Bad News! NOAA has changed its format AGAIN!

Not only has NOAA changed their format again(!) but they have - of course - done it such that it is not backward compatible - again!

But wait it gets worse... The "new" version is "Enhanced" (reasons given are an unconvincing one of letting people add their own GIS images as background, and a more probable one that it's easier for them ;-)), but the "Standard" version is NOT the old version, but a different one entirely.

The Enhanced version requires Java (states Javascript or Java, but basically doesn't work unless you have Java, version 1.4.2 or later), and has a long download time (again their wording). The Standard version has very reduced functionality - in particular no loops like we had before, which IMHO was the real value in the display.

Add to that the projection has changed giving a "distorted view" (sic - their term not mine!) with E-W stretched, so that GIS users with NAD 1983 projection can display the images without adjusting the projection (which is BS 'cos GIS users have the ability to do that, unlike us non-GIS users without projection mapping software!!!).

The Enhanced version is closest to the prior system, but the old simple system of looping - displaying the last 'n' static images under Javascript - has been replaced by some Java routine. What, I have no way of knowing as that part of the documentation listing the files and locations has not been updated, even though every other piece of documentation has, and even though the file and directory names have clearly changed (we're getting 404's).

Your US tax dollars at work.

Any how </rant>. Calming down. Taking another look.

It looks to me as if the old image files are all still there as before. However instead of being named ..._1.gif, ..._2.gif in reverse chronological order, they are now held with date and time in their names. Obviously I don't know when the images were captured, so I just need to find a way to download everything in the (new) directory and display in filename order. Might be possible... That would give us our old system back - and better functionality IMHO than their new "Enhanced" system.

OK, here's a fix, I believe...

These code changes apply only to my hacked files.

In wh_radar.php at line 548 find:

    $primaryradar = ereg_replace( ":noaaradar:", $row['primaryradar'] , $radarpath );
    $infopath = ereg_replace( ":noaaradar:", strtolower( $row['primaryradar'] ), $infopath );

and replace with:

    $primaryradar = ereg_replace( ":noaaradar:", strtoupper(substr( $row['primaryradar'] , 1 )), $radarpath );
    $infopath = ereg_replace( ":noaaradar:", strtoupper(substr( $row['primaryradar'] , 1 )), $infopath );

Note it may only work until NOAA discovers that they are still leaving the old files around (in a different directory hence the change above). If they stop saving them we're hosed. But in the meantime we still have a really useful 4 - 5 hour loop versus the short loop NOAA displays on their own sites!!!