Meteotemplate 8.0 Pineapple

Hi guys,

the promised new version of the template is here! Meteotemplate 8.0 Pineapple! As I promised, this version is more about improving the existing and as you will now see, will make your life much easier and also greatly improve the user experience as it not only corrects many bugs, but also speeds up many pages.

Before I introduce to you the new features and changes, I would like to just say that you might find this description relatively long, but keep in mind that it is always better to include more detailed instructions. Those who are more experienced can simply skim through it, but those who need it, can read it all. I will also explain in quite detail how it all works now, all the changes etc. and you can only read this if you are interested.

This update is divided into two parts:

1. The first part is updating the actual template – the template pages. This will implement all the new features and changes and that is something you were used to do if you ever performed an update before. Also, this part is hopefully quite easy and should not take you very long.
2. Second part is slightly different. This will probably take you slightly longer, but it is not necessary to do immediately. Let me explain… basically, ín version 8.0, it is now possible to set up all plugins the same way you are used to setting up blocks – all the settings for plugins was transferred to graphical user interface (GUI) and there is now a new page for Plugin setup, where you not only can set up the plugin directly, without having to go to the actual code, but just like with the blocks, this page now automatically checks your current and latest version and allows you to download updated version if one is available (and an improvement is also the fact it bypasses meteotemplate.com and you can download the ZIP file directly from your page). HOWEVER…. this of course means I had to make substantial changes in the way the plugins were set up. And to make things worse, some of the very old plugins which I created right at the beginning, did not even have a separate settings file and were set directly in the main plugin file. The easiest option was to use JSON, but that would mean you would have to set up again every single plugin you have. I therefore took another approach, which was actually much more difficult for me, so it took more time, but it will make things a lot easier to you. I can now only regret I did not design all the plugins differently at the beginning, but I never even thought about GUI, did not realize these things and there is no point in crying over spilled milk.
   Basically, there are three options:
   1. some plugins, the ones that required no setup, do not need to be changed at all, this is probably about 50% of all plugins
   2. for the majority of the remaining 50% of the cases, I tried to make it really as easy for you as possible and you will only need to download 2 extra files which you will place in each of those plugin’s directories (files that will allow using the original settings and one that will take care of future changes and version control)
   3. then there are the few very old plugins or more complex plugins, where I had no other choice than completely changing the way they are setup, in which case you will need to reinstall them completely (but again, remember that none of the plugins really required too much setup, so hopefully this also will not take you very long)

   The most important thing however is this – if you do not perform the second part immediately, your plugins WILL STILL WORK! The only thing that will not work is that you will not be able to use the Plugins setup page and you will have to set up plugins the same way you did in the past. And you will also not be able to check the versions etc. But the point is – these are all things that only you as a webmaster will see, your users will see no difference between a page that has completely been updated and a page that only has the first part of the update.
   Nevertheless, I highly recommend you do the second part as well, because if you do not, you will not be able to update any of the plugins or download new ones in the future. The current ones will work, but not new ones and the ones you have will only work in the version you already have. I wrote detailed instructions for each plugin, simply go through the list and do whatever you are told to do for each plugin you use.

Meteotemplate 8.0 Pineapple – description

The main purpose of the core template files is to display the basic statistics from your station. There are tens of blocks and plugins to choose from and you simply build your page exactly the way you want it. The goal therefore is not to add too many new features to the current core template files and rather keep it simple and lightweight.

The main purpose of this update was therefore to optimize the already existing files and most importantly – make it all much easier and smoother for you as a webmaster to use the template as such. This means a completely new mechanism for logging-in was implemented, which hugely increases the security.

Next, many database queries were optimized and some sophisticated new caching functions implemented, which in combination with more use of Ajax, hugely speeds up certain pages.

My long-term goal has been to move all template setting “from the code to GUI” – i.e. allow you as a webmaster to completely bypass having to go to the code and simply do everything directly from your page. For this reason I introduced a new control panel, and most importantly, I changed the homepage layout setting and plugin setup also to GUI. In addition, there are some very useful small tweaks such as direct download of updated file, without you having to visit Meteotemplate.com and choose the download file. These other minor, but useful tweaks include for example proper unit formatting (hpa vs hPa, inhg vs inHg, kmh vs km/h) or addition of tooltips to icons.

