[[Category:Terminology]]
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=What is a web tag? =
[[File:Crystal Clear info.png|40px]] This document was written for the (legacy) Cumulus 1 software. It has been updated to cover MX, but that was for a MX release that is no longer latest!
<big>From release 3.10.1, web template pages (that need to be processed and uploaded) are no longer provided with MX, instead the default web pages are installed once onto your web server and they use the technique mentioned at [[Php_webtags#Option_3:_JavaScript_Object_Notation|JavaScript_Object_Notation (.json) files]], for full details please see [[New_Default_Web_Site_Information]]</big>
Put simply, a web tag is included in a Cumulus template file to indicate where Cumulus should insert values when it produces an output file. The concept of [[Customised_templates#What_is_meant_by_.27Cumulus_processes_templates.27|processing templates]] is explained in another article. The output file can be a [[Customised_templates#HTML_5_-_a_very_quick_guide_to_structure|web page]], a [[Feels_Like#HTML_code_to_translate_web_tags_to_JavaScript_variables_.28as_modified_for_additional_parameters.29|JavaScript file]], a PHP script, or a [[Xml_webtags|eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML)]] file.
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=Introduction=
== Why does MX talk about tokens? ==
==What is a web tag? ==
MX uses a '''token parser''' to read the web tags and replace them with the correct value, so if diagnostic output refers to tokens, it is saying the attempt to actually work out what content to return to replace the web tag with its tag name and parameters has encountered a problem.
Put simply, a web tag is included in a [[Cumulus template file]] to indicate where Cumulus should insert values when it produces an output file. The concept of [[Customised_templates#What_is_meant_by_.27Cumulus_processes_templates.27|processing templates]] is explained in another article.
{{TOCright}}
==Template files can create many types of file==
=GENERAL TIP=
The output file can be:
The web tags available in the version/build you are using, can be listed (in Cumulus 1 or Cumulus MX) by adding the following line to [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Station|Cumulus.ini]] in the [station] section...
* a [[Customised_templates#HTML_5_-_a_very_quick_guide_to_structure|web page]],
* a [[Php_webtags#Option_3:_JavaScript_Object_Notation|JavaScript Object Notation (.json) file]]
* a [[Feels_Like#HTML_code_to_translate_web_tags_to_JavaScript_variables_.28as_modified_for_additional_parameters.29|JavaScript file]],
* a [[PHP]] script file, or
*a [[Xml_webtags|eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML)]] file.
==General Format for Web Tags==
ListWebTags=1
In the position in any template file where Cumulus is to insert the relevant data, place a web tag in the '''general format''' specified here: <pre><#tag_name [optional input selection parameters] [optional output modification parameters]></pre>
Then start Cumulus and it will create a file called WebTags.txt in the same folder as where the executable is found. That file will list all the tags your build of Cumulus can currently generate. This list only contains the tag_names, it does not indicate what parameters they can take, nor does it include the brackets the tag name is surrounded by when you quote it in a template file for Cumulus to process.
To find out what is allowed for '''tag_name''', see the various tables later on this page.
An example of the output for an early MX version is at the end of this page (the actual output does not include commas, and has just one item per line, it has been compressed for inclusion in this article).
To find out what is allowed for the '''input selection parameters''' and '''output modification parameters''', refer to [[Webtags/Parameters|web tag parameters]] page.
To stop Cumulus continuing to produce new versions of that file change the line to say ...
==What this page covers ==
ListWebTags=0
{{Version badge 1}}If you are using Cumulus 1, each build of that contains a build specific version of Cumulus Help, and within that help is a list of web tags with basic information on what each tag_name returns.
=What this article covers =
{{TOCright}}
#At the last count, a 3.5.x version of MX produces ''nine and a half million'' '''web tags'''!
# Those millions of web tags can actually produce billions of different outputs!
Consequently, this article describes:
*Over 7 hundred web tags -'''THIS ARTICLE MAY NOT CONTAIN ALL WEB TAGS AVAILABLE IN LATEST VERSION - It depends on someone updating this article if the developer does not have time to do so'''
==What is covered on another page==
The parameters you can use with web tags are explained on the [[Web Tag Parameters|parameters page]], there you can discover:
*A score of input parameters that modify some of those tags (meaning some web tags can represent 12 different months for example)
*The components that make up output parameters (a guide to how you modify the output format)
**how someto control number of decimal places
**how oneto controlscontrol whether decimal comma (if used) is replaced by decimal point (useful for some script languages)
**the majority modify the output from almost all web tags that report a time and/or date (there are so many ways to represent times and dates this multiples up the available output considerably)
The tables below are not able to indicate which of the billions of combinations possible are valid or invalid for particular tag names nor for particular release versions..
==Applicability by flavour, and by release version and build==
Full support is available via the support forum at https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=40 for the latest MX release. Given that some users may still be running an older MX release, where possible any web tag listed below for MX indicates at which release it first became available.
The tip at the start of this article tells you how to check which tags are available in whatever build of Cumulus you are actually using. Given how often a new release alters either what web tags are available or what parameters can be used with particular web tags, it is possible the tables below do not list all web tags at any version, and the tables can't say which modifiers are available at your version.
There is limited support available for Cumulus 1.9.4, but on this page every attempt is made to indicate which version of the legacy software introduced any web tag listed below as being available in the legacy software.
Because Cumulus 2 is no longer available, it has been ignored in the tables below. It never really worked for web page generation, so if you happen to have installed Cumulus 2 from when it was available, you probably don't care which web tags it supports.
Various approaches are trialled in the list for indicating which flavours a web tag exists for. The [[Webtags#Davis|Davis]] section has a column that indicates the applicability. Other sections with more web tags use pink section headings to identify their applicability to the flavours. Finally, there are some individual entries where '''C1''' and '''MX''' symbols are used to indicate applicability.
[[File:Badge v1.png]]This badge is used to highlight text that applies to Cumulus 1.
*Use of this badge does NOT mean that all builds of Cumulus 1 are able to use the web tag.
*There are gaps in the Cumulus 1 documentation, and so it is not usual for the table entry to indicate when a particular web tags started to be available
*If you are using the final version of Cumulus 1, then the text highlighted by that badge does apply to you.
*In general, Cumulus 1 will silently ignore any web tag it does not recognise. This means that you might see the raw
web tag remaining after processing, or you might see nothing where the web tag was prior to processing. It also means that if you try to do a numeric calculation on a web tag that Cumulus 1 does not recognise, the calculation will fail, but you might not see an error message.
There is some more information on [[Webtag Applicability|Web tag Applicability page]].
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]This badge is used to highlight text that applies to Cumulus 3 (MX) only.
*In many cases, it highlights web tags that are not available in Cumulus 1
*Use of this badge does not mean that all builds of MX are able to use this web tag
*Some attempt has been made to indicate '''either''' which MX build introduced individual tags, '''or''' from which build the web tag started giving the correct response (where earlier builds reported incorrect values for that web tag in some cases).
*MX will raise an error:
**for any web tag it does not recognise at the version you are running
**for any input parameter that the token parser is unable to recognise
*MX treats output parameters differently:
**any output parameter that it does not recognise at all, is ignored
**any output parameter in a web tag that '''does not''' accept output parameters is also ignored
**any output parameter in a web tag that does accept output parameters, where the supplied parameter is inconsistent with the content of the web tag, is reported as an error by the token parser
**an output parameter that specifies only part of the standard output may be reported as an error because of single character rules (for example a tag that reports a time cannot understand '''format=H''', amongst the acceptable formats are ''format=%H'' for just hour and '''format=H:mm''' for hour and minutes but not seconds.
**any output parameter that contains incorrectly formatted characters in that output parameter will be treated as an error by the token parser (a common mistake is forgetting spaces are expected to be included with other literal characters by the MX token parser)
**if you use valid parameters but the wrong parameters, you are likely to be confused by the output (the most common cases result in seeing minutes where a month is wanted, or there is a misunderstanding of the concept where the same character has different meanings when on its own and when with other characters).
== Why does MX talk about tokens? ==
= Template Files =
MX uses a '''token parser''' to read the web tags and replace them with the correct value, so if diagnostic output refers to tokens, it is saying the attempt to actually work out what content to return to replace the web tag with its tag name and parameters has encountered a problem.
This is the name given by Steve Loft to any files that contain web tags and need to be processed before they actually include values.
=GENERAL TIP=
When Cumulus processes these files it generates output files where the tags/tokens have been replaced by values. Consequently, a single template will actually generate a different file each time Cumulus processes that template because the part of the content that was web tags is now populated with text (values, times, dates, etc.) and as these values change that make the file different to the previous generated file.
The web tags available in the version/build you are using, can be listed (in Cumulus 1 or Cumulus MX) by adding the following line to [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Station|Cumulus.ini]] in the [station] section...
For standard Cumulus, all the output files are web pages which it then uploads to your web site. There is more about processing of files on the [[Customised templates]] page, but think of a template as containing text that Cumulus copies from the template file to the web page it is constructing. The processing process is basically a parse, each time it finds what MX calls a token (a web tag complete with any parameters it needs) it looks up the value that it will use to replace that web tag before moving on through the text.
