Hi guys,
as I recently promised, a new version of Meteotemplate,
Meteotemplate 7.0 Pomegranate, is now available for download! The
update procedure should be very easy, smooth and fast.As I also mentioned in my last newsletter,
this update brings some useful new features and the next version will fully concentrate on code optimization, refactoring and overall improvement of user experience, also trying to make it even more simple for you as a webmaster.
But let´s not jump ahead.
If you want to read full description including screenshots as well as instructions for the update, go to the blog. Also the demo has been updated and now includes the new features.
http://www.meteotemplate.com/template/Also, once someone of you does the update, please let me know if everything went ok.New featuresMenu blocksOver time I noticed some of you find it hard to decide, which blocks they want to put on their homepage and hard to resist not including some. Although you can theoretically put as many blocks on your homepage as you like, it is obviously not ideal due to the length of the page and also size. I knew I have to come up with a solution to this. And so I now introduce to you the concept of “menu blocks”, which
further enhances the possibilities of how you can arrange your homepage.
Just like the multiple blocks introduced in version 6, it is extremely
easy to create a menu block. And so what is a menu block?
A menu block is a dynamic block. Probably best explained using an example. Let´s say you want to create a block for “radar images”. There are several radar blocks available – one for Australia, one for Europe, Canada, U.S.,…. Now you can group all those blocks into one single block. First you specify which blocks you want to be included, then you select the default one. Then, when the user opens your page, they will see the default block, however in the top-left corner will be a menu symbol. When you click that menu symbol, a drop-down will appear and you will get a list of all the blocks you included in that particular menu block. You select the one you want. At that moment, the current block loaded will unload and your selected one load. This way
you can basically put as many blocks you want into one block slot and also not overload your pc because always just one is visible.What is even better,
you can freely combine these with normal and multiple blocks, you can put a menu block into any slot you want on your homepage and you can
create as many menu blocks on one homepage as you like. Instructions how to create a menu block are given in detail in the updated Wiki.
Several menu blocks are now included in the demo at meteotemplate.com for you to look at.
Station warningsAnother new feature allows you to
display warnings on your page based on your station data. How it works? Once you update your site to version 7, a new set of parameters will appear in your setup.php. First you select if you want to enable this feature at all. If so, you will specify thresholds for various parameters – high temperature, low temperature, high wind etc. Then, if this threshold is exceeded, a
warning icon will appear below the header with the particular icon depending on which threshold has been exceeded (more than one can be at the same time, eg. low temp + wind). On hover it will show you the actual value. More about how this works is described in the setup.php.
Menu.phpSomething so many of you have been asking for and I think I finally have a solution. The
menu.php will now be available for download separately in the downloads section and I will update it every time a new plugin is available, so downloading the latest menu.php will always guarantee you you have all the links needed. But that is not all. I also changed the script completely and
you no longer have to uncomment anything. The script now automatically scans your plugins directory and shows those links that correspond to the plugins you have installed. Install a new one and a new link will appear automatically. Delete one, it will hide.
There is only one problem. If you customize the menu then obviously this will bring the menu back to the default state. However, the assumption is – if you are able to customize the menu yourself, then you don´t need this automation and you can simply add the links to the new plugins you install yourself.
Other new features- interactive graph now includes dew point
- METAR now includes wind direction
- Scottish flag added to the country flags
Updates- CSS tweaks for the homepage for more precise block alignment
- Highcharts CSS tweaks
- all bug fixes since version 6 release included - changes in climate maps (reflecting changes in Google Maps API), changes in METAR (reflecting changes at NOAA website)
- improved translation functions
Bug fixes- fixed problem with exporting solar radiation in the interactive table
Enjoy
Jachym
