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Charts Definition Language (CDL)

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Introduction

The Charts Definition Language gives the user the possibility to define his own charts on the basis of the CumulusMX infrastructure through the ChartsCompiler. This article gives the specification of that language.

CutilsCharts.def

The charts are defined in the definition file (CutilsCharts.def which resides in the utils directory) which contains one or more chart specifications according to the figure below. All attributes of a plot variable are optional and if not specified have a reasonable default. All white space characters are used as separators so it is easy to make a visually attractive, readable definition file.

The text in the CutilsCharts.def is case independent, however for clarity CamelCase or a variety thereof is advised.

The ChartsCompiler is obligatory after the introduction of the ExtraSensors module from version 6.5 onwards where the ChartsCompiler is used internally for defining and creating the charts for the ExtraSensors module which would otherwise - in a generic way - be virtually impossible. The CutilsCharts.def has a demarcation line which separates the Extra Sensors Charts (below) from the user charts (above). The user may want to create his own Extra Sensor Charts and he can do so by setting the parameter UserModificationExtraSensorCharts=true, if he does so existing Extra Sensors charts in the CutilsCharts.def file remain untouched.

A standard CutilsCharts.def and a CutilsCharts-example.def can be found in the distribution. The first for an initial minimum setup, the second to guide the user into the possibilities.

The specification

Chart Compiler Language (CDL) specification


The Language

The Chart block

 CHART <id> TITLE [<word>...<word>]  CONNECTSto [1 … 24]

 [ PLOT [ALL||DAILY|RECENT|EXTRA] <Plotvariable> [ EVAL '[' <Expression> ']' ]
            AS <Line Type> 
            COLOUR <HTML Color>
            ZINDEX <Integer>
            LINEWIDTH <Integer>
            OPACITY <Integer>.<Integer>
            AXIS <Axis Type>
 ]
 [ STATS <Plotvariable> <Stats Type> ]

 PLOT blocks repeated
 STATS blocks repeated
   [...]

 ENDCHART OUTPUT <filespec>

 CHART […] ENDCHART blocks repeated

Plot blocks can be repeated as many times as you wish but different parameters can result in many yAxis (making the plot area smaller) and the chart may become crowded and unreadable. Experiment and try-out.

Syntactically the STATS block can be many as well but it requires semantically the Plotvariable of which you want statistics to be plotted normally. So you can have e.g. three STATS blocks for one PLOT block.

Output specifier

An output file can be specified for each chart by putting OUTPUT <filename> after an ENDCHART. All charts from that point on will be written to that specified output until a new output is specified for another chart. If no output is specified at all, all charts will be written to cumuluscharts.txt (the default output)

If you are using the website it is important to know that the first chart will always be used as the chart for the Home page button and that cannot be changed (the file is always cumuluscharts.txt). If, however you specify an output on the first chart, that chart will be duplicated in the output you specify.

The output specifier gives the user the possibility to define charts as he likes and to place these in the menu wherever he likes. In the Website Generator the placements of the charts at the moment will be limited to the User Defined Menu. In modular use the user can do whatever he likes with the resulting files. In the website the charts require the datafiles to be in the current directory.

Keywords

All capital written words in the Chart block section are keywords (reserved words) and have meaning.

