REALTIME Santa Tracker ready for Christmas - 0.3.01

Posted on
Fri Dec 18, 2015 12:45 pm
Chameleon offline
Posts: 611
Joined: Oct 04, 2014

REALTIME Santa Tracker ready for Christmas - 0.3.01

Merry Christmas to everyone,

Well who would have thought that so many people were interested in Santa's location on Christmas Eve? It's been a great response and we've ditched a lot of bugs and awkward UI issues that people didn't like. There were also a few user requests for additional fields and I've added those. That said, if you've already created a control page it'll work just fine with the latest version - but you might like some of the new fields :D

Latest versions


What's new in version 0.3.01?

Bug Fixes

    As promised in the last post I've been working hard to remove any bugs or issues that people have discovered - thanks so much for all your efforts! Some of the issues were just bad coding, others bad logic and the rest simply improvements in the UI, colours and performance. I'm feel quite happy with the code now - but we'll see if my confidence is misplaced in this release :roll:

New Fields

    There were a number of requests for new fields so I've added those in this release. The first additions were a count down to Santa's take off from the North Pole (timeToTakeOff and sleighStatus) which provide a countdown clock for use on Control Pages and once Santa has left it provides other information such as ON THE GROUND,IN THE AIR or LANDED as and FLYING, DELIVERING GIFTS or BACK HOME as appropriate

    This is my new Control Page (you can download the template from the links above):

    This shot shows the countdown clock as the Tracker waits for the optimum time for Santa to leave:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 17.18.25.png
    Countdown
    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 17.18.25.png (587.3 KiB) Viewed 3228 times


    This shows the change in the state once Santa is on his way

    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.07.27.png
    New Control Page
    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.07.27.png (715.28 KiB) Viewed 3228 times


    The next fields are timeToArrival and homeArrivalStatus. The first of these provides a countdown to when Santa will arrive at your home location. The second is a simple flag that contains WAITING, GREEN, AMBER, RED or BEEN. You can set the trigger points for RED and AMBER in the configuration dialog under Hours before arrival RED status and Hours before arrival AMBER status. By default these are set to 2 and 4 hours respectively. Obviously these can be used in Control Pages but they also provide a convenient trigger for Indigo if you want something to happen at these points - maybe Music, Warning Message or Reindeer bell sound?

    This is what the new Configuration Page looks like:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.08.01.png
    New Config Page
    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.08.01.png (181.15 KiB) Viewed 3228 times


    Finally you'll find a state called runMode. This state tells you what type of mode your operating and are either Test, Real or Contingency. These are discussed below.

New Modes

Ok there are now three modes of operation:

    Test Mode - This is the same test mode that you've all been using since you downloaded the plugin. It will run a fast simulation of the whole santa tracking experience.

    Contingency Mode - This mode will effectively run a Test Simulation at normal speed. If we have issues with running the Real Time version this option will allow you to run the plugin at normal speed to mirror what NORAD is doing. This should only be used if necessary and all else fails

    Real Time Mode - If neither the Test or Contingency checkboxes are selected in the Configuration dialog. You can see these options in the screen shot below:

    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.52.07.png
    Modes
    Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 16.52.07.png (30.83 KiB) Viewed 3228 times


    The Debug option should only be checked if we're debugging the software to resolve an issue.

    Selecting Run in test mode will kick off the accelerated simulation of Santa's route based on your location

    Selecting Run in real mode (and adjust Local Time to Calculated Start) will run a simulated version of the plugin at a normal speed so you can see Santa move as he would if you were using the NORAD Feed. You won't be able to select this option if the Test Mode option is already selected!

    Deselecting both of these options will trigger REAL TIME Mode. In this mode the plugin will wait until exactly the right moment for Santa to leave the North Pole to get to your home location at the bedtime you've specified in the configuration dialog. The state (timeToTakeOff) will provide you with a countdown of how long you've got to wait before Santa leaves the North Pole. This will countdown every minute until it reaches zero and Santa Takes off.

Note: If you fail to start the REAL TIME simulation early enough for Santa to get to you at the time you've requested (e.g. the bedtime you've specified) the plugin will calculate exactly where Santa should be now and then start the tracker from that point. You won't get to see everything that's happened so far but the simulation will carry on as if nothing had happened and Santa will arrive at your place bang on time...... So don't be surprised if he starts in the middle of Russia or something! As for me - i've actually created a Schedule to launch the plugin at 1am on the 23rd December so I get the whole route. Perhaps you should do the same so you don't forget. :D

If you change modes to try them out - don't forget to reload the plugin after each time.

So try the new test mode, prepare your control pages and triggers and create a Schedule Trigger for the real run like me and just don't forget to uncheck the other mode options before the 23rd December.

Thanks for testing and let me know if you have any problems.

Best regards and seasons greetings


Mike

Posted on
Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:18 pm
RogueProeliator offline
User avatar
Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: REALTIME Santa Tracker ready for Christmas - 0.3.01

Mike:

I started to put this into my live system (procrastination, I know) and started getting this error:
Code: Select all
  Santa Tracker Error             Error in plugin execution runConcurrentThread:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "plugin.py", line 1223, in runConcurrentThread
  File "plugin.py", line 1777, in timeNowCalc
<type 'exceptions.TypeError'>: 'int' object is unsubscriptable

Thoughts? I did not have the previous beta that I had tested on this live system, this is a fresh install.

Thanks!
Adam

Posted on
Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:24 pm
RogueProeliator offline
User avatar
Posts: 2501
Joined: Nov 13, 2012
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: REALTIME Santa Tracker ready for Christmas - 0.3.01

Scratch that error, I tried re-enabling and re-saving the configuration and all went well. Ghosts in my system methinks!

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