This is where I get tangled up with a code block like this, of which there are several. Up in default config that is showRain: false, so I just stick a showRain: true, in the config.js file. No problem with that. It is the things like label: 'Rain Volume (mm) and the rest. Do the get a css entry along lines of

 .module.MMM-WeatherChart .showRain {
label: 'Rain Volume (mm)';
}
.module.MMM-WeatherChart .dataLabels {
align: 'bottom';
}

These blocks are scattered throughout the script

        if (this.config.showRain) {
            datasets.push({
                label: 'Rain Volume (mm)',
                backgroundColor: this.config.fillColor,
                borderColor: this.config.color,
                borderWidth: 1,
                pointBackgroundColor: this.config.color,
                datalabels: {
                    color: this.config.color,
                    align: 'top'
                },
                data: rains,
                yAxisID: "y2"

this.config.showRain = true is easy.
it is the settings enclosed in the show Rain block. Colors defined prior so just ignore them?

If I have to hunt for CSS and CONFIG settings that are scattered through code, how do I distinguish between the two?

I’m going to move everything over to config.js but it would be nice if the sample config file that people copy paste contained all the configurable items.
If there is a big list in the module code like this sample, can I just copy it in one big block, paste appropriately in config.js, change default to config and bracket appropriately and plug in my values and they’ll override the defaults lines in xyz.js even if they have values plugged in already.
So that this sample config directly below becomes more like the second block?

 modules: [
        {
            "module": "MMM-WeatherChart",
            "position": "top_right",
            **"config":** {
                "apiKey": "xxxx",
                "dataNum": 12,
                "dataType": "hourly",
                "height": "500px",
                "width": "800px",
                "lat": 35.571337,
                "lon": 139.633989,
                "units": "metric",
            }
        },

 defaults: {
        updateInterval: 10 * 60 * 1000,
        retryDelay: 5000,
        apiBase: "https://api.openweathermap.org/data/",
        apiVersion: "2.5",
        apiEndpoint: "onecall",
        apiKey: "",
        lat: "",
        lon: "",
        units: "standard",
        lang: "en",
        chartjsVersion: "2.9.3",
        chartjsDatalablesVersion: "0.7.0",
        height: "300px",
        width: "500px",
        fontSize: 16,
        dataNum: 24,
        timeOffsetHours: 0,
        title: "Weather Forecast",
        iconURLBase: "https://openweathermap.org/img/wn/",
        dataType: "hourly",
        nightBorderDash: [5, 1],
        showIcon: false,
        showRain: false,
        color: 'rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)',
        backgroundColor: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)',
        fillColor: 'rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1)',
        dailyLabel: 'date',
        hourFormat: "24h"
    },

Do updates load to my machine without me knowing? If they do, you’re right, that will be a problem.
If they are announced and I choose then I just copy the whole existing MM complex to sd card.
That way if update is bad I can revert. I imagine most end users are like me. They build a display, configure with a little tweaking and then rarely update,
I have two Pi’s running ADSB receivers and the underlying Raspian OS are several years since I’ve done apt update on either SSH’ed in to one just now. 2017

@sdetweil That’s kind of funny, you hate VNC, I hate SSH. That’s what makes the world go round.
I’m not editing main.css really. At least not yet.

In the case of main.css I need to better understand how it works. If you remember, a few days ago I talked about needing to globally shrink some things, while globally enlarge other items. That was in reference to plugging in Pi to a bigger screen TV. They are about giving away 75" TV’s at Best Buy electronics stores for under $1000.00 so if you use a spare HDMI port on one of those, the modules are huge because the region is huge.

The clock default module would be 2 ft across. In that scenario, one would want to shrink things in the top_left and top_right globally while increasing the center regions for like an iFrame showing weather radar or a live YouTube stream in the middle portion. That also has the side benefit of allowing more modules on the screen the bigger the screen is.

All I’ve changed css that is internal to some of the modules. For example on the default calendar, there is a long list of defaults in the calendar.js file. Those default configuration settings are all basically css-like properties to me. But the calendar config file doesn’t contain that whole list of defaults when you copy from the module web page.

Since I am an end user, I just change the defaults in thecalendar.js file rather than copy it all over to the config.js file,

It gets even more complicated when the module is using an external program such as chartjs or momentjs as a wrapper I think is the term used.

It may not seem apparent but I do try and dig for the answer prior to posting the question.

I use VNC client & server to essentially remote in to the Pi desktop directly. So I sit at Windows 10 laptop and access the Pi desktop.
For me as an end user with terrible typing skills I find VNC much easier to use.

I don’t have a clue how git works under the hood like you and developers do.
I understand conceptually the benefit it provides to developers who may be widely disbursed geographically.

I fired up GEANY which is part of the Pi OS programming software but initially found it very hard to read, so gave VSCode a shot which ended up being a bad choice on my part. I then poked around GEANY early yesterday prior to surgery and found some settings that made the code much more readable. It also looks like there is no built-in ability to commit files back to Github. So will use it going forward.

If an individual uses the automatic install vs manual, does the custom.css file get loaded pre-populated say with the default modules css settings or is it blank?

For me, as an end user with poor typing skills, I see plugging in the css values directly in to the module as steps saved rather than generating that same set over on the custom.css file that is not there initially, since I have no reason to send the original but css edited XYZ.js file back to github.

I think (but am far from sure) that any changes made to to those json files were done by MS VSCode automatically and not directly by me. That’s why I asked VSCode Question about committing changes, etc.

VSCode and Github are both Microsoft products and entities meant to tightly integrate with each other, which I learned somewhat after the fact.
What I think happened was those files were in the commit location, I posted my question and closed VSCode to hopefully get an answer, but clicking close in VSCode caused a commit.

I just want a code editor with a save or save as option that also has good color coding and breaks out the code block hierarchy well.
I want to mess with the code at my end as locally installed files. If I break a module, that’s on me alone then. I then just re-download the file, try to understand why it broke and start over.
I’m not going to learn the language otherwise.
I understand Github is a version control tool among other things but I did not know that a link existed between Github<---------->VSCode so that one doesn’t need to leave VSCode to for it to merge files on closing VSCode, hence my VSCode question.

@sdetweil I got the CalendarEXT2 done per another reply.
I’m following your instructions at link but I get error telling me to either commit or stash clock.js, calendar.js, package-lock.json and package.json.
I copied the contents of calendar, clock, config, css as I needed to do that (with css & config) anyway but my Noobie is showing in not knowing how to commit files. I can move if I need to.
Also, which of those json files are being referred to?
I get a hernia repaired later today so may be a couple of days.

Although you can set either metric or imperial measurements in the chart settings it doesn’t look like there is a calculation to go from mm to inches. Temperatures change no problem but rainVolume is configured as (mm) and I swagged it and changed to (in) but it didn’t do anything. Didn’t even break it.

I have read over the configuration notes for CalendarEXT2 but same problem is occurring on the default Calendar also.
They both say X days until a given event. I want the date and start/stop times for events.
I pulled the link from my Google calendar and it is date and time so don’t really understand where the hang up is. I’ve tried plugging in the formats that are listed on the EXT2 Configuration Settings but nothing works.
Any suggestions are welcome.