How often do you generate the file?
There’s a whole wagon load of tags that I would never use…can they be deleted without creating problems?
I’ve had it generating and uploading every 5 mins 24/7 since about the end of July or so. So it’s well tried, and tested! Others have been using it with the old system too and I’ve had no reports of computers going sluggish. The file comes out at about 50kb so it can take a couple of seconds to upload. However, the script has a failsafe built in just in case a visitor opens a page at the same moment that the tag file is being uploaded. In a nut Shell, it just reloads the page, by which time the upload is complete. So the visitor never sees any missing data or nasty error messages.
There’s a whole load that I never use as well 
but they are there for anyone who does use them. The problem with deleting tags from the file, is that it will no longer be compatible, and the ID numbers would no longer match those in the reference page. You could build your own reference page, but it would be very monotonous and time consuming (trust me on that!), which is why the only reference page is the one on my site!
I can’t really see the point in removing unused tags unless your system is very old, lacking in power and just can’t cope, or unless you have a very stingy web host who only gives you a tiny quota of ftp transfer per month or something. Also remember that only the tags that are relevant to your setup will be generated. If you look at the tags reference page, you will see that lots of my tags remain ungenerated, such as lightning, mesomaps, solar etc. Although they are still there, they don’t get processed. Also, you may be grateful for those unused tags one day if you expand your station and start using them!
If my math isn’t wrong that’s almost 500 gigs a month upload - and you just know that some users will want it to update faster than 5 minutes. I think that there will be many users who don’t have the CPU power (or choose not to use that much power) or bandwidth to support this. To me the whole philosophy of the tag/php system is that it’s low impact. It’s good solid work, and I’m sorry to be negative, but I can think of better ways to do this which I’ll be happy to discuss with you offline rather than continue posting in your thread.
Sorry to correct you, but it’s 5Gbytes a year. Still quite a lot. I’m sure a lot of the end ones could be taken out (like mesomaps) as I would be suprised if they would break the arrays used?
I tell you what would be good (as someone who finds the tag list bewildering) is a webpage where you could select individual tags/groups of tags for inclusion in the tags file. Now that would be useful and streamlined to meet most peoples requirements
Ian
I think your maths is wrong It’s no where near that much! Some WD graphics are bigger than that, and some people have loads of them being uploaded to their site frequently. 5 mins is the schedule I use for generating and uploading my tags file, but this can be set to any schedule you like in WD. The raw tags file is not new. It’s been available from my site for months, and has been in use by others for as long. All that’s changed is the php that puts the tags on your pages!
Good stuff 35mm
Also remember that only the tags that are relevant to your setup will be generated. If you look at the tags reference page, you will see that lots of my tags remain ungenerated, such as lightning, mesomaps, solar etc. Although they are still there, they don't get processedgood point that too :)
Whoopsie, you’re right, almost 500 megabytes per month :oops:
If 500Mb per month gets you worried, you should change your host! :lol: Here’s a little tip that a lot of people don’t know. I do web hosting so I know this. The monthly data transfer that your web host gives you, rarely includes FTP transfer, as that is harder to monitor than http transfer. However, a few hosts do count ftp transfer, so use one that doesn’t. Also I didn’t just tell you you that!
Thanks Brian. I should also add, this system does very little unless you use it with Weather Display! How long did it take to come up with all those tags? It took me 4 days to copy and past them!
Ian, you could remove tags from the end of the file so long as you don’t break the order. However, as has already been covered in this thread, there is no point, as the file isn’t that big, and doesn’t use too much CPU. If you try it out, you’ll see.
I’m impressed 8O…that is a whole heap of work that you have done there…and I really like the idea. 8)
As a novice web page maker though, I’m still trying to get my head around this to put the volumes upload size into perspective. Given that the overall file size being talked about (the entire 2000 tags) is some 50 kb and by comparison a videolasthour (jpg) is some 180 kb …or a WD banner (mine) is 48kb(every 15 mins)…then there would indeed appear to be merit in doing the upload of the tags at reasonable intervals…upwards of say, every 5 or10 mins without too much detriment to the overall upload totals per month etc…I’m sure that this might even be a better case to argue if one simply cut back on some other upload intervals and balanced one with the other, particularly if you use webcam images a lot as I do…mmm
Well done 35mm, you have given us a another tool in the armoury. Now to have a long think and actually have a go at using it. 
It seems that most have WD Live running on their sites, which updates about once per minute (or at least mine does). So for the rest of the data on your site, 5 minute updates would be the most regular interval that would be necessary. I mean the whole site doesn’t have to be live. You are right though, the tags file isn’t what will consume your monthly data transfer (often wrongly referred to as “bandwidth”). It’s your visitors viewing all those graphics, photos and videos that will do that! The thing is though, in recent years the cost of data transfer has been coming down rapidly, and you can now get a web hosting account that has more space than you can use, and more monthly transfer than you can use, for just a couple of dollars!
Don’t be put off by someone knocking this system before they have even tried it! Try it for your self. If you have any difficulties using it, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you get it working.
I find this system intriguing - thank you for all your work on it! My site is based on the older AJAX Carter Lake templates but I have customized it here and there. I currently upload a lot of WD generated HTML files only because I one one or two stats on pages that use the regular WD tags. I like your system because I can then whittle that down to your one tag file. I am very slowly working on a total site redesign and definitely will look to implement this. Thanks!
Tony
I’ve tried about a dozen times now to upload the file to website and it crashes WD everytime.
need more information
(i.e like running the debug version)
I’ve never ran the debug program before.
Do you shut down your WD just like a regular update?
yes
then it should create a file called WeatherD.elf
in c:\ or where wd is installed
and email me that
(but I have to head out soon)
Ran update as usual. Started the process to upload PHP tags file to server and WD crashed.
Spent 10 minutes so far looking for the file and can’t find it anywhere in my Wdisplay file.
I can find WeatherD.exe & WeatherD.ini but no .elf
I’ve checked my root C:, C:\Wdisplay, C:\Wdisplay\webfiles cannot find it.