À propos du soleil de ptaff.ca/Interface (english)

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This article describe the interface of the soleil of ptaff.ca web page.

Home page of soleil

The home page of the soleil web page displays a form where it is possible to choose an emplacement from a list of countries, provinces and cities (or other place). This list if, of course, not complete, but it has an entry for 186 countries for a total of 2841 places.

Place

All the places in drop-down menu are by alphabetical order.

Country

You have to first choose a country using the drop-down menu.

State / Province

When the selected country is divided by States or provinces, you have to select the corresponding region where the city can be found.

Often, we do not know in which State or province a city is located. As example, France as 46 entries in this section. The internaut is invited to do a search on the web to know where this city can be found. Wikipedia could be a could starting point.

It also occurs that some countries do not have any State or province in this drop-down menu. In this case, an arrow like this will be displayed =======>, inviting to directly select a city.

City

You have to select a city in the drop-down menu.

Date

Even if the data is generated for every day of the year, it is possible to choose a precise day. The results of the selected day will be highlighted in the graphic legend or with a different color in the table. See the section section Graphics, tables and files.

Compare with other city

Below the country drop-down menu is a radio button allowing to compare 2 cities. You can click on it and a second series of windows will be displayed. You just have to select a second place from which you want to have the values.

Specification

The interface also allows to select an abitrary place. You can display the menu to fill the fields by clicking the «Specifications» button.

In the specifications form, you will find the following fields:

• Location name: this is an abitrary string that will be displayed in graphics, files or tables.
• Latitude: Latitude in degree, minute and second. You have to select if it is in the northern (N) or southern (S) hemisphere.
• Longitude: Longitude in degree, minute and second. You have to select if it is in the western (O) or eastern (E) hemisphere.
• Timezone: This is the timezone in coordinated universal time (UTC) of the place.
• Daylight saving code : Starting and ending dates of daylight saving time. The list contains different dates for daylight saving times in all the legislation of the world. If something is missing, please contact the developer.

It is possible to see the specifications of a given place. Select a place with the drop-down menus and then click the specifications button. The information will then be displayed in the form. Then it is possible to modify the information as you please, to have another place name for example\

Note: When the radio button Compare with another city is selected, a second form with the specifications for the second place is displayed.

Create the information

To see the results, one a place have been selected with the drop-down menus or with the specifications, you just have to click on the button « Show the graph! ».

Alternative interface

For many reasons, the form on the home page of soleil of ptaff.ca might not be working as expected (on cell phone as example). In this case, you can use the alternative interface. The drop-down menu will appear one after the other in separate pages.

Results displayed

This image must be completed with the right labels to correspond to the french version.

Graphics

By default, the results will be presented in graphics. These graphics are generated by the browser. They are not image in the proper sense. If you want to save the graphics, you have to do a screen shot.

If the visualization is in another mode, you can click on the icon on the upper right that represents the graphical output to get back to this mode.

Legend

The legend shows the graphical coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the timezone used to generate the results. The colors show to which information correspond each curve on the graphical mode.

Visualization of place in Google Maps (TM)

In the legend, there is an icon allowing to visualize the place on Google Maps. You just have to click on it to get there.

Tables

It is possible to see the results in a table format. You just have to click on the table icon in the upper right of the graphic.

A table will then be displayed with the values for each day of the year. The values for the selected day is highlighted by a white background color, different of the other values.

CSV

In both table and graphical mode, the icon to download the information in comma-separated values (CSV) is displayed.

This format is perfect for someone who wants to use the results in another informatic tools, particularly with spreadsheet software.

If you click on it, you browser will ask to save a file with the extension .csv. Save it a proper place on your system.

The values in the files will look like this:

"Date", "Sunrise", "Sunset", "Daylength"
"2009-01-01", "08:26", "16:38", "08:12"
"2009-01-02", "08:26", "16:39", "08:13"
"2009-01-03", "08:26", "16:40", "08:14"
"2009-01-04", "08:26", "16:41", "08:16"
"2009-01-05", "08:26", "16:43", "08:17"
"2009-01-06", "08:25", "16:44", "08:18"
"2009-01-07", "08:25", "16:45", "08:20"
"2009-01-08", "08:25", "16:46", "08:22"
"2009-01-09", "08:24", "16:48", "08:24"