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Category:Cumulus MX: Difference between revisions
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= Introduction = | = Introduction = | ||
This article was originally created by Mark Crossley, moving what Steve Loft (the original developer) had written in posts in the Cumulus Support Forum, because when Steve Loft agreed that Ken True could take over hosting of this Wiki, it was unclear whether the forum would be shut down when Steve Loft stopped hosting it. | |||
The article was then expanded adding in material from support forum posts by other people. | |||
To keep this article comprehensive, but not huge, large sections of what was i this article have been moved out to separate articles that have links within this article. | |||
<big>'''Cumulus MX is still being developed, new releases come too frequently for articles such as this to be maintained. This is a plea for more to contribute, ensuring this Wiki gives correct information regardless of which version any user has installed.'''</big> | |||
== Especially for those used to Cumulus 1== | |||
If you have been using Cumulus 1, and now wonder whether to try using MX, be aware that: | If you have been using Cumulus 1, and now wonder whether to try using MX, be aware that: | ||
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== This article == | == This article == | ||
<big>'''AN APPEAL''' - please will someone take over maintenance of articles such as this one on the Wiki, ensuring it continues to be relevant regardless of whether the reader is using an old version or the latest build. There were so many releases in 2020, the first person revising this article could not keep up, and abandoned the task after 6 months of updates!</big> | |||
=== Summary of early history of this article === | |||
As mentioned in introduction, when this Wiki article was originally created by Mark Crossley it contained exactly what Steve Loft said in the [https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=39 MX early builds support forum]. At that time Steve had only started early experimenting with Cumulus MX, and access was restricted to those willing to experiment with his tests. | |||
The article was then rewritten by somebody who used to use Cumulus 1. It was based on experience of some early experimentation with MX, while Cumulus 1 was still the main system used. This is why there are comparisons of Cumulus 1 and MX included in this article, although the detail about moving to MX from Cumulus 1 has now been moved to a separate article, with a link included later in this article. The article continued to be revised as the author abandoned Cumulus 1 and gained experience of running MX on a Windows 10 PC. Subsequently, there were further revisions as a Raspberry Pi computer took over running of MX, again experiences initially documented here have been moved to a separate article that also has a link below. Although some information from posts in the Cumulus Support Forum was added to this article (or the articles that are linked from this article), there are so many posts on the forum, this has not been maintained since Summer 2020. | |||
It is true that operation on a Raspberry Pi has been much, much, more reliable than running on Windows 10 PC, so that meant it was just left running without worrying about upgrading to new MX builds, and with no new experiences to report, the updating of the Wiki has largely ceased, hence appeal for someone else to reflect the many changes since July 2020. | |||
==What a new contributor should consider for future maintenance== | |||
If you have some ideas, but are unsure whether to apply changes, please use the discussion page first. If you have ideas, but | It is likely that there are some errors, it is easy to type something different to what you meant; therefore please check existing article and correct any errors. | ||
If a new release has changed something, please document both how it now works, whilst maintaining documentation on how it worked before. References to both version number and build number ranges that apply to any information is helpful to readers. | |||
With hindsight, much of what has been documented could be made clearer. Much of this article was edited by directly quoting what was said in the forum, it was not always possible to understand it sufficiently to find an alternative clearer way of explaining the particular information. Writing for the Wiki is always tricky, some readers want everything made very simple and other readers look to the Wiki for the full technical information. One solution is to to have simple summary sections and sections that give full details. | |||
Although a lot of material has been moved out of this article into separate articles linked from this article, a new contributor might wish to move more off this page to continue to simplify this article. One problem I encountered was that I tried to edit articles created by administrators, or locked after I edited them when administrators changed after the wiki was migrated to a new host. As my permissions are limited, I have in some cases had to create replacement articles, and where possible persuade administrators to remove or amend original article. | |||