Main features

• New SmartCaching function which substantially speeds up certain station-related pages
• Brand new Control Panel for the template
  • all blocks now set up via GUI
  • all plugins now set up via GUI
  • homepage blocks and layout now setup all via GUI
  • database backup to server and to your computer as a ZIP file
  • template settings files back up to server and to your computer as a ZIP file (config, all blocks settings, plugins settings and homepage setting)
  • editing info pages (about station, about location, about www) in a GUI via control panel
  • plugin/block update directly from your page + auto version check
• New features in setup.php
  • set up redirect options via GUI
• Completely new system for admin access – no more passwords in URLs via GET parameter and a much more secure way of template administration
• Minor tweaks and improvements
  • all units now with proper formatting (i.e. km/h vs kmh, hPa vs. hpa etc.)
  • design tweaks
• New color schemes available – pastel colors
• Tens of backend changes for much better error handling, including ensuring compatibility with HTTPS
• Bug fixes

SmartCaching

SmartCaching is a new function I created for Meteotemplate which once and for all solves a dilemma I had right from the beginning when I first released the template. On one hand, it is desirable for the page to load as fast as possible. In this respect it is ideal to use caching of data. On the other hand, it is also desirable to have the most up-to-date statistics and data as possible. In Meteotemplate, I decided to prioritize the second feature – i.e. data up-to-date, so all statistics were calculated in real-time with no caching. However, this meant that especially users with slower servers or larger database, could have quite long calculation times and slow loading speed.

I thought many times about the caching feature, but it was always a problem with how long should the expiry period be. If it is too short, then almost every user will refresh the cache and it won´t have any effect. If it is too long, the data would be outdated.

I was thinking about this for quite some time, now in version 8, I finally achieved what I came up with and called this new feature SmartCaching. I will not go into too much detail about how it works, so just in summary. Imagine you just installed the new version and you look at a certain statistic. Since this is the first time you looked at it, there is no cache for the data and the page takes the same amount of time to load as it did in previous versions. However, a cache file is created and inside this cache file are not just the actual data, but also the timestamp about when this cache was created. Now imagine a different user comes to the same page and requests the same data an hour later. The script now detects that a cache file exists. So it looks inside it and gets its timestamp. Then it compares it with the current date and time and loads data from the database only for the new period, in this case that one hour. This obviously takes only a very short time, because only one hour is processed. Then, using weighted averages, it combines the new data with the cached data and creates a new cache, with the current timestamp and shows the result to the user.

This way, each time you visit the site, the cache is recreated, but only the new data since the cache was last time created is loaded. In some cases, the cache files are created permanently – for example for the monthly reports, the report in the past is generated only once and then saved on the server as a little text file. If you make changes to the database data, then there is an option in the new control panel, to delete this cache. In terms of the monthly reports, this function is available for all, but the current month. Benchmarks with the demo show for example reduced loading time for monthly reports from on average 9 seconds (version 7) to 0.7 seconds (version 8). Obviously this function could not be used for all scripts, but overall it should speed up most of your station-related pages.

In addition, some queries were optimized for overall faster loading, a big difference can be seen for example in case of the “live data” page, which now loads instantly, before it took up to 10 seconds to load. This is achieved by implementing Ajax to the page.

Meteotemplate Control Panel

Meteotemplate Control Panel is what was originally referred to as the “admin section”. The control panel now gives you the possibility to do pretty much anything that is possible directly from the GUI, no need to go to the code.

One big change is a change in the authorization system. The password is no longer sent via URL, and instead a session is created, making everything much more secure. The session will keep you logged in until you log out, or close the browser. The password can be saved as any other password by the browser.

This, however, means there is now a little problem with the updates. Unfortunately, for the updates this does not work, the only way of authorization is the GET parameter in the URL (due to the way CRON jobs and the update software work). For that reason, there are now two passwords in the template – one for the updates and one for the template. If you are updating the template, both passwords will be by default the same as your original admin password. I highly recommend you change the admin password and leave your update password to your original admin password – simply because that way you will not need to make any changes in your SW setup (Meteobridge etc) and CRON jobs.