ListWebTags=1
The example web templates provided by Cumulus insert a "T" at the end of the intended web page name before the extension (.htm or .html), so that the template files and generated web pages cannot be confused. The generated file will often have "tmp" added to the end
Then start Cumulus and it will create a file called WebTags.txt in the same folder as where the executable is found. That file will list all the tags your build of Cumulus can currently generate. This list only contains the tag_names, it does not indicate what parameters they can take, nor does it include the brackets the tag name is surrounded by when you quote it in a template file for Cumulus to process.
When writing your own templates, some people will stick to this "T" notation, others will change the extension to "tmpl" or "cum" to indicate they are Cumulus templates. Cumulus does not care what extension is used for any local file specified in the MX '''Extra Web Files''' settings or Cumulus 1 '''Files''' tab settings.
An example of the output for an early MX version is at the end of this page (the actual output does not include commas, and has just one item per line, it has been compressed for inclusion in this article).
For Cumulus 1 and MX, there are one template held within the program code, this is what produces the default [[Realtime.txt]]. You can define an alternative template with web tags and Cumulus can process that instead of its default template.
To stop Cumulus continuing to produce new versions of that file change the line to say ...
For MX only, there are other templates held within the program code (so you cannot edit them), these output in json format. Some are application program interface, and feed information to the admin interface, you can only view these by using the development interface in your browser that lets you see what has been loaded. The rest become the json files that are created in the '''web''' folder from where (like the web pages produced after processing the standard web templates), they can be uploaded to your web site.
ListWebTags=0
= Web tags available in Cumulus =
{{Version badge 1}}If you are using Cumulus 1, each build of that contains a build specific version of Cumulus Help, and within that help is a list of web tags with basic information on what each tag_name returns.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]] MX bug: The inclusion of a web tag in the list produced by this instruction, does not mean that web tag is actually populated with valid information. See https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=153096#p153096 for an example.
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[[File:Crystal Clear info.png|40px]] This document is 'Work In Progress' so content may not be complete or accurate!
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Those special markers in the file are called web tags, during processing Cumulus will replace them with the actual values. Typically you would use this to build your own website by having an HTML template file with your layout, static text and graphics. In the position on the page you wish Cumulus to insert the relevant data place a web tag in the form (briefly mentioned earlier in this page):
<pre><#tag_name [optional input parameters][optional output parameters]></pre>
''Note: When you put a tag into your template, be careful that whatever program you are using to develop your web pages doesn't change the angle brackets to slightly different symbols -- this is a common cause of failure!'' There are a number of editing tools that are '''designed for editing programming code''' and you should use one of those (e.g. Notepad++, Brackets, NoteTab Light, HTML kit, amongst many others), ''rather than a tool designed for web page design editing'' (e.g. Dreamweaver, word press, amongst others).
== Beta Builds of Cumulus ==
{{Version badge 1}}The [[BETA webtags|additional webtags]] page was created to hold web tags that were not yet available in any Cumulus 1 formal release, but were available in any Beta version that was under development.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]When development of Cumulus 1 ceased, Cumulus MX was available as a beta. At that time, this article continued to describe web tags available in the final release of Cumulus 1 (builds 1099, 1100, 1101, 1099.1, and 1099.2). Because the output parameters were different for MX, all the MX web tag information was in [[BETA webtags|beta web tags]] article. That was fine in early beta versions of MX because they supported only a small subset of the web tags available for Cumulus 1.
However, as MX development continued more and more web tags were available and maintaining two articles, one for each flavour of Cumulus was impossible. Therefore, MX users had to look at two pages, some of their web tags were in this article some were in that article. Confusingly, some web tags were in both articles, because the parameters that could be used with those tags were increased in MX, so the additional parameters were only shown in the beta article, an example was when the moon web tags had parameters added to control the output from build 3047, these were added to the Beta article.
When Mark Crossley brought MX out of Beta, all the web tags that were on that page were moved into this article, and it was made clear which flavours each web tag was available in (excluding Cumulus 2).
The developer of MX new releases normally shares a new version of MX first as beta by sending the distribution in an email to a number of Cumulus users. They respond by email, with the intension any issues can be ironed out before the distribution is made available as a public release. Given the number of weather station types supported and the complexity of options for using Cumulus, this does not always ensure all ways in which MX can be used are tested, especially as the Cumulus Users given the beta test zip might not use all the features that have been modified in a particular development.
Although such releases often add additional web tags, any additional web tags are currently being entered into this article and no new MX web tags had been added to beta article since that move of the earlier ones into this article.
== Case sensitivity ==
The tag_name in the general format above is case sensitive, so please type the tag name exactly as shown in the web tag columns in the tables below.
The optional input parameters always use lower case, so please type them exactly as shown in the sections dealing with input parameters.
The optional output parameters are case insensitive when used in Cumulus 1. But for Cumulus 2 and later, so this includes MX, the output parameters are case sensitive and also dependent on what other output formatters are being used if any, so please read the sections on output parameters and study the examples in the tables carefully.
==Inconsistency of web tag names==
Some tags are all lower-case, some are camel-case, and some start with a capital letter. Have a look yourself at just how much inconsistency is present in the names in the tables below. The great inconsistency in the naming, gives rise to a problem as it very easy to spell a tag_name incorrectly as you naturally expect there to be a standard pattern.
You will find yourself frequently having to refer to this article, if you decide to make your own Cumulus templates (see section below for more information). This applies whether those templates are for [[Customised templates|web pages]], to implement [[Xml webtags|Extensible Mark-up Language files]], or [[Php webtags|PHP Hypertext Pre-processor scripts]].
When Steve Loft introduced the first web tags as part of developing software for his own use, he did not create a naming standard to ensure consistency in the future. As he introduced further web tags at different times, the names used might be consistent amongst the ones introduced that day, but there was still no naming convention to ensure consistency with tags introduced previously or to help name future tags.
===Inconsistency for today, yesterday, this month, this year groups===
It would be easier if all tags reporting parameters for today were consistent, let alone consistency in naming between tags for today and yesterday. The tags for this year and this month were introduced in same release, so there is some consistency in how they were named then, but no standard to ensure future tags for this month and this year would be named the same way.
===Inconsistency in use of "Y"===
*The character "Y" might be included in a web tag to denote '''yesterday''', or it might denote ''this year''
*Where the Y is indicating '''yesterday''', it is sometimes a ''prefix'', sometimes a ''suffix''!
===Inconsistency in use of "T"===
*The newer web tags for '''today''' include a "T" as a suffix, the older ones do not.
**The lack of a "T" in some today tags causes some confusion with all-time record tags as they have a similar naming structure to these older today web tags.
**This is particularly confusing and is why you must look up today, and all-time, tags in the tables in this article.
*The time-stamp tags add a "T" to the corresponding web tag for the value, but in an inconsistent way:
**the T is a prefix sometimes and
**the T is a suffix sometimes
**This is particularly confusing and is why you must look up time-stamp tags in the tables in this article.
===Choosing script variable names derived from tag names===
In the web tag to PHP variable scripts, I have posted, see [[Php_webtags#Minimised_Upload_size]], I have tried to introduce better consistency in the PHP variable names, so "T" is added as a suffix to all "today" variables for example. Some other script authors try to match the inconsistent web tag names, so their script variable names are also inconsistent.
== Optional Parameters ==
=== Input modification Parameters ===
Most web tags do not require any input parameters. An input parameter is used where the same web tag can represent a value for a number of different past time instants. Each of those past time instants is represented by a different value for the input parameter. So a combination of web tag name and input parameter lets Cumulus to pick the value you want to see.
There are currently only two types of tags where an input parameter is mandatory:
*The '''recent history tags''' where a separate value exists for potentially every [[#Recent_History|individual minute in last week]]. These tags need an input parameter specifying how many minutes ago is required. To save entering a very large number for minutes, an input parameter can combine days, hours, and minutes, ago using up to 3 input parameters as explained in linked section.
*The [[#Monthly_All_Time_Records]] where a separate one exists for each particular month (of any year) need input parameter specifying which month. Again see the respective section for full details of input parameter (which is 1 for January to 12 for December, but 0 is also available with a special meaning).
=== Output modification parameters ===
These are complex, they vary between Cumulus 1 and later flavours, and what output modifiers can be used varies between web tags.
Consequently, output modifiers will be discussed in a later section headed [[#Output_.27format.27_Parameter]].
The options available include:
* changing date and/or time format,
* changing number of decimal places, and
* removing decimal commas.
== Cumulus Templates ==
=== Using web tags in templates for creating HTML pages ===
*You can create a template file that has a structure of HTML elements with Cumulus web tags to represent the information you want included.
*If you [[Customised_templates#What_to_select_on_the_.27Files.27_tab_of_the_Internet_Settings_screen_within_the_.27Configuration.27_menu|ask Cumulus to process]] that template file, it will create a HTML page from the template, and during that file creation replace the tag with the current value of the item the tag represents.
