vB Weather: Give your members current weather and forecasts!

After seeing a weather feature at the vbPortal website, and finding out that I couldn't get it for free, I determined to create it for myself, and give it away to everyone for FREE.

So here it is. It's based in part upon the original MyWeather add-on module for PHP-Nuke, which as I understand was also the basis for the add-on module for vbPortal. Anyway, I basically used the part of the PHP-Nuke module that gets the raw data and parses it into a usable format, although I reworked it some and corrected a few bugs. I wrote on my own the rest of the code which handles and displays the data, along with letting the user select his/her location (to localize the weather), number formats (like ?F or C, winds in mph or kmph, etc.), and various other little bits.

I've done as much testing on it as I can on my own, and have had it running on my own production forums for about a day now. Several people have commented that they really love the feature, that it's almost getting to the point where they don't have to go anywhere else on the Internet. I haven't heard of any complaints or problems yet, though, so I'm reasonably certain it's fit for a full release.

You can demo the hack on my message board: JJR512.com. The first part you should look at is the box that appears in the column of boxes on the left side of the home page. This box displays basic current weather info. There are two links in that box, one to see the forecast, and the other to change settings. I forget if you need to be logged in to see the forecast--it may just show you a forecast for the default location, which is Central Park, New York City, NY, USA--but you definitely need to be logged in to change settings. For the purpose of seeing this hack in action, you can login as Test User using the password testuser. Feel free to change the settings and save them, do whatever.

Installing this hack is in some ways easy, in other ways not so easy. There will only be one file modification. However, there are no specific instructions as to which file to edit or how to edit it. If you want the small weather box to show up on your forums home page, you need to edit the associated file (index.php). If you want it to show up somewhere else, then you need to edit whatever file generates the page where you want it. There is a text file in the ZIP that contains all the code, and only the code, that you need to insert into whatever file. If you prefer, you can turn that text file into a .php file (by adding <?php at the beginning and ?> at the end and renaming it to .php) and simply including it in whatever file you need it in.

You will also most likely need to edit the template that makes the weather box. It's formatted to basically make a box as it appears on my site, which is in the middle of some other boxes in a column. If you want to reformat it to appear as a long thing across the top of the page, like the various stuff at the top of the forums home page here at vbulletin.org, that's up to you. You edit the templates to match your own site.

BTW, I would appreciate it if someone better at PHP coding than myself would take a look over this and tell me if I've done everything right or not. I believe the code works and does what I want it to do, but it seems like it might be a little more complex than it needs to or should be. I guess I'm just wondering if there may have been a more efficient way to do some of the things I did. If you have any tips or advice for me, or even want to rewrite the code to show me, I'd really appreciate it.

OK, so without further ado, here's the hack in the attachment. Whatever problems you have, please post them here, and I'll try to help as best I can, but make no guarantees that I can help at all. Please remember that I write my hacks for my own site first and foremost, so they do what I need them to do, not what I think somebody else might want. I choose to release them here in case anybody else can benefit from them, but you may need some part of it to work slightly differently. If I know how to do it I will try to tell you how to do it, but I won't update the hack with every little feature variation that people ask for. In general, I only update my hacks to fix bugs and to add new features that I want or need for my site.

// Change Log]
03b: Includes necessary database change instructions.
03a: Forgot to update 03 ZIP with new templates; fixed.
03: Changed code for new icon system, added code for forecasted weather type (new part of raw data)
02: Adjusted code for new format of weather forecast raw data
01b: Fixed two missing lines from weather_include.txt
01a: Added missing template; updated instructions regarding missing template; fixed $templatesused variable in weather.php; added text file explaining how to add more cities; updated instructions regarding where to get the icons used for this hack
01: Original release

[JJR512]

I don't know about the PHP version, but as for how I have it set up, I have it set up just like the directions say. I wrote the directions based on how I have it set up for my own board.

[Boofo]

In one part of the instructions, you say to make a php file out of weather_include and add the include weather_include to the phpinclude template. But yet, other people have had a problem with the error where it is trying to call that twice. That is the part that is most confusing. The rest is very well written and easy to understand.

Originally posted by JJR512
I don't know about the PHP version, but as for how I have it set up, I have it set up just like the directions say. I wrote the directions based on how I have it set up for my own board.

[DestyNova]

Originally posted by Boofo
In one part of the instructions, you say to make a php file out of weather_include and add the include weather_include to the phpinclude template. But yet, other people have had a problem with the error where it is trying to call that twice. That is the part that is most confusing. The rest is very well written and easy to understand.

I second his post, I have problem with that "confusing" instruction but not only that, I install vbweather at my local server without any problem but when I upload and install at my net server and kept getting blank page. I was puzzled by that and I been spend hours on debuggin this hack out but no luck so far.

Help us pls?

[Lionel]

do not know if this applies to you, but everytime that I install a hack and get a blank page, 99,99% it has to do with the templates, perhaps a mistake in the name, a blank space in it?

[DestyNova]

Umm perhaps but I got it work at my local server but it is not easy to do that either, I have to modify more than several times. Then my computer claim to decide to give me the ugly blue screen after I install new program and eventually lost everything on it.

I have to do it all over again but I didnt do it yet until now, someone PM me so I decide to work it out right now to see how I do that.

[Kars10]

This is one of the best Hacks ive ever see!!!

Klicked installed. Installation was very easy!!

[Boofo]

Did you get it to work right? If so, can you tell us what you did to get it to work? No one else is willing to say anything. We followed the instructions (as confusing as they were in this thread) but cannot get it to force update without everything showing up zeros.

[Erwin]

This is a great hack! Thanks a lot! Works like a charm!



Thanks for sharing it.

[Boofo]

I finally got this hack installed and working. Great Hack! The only problem I am having is when I try to force update, it goes to a blank page with the word "Done" in the staus bar but the last update time is the same as it was before I tried to force update. The numbers are there and the icons show up fine. Any ideas on how to get it to be able to force update?

[Boofo]

Can someone please explain to me why the 5-day forecast shows up as in the attached gif? It seems we are missing some icon images for the weather and the temperature calculations might be a bit off. Any way to get the needed images and temperatures set right? I don't think I've ever seen a forecast that says 4 degrees farenheit is supposed to be HOT.