Monthlyalltime.ini: Difference between revisions

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-[[Category:Log Files]]
+[[Category:Ini Files]]
-== What is monthlyalltime.ini file and what format does it use? ==
-The file '''monthlyalltime.ini''' was introduced in version 1.9.3 to support the Monthly Records feature that was added. For more information on this file see in the Cumulus 1 help file, in the section “Data log file format”. The format consists of a number of sections (section title is delimited by square brackets [...]), with each section having a number of properties (consisting of attribute name, an equals sign and a value) each on a separate line. The sections (after the first [General]) can be in any order, Cumulus will maintain whatever order the sections are currently in. Each section has a number of parameters listed below it. Each parameter is in the format "attribute=value". For readability you can insert blank lines into this file, Cumulus will not mind. Do not however introduce any punctuation nor change the format of any parameter line.
-Put simply, it is just like the [[alltime.ini]] log file but each section in that is repeated 12 times in "monthlyalltime.ini" file as it contains the extremes recorded in all January periods, all February periods etc. The format of monthlyalltime.ini is similar to alltime.ini but the sections are repeated for each month of the year, distinguished by a two-digit number at the end of the section name, representing the month for that section. For example, the rainfall records for September are held in section [Rain09].
+= What is monthlyalltime.ini file =
-The new feature in Cumulus 1 allows you to compare the current month with the same month in earlier years and pick out which year had highest and lowest. The alltime.ini log file was heavily influenced by the seasonality of our weather, you might expect highest temperatures to be seen in a summer and lowest in a winter. The monthlyaltime.ini log file takes away that seasonality by limiting comparisons to a month by month basis.
+The file '''monthlyalltime.ini''' was introduced in version 1.9.3 to support the Monthly Records feature that was added.
-There are differences between Cumulus 1 and MX.
+For more information on this file see in the Cumulus 1 help file, in the section “Data log file format”.
-[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Decimal formatting always uses a period/full stop in Cumulus MX. Cumulus MX shows date/time in ISO 8601 format of "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss" (using the net specifiers that MX uses).
+Put simply, it is based on the [[alltime.ini]] log file. In that file, there is one section for temperature etc.  In '''monthlyalltime.ini''' file, each of the sections is repeated 12 times. This is because this file contains the extremes recorded in all January periods, all February periods etc.
-[[File:Badge v1.png]]Date, Time and Decimal formatting is as per your regional settings on the PC running Cumulus.
+This new feature, introduced at version 1.9.3, allows you to compare the current month with the same month in earlier years and pick out which year had highest and lowest.
-Thus if you want to swap from Cumulus 1 to Cumulus MX, you will copy your existing Cumulus 1 "data" folder to within your MX installation, but if you have previously used a comma for the decimal separator you will also need to manually edit your '''monthlyalltime.ini''' file so all the value entries are converted to use full stops as decimal separator. The following table shows just one section from the file, that dealing with wind, as an example of the two formats, and the example uses commas for Cumulus 1.
+The alltime.ini log file was heavily influenced by the seasonality of our weather, you might expect highest temperatures to be seen in a summer and lowest in a winter. The monthlyalltime.ini log file takes away that seasonality by limiting comparisons to a month by month basis.
+= Format of the file =
+This is as described at [[:Category:Ini_Files]], where some differences between the legacy Cumulus and MX are noted. Therefore if you use decimal commas and are migrating this  '''monthlyalltime.ini''' file from Cumulus 1 to MX, you need to do an edit so all the values entries are converted to use a full stop as decimal separator.
+The format of monthlyalltime.ini is similar to alltime.ini but the sections are repeated for each month of the year, distinguished by a two-digit number at the end of the section name, representing the month for that section. For example, the rainfall records for September are held in section [Rain09].
+The following table shows just one section from the file, that dealing with wind in each March of every year, as an example of the two formats, and the example uses commas for Cumulus 1.
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 The two columns shown represent different locations, that is why the contents do not match, this table is just to illustrate different formats.
-== Initialisation ==
+== Initialisation if you previously used Cumulus version up to 1.9.2 ==
-If you update Cumulus from an earlier version than version 1.9.3, or swap from Cumulus version 1.9.2 to Cumulus MX, then you need to initialise this "monthlyalltime.ini" log file by reading prior data from the monthly and daily log files.  Follow the instructions for correcting the file.  Once the file has been initialised, Cumulus will maintain it from then onwards, comparing the highs and lows for the current reading against those stored for that month in this file.  For further information see the support forum, that contains the announcement when version 1.9.3 was released, and a few discussions concerning experience with the feature.
+If you update Cumulus from an earlier version than version 1.9.3, (or have been using Cumulus versions up to 1.9.2 when you swap to Cumulus MX), then you need to initialise this "monthlyalltime.ini" log file by reading prior data from the monthly and daily log files.
+For further information see the support forum, that contains the announcement when [https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=76857#p76857 version 1.9.3 was released] which says:
+:Month-by-month all time records, and web tags. These are things like 'highest ever January temperature' etc. These aren't initialised automatically, the simplest way to do this is:
+# Open the new monthly records editor (on the Edit) menu
+# Click the 'fetch dayfile data' button, select the tab for each month in turn and click the 'copy' button in the header row to copy the dayfile data
+# To get a full set of records, you may also need to use the 'Fetch log data' button to fetch the data from the monthly log files. Note that you can click the copy button next to a particular entry just to copy that entry.
+# Click OK.
+:You may find the results need a bit of manual tweaking, depending on the state of your dayfile.txt. You can also optionally fetch the records from the log files and use those. Once you've initialised the records, Cumulus should then keep them up to date.
+:On the [https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=4 Cumulus 1 sub-forum], you can search for a few discussions concerning experience with the feature.
+For those now using 1.9.4 or a MX release, follow the instructions on [[Correcting Extremes]] page.
+Once the file has been initialised, Cumulus will maintain it from then onwards, comparing the highs and lows for the current reading against those stored for that month in this file.
 == Viewing the monthly highs and lows ==
+[[File:Badge vMx.png]]Select [[MX_Administrative_Interface#Monthly_records|Monthly records]] from '''Edit''' menu in the ''Admin interface''.
 [[File:Cumulus_1_View_menu.png]] [[File:Badge v1.png]]Select ''Highs and Lows - Monthly'' from '''View''' menu.