vB Weather Mk. 2

This is a post of a much-revised hack originally posted (by myself) here. I am posting this as a new hack because MSNBC, who the raw weather data is provided through, has changed their source provider (from AccuWeather to The Weather Channel), which required a retooling of the data parsing code, as well as completely new databases. I have also made obsolete the weather_functions.php file, moving the functions to admin/functions.php, simplifying the ability to show current weather data on any page (if desired). Finally, in what I'm sure will be welcome news to many people who have installed the original, I've completely rewritten the instructions, making them, as far as I can tell, much simpler.

If you are unfamiliar with the original: This hack provides current weather conditions and a five-day forecast to your members. Each member can select from over 34,000 cities, by narrowing down from region (like continents), country, and subdivision (like states). Each member can also select to see temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius, as well as metric or standard measurements for the other data.

A demo is available on my test board: http://www.jjr512.com/testboard/. I have set up an account for anyone to use to test it out (username: test; pw: test). If you are not logged in, you will see default weather on the home page (default is set to New York City), and cannot change settings (I forget if you can view a detailed forecast, though; you may be able to). If you do log in, you can change the settings for the test account, to see how it works.

***
If you have installed any previous version, you should completely uninstall it. Read the instructions and work backwards from there: Delete all templates added, remove changes to any existing templates (I forget if there were any or not), delete all new tables from the database, delete all new files added by the old hack. All have been changed to some extent, some more than others, and it would be easier to work from a clean slate. Especially since some of the template names have changes, so if you don't delete the old ones, they'll just be sitting there doing nothing at all. It is also vitally important to delete (or "drop") the tables--I believe there were six--you added for the original version. The new ones have different data and, for some, a different structure, so do not just empty them. Remove them totally.

Good luck!

Change Log
v1.1a: Current Version: Corrects a small error where an incorrect variable was used in the code to show the local time of the last update. If you already have v1.1, you only need to do the fix described in Post #82 below.
v1.1: Changes display of last update time to be the correct time in the user's own local time zone; previously, it was always Eastern Time (GMT-5) (Upgrade instructions are in Post #79 below). Also breaks the weather_city.sql into six smaller pieces (useful only to new installations; existing installations need not worry about this).
v1.0a: Adds instructions on how to add location to current weather on forums home page (changes to code added to index.php and forumhome_weather template).
v1.0: Original Release

[Ian]

I'm having trouble putting weather_city.sql in the database... Looks like it's timeing out, how do I split the file?

Thanks in advanced! :banana:

[JJR512]

Ian, open the file up...you can use Notepad (or any plain-text editor)...Just copy a bunch of lines, paste into a new file, name it 1.sql (or whatever). I'd try splitting it into thirds at first. Each line starts with INSERT INTO and ends in );

For the record, anyone installing it now and not getting current weather info...this is a problem from the source, not the hack (just saw my own city was like this, checked a few random other US cities and saw the same thing).

[Ian]

Is there a quicker way? It takes forever to highlight all those lines(there must be a shortcut)

[JJR512]

Put the cursor at the beginning of the file. Scroll down (with the scroll bar) about a third of the way down. Hold down the Shift key, then click at the beginning of a line there. That will highlight everything between where the cursor was and where you put it.

[Itworx4me]

Hi all,

I hope JJR512 doesn't mine. I added this to his hack. This will tell you what city,state, and country right after Your Current Weather. This will show on your forum home page. Your Current Weather For (City),(state),(country).

Find in forumhome_weather template

Your Current Weather

Then Add this right after Weather

For $weatherdata[city], $weatherdata[subdiv], $weatherdata[country]

Thanks for a wonderful hack JJR512

[Boofo]

Ok, I got everything installed and it works good except that I only have the 5-day forecast now and no current weather. There is no icon and all there are zeros for the current weather but the 5-day forecast works great! Also, the force update still doesn't work for me. Could it be that my ISP is using PHP version 4.2.2 on the server, as to why the force update doesn't work? (JJR512, I notice your server uses version 4.1.2.)

[Erwin]

Works great, JJ. The only problem is that the default NY, USA weather for guests doesn't work - there is the "Offline" icon, and no numbers. Any ideas?

[Erwin]

I see... the NY, NY, USA weather results are not showing for CURRENT weather, but the 5-day forecast is showing... weird.

Other cities seem okay.

[Boofo]

Erwin,

Can you check Des Moines, Iowa, USA and see if it shows the current weather for you, please?

Originally posted by Erwin
I see... the NY, NY, USA weather results are not showing for CURRENT weather, but the 5-day forecast is showing... weird.

Other cities seem okay.

[Erwin]

Other cities are working, though. For example, Melbourne Australia works great... it's unfortunate that the default city is not working... Any ideas?