Let´s explore the individual features of the new control panel:

1. Section: Homepage
   1. homepage setup – this section allows you to create or edit the homepage – this means, select the number of columns, select the blocks you want to have, just like you did previously inside the actual file, it can now all be done directly from the cPanel. There are obviously two icons, one for the desktop, one for the mobile version. Homepage setup is very easy also because you there is auto-complete built in and this will help you getting the block namespaces right.
   2. homepage reset – in case you want to reset your homepage setting and start from scratch, this is what you would use
   3. block setup – this page is similar to the original block setup page. It lists all the currently installed blocks, shows your installed version and the latest version available. Any block setting is done from here as it was before. However, there is actually one change. Clicking the update icon which appears next to blocks for which update is available, no longer takes you to the blocks homepage at Meteotemplate.com, but instead, directly downloads the ZIP file with the newest block version, bypassing you having to choose the zip file yourself at meteotemplate.com.
2. Section: Administration
   1. main setup – this is simply a link to the setup page, where you can do the main setup of the template
   2. data edits – this is just renamed MySQL administration page, which allows you to change data in the database directly from the cPanel
   3. plugin setup – a brand new page, something that was very difficult to implement and that is why it took so long. Some plugins were developed over a year ago and since then, many things changed. I tried to make the transfer as easy as possible, though there are a few plugins that simply will need to be reinstalled in order for them to support this function. This page is exactly the same as your blocks setup page – it lists all your currently installed plugins, shows their current version, the latest version available, an icon for direct update if there is one and – most importantly – each plugin can now be fully set up via this GUI
   4. info pages – in the menu, under the “Info” tab, there are pages such as “About station”, “About location” etc. Many users did not even know this and simply left the dummy text there. For those who did want to change it, it was necessary to go directly to the code and make edits to the HTML. Well, not any more. You can now set the text directly from the cPanel, which then shows up on these pages.
   5. registration – the template now requires registration… but…. don’t worry. This is nothing more than just you specifying your name and email and thus registering the template. This replaces the original line “Your template is now ready….” on the homepage, which also had to be manually removed from the HTML. Registration will provide you with priority support.
3. Section: Empty Cache
   1. METAR – this empties your Metar cache directory
   2. station data – this is a new feature. It is related to the new SmartCaching function and allows you to empty the cache in case you edited the data in the database and so the cached numbers no longer correspond to the database values. In such case, the cache will be recreated from the new data as soon as the corresponding page is loaded again.
4. Section: Backup
   1. station data – this is a brand new feature which allows you to backup your alldata table – in other words the table which contains all your station data. Because some of you might have limited maximum allowed memory size of PHP, the script does not back-up the entire table all at once, but rather creates a separate CSV file for each year in the database. Then, it saves all these CSV files in a new “backup” directory it creates on your server, in a directory corresponding to the current date. In addition, at the end, it takes all the newly created CSV files, compresses them to a single ZIP archive and triggers a download box so you can download the ZIP file with all the data from your database. However – as I mentioned, some of you might have a very short maximum execution time or very small memory limit, where even one year of data will not be possible to squeeze into one file. Always check the backed up file if it is complete!
   2. main files and settings – this function works exactly like the previous one, but instead of backing up your database, it creates a backup of your config, your update scripts, your desktop and mobile homepage layout and all the setting files for all the blocks and plugins. Again, it creates a new folder with current date in the backup folder and copies all the above mentioned files in there. Then, it also creates a ZIP file from all of them and lets you download it to your PC.
5. Section: Notifications
   1. this section is just like in the original admin section, showing you an alert in case your station is not reporting and you can reset the sending of emails. The only change is, that unlike previously, you now don´t set this up directly in the code for the update script, but rather in the GUI of the main setup file (see later)
6. Section: Template Info
   1. PHP info – sometimes things don’t work the way they should and in such cases it would help a lot to have information about your server. I therefore created this page, which shows you all your server configuration. I can therefore just ask you to click this and send me the content to look at, which can make diagnostics of the problem much much easier.
   2. installed blocks – a table list of all blocks currently installed
   3. installed plugins – a simple table of all plugins currently installed

Design

In addition to some minor design improvements in the CSS, there are now also 4 new color schemes available. These are all pastel color schemes, for those who prefer less bright colors. They are now all available and can be selected in the main setup file. 

NOTE: The “rainbow” color scheme is deprecated (it was actually released accidentally, it was only meant for testing purposes and does not display certain pages correctly).

Setup file

The setup file contains a few new sections. One is for you to add the station elevation. Since many plugins and blocks use this information, it will be easier to have it set here and not having to specify it every time it is needed.

In addition, as mentioned previously, all the setup of notifications sent when a station is offline, is now done directly here.

Likewise, the original setting for redirecting to mobile or desktop version, which was previously done in the index.php code, is now moved to the GUI of the main setup.

Pages

Some pages were changed on the front-end and many pages in the back-end.

