What's to become of WDL

Hi Chris,

this is actually a version specifically made to “mimick” WDL. It uses clientraw files, generated by Weather Display.

I will make an alternative for my template as well, which will use the database instead of the clientraw files and will therefore be compatible with WD, Cumulus, Meteobridge, WView and Meteoplug (i.e. my template).

Right now I am still at a stage where I am developing the script as such, making sure the updates work etc. Once that is done I will implement some more customizations in addition to units and update interval, then I will try to see if I could make it possible to change and save personal layouts. Then last stage will be cleaning up the code, compressing icons, making several design themes etc.

And if all that works I can then make an alternative version for various platforms, I will make one for my template.

one thing to note is that Flash has ability to be able to register to the domain, i.e to get rid of the splash screen it needs to be purchased
there is no easy way to do that with HTML5 (you could but the algortithm would be visible in the html code if someone were to go looking for it)
which means any alternative to WDL is basicly open source and free (and so sales of WDL go down (which they have been anyway though due to flash being less and less supported)

First: I love WDL because on a single page we can see and access the global information without bell and whistle


This is the case of all scripts written in HTML or Javascript - especially Javascript developers that want to sell their scripts have a problem… unlike for example PHP, which is server side language.

I dont have a problem with that, I offer everything free anyway and I have absolutely no plans on changing this.

For you Brian it is a problem obviously if WDL was paid, but I guess that is in no way affected by this free alternative, because WDL will stop working soon no matter whether there is an alternative or isnt and sales will obviously go down significantly.

Flash will die soon - why?

Because Google and FF have already announced this, right now you already have to specifically turn it on /allow it on each page and you see a notification at the top it will soon no longer be supported.

And the problem is that everyone uses the most recent version of browsers - it updates automatically, there are often security fixes etc etc. And trust me, people are not going to turn off auto updates and stick with some old version of their browser just to run WDL. And if WDL does not work in Chrome, FF and I guess soon also IE, then it is virtually dead.

On Android for example you already have it totally blocked. There is a Flash apk, but it is not even in the Google Play shop. You must particularly look for it on the web, download it from alternative source, manually install and it is not really secure… which is something standard user will never do anyway.

[quote author=lgRich link=topic=61257.msg489252#msg489252 date=1440877353]
First: I love WDL because on a single page we can see and access the global information without bell and whistle

I understand about Puffin, I’ve tried it but I dont like it. However my point is that many many people will visit a web site and if it does not work they wont come back, why should they if their choice of browser does not work, why should they go looking for one which does. This is why I want a solution which aims to work in ALL browsers and ideally a solution which is standards compliant. I know a lot of folks here will play around to find something which works but that is probably less than 1% of the users out there.

Stuart

Exactly, which is why I think using HTML, CSS and JS is the way to go - supported by all browsers. It might not offer 100% of what WDL did, though there are other things which it can do and so I think it is the ideal solution. I completely agree with what you wrote and in fact I even said that already - there are and will still be ways of running flash, but that is only a solution if you want to use WDL yourself, I can guarantee you as a developer in general, that users will NOT install new SW or APKs just to be able to run one single site… they will simply ignore this site.

The English is not my main language so I make all possible effort to stay clear in my comment

[quote author=lgRich link=topic=61257.msg489268#msg489268 date=1440890044]
The English is not my main language so I make all possible effort to stay clear in my comment

Very nice! I understand about the large graphics. Can’t wait to see the final product.

My thoughts are we are being bullied into believing that Flash is bad. Yeah there were problems in the past that have been fixed. On the same point, why isn’t anyone calling for the demise of Java ? It has been just as bad. Flash is not going to go away immediately because it is embedded in so many products.

The issue with Flash isn’t that “there were problems in the past that have been fixed”, it’s that there are new problems coming to light every week or so. What you mean by “java”? If you mean the “Java Virtual Machine” (JVM) that runs on the PC side there certainly have been many calls to avoid using it (I uninstalled it a long time ago), if you mean “java” the language, or “javascript” the scripting language I don’t believe there have been issues such as you describe.

Of course there are issues with Javascript too (and surely you can even turn it off in your browser, though I know nobody who would do that because I guess about 90% of webpages would become unusable these days), but Flash is much more vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. Primarily because it has access to much more in your PC, in other words with Javascript you cant do that much as with Flash in terms of modifications and access to your PC. And just like Niko pointed out, yes there has been lot of bug fixes etc. but new and new keep on coming and will in the future. Google and all the others wouldnt just stop supporting it for no reason.

Are you still working on this very nice WDL replacement Jachym?

he has already done that (using Steel Gauges) as far as I am aware (its part of meteotemplate, as an option plugin, I think)

Jachym’s template also now has a gauge option that AFAIK isn’t Steel based - Live conditions

Hi,
yes, I don’t use steel series. I did try it, but the problem is that it is relatively demanding on resources, lot of Javascript and trying to load this as a block, along with all the other blocks, it was not ideal. Also, I am not a big fan of all the fancy 3D stuff and shadows so I would only use steel series in a setup/appearance which is available using many other gauges plugins, which are more lightweight and for me easier to work with (though Im not suggesting steel series is not good, it is great, just not ideal in this particular case)

So the meteotemplate download on your page also includes the WD support I saw being beta tested in 2015 posts here?

I wasn

Yes, meteotemplate supports wd fully, every single plugin or block will work with it

OK :slight_smile: Thnx!