Is Meteotemolate still being actively developed?

[WessexWeather]

Hi All,

I’ve been using Meteotemplate for several years now, and have spent many hours setting it up, initially with a lot of personal help from Jachym via email. I have also donated twice. In fact it was Jachym that persuaded me to use the template after a post on another forum, on the basis that I would be compiling my own MySQL database from my own data, rather than relying on third party services like Weather Underground.

In the early days the template, blocks and plugins were frequently updated, and Jachym was easily accessible via email. The support was phenomenal and the regular updates were exciting! I tried to encourage him to monetise the project but he was always resistant to this.

I realise the template is now mature, but there are rarely any updates nowadays, and Jachym appears to have moved on to other things and doesn’t respond very often to emails. And the forum seems much less active than it used to be.

I am not criticising Jachym or Meteotemplate in any way - it is clearly the most comprehensive weather template out there and I have huge respect for Jachym and his work. However, I am concerned that the template could become out of date, and subject to insecurities - it already doesn’t appear to function under the latest version of php.

I am worried that I have put too many eggs in one basket. Does anyone else share my fears or am I just being unreasonable?

I’d welcome your comments.

[andyk1]

Like you, I am curious, what the future brings to MT.

[nineback]

I wonder as well.

Tom

[scadie]

Hi,

I also like Meteotemplate and give lot of donation to Jachim to help him to create and maintain the template.

As everyone see, less of updates or new blocks was release. But between me and you, what do you want to see more in the template. Jachim already post he's looking for suggestion for new feature and he's working on the release 18.

But compare of before, he have a better job, personnal life. He's the only one who program all the template and i'm not sure how is going with the donation to help him for all the charge he have (Maintain server, software, etc...) and he need time to do it.

Jachym, you make a great job and I will be happy when the release 18 will get out,

Sorry for my english, French is my main language.

Have a good day.

[SimonB]

I note Jachym has not been online for several days now.

We all recognize that people move on to other things (hell, I'd like to offload some of my web projects), but it would be sad to have such a great product becoming static. That being said, what other things would one see being actively developed in terms of new features? I can't think of anything.

It's also true that the labour of love simply becomes labour. And not generating a decent income from this project could be at play, especially if paid work dominates one's life.

I'm hoping Jachym has some sort of positive strategy he's not telling us.

[WessexWeather]

Yes, he may have something up his sleeve I suppose. I agree that Meteotemplate is mature, and a brilliant piece of design and development. It just needs to be kept abreast of changes in php and changes in data sources that can happen from time to time.

I notice certain blocks are not functioning quite as they used to, and I have a particular issue with a custom block he built for me, that only Jachym can solve. I have asked him for help, but he doesn’t seem to have the time or the interest any more.

I do hope Meteotemplate will continue to be updated, even if the project is passed onto someone else. It would be such a shame to see it fade away.

[captainjackfan10]

I doubt he will give it up! I talked to him the other day..He has other things going on at the moment and I am sure it will get back to it as soon as he gets the time. We just need to be patient!

[andyk1]

I doubt he will give it up! I talked to him the other day..He has other things going on at the moment and I am sure it will get back to it as soon as he gets the time. We just need to be patient!

I hope you are right. He hasn't answered me in a long time. I was getting concerned something was wrong but saw he was still posting on twitter but I can't read his native language. I am just guessing he is very busy with his real job.

[captainjackfan10]

Yes he told me he was busy with his new job and will work on it soon as he gets more free time. I believe he is concentrating on that part of his life at current. I am certain he has not left us?

[WessexWeather]

Yes, I too have now had contact with Jachym, and he has very helpfully resolved the issue with the custom block I mentioned earlier.

He also told me a bit about his new job, which is very interesting and involves a lot of travelling.

It would be a crying shame if such a php masterpiece as this was left to flounder.

[captainjackfan10]

Yes all the work he did in designing it I would hate to see it disappear. I spent lots of ours putting his blocks and plugins to work on my website to show his work in action. Just hope he does not give it up. That means my work and his and everyone who uses the template would be in vein!

[Jachym]

Hi guys,

yes I am still working on MT, behind the scenes sort of... it might seem like there is no further active development. The thing is, I devote about 45-60mins/day on this. However, I get about 3-4 new users daily and about 10-15 emails asking for support. This is something I deal with as a priority and it takes basically 100% of the time I allocated for this.

Hopefully I will be able to devote a bit more time to it in the future, this sprint/summer is very complicated, and this coronavirus pandemic made things even worse for me as I have to deal with things I normally dont have to.

If you are interested in more about this maybe I will just post a link to what I wrote on one weather forum recently:
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic ... #msg401630

I will keep in touch, I am alive and there will be new versions in the future, no worries.

I wish you all the best for now, especially in this difficult time, take care