Use Rainmeter to Monitor Webpage
01 Jul 2016As a System Engineer, I need to monitor the running status of our software. This can be done by monitoring the webpage which publish the products of the software. However it is annoying to open the same webpage multiple times everyday. With the help of Rainmeter, I can put the information of the webpate on my desktop, and do not have to open the webpage manually again.
The information page
The web page shows the products(You need to click Today’s Files in the page to show today’s products). Every day I need to monitor how many files are listed in this webpage.
Rainmeter
Rainmeter is a tool to put customized skins, RSS feeds and weather information, etc on your desktop. There are many Rainmeter themes online and you can easily customize those themes.
Web Parser of Rainmeter
The most important part of this skin is the web parser. Which parses the html and get the list in the page. The time measure MeasureDate is used to get today is date and to format the date to match the format in the URL.
The RegExp is used to extract the name of the file from the html. As the length of the list is unknown. The same match returned multiple times to match all the items in the list.
In the following code:
RegExp=(?siU)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)...Options
| ? | The directives are for the overall expression |
|---|---|
| S | ignore line breaks and tabs |
| i | case insensitive |
| U | Ungreely, return only the first instance of the match on the search string |
Lookahead
To match unknown numbers of repeation, I have to use lookahead assertion
in my
regular expression.
(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)
The (? at the beginning, which pairs the ) at the end is an IF conditional
directive.
The (?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>) is the lookahead assertion.
RainRegExp
To figure out the correct regular expression to use for web parser, you can download a tool called RainRegExp
; get today's date to put into the url
[MeasureDate]
Measure=Time
Format= %Y-%m-%d
[MeasureParent]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=#Station#[&MeasureDate]
RegExp=(?siU)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)...Log
2016-08-16 Occasionally this plugin would dead somehow. Refresh would not work,
just restart Rainmeter would solve the problem. To debug this plugin, just
uncomment debug=2 and check log from Rainmeter.
Code
[Rainmeter]
Update=500
Author= Asurin
[Variables]
Station=http://imars.marine.usf.edu/legacy-names/index.php?area=a05&date=
;-------------------------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------------------------
; a line between title and the list
[MeterLine]
Meter=Image
ImageName=#@#Line.png
X=0
Y=35
W=200
H=3
AntiAlias=1
Group=Current
; transparent background
[MeterBackground]
Meter=Image
SolidColor=0,0,0,1
X=0
Y=0
W=200
H=280
;-------------------------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------------------------
; get today's date to put into the url
[MeasureDate]
Measure=Time
Format= %Y-%m-%d
[MeasureParent]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=#Station#[&MeasureDate]
OnRefreshAction=[!Log "[MeasureDate]"]
RegExp=(?siU)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)(?(?=.*<a href='.*tiff'>).*<a href='.*tiff'>(.*).tiff</a><br />)
Debug=2
[MeasureChild1]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=1
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild2]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=2
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild3]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=3
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild4]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=4
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild5]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=5
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild6]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=6
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild7]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=7
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild8]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=8
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild9]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=9
Substitute="":"No Data!"
[MeasureChild10]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=WebParser
URL=[MeasureParent]
StringIndex=10
Substitute="":"No Data!"
;-------------------------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------------------------
; title
[MeterTextNotes]
Meter=String
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=15
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
FontSize=10
X=50
Y=0
Text="Sat Products"
AntiAlias=1
[MeterData1]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild1
X=0
Y=45
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData2]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild2
X=0
Y=60
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData3]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild3
X=0
Y=75
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData4]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild4
X=0
Y=90
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData5]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild5
X=0
Y=105
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData6]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild6
X=0
Y=120
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData7]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild7
X=0
Y=135
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData8]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild8
X=0
Y=150
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData9]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild9
X=0
Y=165
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData10]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureChild10
X=0
Y=180
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1
[MeterData11]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureDate
X=0
Y=200
W=190
H=280
FontColor=255,255,255
FontSize=12
FontFace=Aovel Sans
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
ClipString=1