Updated weather plug-in posted

[Jeff]

Update located at http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Plugin/Weather

2005–10–05 :

• Update parsing code for new MSNBC page layout
  
• Added more weather string to weather image mappings
  
• Made downloading of maps other than the doppler radar maps optional (to save memory)
  
• Added config option to skip loading information on startup, in which case it will be downloaded the first time it is accessed (or the first time it is auto-updated for the video archive panel, if that config option is set).
  
• Fixed various bugs and made other small enhancements.
  

[KingArgyle]

Jeff, something you might want to consider doing is adding an option to get the weather information from a web service, instead of having to parse the information directly from the MSNBC site, which changes periodacly.

A SOAP web service can be found here:

http://www.capescience.com/webservices/a...ndex.shtml

It looks like it only works with airport codes, but it should give most people fairly accurate information, and as long as the service doesn't change, you shouldn't have to write specific parsing code for the plugin each time. The webservice is free of charge, too.

One more to check out as well:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/

[Jeff]

I've looked at a few web services, in fact the original weather plug-in used one. The problem so far is that I have not found when that gives as much information for as many places. I'd love to switch if you come across a full-featured one.

Jeff

[KingArgyle]

You'll probably want to look at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/ as it seems to be the most robust weather web service.

[tieke]

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/forecasts/xml/ ...seems to be the most robust weather web service.

I may be wrong, but it looks like this is only for the US. Are you suggesting that the weather plugin should look up different sources for different countries? The capescience site did provide international data, but of course no forecasting information, simply current conditions.

[Old Dog]

Try this link for international weather...
http://mobile.wunderground.com/

and this example for Christchurch, New Zealand...
http://mobile.wunderground.com/global/st...93780.html

-David

[Ambro]

Try this link for international weather...
http://mobile.wunderground.com/

and this example for Christchurch, New Zealand...
http://mobile.wunderground.com/global/st...93780.html

-David

The information seems to be kept up to date more than MSNBC, and the info seems moreso accurate, at least for Aust.

[Old Dog]

The information seems to be kept up to date more than MSNBC, and the info seems moreso accurate, at least for Aust.

and the display layout (parsing context) seems stable...

[e268]

It seems to be that MSNBC got the weather from weather.com. So, if any change is contemplated, may be it is better to get it from the source.