Wishlist feature: Convigurable units.

[mrdunk]

One for the wish list:
Could we have an options menu where we could change from imperial to metric units?
eg: https://openwaters.io/tides/stations/ticon/port_ellen_islay-isl-gbr-bodc shows all tide heights in ft.
Let's not talk about fathoms. I think if i dug through my attic i'd still find charts labeled as such but i doubt there's anyone left using them in the real world.

Bonus points would be to allow all units to be converted.
"Nearby Stations" currently shows "mi". I assume this is "statute miles"? I'd imagine "km" would be the preference for most of the world although i'd appreciate "NM" (Nautical Miles) as well.

Also, i'd imagine configurable timezones might be useful for some. When doing chart work, i always work in UTC but anglers, surfers, canoeists, etc likely work with daylight savings applied.

I regularly go looking for a web page that displays tidal heights for some obscure part of the world. I think Open Waters this has the potential to get usage outside opensource navigation. The UI is more clean and responsive compared to anything else out there. Add the wide geographical coverage and i think you have a winner.

[bkeepers]

Just out of curiousity, are you in the US? It currently should use your browser's locale to decide imperial vs metric and use imperial for us weirdos in the US.

I agree with all your suggestions and will make it configuable soon. I'm hoping to push some big changes to the tide charts this week. The current version is something I just quickly cobbled together a couple weeks ago.

Bonus points would be to allow all units to be converted. "Nearby Stations" currently shows "mi". I assume this is "statute miles"? I'd imagine "km" would be the preference for most of the world although i'd appreciate "NM" (Nautical Miles) as well.

If the current auto-unit selection is working right, it should defauilt to km outside the US. Great suggestion on also allowing nm vis statute miles.

Also, i'd imagine configurable timezones might be useful for some. When doing chart work, i always work in UTC but anglers, surfers, canoeists, etc likely work with daylight savings applied.

Good idea. I'll update it to allow toggling between.

I regularly go looking for a web page that displays tidal heights for some obscure part of the world. I think Open Waters this has the potential to get usage outside opensource navigation. The UI is more clean and responsive compared to anything else out there. Add the wide geographical coverage and i think you have a winner.

Thanks I have high hopes for what this site can become. Please keep giving feedback! It's really appreciated.

[mrdunk]

It currently should use your browser's locale to decide imperial vs metric and use imperial for us weirdos in the US.

Huh. interesting.
Yup, it looks like this laptop's browser (Firefox 147.0.4 (64-bit)) has "en-us". Since the IT industry is fairly US-centric, that tends to be the default for english speakers the world over.

I'm in Ireland so setting that to "en-ie" does indeed cause OpenWaters to display metric units. Nice.
So a case of user error then. If a somewhat obscure example...

[bkeepers]

So a case of user error then. If a somewhat obscure example...

Nah, a case of software trying to be too smart and failing. Glad it's working for you, but I'll get a UI for settings soon.

[bkeepers]

@mrdunk I'm working on some big changes to tide stations in #7. I was wondering if you could help me test it out and get feedback. It includes toggles for units, datums, and timezone. Any and all feedback on that PR is welcome.

I didn't add nm yet, but still intend to eventually, I just want to think a little more about how/where to configure that since it really only matters for nearby station distance.

[mrdunk]

hi @bkeepers , sure.
Not sure when i'll get time to look at the code. Started new job yesterday so busy.
But here's some observations from clicking about in OpenWaters:

A port i used to use a lot when i was a kid displays a very minor issue:
https://openwaters-io-git-neaps-react-openwaters.vercel.app/tides/stations/ticon/port_ellen_islay-isl-gbr-bodc
Port Ellen can have multiple HW peaks within ~2 hours of each other. When that happens, the height and time text overlaps for the peaks.
The mouse-over effect still works so the UI is still usable. Just not very pretty.

I like the drop downs for datum, units and timezone.
They are sticky for me so whatever i select stays the default even after browser refresh.
I think this is sane behavior.

The mouse-over effect for the near-by station map moving to the station is fun.
I discovered it quite by accident.
I wonder how you could hint to the user that this is more than just a static link of stations?
Maybe make them look like links so the user at least knows they can use that they can click there?

A minor bug with the near-by station map:

1. Go to a station.
2. Change to a differnt browser tab.
3. Wait ~5 seconds.
4. Switch back to the OpenWaters browser tab.
5. Observe "Failed to load stations" message.

Firefox 148.0 (64-bit) running under Linux if that makes a difference.

[bkeepers]

Thanks @mrdunk for your feedback!

Not sure when i'll get time to look at the code. Started new job yesterday so busy.

Congrats! No worries about looking at the code, your feedback as a user is more important.

A port i used to use a lot when i was a kid displays a very minor issue:
https://openwaters-io-git-neaps-react-openwaters.vercel.app/tides/stations/ticon/port_ellen_islay-isl-gbr-bodc
Port Ellen can have multiple HW peaks within ~2 hours of each other. When that happens, the height and time text overlaps for the peaks.

Woah, that's a fun one! I've added it to my "Weird test stations" list. I wonder if openwatersio/neaps#220 will fix some of that by filtering out the intermediate extremes that aren't truely extremes.

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll work on fixing it.

[mrdunk]

Yea, Port Ellen is a weird case. Not much tide range and weird graph shape.
Southampton is another one that i know of with unexpected patterns: https://openwaters-io-git-neaps-react-openwaters.vercel.app/tides/stations/ticon/southampton-sou-gbr-da_idh
I know i've seen much more pronounced examples too... but too long ago to remember where.

A thought about where to put the distance units selector:
As long as you only intend to use distances with the "near stations" list, i think it would fit OK as a drop down just below that list.

Anyway, it's looking good.