Although each contributor to the Wiki may be tempted to use a different style, this should not put you off contributing. Something I was taught, when I was responsible for computer system documentation in paid employment, was that it is best to use short sentences, lots of headings, and bullet points whether numbered or not, and multiple sub-levels. Use that advice as your starting point and your contribution will fit in. | |||
*If you have some ideas, but are unsure whether to apply changes, please use the discussion page first. | |||
*If you have ideas, but an administrator has not seen you are requesting write access to this wiki, please write your suggestion in the support forum for wiki suggestions at https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=38. The same forum can be used for posts begging an administrator to check outstanding requests for Wiki access. | |||
= Cumulus flavours = | = Cumulus flavours = | ||
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== Cumulus 2 == | == Cumulus 2 == | ||
This is intentionally a brief section, it does not cover all that was available in Cumulus 2, but just how it influenced MX. | |||
*Steve Loft produced a Cumulus 2 where he tried to start again in September 2009. It was written in C# (which is the language used for MX), and it is fair to say that Steve did not find that new programming language easy, and in March 2010 he was really struggling to make Cumulus 2 work how he desired. | *Steve Loft produced a Cumulus 2 where he tried to start again in September 2009. It was written in C# (which is the language used for MX), and it is fair to say that Steve did not find that new programming language easy, and in March 2010 he was really struggling to make Cumulus 2 work how he desired. | ||
* Cumulus 2 did prove that a number of concepts (like separating "engine" from "admin interface") could work and it was a useful learning curve for when Steve decided to write Cumulus 3 (see below). | * Cumulus 2 did prove that a number of concepts (like separating "engine" from "admin interface") could work, and it was a useful learning curve for when Steve decided to write Cumulus 3 (see below). | ||
*One change that had been requested by several Cumulus 1 users was for better international viewing of web pages, with less dependence on time zones. To achieve this, one suggestion was that Cumulus should work in GMT (more widely | *One change that had been requested by several Cumulus 1 users was for better international viewing of web pages, with less dependence on time zones. To achieve this, one suggestion was that Cumulus should work in GMT (more widely replaced now by UTC, which is not technically identical with GMT). Cumulus 2 therefore read and logged all readings by UTC. Unfortunately, converting from local time used by weather stations, and most computer devices, never worked as smoothly as Steve Loft hoped, so this is one idea that was not adopted for Cumulus 3. | ||
* Furthermore, Cumulus 2 never succeeded in getting some of the basic functionality like driving web pages to work, so it never offered much of the more useful functionality of Cumulus 1. | * Furthermore, Cumulus 2 never succeeded in getting some of the basic functionality like driving web pages to work reliably, so it never offered much of the more useful functionality of Cumulus 1. | ||
*But it was a good testing ground for new functionality and enhancements and regardless of whether they could be made to work fully in Cumulus 2, some were highlighting what Cumulus 1 lacked. | *But it was a good testing ground for new functionality and enhancements and regardless of whether they could be made to work fully in Cumulus 2, some were highlighting what Cumulus 1 lacked. | ||
*In August 2010, the new features being tested in Cumulus 2 were added to Cumulus 1, and Cumulus 2 was discontinued. | *In August 2010, the new features being tested in Cumulus 2 were added to Cumulus 1, and Cumulus 2 was discontinued. | ||
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== Cumulus 3 == | == Cumulus 3 == | ||
*In 2015, Cumulus 3 also known as MX once it was made available to users, was experimental and it had limited functionality, much less than was available in Cumulus 1. This made MX innovative, but unfriendly. | *Steve Loft wrote and developed Cumulus 1, 2, and finally MX, while he was in Scotland, he did move a few times, but most development happened on Sanday, hence '''Sandaysoft''' became his name for his creations, he did experiment with some non-weather software, but Cumulus stayed his main hobby. | ||
*Consequently, at that time, most Cumulus users were using Cumulus 1, and just those | *In 2015, Cumulus 3 (also initially known as MX, and 'MX' is what was adopted once it was made available to users), was experimental and it had limited functionality, much less than was available in Cumulus 1. This made MX innovative, but unfriendly. | ||
*Steve Loft started development of MX while he was still in full-time employment, but as retirement approached he worked fewer days per week | *Consequently, at that time, most Cumulus users were using Cumulus 1, and just those eager to take part in beta testing (perhaps because they wanted to move to Linux operating system) used MX. | ||