• station pages now show correct format of units (eg. km/h vs kmh, hPa vs hpa)
• tooltips added to many icons
• weather station -> calendar – a new table added, which shows the actual values
• station -> live data – redesign, optimization (loads in a fraction of the original time)
• new login/logout page
• pages -> climate indices – translatable (previously only in English)

Complete changelog

Only read this if you are interested.

New

• SmartCaching
• calendar – added table of values
• new login page
• complete new control panel
• possibility to backup database and main template settings
• new page with list of installed blocks
• new page with list of installed plugins
• new page with summary of server settings
• homepage layout transferred to GUI
• info pages content transferred to GUI
• redirection options transferred to GUI (setup.php)
• all plugins now set up using GUI from the control panel
• version checking for plugins
• direct update of blocks and plugins from your control panel (bypassing Meteotemplate.com page)
• registration
• new authorization system for the admin
• logout page
• 4 new pastel color schemes
• autocomplete when specifying block namespaces

Changes

• Google API key added to pages with maps
• annual report – implement SmartCaching
• monthly report – implement SmartCaching
• statistics pages – implement SmartCaching
• make sure content is loaded via “//” instead of http://, which prevents problems with https servers
• SEO optimization
• calendar – CSS tweaks
• prevent user from submitting the setup form if the pageURL does not contain the “http” – most common issue of non-functional template
• prevent user from submitting the setup form if the country code is not correct
• automatically check PHP version and notify the user if the version is too old and will cause problems
• check that the main configuration file exists when loading the homepage and if not, show a notification, preventing a fatal error in the script
• make sure the config.php is saved when submitting the setup form – i.e. check the permissions to write the file
• prevent the user from losing the filled-in values to setup.php if the config is not successfully created and the page refreshes
• localization of control panel
• fallback if update password has not been set, use the admin password for the update scripts
• removed password requirement for import scripts, now done automatically if user is logged in as administrator

Bug Fixes

• prevent “Cold temperature” station warning being triggered when station is offline and no data available (temperature in such case previously treated as 0°)
• fix potential failure of reading clientraw.txt if the user has current conditions from METAR and the string contains a semi-colon, disrupting the numbering of the fields and cache
• CSV table export – fix for numbers higher than 1000 and fix for correct precipitation totals
• annual report – fixed a bug which caused the time of maximum rain rate was not displayed
• CSS/main.php – updated string to load fonts from Google Fonts
• css/highcharts.php – updated string to load fonts from Google Fonts
• station/temperature and humidity statistics – fixed page title
• update/meteobridge – prevent skipping updates when the server has a slight delay by allowing 30s extra time for updates
• monthly report – prevent div overflowing the screen width
• serialize page name and description to prevent errors when the strings contain an apostrophe
• annual report – proper unit formatting
• trends page – proper unit formatting
• monthly report – proper unit formatting
• history page – proper unit formatting, tooltips

Update process

Now we finally get to the actual update process. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are two parts to it. First one is the actual update of the pages, this one is necessary to do immediately. The second part you can do whenever you want and have time for it and it will enable all the new features of the template for you as a webmaster.

1. back up your config.php and the update script you use in the “update” directory (i.e. wd.php, cumulus.php, meteobridge.php etc. – whichever one you use)
2. on your server, open your indexDesktop.php and indexMobile.php and copy the blocks settings you have – i.e. the list of the blocks you have. Then, open a text editor with a new document and paste this information there for future reference. This is only so that you remember which blocks you used because you will need to specify this in the new homepage set up system.
3. now open your page in a browser and go to the Menu -> Info and copy the text you have set for your info pages (About station, about location etc.). Then paste this text to the document you created as well. This is all because these pages will be reset so you then can simply paste your original text.
4. now very important step – you will be replacing the update script, so if you are using anything other than meteobridge, then you need to go to the update directory in the update package and open the particular file you are using for the updates (wd, cumulus, wview, WU etc.). Inside it, set the path to the file with the current conditions. If you are unsure then look on your server what you had before and make sure the path is set to the same thing, so that once you replace the file it keeps on updating your database. In case of using the WU updates, specify the WU ID.
5. now go back to your FTP and you are ready to begin the update
6. the process is the same as always – replace/addd the corresponding files/servers. The update package has the same structure as your server (I tried to list them all, but you dont have to do it in the same order, you can also simply go one by one and replace/add new files in the corresponding directories, just remember that you should not delete entire folders unless you are told to do so, some folders in the update package do not contain all the files).
7. pages to be replaced/added:
   1. custom/blank.php
   2. delete and replace install directory
   3. all files inside the “update” directory
   4. delete entirely your admin folder on your server and replace it with the new one
   5. delete entirely the station folder inside the pages directory and replace it with the new one
   6. delete and upload new pages/other folder
   7. delete and upload new pages in mobile/pages/other folder
   8. delete entirely the station folder inside the mobile/pages directory and replace it with the new one
   9. pages/climate/map.php
   10. pages/climate/index.php
   11. mobile/pages/climate/map.php
   12. mobile/pages/climate/index.php
   13. mobile/header.php and footer.php
   14. replace entirely the pages/forecast folder
   15. css/design.php
   16. css/main.php
   17. css/highcharts.php
   18. scripts/functions.php, autosuggest.js
   19. in root, replace: index.php, indexDesktop.php, indexMobile.php, header.php and footer.php
   20. replace the entire lang folder