*You also need to tell Cumulus that the resulting HTML file is to be uploaded to the internet (or copied to a local web server).
=== Using web tags in scripts ===
*You can also use the tags within script, this might be a PHP script, or JavaScript either embedded in HTML, or in external files, to transfer the values (or the result of calculations based on those values) to your web server for further processing.
*As JavaScript can not understand a real number that has the integer and decimal parts separated by a comma, but your computer may be set to use that representation in standard tags, there are special versions of many tags to use in script - see [[#No_Commas|tags with commas removed]] section.
*Note that if a PHP or JavaScript file contains any Cumulus web tags then you must [[Customised_templates#What_to_select_on_the_.27Files.27_tab_of_the_Internet_Settings_screen_within_the_.27Configuration.27_menu|ask Cumulus to process]] the script file.
*JavaScript processing code can be embedded in a template that is already being processed into HTML. (This technique has been used in the standard 'monthlyrecordT.htm' template).
*Alternatively embed a bit of JavaScript assignment code in HTML, that is already been processed, to convert the tags to a collection of string variables and use those variable names in any external script called from the HTML file. (This technique has been used in the standard 'gaugesT.htm' template).
*To use the value from a tag as an integer in JavaScript assigning code you need to use a
<pre>integer_variable_name=parseInt(string_variable_name,10)</pre> type conversion
*To use a value from a tag as a floating point number in JavaScript you need to use <pre>parseFloat(string_variable_name)</pre> otherwise you will find any attempt to add something to it results in a concatenation because JavaScript uses "+" for two purposes and concatenation takes precedence over arithmetic adding!
*Alternatively, in most script languages, apply ' * 1', i.e. multiply by one, to implicitly convert the tag from string to base 10 number.
*Another alternative is to add zero when a web tag is being assigned to a script variable, this is frequently used in scripts where the web tag being used is not available in all versions of Cumulus, because Cumulus does not implement the concept of null values and often zero is used when a true value is not available because that sensor is not installed for example. Adding 0 means that if the web tag is not recognised, the script is still able to give a variable in its language some value and won't fail because that variable is undefined. If the web tag is available, adding zero does not prevent the true value of that web tag being assigned to the variable.
== Web Tag Differences Between Cumulus 1 and MX builds ==
{{Version badge 1}}
This badge is used when the web tags listed in one of the tables are available in the final 1.9.4 release of Cumulus 1, but not in MX. When Cumulus 1 is processing web tags, it tends to ignore any it cannot understand, so look for gaps in your web pages to find errors.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]
Cumulus MX provides many, but not all web tags that were available in Cumulus 1. MX adds many more web tags, mostly in support of new weather stations or new sensors. This badge is used against web tags listed in one of the tables that are only available in MX. See [[#GENERAL_TIP|tip]] at top of page for how to check which web tags are available in your build.
A combination of badges appears where certain aspects apply to Cumulus 1 or to MX. No information is given for Cumulus 2 as it is no longer available.
When MX is processing web tags and finds one it cannot understand, a "*** web tag error - see MXdiags file ***" message will appear in the engine console, and the diagnostic file will include something like this, be aware a "token" parser is used to evaluate web tags:
<pre>Web tag error
Exception: i=8998 len=106297
inputText.Length=106297
token=<#daylightlength format=H></pre>
This particular error is that when you use a single output format character it does not have same meaning as when there are multiple characters, correct this particular web tag to:
<pre><#daylightlength format=%H></pre>
Please note that where this article makes reference to other pages in the Wiki, the information shown there might be specific to Cumulus 1, as there are differences between the user interface for Cumulus 1 and MX flavours of this software, and the Wiki was originally written before MX existed, so not all pages have been updated.
=Output 'format' Parameter=
The majority, but not all, of web tags either can use an output format parameter or, in a few cases, really do need an output format parameter.
== Output Parameter Differences between Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX (Cumulus 3) ==
There are a number of differences between Cumulus 1 (C1) and Cumulus MX (MX). These nearly all involve times and dates, so the next section deals with this.
=== Output (format modifier) parameters for times and dates ===
Time/Date format codes are used in two places:
# As part of report names for NOAA style reports (see [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_NOAA]])
# As part of web-tags that report either times or dates or both a date and a time
From version 1.9.1 most web-tags that report any form of time or date will accept an optional 'format' parameter, e.g. (Cumulus 1 only): <#YearTempHT format=hh:nn>.
This allows you to override the default display format for that item, using the format specifiers in the table below.
Although, in theory, you can specify date formatting to times, and vice versa, this will not always yield a sensible result. It is best to look at the default format (in most, but not all, cases this reveals whether date and time information are both available):
*The time-stamps for today, and yesterday, only contain time information, so only time-based format instructions should be applied to them. You can use date format parameters on (for example) <#metdate>, and <#metdateyesterday> and that may give you your desired date information to augment the time-stamps.
*Almanac times such as sun-rise, moon-rise, are also only times, and time-based format instructions can generally be applied to them. However, be aware these are calculated as at midnight GMT and for some of your calendar days, the times may be reported (in default format) as '--' if for example the moon does not rise that day.
C1 can work with times in 14.24 format using a full stop ('.') to separate the figures, MX must have colon (':') between hour and minute numbers. But with both flavours you can choose whether 12-hour clock is used with am/pm (in lowercase or capitals) or the 24-hour clock is used. You can choose to include/exclude leading zero for hours. You can only report the hour if you don't care about the minutes, or only report the minutes if you don't need the hour. In most cases you can add seconds to the output, and either milliseconds or microseconds. This does not imply that Cumulus calculates everything every microsecond, in fact many are only calculated once a minute, but the flexibility is there for time outputs.
Some web tags contain dates, or both dates and times, and for these there is flexibility (apart from those with fixed format, these might have ISO, or another format indicator, in their tag name) as to how the date is output. Thus you can choose to include or exclude the year; you can represent month in letters or numbers, and you can vary the order in which elements of the date are shown.
The characters used to represent year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, do differ between C1 and MX. In Cumulus 1 we are able to use "m" or "M" for two different meanings (minutes or month) depending on context. Similarly, in MX the same character sometimes has two different meanings depending on context, but this applies to lots of characters and the context is whether the character is used on its own or with other characters. '''Sounds confusing?''' Well it is complicated.
==== Explanation ====
*Cumulus MX (when running on Windows) uses the '''.NET''' software.
*If Cumulus MX is running on Linux or Mac OS X, or any other device that uses UNIX derived operating system, then it uses '''Mono''' software for same purposes. (MONO is a operating system independent version of .NET, although they are developed independently, they have common origins). Please see the [[Cumulus MX]] article for more details of their differences and what will change in November 2020.
*The date and time format characters in Mono (and .NET) software framework are not exactly the same as the '''Delphi''' software framework ones that Cumulus 1 uses.
*For Cumulus MX there are standard format codes (single characters) and custom format codes (combinations of characters, or single characters prefixed by %)
**The standard characters for dates and times are defined at [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/standard-date-and-time-format-strings standard-date-and-time-format-strings]
**The custom characters for dates and times are defined at [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/custom-date-and-time-format-strings custom-date-and-time-format-strings]
*In Cumulus MX the same character can have 4 different meanings depending on its case (capital letter or lower-case letter) and depending on whether it is on its own or not
**The case differences come about because Delphi is case-insensitive, while .NET and MONO are case sensitive. Consequently, .NET (and MONO) can use upper and lower case for different items, but Delphi has to use different letters, ignoring case, for each item.
==== When it causes problems ====
This can cause problems when somebody moves from using Cumulus 1 (C1) to using MX. They need to revisit any templates or scripts where they use output modifiers to specify a date and/or time format. We have already explored a very simple impact of this for [[Webtags#The_format_used_for_naming|NOAA report naming]]. There we were only concerned about how to represent a month.
For web tags it is much more complicated, simply because it is not just month we may be representing, and we might require only one specifier (being careful whether we use a standard or custom modifier) or we might want to specify a combination of modifiers (and we might want to add a space character or other literals). It is difficult to summarise, but here are some potential issues:
* the reserved characters are different in C1 and MX (affecting use of literals like "on" and "at" that appear in many English time-stamps)
* MX introduces the concept of escaping characters (a '''\''' placed before a character can be either a control sequence or an instruction to display the character)
* MX is inconsistent e.g. '''format=d''' gives a different result depending on the tag it is applied to (e.g. the script conditional ''''<#metdateyesterday format=d>' == '<#yesterday format=d)>'''' will never be equal as the LHS returns a full date and the right hand side returns day of month only)
* in MX space in some cases may need to be within the single quotes containing other literals (as in MX space can change the interpretation of a modifier character).
'''Confused even more now?''' I'm not surprised, but maybe some examples will help before we actually list the available modifiers.
==== Examples ====
*Examples related to case selection
*#[[File:badge v1.png]] In Delphi, "nn" means "minutes" for Cumulus 1, [[File:Badge vMx.png]]but "minutes" is "mm" for .NET or MONO in Cumulus MX.
