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

[350Chevy]

We're both in the US, and the no temperature thing happens no matter what country, state, city, ect..ect.. you choose.

I wish it were that simple, but it's not. Something isn't right with the code.

[Julio]

Wrong! - I have no problems at all with this hack... I always get info (except once) even in my local testboard I get info.

As I told you, I did some tests changing country, city, etc and I have never get some info on some of them... Though Im lucky that I get info for my country.

(Read your PM)

[350Chevy]

Originally posted by Julio
Wrong! - I have no problems at all with this hack... I always get info (except once) even in my local testboard I get info.

As I told you, I did some tests changing country, city, etc and I have never get some info on some of them... Though Im lucky that I get info for my country.

(Read your PM)

WRONG! lol... Just because it works on your server doesn't mean everyone elses is configured the same or that it works on theirs.

Read your PM...

As I stated before SOME servers run fine with this hack as others do not. There are multple people with this same problem check this very thread. I have 40+ mods installed and not a single problem with one but this one. Actually this one works, it just doesn't show the temperature no matter what city, state, country, continent, ect..ect..ect.. you set it to. There's nothing wrong with the way I've entered the code. PlurPlanet has had this same problem on one of his test servers as well. He's also applied, unapplied, then reapplied the mod to that same server with the same results just as I have and others.

[Nick Tofteland]

2. Create new tables in your database using the file create_tables.txt. You can copy the entire contents of the file and
paste into the query window in phpMyAdmin, or you could run each query individually through telnet. Please ask in at
vbulletin.org if you need help in this regard.

can somebody please explain this to me so i can understand what i need to do. thanks!

[EvilLS1]

Originally posted by Nick Tofteland
2. Create new tables in your database using the file create_tables.txt. You can copy the entire contents of the file and
paste into the query window in phpMyAdmin, or you could run each query individually through telnet. Please ask in at
vbulletin.org if you need help in this regard.

can somebody please explain this to me so i can understand what i need to do. thanks!

phpMyAdmin is a database administration tool which lets you run remote queries to create, alter, copy, or drop tables/fields from your MySQL database. You can download it here: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/

Once you've installed phpMyAdmin, you simply copy the query from the hack and paste it into the query window and hit the "go" button.

I believe there's also hacks availible here which allow you to run queries in your ACP. Check the "how to install a hack" thread. Maybe there's more info there.

Julio,
Other people have had the same problem with the missing temps and I'm absolutley positive that I've installed the hack correctly, so I'd have to agree with 350Chevy that its something else.

[EvilLS1]

I just checked the weather_userdata table in my database and the fields for temp, realfeel, and all the forecasthighs & forecastlows are empty. I looked at the "insert into weather_userdata" code in weather.php to see if I could find any errors, but it looks fine to me. So all I can figure is that it has something to do with how its retrieving the data from the weather site. *shrugs*

[Katman]

Does anyone know how to turn this into a non-vB add-on? I've been looking for a PHP Weather script for another site of mine but I haven't been able to find one that works like this one.

I can create the database and add the tables and upload the images but it's the vB templates that have me confused. I need to turn the templates into .php files.

[Tony DiMera]

This is a great hack

[jbear6]

Originally posted by Tony DiMera
This is a great hack

I agree, and would like to say "Thanks Again", our members love this hack.

[Doc203]

What a great hack. Installed beautifully and really looks nice.