The Beginning

Research, July 6, 2020

Research

After Covid started and University ended I was stuck for a project to do. I played around with a few ideas and eventually came up with this idea. A scarper and server to host the data on my network.

Scraper

July 7, 2020

Scraper Software

After using Python previously for a scraper I decided to use it again. I started by finding a pollen counting site, using weather.ie (see image above) which had a nice layout (if terribly awkward class names). I then used my knowledge of Python to gather this data and save it to a text file.
This scraper involves a loop so it will run and update the data every night.

Server Software

Server research & implemtation, July 8, 2020

Server Software

Starting off without much of an understanding I quickly learned. I set my eyes on XAMPP, I got everything downaloded, then hit a roadblock. No matter what I did the installation would fail.
With a hours of work I still made it nowhere. But keep in mind I am running this on an Optiplex 745, with 3gb of ram, a Core 2 Duo and three drives, one of which is almost 10 years old. Also the computer is a decade years old (This will become a major problem later).

Either way with some time I gave up and went in search of something else. Setting eyes on Wamp. After some time of setting up the C++ distributions I had success!

Then blue screen of death...

Website

July 8, 2020

HTML Work

Now that I have the server working and I didnt want to deal with the blue screen. I started working on the visual aspet of the data. I created a small index to pull the data and display in an appealing way. Emulating the weather website to a degree.

Computer

July 9, 2020

Blue Screen

Now I had to deal with the blue screen. The machine I'm working with only has 3gb of ram alongside the other bottle necks. This is an issue for many reasons. I was thinking of ways to fix this when I landed on a better idea. When the computer blue screens it does some diagnostic work then restarts. Instead of fixing the issue, I can just work around it.

I created a script to start all necessary programs on pc start. I also disabled the need for a username and password. So it will log straight in and lastly I disabled the admin window so it does not ask for priviledges on server start.
This adds a satisfactory level of reliability which I am moderately happy with.

Finished

July 9, 2020

Although some work can still be done, for instance tidying the code, for now I am happy with my creation. The Git is linked if you want to have a look. Now its just a matter of seeing how reliable the pc is and if anything breaks with time.

Update: After the server running for a number of days an issue came up, with some time it will completely lock up. Just completely freeze. A Pi Zero may have been the better option, but I will try none the less to fix it.