Hi,
I was wondering whether anyone had a script that would indicate whether the station was online or offline. I have tried writing my own based on comparing the current time with the time tag in the clientraw file, but my php coding is not good enough. I know its possible, just don’t know how.
Any help much appreciated!
Paul
Hi Paul,
I check the file modified time of my clientraw file and if it is over a certain amount of time (5 minutes) I display an appropriate “no data since etc etc” message where the time of last update is on my webpage.
e.g.
<?php
$updval=filemtime("clientraw.txt");
$nowval=time();
if ($nowval > $updval + 300)
echo ".....station OFFLINE code here......";
else
echo ".....station ONLINE code here...... ";
?>
although this didn’t work as desired with my downtime last month as clientraw was uploading ok but with stale data.
I use a couple of way of telling me the site is offline - http://www.chatteris.biz/blog/web-site-alerting-of-inaccurate-data/
flatline-check.php from http://jcweather.us/scripts.php
Ian and Martyn,
Have just created a page www.paulwilman.com/includes/online_status.php to record whether station is on or offline. Tried to include it in my footer but didn’t work for some reason. Not one to solve on a Friday night!
Thanks for your help…
Paul
I can see it in your footer ok 
Me too, nicely done 
Paul,
That looks really neat.
He version in the footer is cheating. It’s just some text with formatting!
Paul
lol it worked, I was taken in
Aah, I was fooled too lol
So what code did you try to include the script, something like…
<?php include("includes/online_status.php"); ?>
?
Martyn,
I tried the usual php include function but that sent all the formatting crazy. I think there are a few rogue div functions in my footer.php code.
The other weird thing was that as a standalone code it returned online, whereas when I called it via the include function it returned offline!
I tried for about an hour to fix, and reverted to the cheat!
Paul
Without seeing the code I don’t know what the issue is, but I am sure you will get that “AHA!” moment and get it working.
I use a script based off of the clientraw that says this after 5 minutes of no activity… We are currently fixing technical difficulties, or the power is out. Past data will be updated once Live updates resume.
But I do also like the button showing online/offline.
I use a script by Mike Challis which runs off the clientraw file and displays:
We are currently experiencing technical difficulties.
Live updates will be restored as soon as possible.
Create a new file called “live-update.php” and add the below script into it.
Then add a standard php include where you want the text to appear.
<?php include("live-update.php"); ?>
<?php
// version 1.3 - 14-Dec-2008 added make sure full clientraw.txt is read
// version 1.2 - 14-Dec-2008 added setting for non US date format in clientraw.txt
// version 1.1 - 14-Dec-2008 added better format of offline time
// Live Update Error script for WD
// Mike Challis (http://www.642weather.com/) and
// Ken True (http://saratoga-weather.org/)
//
global $SITE;
// begin settings for Live Updates Error
// uncomment only one $lu_crfile setting below
$lu_crfile = './clientraw.txt'; // to set manually (set to relative file path)
//
$lu_refreshSecs = 240; // set to max seconds of age for clientraw.txt
$lu_test_the_warning = false; // true or false
$lu_check_filedata = true; // check the file internal timestamp
$lu_non_us_date = true; // clientraw.txt with non en_US date format (d/m/y)
//
$lu_timezone = 'Europe/London'; // set to YOUR timezone
//
// end settings Live Updates Error
//
// --- begin overrides from Settings.php if availablSettings.php if availablee
if (isset($SITE['tz'])) {$lu_timezone = $SITE['tz'];}
if (isset($site['clientrawfile'])) {$lu_crfile = $SITE['clientrawfile']; }
// --- end overrides from Settings.php
if (isset($_REQUEST['sce']) && ( strtolower($_REQUEST['sce']) == 'view' or
strtolower($_REQUEST['sce']) == 'show') ) {
//--self downloader --
$filenameReal = __FILE__;
$download_size = filesize($filenameReal);
header('Pragma: public');
header('Cache-Control: private');
header('Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate');
header("Content-type: text/plain");
header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");
header("Content-Length: $download_size");
header('Connection: close');
readfile($filenameReal);
exit;
}
if(isset($_REQUEST['testwarn'])) {
$lu_test_the_warning = true;
}
$lu_error = 0;
if (isset($lu_crfile)) {
if (!file_exists($lu_crfile) ) { // missing CR
print "<p class=\"advisoryBox2\">Live Updates Error: Data file not found.\n";
print "<!-- $lu_crfile -->\n";
$lu_error = 1;
} else {
$lu_now = time();
$lu_crfile_time = filemtime($lu_crfile);
$lu_crfile_age = $lu_now - $lu_crfile_time;
$crage = 0;
if ($lu_check_filedata) {
putenv("TZ=$lu_timezone");
$crdata = explode(' ',file_get_contents($lu_crfile)); // fetch clientraw.txt
// make sure full clientraw.txt is read by looking for '12345' at start and '!!' at end of record
if (isset($crdata[0]) && $crdata[0] == '12345' && isset($crdata[174])) {
$crtime = explode('-',$crdata[32]); // get time from last field in name-time entry
$crtime = $crtime[count($crtime)-1]; // just the last entry
$crtime = preg_replace('|_|is',' ',$crtime);
$crdate = $crdata[74]; // updated date in CR
if ($lu_non_us_date) {
$cr_date = explode("/",$crdate);
$crdate = strftime("%m/%d/%Y",mktime(0,0,0,$cr_date[1],$cr_date[0],$cr_date[2]));
}
$crtimezone = date("T",time());
$crdatetime = strtotime("$crdate $crtime $crtimezone");
$crage = abs($lu_now - $crdatetime);
print "<!-- Data file '$crdate $crtime $crtimezone' is $crage secs old -->\n";
} else {
print "<!-- Data file was blank or not complete -->\n";
}
}
print "<!-- $lu_crfile file age = $lu_crfile_age secs. -->\n";
$lu_crfile_age = max($lu_crfile_age,$crage); // use the older of the two
if ($lu_test_the_warning) { // show test message
print "<p class=\"advisoryBox2\">Showing Test Live Updates Error because \$lu_test_the_warning is turned on.\n";
$lu_error = 1;
}
else if ($lu_crfile_age > $lu_refreshSecs) { // stale CR
print '<p class="advisoryBox2">Live Updates Error: Data file has not been updated for '.time_offline($lu_crfile_age) .".\n";
$lu_error = 1;
}
}
}else{
print "<p class=\"advisoryBox2\">Live Updates Config Error: \$lu_crfile not properly configured.\n";
$lu_error = 1;
}
$lu_error and print "
We are currently experiencing technical difficulties.
Live updates will be restored as soon as possible.</p>\n";
function time_offline ($time) {
// added by mchallis 642weather.com
// takes a time diff like 6740 secs and formats to '1 hour, 52 minutes'
$hrs = (int) intval($time / 3600);
$time = (int) intval($time - (3600 * $hrs));
$mns = (int) intval($time / 60);
$time = (int) intval($time - (60 * $mns));
$secs = (int) intval($time / 1);
$string = '';
$hrs == 1 and $string .= "$hrs hour, ";
$hrs > 1 and $string .= "$hrs hours, ";
$string .= sprintf("%01d minutes", $mns);
return $string;
}
?>
What Budgie said…it works beautifully with no intervention. My test site on this computer hasn’t had updated data files in a long time, and I’m used to seeing the error message there. When it appears on my web site I know there’s a problem somewhere.