*# The hour in 24-hour format with leading zero, in non case sensitive Delphi (Cumulus 1) 'HH' or 'hh' would be treated as same, but in .NET or MONO it must be "HH" (Cumulus MX).
*# The hour in 24-hour format without leading zero, in non case sensitive Delphi (Cumulus 1) 'H' or 'h' would be treated as same, but in .NET or MONO it must be "%H" (Cumulus MX).
*# For 12-hour specifiers, please see the table, as this is far more complicated.
*[[File:Badge vMx.png]]You might be put off by references within .NET and MONO (Cumulus MX) to single/standard characters and custom modifiers, the following 3 examples may add clarity:
*#For example, ''<#MonthTempHD format="d">'' is a single character format modifier, therefore the 'd' acts as a standard modifier, and causes for a date of 22 July 2014 for the highest temperature in the month to be returned in the standard short date format e.g. '22/07/2014' (exact contents for any one date vary by locale).
*#Similarly, ''<#MonthTempHD format="M">'' is a single character format modifier and therefore the 'M' acts as a standard modifier and causes the date for the highest temperature in the month to be returned in the standard day and month format e.g. '22 July' (exact contents for any one date vary by locale).
*#Whilst ''<#metdate format="d M">'' is not a single character format modifier and therefore both the 'd' and the 'M' are interpreted as custom modifiers and cause the current date to be returned as a digit(s) for the day and a digit(s) month (in a without leading zeroes format) e.g. '6 7' would be returned for 6 July.
*#Alternatively, ''<#MonthTempHD format="%d">'' is NOT a single character format modifier, therefore the 'd' acts as a custom modifier, and causes a date of 22 July 2014 for the highest temperature in the month to be returned as the day of the month only '22' in all locales.
*#Similarly, ''<#MonthTempHD format="%M">'' is NOT a single character format modifier and therefore the 'M' acts as a custom modifier and causes the same date for the highest temperature in the month to be returned as the month number '7'.
In both Cumulus 1 and MX if you want a space character within your output, the output specifiers must be enclosed in double quotes. If that space character is next to a non modifier (e.g. around word "at") then the single quote needing to surround the at should be widened to include the spaces in MX, but Cumulus 1 does not care if single quotes excluded spaces. However, with MX, single quotes enclose multiple characters, but there is an alternative way to deal with some single verbatim characters to cover next.
So let us compare these two alternative ways that MONO and .NET escape any characters that are not being used as format specifiers.
* In [[File:badge v1.png]]Delphi you can put the 'verbatim' characters inside single quotes (Cumulus 1); this is often used to (in English) include words like ' on ' and ' at ' in the formatted output.
*in [[File:Badge vMx.png]].NET or MONO you can still use single quotes (as mentioned above extended to include adjacent spaces),
** but alternatively you can escape each verbatim character with a backslash as prefix (Cumulus MX).
* You may need to use both single quotes and back slashes in some format specifiers, depending whether the characters you want to include can be interpreted as control characters (yes, backslash is also used to escape control characters, so backslash will NOT work for some characters such as those in "on" and "at" [\n will produce new line not the letter n, \t will produce a tab not the letter t]), consequently for some characters you must use the literal approach to include them in your format.
=== List of allowed modifiers for output format parameters ===
Note for Cumulus 1 - where lower (or upper, for easier comparison with MX) case shown, because Delphi is case insensitive, upper (or lower) case (in some cases, indicated by use of curved brackets) could be used instead (exceptions: a/p, ampm, am/pm, Am/Pm, AM/PM, A/P, AMPM etc display as input).
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Remember that most single character format specifiers have a different meaning to when the same letter appears in a multi-character format. The '''%''' shown in front of nearly every single character specifier in the table is not needed if that character is combined with other characters.
==== Forum reference ====
Steve Loft published a table showing comparison between output date modifiers for Cumulus 1 and MX at [https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=17888 Cumulus MX forum]. The table there was based on the table that was originally here for just Cumulus 1.
The subsequent comments in the forum suggested his layout got people confused. Most of that confusion came in two circumstances:
*When someone wanted to use one date or time modifier on its own
*When someone who had been using Cumulus 1 swapped to MX and wanted to replace a combination of output modifier characters
That all comes from the fact that when a MX modifier consists of a single character it can mean something different to when it appears with other characters. In Cumulus 1, "m" or "M" meant something different when it was combined with "H" or "h" (when it represented minutes), but in all other contexts it represented month. But for Cumulus 1, there is no other case where it matters what context a modifier is put in by the use of other modifiers, and no other modifier takes more than one meaning.
In MX it is much more complicated, to take a few examples "D", "H", "M" represent different items on their own to what they represent when combined with other characters. That other character can be as simple as a space or a "%" which modify the meaning of the character. So my modification of the table below is with the intention of demonstrating what characters mean when they are on their own and what they represent in the context of being with other characters. Looking at the table you can see "G" is used on its own because it represents a full date-time specifier. "D" is similarly used on its own represents the long date format. If we only want the day of month number we must use "%d" to avoid the meaning of short date format that "d" on its own represents. If we want the typical Cumulus date-stamp of day of month number and month "d M" and "M" will both work because "M" has a different meaning on its own and with another modifier.
==== My Revised Table of Time and Date Output Modifiers ====
In some rows of this table, square brackets [] indicate optional items, they are included just to make it clearer how items can be combined in a single output parameter.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!style="width:150px" | {{Version badge 1}}Delphi Specifier for Cumulus 1.9.x
!style="width:150px" | [[File:Badge vMx.png]]Mono/.NET Specifier for Cumulus MX
!style="width:600px" | Displays
!style="width:600px" | Example
|-
|c
|G (as single character format)
|Displays the date using the format given by the Short Date format, followed by the time using the format given by the Long Time format. The time is not displayed in Cumulus 1 if the date-time value indicates midnight precisely.
|'22/03/2019 09:47:25' produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#time format=c>[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#time format=G>
|-
|d
|%d
|Displays the day as a number without a leading zero (1-31). [[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note that Cumulus MX requires a ' ' (space), '%' or other modifier to be included, as 'd' on its own returns full 'short date').
|27 produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#metdate format="d">[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#metdate format="%d">
|-
|dd
|dd
|Displays the day as a number with a leading zero (01-31).
|07 produced by <#metdate format="dd">
|-
|ddd
|ddd
|Displays the day as an abbreviation (Sun-Sat) using the strings appropriate to the Locale.
|'Wed' produced by <#metdate format="ddd"> (English locale)
|-
|dddd
|dddd
|Displays the day as a full name (Sunday-Saturday) using the strings appropriate to the Locale.
|'Friday' produced by <#metdate format="dddd"> (English locale)
|-
|ddddd
|d (as single character format)
|{{Version badge 1}}Cumulus 1.x.y: Displays the date using the format given by the Short Date format. [[File:Badge vMx.png]]This MX parameter (when on its own) displays inconsistent behaviour as its effect depends on the tag name with which it is used (see examples).
|e.g. '22/03/2019' (British Locale) produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#metdate format=dddd>
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#metdateyesterday format=d> ''but not'' <#yesterday=d> which would return just '22'
|-
|dddddd
|D (as single character format)
|Displays the date using the format given by the Long Date format. [[File:Badge vMx.png]]The MX parameter cannot be combined with any other parameters.
|e.g. '22 March 2020' (British Locale)
|-
|M (or ''m'')
|%M
|Displays the month as a number without a leading zero (1-12).
*{{Version badge 1}}Cumulus 1.x.y:If the 'M' or 'm' specifier immediately follows an h, hh, HH, or H specifier, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
*[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Cumulus MX: Note that including a ' ' (space) or '%' before the M makes it a custom modifier e.g. '7' is returned for July as any initial zero is suppressed. ('M' on its own returns both Month and Day according to local format e.g. 22 July).
|2
|-
|MM (or ''mm'')
|MM
|Displays the month as a number with a leading zero (01-12).
*{{Version badge 1}}Cumulus 1.x.y:If the 'm' or 'M' specifier immediately follows an h, H, HH, or hh specifier, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
|'03' produced by <#LastDataReadT format=MM>
|-
|MMM (or ''mmm'')
|MMM
|Displays the month as an abbreviation (Jan-Dec) using the strings appropriate to the Locale.produced by <#metdate format="MM">
|'Jun' produced by <#metdate format="MMM"> (English locale)
|-
|MMMM (or ''mmmm'')
|MMMM
|Displays the month as a full name (January-December) using the strings appropriate to the Locale.
|'June' produced by <#metdate format="MMMM"> (English locale)
|-
|yy
|yy
|Displays the year as a two-digit number (00-99).
|19 produced by <#LastDataReadT format=yy>
|-
|yyyy
|yyyy
|Displays the year as a four-digit number (0000-9999).
|2019 produced by <#LastDataReadT format=yyyy>
|-
|h [''AM/PM'']
|%h [''tt'']
|Displays the hour (12 hour clock) without a leading zero (1-12) [optionally in combination with AM/PM]. What "tt" produces depends on locale settings for your device, it might be capitals or it might be lower case (in Windows use Control Panel, not Settings app, to get to these regional additional settings).
