Hot Air Balloon Pilots

@jmh2002 that looks very promising

will contact the author and see what can be made of it

here is an example what I'd be looking for: https://sailpatience.com/where-is-patience/ - an embed provided by https://www.predictwind.com/ (which pushes all the right buttons for people trying to do tracking and weather as an embed)

Question - how would I create an embed widget given I have a dynamic KML/GPX//GeoJSON fragment?

The input file would need to be passed as a URI parameter as it might be created on the fly

for the same reason, the upload to windy.com seems suboptimal - assuming you would not want a public upload everytime someone retrieves the page with the embed on it

any suggestions?

thanks in advance.

another data point:

https://blog.mah.priv.at/index.php/2020/02/22/windy-traj-forecast-versus-gps-track/

@marekd said in Turning off a plug in?:

@rittels @mhaberler Plugins aren't used very much right now.
@ivo

Usability might be a cause for that.

I've given tutorials to my particular community on windy usage and have been invited for more, next in Switzerland in March. They are basically 'this is the philosophy and now let me hold your hand' events. And @rittels puts in a lot of hours into working in feedback.

So I'm somewhat dubious if your argument holds water if you look at specific segments, not just the overall usage.

Of course plugins cater to specific community, even local use only. Plugins which are used by everybody and his dog are not going to happen IMV.

Even if this is so, it is clear to me that user extensibility of a weather application has been a phenomenal success and has raised the bar for others

Maybe it is worth reconsidering what the relation of the open-source part of windy (right now - user-contributed client-side plugins only) and the closed-source part (server side and curated client-side code) is to be in the future

Example - what about open-sourcing the non-core/not-license-encumbered parts of windy to stimulate more user contribution?

Let's take the 'Upload KML, GPX or GeoJSON file' as a case in point:

1. it is a tad lame as it stands - 'can display polylines in color, issue closed'.
2. No attention to importing files generated by plugins given
3. if I want to make it useful for say displaying route planner or traj GPX files, I need to re-implement the whole yadayada, not just extend and build on what is already there

ad 2. I'm fine with that in principle - I do not expect you to jump every hoop users come up with. We're happy to fix that ourselves. But then you need to grease that capability a bit. Going closed source in irrelevant areas has a cost: usability is one of them. And I'd be fine to do that under a 'do with it what you want' license.

Another example: Integration of custom data layers, and a way to share them.

Any plans in that direction? this could be a significant booster for acceptance, and creating applications which even you never thought of.

And some markets, btw - just look at how an average nation aviation weather office displays its data. Mine makes me weep ;-)

• Michael

@rittels said in Turning off a plug in?:

It would be great if we could launch the plugins from the URL. The open plugin buttons could link to the address of the plugin. (please @ivo, @marekd )

This is important for usability for sharing a plugin setup, which is needlessly cumbersome right now. And it is easy to fix.

It should come down to passing a link which includes the plugin name, AND the set of parameters to the plugin. Opening the link should open windy, install the plugin listed, and set the parameters as per URL. Totally fine if that works only for blessed plugins.

Right now we stand at 'pass a screenshot as png'.

Please make that possible.

thanks, Michael

I wrote up some notes on @rittels recently updated traj plugin:

https://blog.mah.priv.at/index.php/2020/01/07/new-version-of-the-windy-trajectory-plugin/

A video from the second flight:

@vicb right, continuation of dewpoints/temps 'underground' doesnt make any sense

now if you're looking into mobile screen real estate is an issue to start with, so maybe drop the brown box altogether and save some pixels for the skewt diagram - just start at ground level and record ground elevation

my use case: I use the traj plugin for planning balloon rides

so I pick a track which is likely and nice, and then check conditions along this path

'along this path' practically never translates into a favorite location - so in this case just used up screen space for no use

I really like the better-sounding plugin!

I have a few suggestions for improvement:

• make the Favorites display optional with a toggle button like 'Zoom View' - it takes a lot of screen real estate and if you're probing locations you might not necessarily limit yourself to favorite locations
• make the ground brown box translucent so you can see temp and dewpoint at low altitudes - the values vanish in the brown box like so: https://snipboard.io/p3Za7H.jpg (or maybe remove the brown box to start with and mark ground level with a line - the box adds no information per se)
• try the plugin on a a few mobiles (or mobile screen predefs in Chrome Dev Tools) - pretty much unusable. Width and height not adapted to screen size. Works great on a PC though.

thanks for adding this!

best regards,

Michael