Hi there,
I have been using pvoutput since more than a year, and I am very happy!
Now I have a problem: the device I am using is able to send information on consumption through http that is compatible with pvoutput but: with NO date and NO time (no such parameters I can choose from). This is a big pity.
Do you know any workaround? Any idea what to do? Using a server in between? Would be great to get any idea or help from you!
Thanks, Michal
Is this device using the PVOutput Add Status API to send data?
Date and time are both mandatory data fields for upload.
The device (www.tinycontrol.eu) I use can send almost anything but DATE and TIME using the pvoutput API. So sorry! Any idea of a workaround?
I already requested to add these parameters in future updates, but it can take time…
It doesn’t make sense to omit date and time.
This is an enhancement for tinycontrol to make.
Can I ask why you think it does not make sense? Surely it is at least worth considering extending the API such that if the addstatus message does not contain date and time then the service simply stamps it with the current time. This would seem a trivial addition? Many very small IoT like devices don’t have the capacity to determine date/time.
Sure, we can use the current date time, but requires the system to correctly configure their timezone on PVOutput and batch updates / historic updates are not possible.
Updated to an idea and will implement if there is enough demand.
The user must configure the timezone for his system anyhow so no issue there. Batch updates are still possible for that system if the date+time is specified (e.g. via an offline uploader). This is an enhancement that would obviously only apply to a single real time update from a device which can not provide date+time.
Would be great if you added the ability to add current outputs without date and time: so the system simply takes current time and date.
When I configure my uploader program, I have to give it the timezone of the system because all my data is stored as milliseconds since the epoch. This means that it’s possible to incorrectly configure the uploader.
I think that having the option of excluding the date and time could be useful for uploaders similar to the one I’m using so the time doesn’t get messed up (since my uploader uploads in real time). Personally, I would like if we could give the time in UTC so there’s no possible way for the time to get messed up, but that would probably only be useful to a few uploader programs where the UTC date is known and the exact timezone isn’t.