{{Version badge 1}}For Cumulus 1 the formats for am/pm depend on the case in which you type the parameter as shown later in this table
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note that including a ' ' (space) or '%' before the "h" makes it a custom modifier, that is not needed if the " tt" follows, as multiple parameters are always custom modifiers
|-
|h:mm (or ''h:nn'') [''AM/PM'']
|h:mm [''tt'']
|Displays the hour (12 hour clock) without a leading zero (1-12) followed by 2 digit minutes [optionally in combination with AM/PM whose case varies as explained in previous entry].
{{Version badge 1}}For Cumulus 1, the minutes can be represented by 'mm' only when appearing in combination with 'h'
|'10:27 am' produced by {{Version badge 1}} <#LastDataReadT format="h:nn am/pm">[[File:Badge vMx.png]] <#LastDataReadT format="h:mm tt">
|-
|H (or ''H'')
|%H
|Displays the hour using 24 hour clock without a leading zero (0-23). [[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note that including a ' ' (space) or '%' before the "H" makes it a custom modifier, needed because H is on its own.
|7 produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#daylength format=H>
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#daylength format=%H>
|-
|H:mm (or ''H:nn'')
|H:mm
|Displays the hour using 24 hour clock without a leading zero (0-23) followed by 2 digit minutes. [[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note that %, of previous example, is not needed when H is not on its own.
|'7:27' produced by <#LastDataReadT format="H:mm">
|-
|HH (or ''hh'')
|HH
|Displays the hour using 24 hour clock with a leading zero (00-23).
|'06' or 19 produced by <#LastDataReadT format=HH>
|-
|hh (''am/pm'')
|hh [''tt'']
|Displays the hour (12 hour clock) with a leading zero (01-12) [optionally in combination with am/pm].
{{Version badge 1}}For Cumulus 1 the case output for the optional 'am/pm' depends on the case used for that parameter as shown later in this table
[[File:Badge vMx.png]] For MX, the optional 'tt' displays the contents of the device locale setting for AM string for midnight until any hour before noon, and the contents of the PM string for noon or any hour after noon before midnight
|'07 am' produced by {{Version badge 1}} <#LastDataReadT format="hh am/pm">[[File:Badge vMx.png]] <#LastDataReadT format="hh tt">
|-
|hh:mm (or ''hh:nn'' or 'HH:NN') [''am/pm'']
|hh:mm [''tt'']
|Displays the hour (12 hour clock) with a leading zero (01-12) followed by 2 digit minutes [optionally in combination with am/pm].
{{Version badge 1}}For Cumulus 1, the minutes can be represented by 'mm' only when in combination with 'h', in other contexts 'mm' is interpreted as month number, and the case output for am/pm depends on the case used for that parameter as shown later in this table. As Cumulus 1 is case insensitive there are variants with capital letters available.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]] For MX, the optional 'tt' displays the contents of the device locale setting for AM string for midnight until any hour before noon, and the contents of the PM string for noon or any hour after noon before midnight
|'8:27 am' produced by {{Version badge 1}} <#LastDataReadT format="h:nn am/pm">[[File:Badge vMx.png]] <#LastDataReadT format="h:mm tt">
|-
|n
|%m
|Displays the minute without a leading zero (0-59). [[File:Badge vMx.png]] As other examples show, the % is only needed when "m" is on its own.
|7 produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#daylength format=n>[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#daylength format=m>
|-
|nn
|mm
|Displays the minute with a leading zero (00-59).
|'07' produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#daylength format=nn>[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#daylength format=mm>
|-
|s
|%s
|Displays the second without a leading zero (0-59). [[File:Badge vMx.png]] As other examples show, the % is recommended when "s" is on its own, although I have not found any alternative meaning for "s" on its own.
| 9
|-
|ss
|ss
|Displays the second with a leading zero (00-59).
|'06' or 19 produced by <#LastDataReadT format=ss>
|-
|z
|FFF
|Displays the millisecond without a leading zero (Cumulus 1: displays 0-999, Cumulus MX: displays either nothing, or displays 1-999, so don't write any code that assumes the MX output is numeric).
Note that the system clock in non-current versions of Windows only has precision to 15 ms, so don't use this modifier if your Cumulus is running on an old version of Windows.
|
|-
|(not available)
|ff (or ''f'')
|Displays hundredths of a second (or tenths) with leading zero(s)
|
|-
|zzz
|fff
|Displays the millisecond with a leading zero (000-999). Note that the system clock in some versions of Windows only has precision to 15 ms, so requesting thousandths of a second may not return anything useful.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]The 'fff' modifier in MX can actually be extended to 'ffffff' for output to a millionth of a second!
| 09:47:25.000' produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#time format=hh:nn:ss.zzz>[[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#time format=hh:mm:ss.fff>
|-
|(not available)
| zzz
|Displays the offset of any time from UTC in hours and minutes
| e.g.-07:00
|-
|(not available)
|%K
|Effectively another way of including time zone as per zzz example, but it can only be used for times not in UTC (if I understand correctly)
|
|-
|t
|%t
|Displays the time using the Short Time format. [[File:Badge vMx.png]]Remember that 't' combined with other specifiers (or preceded by space or '%') has a different meaning - see below.
| '09:47' produced by <#LastDataReadT format=t> (might not use colon in your locale) for both flavours of Cumulus
|-
|TT
|T (as single character format)
|Displays the time using the Long Time format. [[File:Badge vMx.png]] Note that this is a full time specifier and "T" is on its own as we are using a single character format.
|'09:47:56' (might not use colon in your locale) produced by {{Version badge 1}}<#LastDataReadT format=TT> [[File:Badge vMx.png]]<#LastDataReadT format=T>
|-
|am/pm or Am/Pm or AM/PM
|tt
|{{Version badge 1}}Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or H specifier, and displays 'am' for any hour from midnight until just before noon, and 'pm' for any hour from noon onwards. The am/pm specifier for Cumulus 1 can use lower, upper, or mixed case, and the result is displayed accordingly.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]] For MX, 'tt' displays the contents of the device locale setting for AM string for midnight until any hour before noon, and the contents of the PM string for noon or any hour after noon before midnight, so whether it displays in capitals or lower case is determined by the locale settings, not the case of "tt".
| {Version badge 1}} 'am' produced by <#LastDataReadT format=am/pm>, 'AM' produced by <#LastDataReadT format=AM/PM>
|-
|h a/p
|h t
|Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or H specifier, and displays 'a' for any hour from midnight until before noon, and 'p' for noon or any hour after noon.
{{Version badge 1} The a/p specifier can use lower, upper, or mixed case, and the result is displayed accordingly.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]whether it displays the "a" or "p" in capitals or lower case is determined by the locale settings, not the case of "t".
| see previous example
|-
|ampm
|(see above for 12 hour formats)
|This displays the contents of the device locale setting for AM string for midnight until any hour before noon, and the contents of the PM string for noon or any hour after noon before midnight.
{{Version badge 1}Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or H specifier
| see previous examples
|-
|/
|/
|Displays the date separator character given by the Date Separator. It might not display a slash.
| '/' for typical British locale
|-
|:
|:
|Displays the time separator character given by the Time Separator. With Cumulus 1, this might not display a colon.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note that by default Cumulus MX expects a locale to use ":" for any time separator.
|':' for British locale
|-
|'xy'
|'xy' or ''\x\y''
|Characters enclosed in single quotation marks are displayed as such, and do not affect formatting.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]In MX each character to be displayed as it was typed can be prefixed by a backslash. Also remember that any spaces in a MX modifier might need to be within single quotes as space is also used to change what a modifier represents. I told you MX modifiers were more complicated!
|Hyphens are added in this PHP language example '<#LastDataReadT format=yyyy>'.'-'.'<#LastDataReadT format=MM>'.'-'.'<#LastDataReadT format="dd">'
|}
==== Using HTML tags within format parameters (available in MX only) ====
'''Example using a class to change the look of part of the output'''
<pre><#TapptempH format="dd' 'MMM' 'yyyy'<span class=\'xx\'> at 'HH:mm'</span>'"></pre>
the output from this will look like ''04 Dec 2018<span class='xx'> at 10:12</span>''
'''Note where the quotes are, and where you need to use '\' escape characters'''.
'''Example using HTML tags'''
<pre><#RecentTS d=2 format="h:mm' 'tt'<small>on' d/M/yyyy'</small>'"></pre>
This puts the date in a smaller font than the time
=== Output (format modifier) parameters for decimal places ===
Cumulus 1 allows use of <tt>dp=n</tt> modifier (where n represents desired number of decimal places for latitude and longitude e.g. <#latitude dp=5> gives "59.24250". This is also available in MX.
MX makes much more usage of these '''dp''' parameters. For example in the moon tags <#MoonAge> gives "11" but <#MoonAge dp=3> gives "11.234"
*<tt>dp=i</tt> is used for both Cumulus 1 and MX. The value '''i''' following the attribute '''dp''' is an integer, how many decimal places you want for the output you see. Only available for a limited range of web tags (latitude and longitude, plus in MX <#MoonPercent> and <#MoonPercentAbs>).
