Ok, let me get this straight....
1) Start uploading clientraw
2) Extract clientraw data using PHP
3) Make .php pages
4) Add php tags where WD custom tags used to be
5) Check for correctness
6) Redirect .html to .php pages
7) Quit uploading anything from WD except graphics and clientraw
Kevin, that correct?
Chances are you are already uploading clientraw for WDL. The other clientraw files too.
Extracting the data from clientraw instead of using WD's tags really depends on what is easier for you. The clientraw data is fairly clean, and raw. You have to do the conversions if you want other than the raw data format that it uses. If you use clientraw, then you are parsing the data and can format it anyway you like though.
As for using .php on your pages, that only has to be for any page you want to use php in it. If your page does not have php in it, you don't need to have it end in .php
Redirection of page type could be done several different ways. You could have dummy html versions that simply redirect to the php version, have an .htaccess file that uses mod_rewrite to force the use of .php etc.
Php might be a tad bit slower than a raw html file in that it needs to be parsed by the webserver when it is served. So pages that are just plain basic might be best being what they are.
You can however end up with some more control in that you can then detect things like browser type and act on what you find within the page itself.
There are many tags that have no clientraw counter part. This could be fixed by using the fulldata.xml file that WD creates to get the some of them, or creating a simple custom text file that just has the tags you need from it to parse into your pages.
I'm currently working on a custom text file that outputs most WD tags with a index number, the value and a brief description so that I can use any tag from it without the overhead of the XML. It looks kinda like:
# Weather RAW date by Tags
#
#######################################################################################
# General or NON Weather Specific
#######################################################################################
%time%:::Time
%date%:::Date
%sunrise%:::Sunrise
%sunset%:::Sunset
%dayornight%:::Day or Night
%moonrise%:::Moon Rise
%moonset%:::Moon Set
%moonphase%:::Moon Phase
%marchequinox%:::March equinox date
%junesolstice%:::June solstice date
%sepequinox%:::September equinox date
%decsolstice%:::December solstice date
%moonperihel%:::Next Moon perihel date
%moonperihel%:::Next Moon perihel date
%moonperigee%:::Next moon perigee date
%moonapogee:::Next Moon Apogee Date
%newmoon%:::Date/time of the next/last new moon
%nextnewmoon%:::Date/time of the next new moon for next month
%firstquarter%:::Date/time of the next/last first quarter moon
%lastquarter%:::Date/time of the next/last last quarter moon
%fullmoon%:::Date/time of the next/last full moonBut will have an index number put in front of each tag type so that I can quickly find it by id number and use it in any page. Then any tag I can't get from the clientraw files, I can get from it instead. You can also find tags you had not used before in it.
As for graphics, it might be you start making your own charts using something like JPgraph for a uniform look, and or, replace existing graphics with non-graphics like the Extreme data graphics.
you would in the end have a lot less sent to the web page, possibly a more uniform looking page and a lot more control over how and where things are formatted.
but yes... you pretty much got it right.
Like most languages, you can start off with baby steps doing real basic stuff until you get better at it and then start building some really sophisticated pages.
I had planned on doing some coding this weekend for a change, but I now have to rebuild my weather machine since its hard drive blew up.