*Steve Loft started development of MX while he was still in full-time employment, but as retirement approached he worked fewer days per week. Consequently, he was faced with the question as to whether to spend his time on MX development, or to focus on spending time with his wife, Beth, exploring places. | |||
*When he fully retired, a life on the road beckoned, and they started travelling. Work on MX decreased, and work on Cumulus 1 was no longer possible, as he was limited to what his laptop and internet connection at stops could cope with. | *When he fully retired, a life on the road beckoned, and they started travelling. Work on MX decreased, and work on Cumulus 1 was no longer possible, as he was limited to what his laptop and internet connection at stops could cope with. | ||
*Various people offered to help him with MX if he was willing to make his source code available. Initially, Steve did not want anyone else to interfere with his creation | *Various people offered to help him with MX if he was willing to make his source code available. Initially, Steve was keen to protect his intellectual property. He did not want anyone else to interfere with his creation. | ||
*Steve Loft | *When he and his wife found a new home in France, there was no longer any doubt, the priorities changed in favour of a focus on his new life. Having decided to make the source code for MX available (he no longer had the development environment for editing Cumulus 1, and he had aborted Cumulus 2), Steve was able to forget about further development of MX. Indeed the [[Software|source code]] he released included various feature that were developed prior to the last MX release he made available. | ||
*Steve Loft was closing down his Sandaysoft.com host, so the software source, and release code, had to find a new home, as did this Wiki. SaratogaWX (Ken True) has taken over (see [[CumulusWiki:About|Cumulus Wiki: About]], and agreed to also the host source code files as they were at time of handover. | |||
*Some information was copied from the support forum to the new Wiki host, as at the time of Wiki transfer it was unclear whether the forum would remain available. | |||
*Sandaysoft.com also hosted the support forum. Freddie (Niall Hosiene) took over the hosting of the forum the month after Ken True took over Wiki. | |||
*The various people who had offered to help develop MX now were able to see the source code and decide whether they really did want to get involved. | *The various people who had offered to help develop MX now were able to see the source code and decide whether they really did want to get involved. | ||
*One programmer launched Cumulus 4, a new approach. Work continued on this for a while, but as far as I know it never made it into a working system, and I believe like Cumulus 2, it is abandoned. | *One programmer launched Cumulus 4, a new approach. Work continued on this for a while, but as far as I know it never made it into a working system, and I believe like Cumulus 2, it is abandoned. | ||
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It would be wrong not to repeat what Mark has said here - '''MX is still not bug free, there is a lot more to correct as well as all the enhancements to cope with new weather station hardware'''. | It would be wrong not to repeat what Mark has said here - '''MX is still not bug free, there is a lot more to correct as well as all the enhancements to cope with new weather station hardware'''. | ||
There is a page (created in October 2018) listing [[MX Issues|MX Issues to be resolved]], but I suspect it is out of date. If you look through the release announcements for | There is a page (created in October 2018) listing [[MX Issues|MX Issues to be resolved]], but I suspect it is out of date. If you look through the release announcements for 2019-21, yes there are a lot of new features being added, but almost every build also involves resolving bugs. | ||
== Restrictions on who can use MX == | == Restrictions on who can use MX == | ||
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As a new Cumulus user, using MX on Windows (but with no experience of Cumulus 1), the separate article linked from the heading to this section will still interest you as it is a definitive guide to installing Cumulus MX on Windows. | As a new Cumulus user, using MX on Windows (but with no experience of Cumulus 1), the separate article linked from the heading to this section will still interest you as it is a definitive guide to installing Cumulus MX on Windows. | ||
=== Cross reference to article on [[Raspberry_Pi_Image|Setting up Raspberry Pi using a pre-built Image]] for Cumulus === | |||
Whether you have been using Cumulus 1, or are new to Cumulus, you may be tempted to install MX on a Raspberry Pi, operating in headless mode (instead of connecting a screen and keyboard to it, you do all access to the Pi from another computer on same network). The developer has made life easy for you by combining the '''Raspberry Pi Lite Operating System''' with a pre-installation copy of MX. | |||
Find out more about using this pre-built Raspberry Pi image file to create a basic headless server in the article linked in the heading. | |||
It is worth reading the article linked below as well. | |||
=== Cross reference to article on [[Setting up Raspberry Pi]] for Cumulus === | === Cross reference to article on [[Setting up Raspberry Pi]] for Cumulus === | ||