*<tt>tc=y</tt> is a new parameter only in MX, the attribute '''tc''' takes the value 'y' to remove decimal places by truncation instead of using <tt>dp=0</tt> which would round to nearest integer. e.g. <#MoonAge tc=y>. At present not available in any other web tags.
=== Output (format modifier) indicating remove commas ===
"rc=y" is a '''new parameter for MX''', the attribute '''rc''' takes the value 'y' to replace any commas defined by the locale with full stops to separate integer and decimal parts of the output value. It was initially only implemented on a few new web tags (#MoonPercent, #MoonPercentAbs, #MoonAge) for MX versions up to and including 3.5.3. From version 3.6.6 only can all web tags that can output real numbers can now use alternative syntax of <tt><#tag_name rc=y></tt> to replace all commas in the output by a full stop (don't worry, MX does not use a comma for separating off thousands, so it is the decimal comma that becomes a decimal full stop like character when this remove comma specifier is used.
Why would you want to remove decimal commas? Well because the JavaScript language cannot understand decimal commas, and MX has several scripts written in this language, equally some third party alternative web pages rely on ajax to update them (and Ajax uses JavaScript).
== Additional text in output format parameters ==
You should put anything that is additional, to the defined format modifier specification below, into single quotation marks to prevent it being interpreted as a date or time format modifier:
#For example, the word "on" contains the character "n", which for Cumulus versions 1.9.1 to 1.9.4 will be interpreted as a time format modifier unless you put it into single quotation marks. Example of valid Cumulus 1 syntax: <#TtempH format="'at' hh: mm 'on' dd / mm / yyyy">.
#You can include HTML tags (but they cannot have any attributes because both single and double quote characters have defined meanings) and special characters as quoted text within the 'format' parameter.<br> Example of valid syntax: <#TapptempH format="'at 'h:nn' 'am/pm '<small>on' d/m/yyyy'</small>'">.
{{Version badge 1}}'''Note for Cumulus 1 - if your format has any spaces in it''', you must enclose the whole format parameter value in double quotes, for example (Cumulus 1.9.x): <#YearTempHT format="hh nn">. Consequently, you cannot include double quote characters in any other position (see [[Php_webtags#Web_tag_Complications| here for work-around]]).
[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Note for MX - you can use single quotation marks round spaces and text (e.g. ' on '), but you can also use '\' as escape character (e.g. for 'on' use '''\o\n'''). However for 'at' the only alternative is '''\a't'''' because the character t has another meaning and escape followed by a "t" i.e. "\t" becomes a tab!
=The Web Tags for Cumulus =
Here follow tables indicating what web tags are available to be used, tables group them by the basic purpose of the tags listed.
These are available in both Cumulus 1 and MX unless indicated by a version 1 or MX badge.
Here follow tables indicating what web tags/tokens can be used, tables group the web tags available by the basic purpose of the tags listed.
== System ==
|-
!style="width:150px" |Web tag_name
!style="width:150px" |Applicability
!style="width:600px" |Function
|-
|<#OsVersion>
|up to 1.9.4, and MX
|OS version, e.g. "Windows 7 x64 build 7600"
Please note this may not return the information you expect!
|-
|<#OsLanguage>
|Both leagacy and MX
|OS language, e.g. "English"
|-
|<#SystemUpTime>
|{{Version badge 1}}How long the system has been up, e.g. "8 hours 21 minutes" (not available on MX)
|How long the system has been up, e.g. "8 hours 21 minutes"
|-
|<#ProgramUpTime>
|all releases
|How long Cumulus has been running, e.g. "7 hours 55 minutes"
|-
|<#CpuName>
|{{Version badge 1}}CPU type, e.g. "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz" (not available on MX)
|CPU type, e.g. "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz"
|-
|<#CpuCount>
|{{Version badge 1}}(not available on MX)
|Number of processors, e.g. "4"
|-
|<#MemoryStatus>
|{{Version badge 1}}Free and total system RAM, e.g. "4619/8191 MB (free/total)" (not available on MX)
|Free and total system RAM, e.g. "4619/8191 MB (free/total)"
|-
|<#DisplayMode>
|{{Version badge 1}}Screen display mode, e.g. "1680x1050, 32 bit" (not available on MX)
|Screen display mode, e.g. "1680x1050, 32 bit"
|-
|<#AllocatedMemory>
|{{Version badge 1}}Amount of memory allocated to Cumulus, e.g. "18.76 MB" (not available on MX)
|Amount of memory allocated to Cumulus, e.g. "18.76 MB"
|-
|<#DiskSize>
|{{Version badge 1}}Size of disk on which Cumulus is running, e.g. "931.51 GB" (not available on MX)
|Size of disk on which Cumulus is running, e.g. "931.51 GB"
|-
|<#DiskFree>
|{{Version badge 1}}Free space on disk on which Cumulus is running, e.g. "515.36 GB" (not available on MX)
|Free space on disk on which Cumulus is running, e.g. "515.36 GB"
|}
== Miscellaneous ==
All tags are available in all flavours, as far as I know, although ''their output might vary'', and which input/output parameters they permit might vary between Cumulus 1 and MX.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
|<#realtimeinterval>
|The realtimereal time update interval in seconds (integer)
|-
|<#interval>
|-
|<#rollovertime>
|The time that the logs rollover to the next day: will always return one of these: 'Midnight', '9 am' or '10 am'
This is the end of the meteorological day, so if during Daylight Saving Time itrolover is at "10 am", then on the day DST ends it will return to "9 am" ensuring every meteorological day is exactly 24 hours long. If the time is "Midnight" (or during DST it is "9 am"), then days will be 23 or 25 hours long just on day clocks change, 24 hours otherwise.
|-
|<#update>
|The date and time of the last web site update. The default format of the output depends on your locale settings.
|-
|<#LastDataReadT>
|The date/time data was last read from the station. The default format of the output depends on your locale settings.
|-
|<#stationtype>
|-
|<#altitude>
|The station [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude altitude] value (webtagweb tag outputs web encoded format containing figure, '&nbsp;' and units) in either feet or metres just as you entered during setup (so it is more complex to extract number for script arithmetricarithmetic); e.g. '123&nbsp;m'
|-
|<#location>
|<#forum>
|URL of the forum (as you entered during setup)
For Cumulus 1, this defaults to a Sandaysoft URL that is no longer available, for MX this defaults to the current support forum (web server site hosted by "Freddie" web server site)
|-
|<#webcam>
==Date & Time==
Both Cumulus 1 and MX support all of these, except where marked as MX only, most of these web tags can be used with output parameters.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
|-
|<#date>
|The current date - format depends on locale you use to run Cumulus
|-
|<#metdate>
|The current meteorological date. The default format depends on the locale you use to run Cumulus
*If you use midnight rollover, this returns same date as <#date> (above), but with a different default format.
*If using a 9am/10am rollover:
**After rollover time on current calendar date, this is same as <#date>, but with a different default format.
**Between midnight and 9am/10am the <#metdate> will return the date associated with previous calendar day, but will still return current time
{{Version badge 1}}Can be used with relevant format parameters to [[Customised templates|customise]] '''todayT.htm''' template page to display current meteorological day, to customise '''thismonthT.htm''' template page to display meteorological month, and to customise '''thisyearT.htm''' template page to display correct meteorological year. This will be particularly useful on first and last day of month/year when rollover happens at 9 (or 10) a.m. and the month (and maybe year) is different before and after rollover.
[[File:Badge vMx.png]] Earlier MX releases provide a similar web template set, so these can be customised in same way as for legacy Cumulus above (but note capital "M" must be used for any month formatting). From release 3.10.1 the supplied web pages are web server based, there are no web templates to customise, and the supplied '''.json files''' do not include any meteorological date functionality.
|-
|<#timeUTC>
|The current UTC date/time rather than local date/time. Example result (actual format depends on locale settings): 18:30 on 30 December 2009. If you want the local date and time, use next tag (below).
|-
|<#time>
|The current time and date. Example result (actual format depends on locale settings): 18:30 on 30 December 2009. If you simply wish the time, use next tag (below).
|-
|<#timehhmmss>
|The current time (without date). Example format: 18:30:27. You can use output format specifiers to change the way the time is output, but any date specifiers are ignored.
|-
|<#timeUTC>
|The current UTC date/time rather than local date/time
|-
|<#minute>
|-
|<#dayname>
| The current day as a word. For example, Monday (actual format depends on locale settings)
|-
|<#shortdayname>
|The current year as a 2-digit number. Example format: 09
|-
|<#metdaterollovertime>
|The time that the logs rollover to the next day: 'Midnight', '9 am' or '10 am'
|The current meteorological date. After rollover time on current calendar date, this date will be the same as the current date. If using a 9am/10am rollover, then between midnight and 9am/10am the <#metdate> will be the previous calendar day.
PHP code example for testing whether before or after rollover given in next entry.
