have to decide which one you want to use.

New

• new responsive Bootstrap homepage – you can choose if you want to use this fixed, 100% responsive one, or the original customizable mobile homepage.
  DEMO
• offline notifications – you can now enable notification emails when your station goes online (Control panel -> offline notifications). Bear in mind you will need a CRON job for this.
• deleting block cache – block cache can now be deleted directly from the Block setup page, no need to use your FTP client
• new date/time formats in the Main setup
• possibility to add custom links to Admin menu tab
• error checker – check for ZIP file support

Bug fixes/tweaks

• API tweaks
• forecast page – UV icon fix
• block/plugin setup – optimization
• other minor bug fixes/tweaks

Update process

As I promised, the update process will be semi-automatic, just like last time. This means you will have to download the update file manually, upload it via FTP, but the actual update will then be performed automatically by a single script. Make sure you follow the instructions below closely.

Please use the new token request page and do not email me directly. The process of token issuing is now also semi-automated (issuing hundreds of tokens last time took many hours and this will make it a lot simpler for me). If you just email me I will not be able to generate the token easily. In addition please include everything that you are asked to specify on the token request page and have a look and agree with the license (nothing new, just a summary from the original license in the wiki, highlighting the major points, but please read it because after some incidents in the past I will not issue tokens to users who do not respect it).

Also – make sure you applied the bug fix package for version 16. The files in the main template (17.0) were updated, but this update from 16 to 17 assumes the fixes for version 16 are already made. If you did not apply the bug fix package after installing/updating to version 16, make sure you do this first (Download page at meteotemplate.com -> Bug fix packages in the menu on the left).

1. as always, you will need a download token for the update. To get one, go to the Downloads page and click Get Token. I will try to issue tokens within 24 hours maximum. I might send a few at the beginning and then wait just to make sure that if there is some major problem it affects as few people as possible.
2. extract the package and inside you will find a folder update_17.0
3. use an FTP client to transfer update_17.0 into your update folder in the template
4. go to your website and login as admin
5. now you will do the actual update by opening the following page (making sure the update_17.0 folder is in the update folder):….templateRoot/update/update_17.0/updateTemplate.php
6. this script will first check several things (make sure it is placed in correct location, make sure you are using version 16 and check you are logged in as admin). It will then automatically create a v16Backup folder in your backup folder and backup all the necessary files which will be changed.
7. If the backup and checking process goes ok it will update and add all the new files from version 17 automatically and inform you about any potential problems during the update and what to do next.
8. Please make sure you read the entire page, at the end of the update page will be summary information about any potential files that were not updated (in which case you will need to transfer them via FTP as usual) and what to do next.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Enjoy