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=== Cross reference to article on [[Updating MX to new version]] === | === Cross reference to article on [[Updating MX to new version]] === | ||
Whether you have not updated for a long time, or simply wonder whether you are updating the easiest way, follow the link in the heading for this section, to an article that focusses on all to do with updating from one MX version to another. | Whether you have not updated for a long time, or simply wonder whether you are updating the easiest way, follow the link in the heading for this section, to an article that focusses on all to do with updating from one MX version to another. This includes the recommended approach (letting zip overwrite previous installation), and other approaches. It also expands on issues relating to web templates, database tables, and other optional features in MX. | ||
Critically, this linked article contains advice '''both''' for those updating each time there is a new release available '''and''' | Critically, this linked article contains advice '''both''' for those updating each time there is a new release available '''and''' how to upgrade from an old version in a series of steps, skipping some in-between versions. So read the article linked in the section heading whether you are still using Steve Loft's beta version of MX or an old Mark Crossley release. | ||
=== Cross reference to [[Cumulus MX FAQ]] === | === Cross reference to [[Cumulus MX FAQ]] === | ||
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The text that was here has been moved to a separate article, that makes it more accessible, please see [[What to do when I have a problem with MX|What to do when I have a problem with MX article]] | The text that was here has been moved to a separate article, that makes it more accessible, please see [[What to do when I have a problem with MX|What to do when I have a problem with MX article]] | ||
Although you may end up asking for advice on the Cumulus Support Forum, read the article linked in the heading first, as it will help you to provide the information that is needed for others to quickly help you. | |||
=== Cross reference to [[MX Administrative Interface|Administrative Interface]] === | === Cross reference to [[MX Administrative Interface|Administrative Interface]] === | ||
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This requires a whole topic to itself, and indeed it has an article to itself, reached from link in heading for this section. | This requires a whole topic to itself, and indeed it has an article to itself, reached from link in heading for this section. | ||
=== Cross reference to the application programming interface (api) used by MX === | |||
The MX application programming local interface has been fully documented by the developer in [[Cumulus_MX_Local_API|this article]]. | |||
There is also some older information [[MX_Administrative_Interface#The_API_interface|here]] which explains how the api is used in the administrative interface. | |||
=== Message from Steve Loft about documentation === | === Message from Steve Loft about documentation === | ||
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In writing this update, I have drawn on my own experience of moving from Cumulus 1 to MX, and thus my knowledge of Cumulus is from over a decade of experience with this software and what it can do. | In writing this update, I have drawn on my own experience of moving from Cumulus 1 to MX, and thus my knowledge of Cumulus is from over a decade of experience with this software and what it can do. | ||
Before I swapped, I made a detailed study to check MX could do all I used to do with Cumulus 1 and much more. Before I add items to this article I play around with MX experimenting with what works and what does not work, but I have saved you the pain of where I went wrong, just telling you what is correct. I do need to add, that I don't have a separate testing environment, and therefore I am not willing to attempt anything that might muck up my collecting of weather information, plus | Before I swapped, I made a detailed study to check MX could do all I used to do with Cumulus 1 and much more. Before I add items to this article I play around with MX experimenting with what works and what does not work, but I have saved you the pain of where I went wrong, just telling you what is correct. I do need to add, that I don't have a separate testing environment, and therefore I am not willing to attempt anything that might muck up my collecting of weather information, plus my knowledge of modern technology is poor as I belong to that generation who did not have desktop computers, nor mobile devices, until some time into my working life. This all places restrictions on what I can test out, and therefore on the coverage of these notes. | ||
'''If anyone else, can improve these notes, wants to split off more parts, or in any other way make the documentation better, then please do. | '''If anyone else, can improve these notes, wants to split off more parts, or in any other way make the documentation better, then please do. This article already contains improvements that were suggested by others.''' | ||