Can be used with relevant format parameters to indicate current meteorological day on todayT.htm template page, meteorological month on thismonthT.htm template page, or meteorological year on thisyearT.htm template page
|-
|<#metdateyesterday>
|The previous meteorological date. If usingThe adefault 9am/10amformat rollover,depends then between midnight and 9am/10amon the <#metdateyesterday> will be the calendar day before that returned by <#yesterday>,locale otherwiseyou bothuse returnto same.run Cumulus
*If you use midnight rollover, this returns same date as <#date>, but with a different default format.
*If using a 9am/10am rollover:
**After rollover time on current calendar date, this is same as <#yesterday> (below), but with a different default format.
**Between midnight and 9am/10am the date output by <#metdateyesterday> will be the calendar day before that returned by <#yesterday>, but the time returned is actual local time.
Can be used with relevant format parameters to indicate correct day on yesterdayT.htm template page, and can be used to return latest day stored on [[dayfile.txt]] and NOAA report for latest month.
if you use PHP Hypertext preprocessor, you can output different text for before and after rollover, e.g.
<pre><?php
if('<#yesterday format=dddd>' == '<#metdateyesterday format=dddd>') echo '(calendar date and meteorological date same)';
else echo 'rollover still to happen, these results will be treated as belonging to <#metdate format=dddd>';?></pre>
|-
|<#yesterday>
|Yesterday's date. The default format depends on the locale you use to run Cumulus
|Yesterdays date
|-
|<#rollovertime>
|The time that the logs rollover to the next day: 'Midnight', '9 am' or '10 am'
|-
|<#update>
|The date and time of the last web site update. The default format depends on the locale you use to run Cumulus
|-
|<#timeJavaScript>
==Recent History==
There are a set of web tags for 'recent historical data', based on an array stored by Cumulus giving data values from 1 minute ago, up to 1 week ago, in 1 minute intervals. As Cumulus runs it will add the latest values to the array with full resolution, and shift existing values along so those older than 7 days fall off. Following the table giving the tags actually available, there is a section on how to derive a few more tags.
*The input modification parameters available are listed at [[Webtags/Parameters#Input Modification Parameters for Recent History]].
**To save you looking up the details, these input parameters specify how many minutes ago is required. Instead of entering a very large number for minutes, you can include separate input parameters for days, hours, and minutes, ago.
**Examples appear in the table below, with explanations
Following the table giving the tag names actually available, there is a section on how to derive a few more weather derivatives using a combination of the tag names shown.
(Note that Cumulus uses current time read from the computer to determine which array element it stores each value in. Hence ''when clocks go back'' the value stored for winter time overwrites the value previously stored for same time during summer time for the relevant repeating hour. Hence even if you use 10am for your rollover time in summer, you will not have access to a whole hour worth of data when the clocks change as either the hour has been overwritten or ''when the clocks go forward'' it simply does not exist).
[[#No_Commas]] versions of the array are available for use in script.
===Warning when Daylight Saving Time starts or ends===
=== Input Parameters ===
Note that Cumulus uses current time, read from the computer, to determine which array element it stores each value in.
You specify which value you want from the array by using parameters on the web tags for number of days ago, hours ago, and minutes ago. The same d, h, and m, parameters are used by Cumulus 1 and MX.
Hence ''when clocks go back'' the value stored for winter time overwrites the value previously stored for same time during summer time for the relevant repeating hour.
All values supplied for parameters must be whole numbers.
Hence even if you use 10am for your rollover time in summer, you will not have access to a whole hour worth of data when the clocks change
If you don't supply any parameters, the result is undefined for Cumulus 1, and an illegal web tag for MX.
* ''when the clocks go back'', one hour has been overwritten; or
* ''when the clocks go forward'', one hour in the array simply does not exist.
=== Table of Recent History web tags available ===
<#RecentOutsideTemp m=1> will give the temperature one minute ago, <#RecentOutsideTemp h=1> will give the temperature one hour ago (as will <#RecentOutsideTemp m=60>).
<#RecentOutsideTemp d=1> will give the temperature one day ago. '''Please note:''' Some Cumulus users say that using <#RecentOutsideTemp d=1 m=1> is more reliable at getting the temperature at a similar time the day before, the extra minute apparently gives better results when you might not be using Cumulus all the time, or your weather station might have some drift on when it supplies readings. See which works best for you.
[[#No_Commas]] versions of the array are available for use in script. If you use MX, the tag names in this table can take a [[Webtags/Parameters#Output Modification Parameter for Removing Commas|rc=y]] parameter.
<#RecentOutsideTemp d=1 h=1 m=1> will give the temperature one day, one hour and one minute ago.
'''Please note that parameters specify time-stamped array element to retrieve based on counting back from current local time''' so the result for ''any period including when clocks change'' may not be quite what you anticipated.
=== During catch-up ===
When Cumulus is re-started the array it sets up will be based on reading the logs, so the contents will initially have a resolution according to the logger interval you have set in Cumulus and/or your station. You'll get the nearest value if you ask for a time for which there is currently no exact match, and the first tag listed tells you that nearest time.
=== Variations between Builds/Versions ===
Before build 1098, the recent history array did not initialise correctly from the station logger for the period since Cumulus was last run.
The input parameters are same for Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX, they always use lower case d, h or m.
The list of tags available has not changed between last Cumulus 1 release and any MX release. Any new derivatives reported elsewhere have not resulted in equivalent new recent history tags.
=== Table of Recent History web tags available ===
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
# aligned with calendar days.
For MX users who choose options 1, and 2, with the MX default for snow depth, there is a mismatch between the times for the web tags in the two tables below. The mismatch will also cause problems inif you use any End of Day actions, such as using web tags for either a [[MX_Administrative_Interface#Another_daily_summary_table|custom database table update]], or for [[Cumulus.ini#MQTT|MQTT messages]]. For the original Cumulus 1 software, only one web tag is available, but by default this has a mismatch if you use midnight-midnight days; this was intentional as Steve Loft assumed you would record the snow depth at 9 a.m. rather than midnight even if your rollover is at midnight!
OneAn alternative approach is to use a script to read the [[Weather Diary]], so you know that your output is for the right day.
This first table lists all the web tags available for reporting what is recorded in the weather diary. Just to be clear, the web tags shown below, will report data for previous day if the current time is before the snow depth hour setting, and report data for the current day if the current time matches the snow depth hour or is later.
|n/a
|}
== No Commas ==
Note that Cumulus does not use thousand separators, so the only places a comma can be used are as a field separator or as a decimal separator. Obviously it cannot be used for both. This section is for those locales where a comma is used instead of a full stop to separate the integer and decimal parts of a number. Some computer languages like JavaScript will not accept a comma being used for this purpose, and Cumulus uses JavaScript for various tasks, as do various third party web pages. From '''version 1.9.3''' build 1045, Cumulus 1 (and MX) has provided some current conditions web tags, some today web tags, and some recent history web tags in an alternative format where (regardless of locale) the number is always output in a format that uses a decimal point. They all correspond to the same tag with 'RC' removed.
'''CURRENT CONDITIONS: '''
<#RCtemp>, <#RCdew>, <#RCheatindex>, <#RChum>, <#RCinhum>, <#RCintemp>, <#RCpress>, <#RCrfall>, <#RCrrate>, <#RCwchill>, <#RCwgust>, <#RCwspeed>, <#RCwlatest>
'''TODAY'''
<#RCpressTH>, <#RCpressTL>, <#RCrrateTM>, <#RCtempTH>, <#RCtempTL>, <#RCwgustTM>, <#RCdewpointTH>, <#RCdewpointTL>, <#RCwchillTL>, <#RCheatindexTH>, <#RCapptempTH>, <#RCapptempTL>
'''RECENT HISTORY'''
<#RCRecentOutsideTemp>, <#RCRecentWindSpeed>, <#RCRecentWindGust>, <#RCRecentWindLatest>, <#RCRecentWindChill>, <#RCRecentDewPoint>, <#RCRecentHeatIndex>, <#RCRecentPressure>, <#RCRecentRainToday>, <#RCRecentUV>
Although 'Apparent Temperature' is not included as a tag, it can be [[FAQ#What_formula_does_Cumulus_use_for_Apparent_Temperature.3F | calculated]] in a script from the RC tags for 'outside temperature', 'wind speed', and 'relative humidity' values. In php language this is <tt>$RCapptempCALC = round(<#temp> + (0.33 * (<#hum> / 100 * 6.105 * exp (17.27 * <#temp> / (237.7 + <#temp>) ))) - (0.7 * $wspeed) - 4.0, 2);</tt>.
There are other derivatives that can be calculated similarly from a set of simultaneous values, as described below the recent history section.
From '''version 3.5.4''' build 3075, all web tags (except indoor temperature <#intemp> where rc parameter not available until version 3.6.8 build 3084), that produce decimal number output now support the "'''rc=y'''" option. e.g. <tt><#tempYH rc=y></tt> will report yesterday's highest temperature using a full stop to separate decimal part where the locale would normally use a comma.
==Yesterday==
Note that the Y indicating yesterday is sometimes a prefix, sometimes a suffix (with H for High, L for Low), web tags are not named consistently!
