Studio711

Cascade Skier Sidebar Gadget

Download the Gadget!

Did you know?

• A web version of this gadget is available at http://snow.studio711.com. It is designed for use on just about any mobile phone web browser.
• The code for this project is now posted on codeplex?
• You can access this page by going to http://gadget.studio711.com instead of the long URL currently displayed in your browser. You can also find the gadget by searching through http://gallery.live.com/ for "cascade skier"

Upgrade Instructions:

1. If you have the last version showing in your sidebar, close the old gadget.
2. Open your local gadget gallery (click the plus sign at the top of the sidebar). Right click on the existing CascadeSkier gadget and choose uninstall.
3. Download the new gadget from http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=a020dad5-6725-4f6f-a12e-f5b777db6642 and install it.

Server side fix:

• All the Washington resort data comes from NWAC. On 10/23/2009, they updated the format of their website. The gadget basically scrapes the HTML so the new format broke the gadget. With the update file that is sent to the gadget, I can adjust small things about how the data is parsed, but this one would have required a full uninstall/install cycle for all users. Instead, I wrote an ASP.NET app that sits in the middle. It grabs data from the new NWAC site and formats it the way that the gadget is expecting. This alleviated the need for users to update their installed gadget and we're back to normal. When I do ship out the next full version of the gadget, I'm going to rework the data collection to do all the data parsing in the ASP.NET app. This will make the gadget code much simpler and more robust.
• [UPDATE 10/29] Well the nice folks at NWAC have given me access to their raw data streams again so there is no need for this middleman approach. I've redirected the gadget to point straight to NWAC. I'll keep the middleman app around in case the data format changes in the future, but for now, it will be unused.

V3.1 Updates:

• The Mt. Baker data feed has changed formats in a way that I could not handle remotely. I updated the gadget code and added more settings so I can adjust this remotely if something similar happens again.
• Clicking the Weather Data link for a resort now sends you to the actual resort data that I'm displaying the gadget. Previously this was not always the case as I can adjust the gadget data source remotely.
• -0 should not show up in the data anymore.
• Extra spaces at the end of the total snowfall used to pop up sometimes but those have been removed.

V3.0 Updates:

• Data handling is much improved. NWAC files that are missing data are now handled better (no more letters should show up as numeric values.) Obvious incorrect data is also replaced by "-" now. For example, no more negative snow falls will show up and if a snowfall sensor is reporting an incorrect huge number it will also show "-" in the gadget.
• The update file can now automatically hide web cams which are broken and urls for the web cams can also be updated. Hopefully this means fewer reinstalls for users.
• Why a major update version number change? It's almost ski season and I'm excited. So 3.0 it is! My goal is to have no client side updates once ski season starts. There's a slight chance that I'll need to push out a client update when Whistler starts their snow forecasts on November 20, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that the existing architecture will work.

V2.0 Updates:

• Data is now included for Mission Ridge. Remember that you can hide resorts in the settings section.
• The main purpose of this rev was to point the update link to gadget.studio711.com instead of the cascadeskier.com link. That cascadeskier.com hosting account will be gone in a couple months. This will allow everyone to continue receiving tweaks and be ready for next season.
• Code is now on http://www.codeplex.com/cascadeskier. Please feel free to submit feature requests there.
• A fourth web cam was added for Stevens Pass.
• The gadget checks the server every four hours for new messages and updates to the parsing algorithm. An update can be forced at any time by opening the settings page and clicking OK.

V1.4 Updates:

• Summit changed the URL to their web cams so that's the main update.
• Since the cascadeskier.com blog isn't being updated, it seemed silly to have a link to the site at the bottom of the gadget. This area will now be used for a short news headline. Click on the text to bring up the full story in your browser. If there is an update, it will override the headline and show "Update Available!" as it has done in the past.
• The update and news headline check now occurs every 4 hours instead of every 24 hours. This will allow news headlines to stay a bit more current instead of potentially being a day behind.

V1.3 Updates:

• I apologize for the short lifespan of V1.2. I had been testing it locally for a solid week and it ran fine. Literally 6 or 8 hours after I published the update, Whistler changed the format of their webpage and the gadget started showing the wrong number for 24 hour snow and total snowfall. The good news is that almost all of the web page parsing code is now customizeable from my end without requiring you to manually reinstall. Hopefully this will be the last update for a long time. Thanks for sticking with it. 

V1.2 Updates:

• Improved handling of NWAC data. When the latest data has gaps in it, the gadget will look up the list to find the latest full data line.
• Whistler data now includes 24 hour snowfall and total snowfall from the Whistler website.
• When the NWAC data format changes, the gadget can be updated without requiring the user to reinstall. Updates to this information will be pulled daily. This should greatly reduce the need for future updates. 
• New cameras added for Whistler and Stevens Pass.
• Default cam refresh is now 60 seconds per a requests from some of the resorts.

V1.1 Updates:

• When a new version is available, the web cam image no longer blacks out. Instead "New Version Available" appears at the bottom of that gadget. Clicking on the text takes you to the page to get the new version. 
• Snoqualmie changed their NWAC data format. The parsing has been updated so Snoqualmie data will show up again.
• This is the version that was accepted to the Sidebar gallery. That will be the official distribution point for the gadget. This page will serve to detail changes from version to version. Feel free to leave comments and feature requests either here or on the gallery entry.
• When you install this gadget, you're going to get two of them in your gallery. We recommend that you completely remove the v1.0 gadget from your gallery before you install the new one. Hopefully we can resolve this problem before the next release.
• BUG! If you look at the settings page, it incorrectly states that this is v1.0 even though you really have v1.1.

V1.0 Launch Features:

• The top web cam display cycles through the various web cams from each resort. The resort which is currently displayed is highlighted white. The whole row of info is now highlighted in white.
• Web cam images that contain headers or footers (like the WSDOT cams) are stretched so that only the picture is displayed.
• Clicking on the image cycles to the next resort
• The numbers displayed are temperature, 24 hour snowfall, and last snowfall. This isn’t immediately clear... If there isn’t any data available, I just leave the row blank. Not all the NWAC sensors are turned on yet and some of the ones that are active don’t look completely correct. Those problems should resolve themselves once the sensors come online and there is actual snow on the ground to measure.
• Data updates every 15 minutes.
• Settings Page: Turn resorts on or off. Turning a resort off will remove the text information, remove the webcams from the cycle, and shorten the height of the gadget.
• Settings Page: The webcam image changes every 15 seconds. This is configurable in the settings menu.

  Gadget icon in the gallery is now the Cascade Skier logo.
• Mouse over the text gives you a description of what it is (temp at elevation X, new snow at elevation X, etc.) This only works after you click on the gadget so that it has focus. This won't be very useful but it was an easy feature.
• Clicking on the resort name will display a flyout. The flyout will contain all the webcams for that resort and links to more info about that resort (weather, stories, etc.)
• Check the web to see if there are updates to the gadget. The gadget checks for updates every 24 hours (or on startup.) If there is an update, the webcam area shows a link to click for more information about the update. The user will still have to manually install the new version, but this will be a very easy way to communicate the changes to the user base. It's also a nice way for me to know roughly how many people are using the gadget since it checks a specific file once per day.
• Settings Page: Celsius display option
• Link to CascadeSkier at the bottom of the gadget
• There are no rounded borders in this one, but I did put a blue border around it and change the background color a bit.
• Fixed a bug which showed the upgrade message if there was no internet connection.