like flickr is for photos, environmentxml is for your data feeds...
More detailed information about why this was set up is available here. However, briefly, the aim of the environmentXML website is to be able to tag and share data (just like you can tag and share photos on flickr).
If you have a project (software or hardware) that is able to serve XML (for example, built in Processing; or using the soon-to-arrive Arduino ethernet, which could be untethered; or even for the moment using an Arduino tethered to Processing) then you can share your data variables with other people and you can also borrow data from their projects in order to make remote connections between projects, devices, objects, environments...
A Processing library and example template are available here: EnvironmentXML processing library. The example should work right out the box with no configuring.
This library makes use of the Processing's net library. XML parsing is based on proXML by Christian Riekoff. As of March 2007, it is no longer necessary to import these into Processing since the relevant classes have been added to the library.
You can receive input XML from the EnvironmentXML website simply by clicking on a location or a tag and then selecting the datastream URL which will serve XML containing various datastreams identified by a number of tags. Paste this URL into the template at the required point.
In order to add your output XML to the EnvironmentXML website you will, for the moment, have to contact me for the URL and password (make sure you know your IP address). It's a pretty straightforward process from that point.
exml [ at ] haque [ dot ] co [ dot ] uk
News and updates
- 07.06.06 -- Historical EnvironmentXML data is now stored by the server, with updates every 15 minutes (this may change in future). This means you can now access a text file containing comma-delimited historical data, or you can view graphs which track this data. Look for the "history" or "graph" links on all pages.
- 07.06.06 -- EnvironmentXML data can now be updated by mobile phone. If you have a device/environment that is not connected to the internet, but which is situated somewhere with mobile phone coverage, then you can use a GSM modem to send an SMS to update your EnvironmentXML feed. See here for an example placed on a roof in London. Please contact us for further information on how to enable this for your stream.
- 07.03.29 -- New version of EnvironmentXML Processing library is available; it is now completely asynchronous which means that there are only 2 classes to know about; there is a new 'serverMessage()' method from which it is usually possible to determine the IP address of the remotely accessing client; and proXML and processing.net classes have been embedded in the library so that only one single library needs to be added.
- 06.11.29 -- EnvironmentXML Processing library now has asynchronous output objects and methods.
- 06.11.25 -- EnvironmentXML Processing library now has asynchronous input objects and methods.
- 06.11.24 -- EnvironmentXML Processing library released.
- 06.11.21 -- EnvironmentXML now works with floats.
- 06.11.19 -- Changed xml url format to /xml/[locationid].xml (instead of /xml.php?locationid=[locationid])
- 06.11.19 -- Added "age" attribute to the environment element; this is the number of seconds since the data was updated -- useful for determing locally whether a feed is live or frozen.
- 06.11.10 -- EnvironmentXML is live and ready to accept feeds.
- 06.10.27 -- EnvironmentXML is in testing.