Many of these web tags are used on the supplied '''yesterdayT.htm''' template, and the supplied '''todayyest.html''' page within the MX admin interface.
If you are using MX, the today and yesterday page in the [[MX_Administrative_Interface]] shows similar information by using the [[Cumulus_MX_Local_API#Today.2FYesterday_Data|local application programming interface]].
For web tags that refer to a particular time of day, there is a corresponding web tag that can give the time of day. Please note none of the time web tags can be modified by output parameters to give a date, but they can be changed from the default time format that is 'h:mm'.
==Monthly==
This table shows the web tags used on the '''thismonthT.htm''' web page,and the '''records.html''' page (accessed by penultimate tab) in the admin interfacetemplate.
Because the rainfall this month does not appear on '''thismonthT.htm''' web page, it is shown in [[#Current_Conditions|indexT.htm]] table earlier in this article which is for the web page where it does appear.
==Yearly==
This table shows the web tags used on the "thisyearT.htm" web page, and the '''records.html''' page (accessed by final tab) in the admin interface.
This table shows most of the web tags used on the "thisyearT.htm" web template.
Because the rainfall this year does not appear on '''thisyearT.htm''' web page, it is shown in [[#Current_Conditions|indexT.htm]] table earlier in this article which is for the web page where it does appear.
The web tags in the date column output dates in the format "dd MMMM" (for once this is same for Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX). Should you require a different output format, this can be changed using the [[#Time.2FDate_.27format.27_Parameter|format parameters]] described above. For web tags that represent daily values, there are (obviously) no corresponding time web tags, but for high and low spot values the default 'h:mm' format of the time output can be changed using output parameters. Do make sure that you get the web tag names right and the output form at parameters right.
As another example of inconsistency in how web tags added in different versions are coded, there are two web tags (highest minimum/lowest maximum temperatures) where a standard web tag is not provided by Cumulus (1 or MX) for the associated time-stamp. Consequently, for these 2 (and their corresponding tags in the this month group), there are mandatory output parameters required as shown in the table. Obviously Cumulus 1 lets you use "NN", "nn", "MM", or "mm" for the minutes, but minutes can only be represented in one way in Cumulus MX.
Remember that the Year-to-date runs from roll-over time on 1 January for all web tags listed here. Although, some web tags represent seasonal derivatives, i.e. where you define the month from which they start counting, this does not apply to any listed in this group.
The list below does NOT include any web tags that represent seasonal derivatives, i.e. where you define the month from which they start counting. (Cumulative seasonal Chill Hours <#chillhours> and Total seasonal rainfall <#ryear> can both be found in [[Webtags#Current_Conditions|Current Conditions]]). Note, that does not imply both are included in '''indexT.htm'''.
==All Time==
This table lists the web tags that appear in the '''recordsT.htm''' example template that is included in each release since version 1.5.1 10th January 2006. Additional tags correctly populated from 3.6.10 (build 3086) or 3.7.0 (build 3089) are marked with a "MX" icon as they are not available in Cumulus 1. Please note the 3.6.10 release was available from 24 June 2020, if the date shown for those MX only tags is before when you installed that (or a later release), the output may show incorrect values.
The web tags in the date/time column have the default format as seen on "records.htm" in the standard web pages.
These are also available in the admin interface on "records.html" where they appear in the first tab, although the format used there is different and not able to be edited (any time is shown after the date).
The output from the web tags shown in the date/time column have the default format that is seen on "records.htm" in the standard web pages:
*The default format for an extreme month is to show the month name in full i.e. format 'MMMM' followed by the year in full.
*For an extreme day it shows the day of the month and the month name in full i.e. format "dd MMMM" (same for Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX), prefixed with the word 'on' again ending with the year.
*For the highest/lowest within a day in the year it shows both time and date adding the word "at" before the time, and the word 'on' before the date (i.e. on the standard web page the time comes first, not as seen in admin interface).
You can change the default output on either the standard web template, or in your own file, by using the [[#Time.2FDate_.27format.27_Parameter|formats]] features described above, but this can involve complicated use of single and double quotes and there are differences between Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX. Please see examples section above for advice.
Note that unlike the this month and this year web tags, the time and the date are both included in the default format of the standard time-stamp web tags for the 'highest minimum' and 'lowest maximum' temperatures, yet another inconsistency!
==Monthly All Time Records==
This table includes web tags that show the values in [[Monthlyalltime.ini]] log file, which was introduced in version 1.9.3 (build 1033, 10 Apr 2012).
There are a set of tags for monthly all-time highs and lows, in other words the highest and lowest values for a particular month of the year. To supply both optional input, and optional output parameters, separate them with spaces, e.g. <#ByMonthTempHT mon=7 format=hh:nn>. In that example, the highest ever temperature in July is returned in the value after processing by Cumulus.
Each Monthly All Time Records web tag has an optional input parameter "mon=N" where N is the index of the month of the year that you want the value for (January=1 and so on). The corresponding date/time web tags are formatted like the all time records directly above this section. You can customise the date and time formats using the output 'format' parameter on the web tag.
These are a set of tags for monthly all-time highs and lows, in other words the highest and lowest values for a particular month of the year. To supply both optional input modification, and optional output modification parameters, separate them with spaces, e.g. <#ByMonthTempHT mon=7 format=hh:nn>. In that example, the highest ever temperature in July is returned in the value after processing by Cumulus.
If you don't supply an input parameter (or supply an invalid value like zero) the current month will be used. This is useful if you want to write a template that will always supply values for the current month and don't want to use a script to enter the correct input parameter by processing with that script before Cumulus processes the template.
For full details of the input modification parameters, see [[Webtags/Parameters#Input_modification_Parameters|Parameters]] page.
Additional tags correctly populated from 3.6.10 (build 3086) or 3.7.0 (build 3089) are marked with a "MX" icon as they are not available in Cumulus 1. Please note the 3.6.10 release was available from 24 June 2020, if the date/time shown for those MX only tags is before when you installed that (or a later release), the feels like output may show incorrect values.
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeH>
|[[File:Badge vMx.png]]High Feels Like Temperature (available from 3.6.10)
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeHT>
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeTempHT>
|-
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeL>
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeTempL>
|[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Low Feels Like Temperature (available from 3.6.10)
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeLT>
|<#ByMonthFeelsLikeTempLT>
|-
|<#ByMonthHumidexH>
0 if contact has been established
|}
=== No Commas ===
Note that Cumulus does not use thousand separators, so the only places a comma can be used are as a field separator or as a decimal separator. Obviously it cannot be used for both. This section is for those locales where a comma is used instead of a full stop to separate the integer and decimal parts of a number. Some computer languages like JavaScript will not accept a comma being used for this purpose, and Cumulus uses JavaScript for various tasks, as do various third party web pages. From '''version 1.9.3''' build 1045, Cumulus 1 (and MX) has provided some current conditions web tags, some today web tags, and some recent history web tags in an alternative format where (regardless of locale) the number is always output in a format that uses a decimal point. They all correspond to the same tag with 'RC' removed.
'''CURRENT CONDITIONS: '''
<#RCtemp>, <#RCdew>, <#RCheatindex>, <#RChum>, <#RCinhum>, <#RCintemp>, <#RCpress>, <#RCrfall>, <#RCrrate>, <#RCwchill>, <#RCwgust>, <#RCwspeed>, <#RCwlatest>
'''TODAY'''
<#RCpressTH>, <#RCpressTL>, <#RCrrateTM>, <#RCtempTH>, <#RCtempTL>, <#RCwgustTM>, <#RCdewpointTH>, <#RCdewpointTL>, <#RCwchillTL>, <#RCheatindexTH>, <#RCapptempTH>, <#RCapptempTL>
'''RECENT HISTORY'''
<#RCRecentOutsideTemp>, <#RCRecentWindSpeed>, <#RCRecentWindGust>, <#RCRecentWindLatest>, <#RCRecentWindChill>, <#RCRecentDewPoint>, <#RCRecentHeatIndex>, <#RCRecentPressure>, <#RCRecentRainToday>, <#RCRecentUV>
Although 'Apparent Temperature' is not included as a tag, it can be [[FAQ#What_formula_does_Cumulus_use_for_Apparent_Temperature.3F | calculated]] in a script from the RC tags for 'outside temperature', 'wind speed', and 'relative humidity' values. In php language this is <tt>$RCapptempCALC = round(<#temp> + (0.33 * (<#hum> / 100 * 6.105 * exp (17.27 * <#temp> / (237.7 + <#temp>) ))) - (0.7 * $wspeed) - 4.0, 2);</tt>.
There are other derivatives that can be calculated similarly from a set of simultaneous values, as described below the recent history section.
From '''version 3.5.4''' build 3075, all web tags (except indoor temperature <#intemp> where rc parameter not available until version 3.6.8 build 3084), that produce decimal number output now support the "'''rc=y'''" option. e.g. <tt><#tempYH rc=y></tt> will report yesterday's highest temperature using a full stop to separate decimal part where the locale would normally use a comma.
=Example of '''List Web Tags''' output for MX=
|