Explanation of the definition Keywords

  1. EQUATIONS: Starts an equations block. Such block only defines (partial) equations, it does not cause code generation in itself
  2. CHART: Starts a chart definition
  3. TITLE: Starts the title. All words until the next keyword comprise the title of the chart
  4. CONNECTSTO: The integer numbers which follow CONNECTSTO represent a pane in the realtime dashboard. When clicked on that pane this chart appears. This is only valid on charts in the default output. For other outputs there is no semantics for CONNECTSTO and a warning is issued in the logfile if it is specified in any second or higher output.
  5. PLOT: Starts the plot specification using one of the possible variables
  6. STATS: Starts the statistics block using one of the possible variables. Semantics demands the variable to be plotted normally as well.
  7. ALL: Defines the variable to be taken from the Dayfile and all data for that variable will be plotted (Note that the CMX parameter ChartMaxDays will not be used)
  8. RECENT: Defines the variable to be governed by the CMX parameter GraphHours and are similar to the CMX RECENT graphs (though not equal).
  9. AS: Defines the type of charting for that variable.
  10. EVAL [ ]: Defines an expression for the plot variable. The equation must be placed between the square brackets, space has no value here (does not act as separator).
  11. COLOUR: Defines the colour of that variable.
  12. ZINDEX: Defines the zIndex plane for that variable.
  13. LINEWIDTH: Defines the linewidth for that variable.
  14. OPACITY: Defines the opacity for that variable (important for area and column graphs)
  15. AXIS: Gives the user the possibility to specify an axis when using the EVAL construct otherwise an error is generated.
  16. ENDCHART: End the chart definition
  17. OUTPUT: Gives an optional name of an outputfile which starts at the chart where it is defined. Any chart after this OUTPUT specifier goes to this OUTPUT until another OUTPUT is found. Only the first OUTPUT specifier accepts click events as defined by CONNECTSTO.

The keywords for the actual parameters and the Graph Types speak for themselves.

Plotvariables

The following PlotVariables are reserved words:

With the RECENT qualifier
     "InsideTemp", "Dewpoint", "ApparentTemp", "FeelsLike", "WindChill", "HeatIndex","Temperature", "Humidex",
     "WindGust", "WindSpeed",
     "Bearing", "AverageBearing",
     "UV", "SolarRadiation", "TheoreticalSolarMax",
     "RainFall", "RainRate",
     "Pressure",
     "Humidity", "InsideHumidity",
     "EvapoTranspiration"
With the ALL/DAILY qualifier
     "MinTemp", "MaxTemp", "AverageTemp", "WindChill", "MaxDewpoint", "MinDewpoint","MaxFeelsLike", "MinFeelsLike", 
     "MaxGust", "WindRun", "WindSpeed", 
     "UV-Index", "SolarRadiation", "SunHours",
     "RainFall", "MaxRainRate",
     "MinBarometer", "MaxBarometer",
     "MinHumidity", "MaxHumidity",
     "HeatingDegreeDays","CoolingDegreeDays","EvapoTranspiration"

Note: The difference between ALL and DAILY is only between the displayed datarange (6 months or 1 month)

With the EXTRA qualifier
     "Temp1","Temp2","Temp3","Temp4","Temp5","Temp6","Temp7","Temp8","Temp9","Temp10",
     "Humidity1","Humidity2","Humidity3","Humidity4","Humidity5","Humidity6","Humidity7","Humidity8","Humidity9","Humidity10",
     "Dewpoint1","Dewpoint2","Dewpoint3","Dewpoint4","Dewpoint5","Dewpoint6","Dewpoint7","Dewpoint8","Dewpoint9","Dewpoint10",
     "SoilTemp1","SoilTemp2","SoilTemp3","SoilTemp4","SoilTemp5","SoilTemp6","SoilTemp7","SoilTemp8","SoilTemp9","SoilTemp10",
         "SoilTemp11","SoilTemp12","SoilTemp13","SoilTemp14","SoilTemp15","SoilTemp16",
     "SoilMoisture1","SoilMoisture2","SoilMoisture3","SoilMoisture4","SoilMoisture5","SoilMoisture6","SoilMoisture7","SoilMoisture8","SoilMoisture9","SoilMoisture10",
         "SoilMoisture11","SoilMoisture12","SoilMoisture13","SoilMoisture14","SoilMoisture15","SoilMoisture16",
     "AirQuality1","AirQuality2","AirQuality3","AirQuality4",
     "AirQualityAvg1","AirQualityAvg2","AirQualityAvg3","AirQualityAvg4",
     "UserTemp1","UserTemp2","UserTemp3","UserTemp4","UserTemp5","UserTemp6","UserTemp7","UserTemp8",
     "LeafTemp1","LeafTemp2","LeafWetness1","LeafWetness2",
     "CO2", "CO2_24h", "CO2_pm2p5", "CO2_pm2p5_24h","CO2_pm10","CO2_pm10_24h","CO2_temp","CO2_hum"

Note: The EXTRA qualifier indicates plotvariables for the Extra Sensors. These are implicit RECENT but come from a different source.