Now you should be done with the this part of the update. For now, just ignore the Plugins folder in the update package. That will be the second part of the update.

First thing you need to do now is set the new parameters in the setup.php. However, to do that, you already have to login using the new login system.

In your browser, open the new login page: template URL…./admin/login.php. Use your original admin password to login or simply go to your homepage and click the lock icon.

Now in the control panel click “Main Setup” to enter the setup page. You are already logged in so you will be able to access the page. Most importantly – there are now two passwords – one for administration for the template and one for the updates. This is because the update one cannot be protected in other way than sending it as GET, but the admin password can now be used to access the setup etc etc , which is dangerous to use in GET. In the setup you will see there are now two passwords, admin and update. They are now by default both the same. I recommend changing the admin. Why? because if you leave the update password as it is, it will be the same as your original admin password and in such case you do not need to modify things in Meteobridge etc. Set some new password for the template, this will be the main template password now. If you decided to change the Update password then make the corresponding changes in all your CRON jobs or meteobridge settings – the password parameter in the URL must correspond to your update password. There is a mechanism that will allow the update scripts to use the admin password, but that is only until you save the new config file (to prevent your data not being updated while you are performing this update).

Next, if you have not yet got a google API key, use the wiki and get one, enter it in setup.php (follow the instructions there and I created a detailed manual in the wiki). Next, there is a new field for station elevation and station elevation units, in the section where you set the station coordinates. You can set that.

Next, in the setup.php you also set the alerts for sending notifications when station is offline – originally done directly in the update script code, now here. There is a new section for it, simply scroll down and you will find it.

Likewise, the redirection options for the homepage are now in the setup.php, you can leave the default values, if you originally set it differently, you can change it.

Then when you are done, save the new config.php.

Go to the homepage and you should see a blank page. That is good news 😀 So now, click the lock icon at the bottom in the footer. Login using your admin password (not the update one!). Now you should be in a new control panel. Theoretically it should take you immediately to the control panel since you already logged in. The login would only be required if you closed your browser while you were doing this update.

First thing you need to do is the registration of the template! Just click the button and register with your name and email (the registration link should then disappear and the “template unregistered” notification on the template too). I would like to emphasize that registration is – as always – completely free, easy to do and guarantees you priority support. This registration is not used for any tracking purposes! It replaces the original “Your template is now ready….” message on the homepage. This measure is also because of some not very desirable things that I experienced with the template in the past, but I do not want to talk about this here.

Now, click the info pages icon and paste your original text from those pages, this is now all done via GUI.

Next, in the control panel, see if you can set both homepages, desktop and mobile, it is now all done via GUI. Follow the instructions and read it carefully, it should be easy for you since you have done it already. Basically it is all now done this way – no more going to the code. Each block is now specified on one line – no quotes – just the namespace of the block and on a new line, name of the next block etc. Also, if you want to insert a menu block or multiple block, simply use the button above the column and it will insert a template that you can easily edit. Namespaces of all the blocks you have installed are at the top and also autocomplete will help you inserting the block names.

OK, hopefully your page is now working and the first part of the update is complete.

Plugin Updates

Now we come to the second part, which is updating the plugins. This update process does not affect the plugins as such, the update process will enable the following:

• possibility to check the current version
• possibility to set up the plugin from graphical user interface from the new Control Panel
• implements the new security system (no password in the URL) for those plugins that had pages directly for you as an admin (for example the snow plugin or forecast comparison)

For all plugins there is now a small text file, which contains the current version number. Whenever you update any plugin in the future, you would replace this file with a new one with new version number. This text file is included in the update package, but we will deal with this later.

I understand this can take some time, but there really was no other way around it and I tried to make it as easy for you as possible and it will save you time in the future.

MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR ENTIRE PLUGINS FOLDER AND IN CASE ANYTHING STOPS WORKING LATER ON, YOU WOULD TEMPORARILY USE THE BACKUP COPY AND LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS

NOTE: All the plugin download files at meteotemplate.com have been updated to reflect version 8.0 changes

First let´s update the plugins. There are basically three possibilities:

1. the plugin requires no set up – in this case you don´t have to do anything apart from inserting the version number text file
2. the plugin requires set up, but it was possible to use the current settings file – in this case you will not have to set up anything again, but you only will have ti upload 2 additional files into the plugin folder. These two files will allow you to set up the plugin from the Control Panel and allow you to change and work with your current settings file from the Control Panel.
3. the plugin used the old system where the settings was included directly inside the plugin file, or it was not possible to use the current format of the settings.php – in this case you will need to reinstall the plugin.

In the following list are those plugins that do need to be updated. Simply go through this list one by one, and if you have this pariticular plugin, follow the instructions. The update package contains a folder Plugins, which has the corresponding files, so you do not need to download any plugin again from meteotemplate.com.

• AirTraffic – replace/add all files included in the update package. Keep your original settings.php.
• BloomSky – upload the three files from the update package, leave the rest as it is, if you are using an update password different from your original admin, you need to change this in your CRON job for this plugin
• CanadaRadar – first look in your radar.php on your server which location you specified. Note it down. Then delete the entire folder with this plugin and replace it with the one in the update package. Then open your control panel, choose the settings and paste your original location there, then save. In other words this plugin must be reinstalled.
• CityConditions – replace/add all files included in the update package. Keep your original settings.php.
• ClimateCanada – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• ClimateSpain – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• ClimateUS – replace/add all the files for this plugin in the update package
• CountryDetail – replace/add all the files for this plugin in the update package
• Contact – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• DataCheck – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• DataDisplay – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• DegreeDays – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• Diary – replace/add all files from the update package. Note: adding new diary entry is no longer done by entering the URL as previously, but directly in the Settings for this plugin in the Control Panel.
• Et – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• ExtremesUK – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• forecastComparison – replace/add the files in the update package – make sure you do not delete any other files or folders, which also contain your previously saved snapshots!
• GlobalModel – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• GrLevelX – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• GrowingDegreeDays – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• LiveGauges (all versions) – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is. For Live Gauges MB – you need to also replace the mbLiveCreate and in your meteobridge, and make sure your CRON jobs in MB are using the update password (if you changed the admin password during the update and left the update as the original admin password, you do not need to change anything).
• netherlandsClimate – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• netAtmo – this one is a bit more difficult. First go to your server and note down what you have set inside update/update.php – note down your login details. Then, paste this original setting in the new update.php in the netatmo folder of the update package and replace your original update.php. This is very important because we need to make sure the new script uses your update password not the admin password. Also note that this plugin will not be possible to set directly from the Control Panel for security reasons.
• NoaaReport – completely delete the original folder and replace it with the new one. Your original settings.php will be deleted as well, but the new version does not require it.
• NwsWarnings – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• pressureMapsUK – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• snow – completely delete your original folder and replace it with the new one. Dont worry about your snow data, it is saved in the MySQL db. Also, adding new records is now no longer done via the link you had, but from a link accessible via the Settings in the Control Panel.
• SocialNetworks – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• StationCompare – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• tides – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• UsExtremes – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• WarningsAustralia – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• WarningsCanada – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields. It is useful if before deleting the original file, you just note down which location code you used and then use the same one in the settings for this plugin.
• WdParser – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• webcam – upload the two additional files from the update package, leave the rest as it is
• wlIP – first go to your server and look at your original settings for this plugin. Note it down. Then delete the plugin folder and replace it with the new one. The using the Settings link in your Control Panel, specify those values again. Make sure that you go through the settings as soon as you replace the files. In the time between you replacing the folder and setting it up in the Control Panel, your database will not be updated!
• WorldTime – Delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields.
• WxSim – first note down your original setting for this plugin, then delete the entire folder for this plugin and replace it with the new one. Then go to your Control Panel and click the settings and specify the required fields, using the information you originally used.

And now the very last part – the plugin versioning. In the update package, you will find a folder called “versions” inside the plugins folder. Inside it are small text files with the name of the plugin and they contain the current version of the plugin. Insert each of these text files into the corresponding plugin directory – making sure you are using the latest version of each plugin!