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

[Tony DiMera]

I know it has Midhurst and Barrie, Ontario, Canada with it. I was wondering if and how I can add Midland, Ontario, Canada?

[Katman]

New problem, just started today!

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Temporary failure in name resolution in /home2/www/katanaplanet/forums/index.php on line 621

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to www.msnbc.com:80 in /home2/www/katanaplanet/forums/index.php on line 621

Does this happen because msnbc.com is down or cannot be connected to by my site? Or is there some other explanation?

[Katman]

I guess no one cares that this hack doesn't work anymore?

[lifesourcerec]

Originally posted by PsYc



you have to put all .sql files via myphpadmin in the tables you created, only if you have transfered all content in these tables it will work

cities1-5.sql

region.sql

subdiv.sql

etc..

uploaded all files and still get same error

[lifesourcerec]

Got it work.. but the [forecasticon*] not working. Where would this be located to fix?

[Tony DiMera]

I am always getting a white box with an X in it for the icon. This is the URL of the icon, http://www.mysite.com/forums/images/weather/.gif As you can see it is always trying to find an image icon that is .gif no matter what the weather is, and I don't have a .gif image icon.

[TalkHardRandy]

I have a quick question... does anyone have an upgrade procedure from the original to the current version? I was starting to try to figure one out but gave up and decided to see if anyone else had one.

I tried to make the changes suggested way back when to the weather.php, but that didn't work.

[BaBa2002]

it will not show the images?

how can i fix that

[Tony DiMera]

*bump*

[wild texas]

read post #1 in this thread -- it provides detailed instructions on how to upgrade if you were running the old MSNBC feed, started losing data, etc.

Doesn't help you folks running the latest version, which properly accesses The Weather Channel feed, if you're not getting data for some reason...but it works fine for me (and I was getting data only erratically before I found the upgrade and realized the feed had switched sources.)