Types

Graph Types

The following graphs are possible 

     Line, SpLine, Area, Scatter, Column, ColumnRange

All graph types can be combined in a chart except for Scatter.

ColumnRange only works for DAILY and ALL range specifiers. If the Max and Min lines of the range must be shown, they need to be specified as a separate line. The range can be specified for either Min or Max, the range will automatically be applied and no line will be shown. The ColumnRange is valid for all variables in the datafile with a Max/Min range: Temperature, Dewpoint, FeelsLike (and other derivatives), Barometer and Humidity. Other variables will generate an error.

Axis Types

The following Axis are possible. 

     Temp, Wind, Distance, Hours, Solar, UV, Rain, Rrate, Pressure, Humidity, DegreeDays, EVT, AQ, ppm

This only has meaning if there is an EVAL with a valid expression present. As an EVAL may modify the value of the plot variable to something completely different, the original Axis belonging to that plot variable may be useless or scale wrongly. Therefore you can choose your own Axis. If there is no valid equation, a warning is given and no axis is generated.

In future a generic (without title or unit) Axis will selectable to accommodate plotting in combination with other variables.

Other Types

For other types such as STATS types (or methods) and FUNCTION types for EVAL, see those respective pages for STATS and for EVAL.

Equations

See page CDL - EVAL.

The Chart Axis

All PlotVariables have their own defined axis and those axis will be coupled automatically to the chart. Multiple axis will be alternately added left-right where the order in the definition files determines this order. So it is the user who ultimately can define where the axis are places: left or right and from inside to the outside in the order where they are encountered during the parsing process.

The following axis are currently defined and implicit for the plot variables (the user has no options here):

  1. None
  2. Temp
  3. Pressure
  4. Rain
  5. Rrate
  6. Wind
  7. Direction
  8. Humidity
  9. Solar
  10. UV
  11. Hours
  12. Distance
  13. DegreeDays
  14. EVT
  15. Free (has no title, unit or context associated with it. It just displays values)
  16. AQ
  17. ppm

Translations for the axis titles come from the [Website] section and should require no additional effort.

Additional details

  1. All parameters can be combined in one graph with the corresponding axis automatically added. Only when scatter is defined as Line Type it is forbidden to combine it with one of the other possibilities. This may change in future.
  2. The Legend texts are implemented as translations of the PlotKeywords (the Plot Variables). You will find these in the translation file section [Compiler]. Legend entries can be multiple words (the keywords can not).
  3. The width of the graph container is 100% of the viewport.
  4. The height of the graph container can be specified in the options (not defined in the language to prevent overcharge):
 [Compiler]
 ChartContainerHeight=650 (Default)
  1. The Plot Variables Evapotranspiration, CoolingDegreeDays and Heating DegreeDays are not supplied by CMX in the JSONs. CumulusUtils provides those automatically when used in the definitions (on request) with the commandline parameter UserAskedData. See also ChartsCompiler Operation.
  2. You have to schedule this command if you wish to use the FTP frequency CMX uses for its JSON's. Note that these JSON files specific to CumulusUtils always reside in the website root of CumulusUtils, even if you have more websites and define the CumulusRealTimeLocation.
  3. If the user uses different locales for CMX and CumulusUtils the monthly log filenames will be according to the locale of CMX. This creates an issue which is solved by the inifile parameter:
 [General]
 MonthsOfMiracleAndWonder=jan,feb,mrt,apr,mei,jun,jul,aug,sep,okt,nov,dec

Default this variable contains the abbreviated month names according to the locale of CumulusUtils. The user may edit those names to the ones used by CMX.

Example CutilsCharts.def

The Chart definitions below is included in the distribution of CumulusUtils and serves as an example.

(To be included)

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