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

[xug]

I just read at vbportal that they have taken away their weather mod due legal reasons.

http://www.vbportal.com/forums/showt...&threadid=8138

[mcyates]

Doesnt work. Has no images and all the temperatures are 0 (-18*c)

[mcyates]

I checked the weather for Middlesbrough it works on their site (www.msnbc.com) but not on mine?

[gopherhockey]

Weather not working here either - someone break it over at TWC maybe?

[ezdreamer]

Looks like the weather got hosed. Not working either over here. Instead of using msnbc is there anyway to use the weather channel directly?

[ezdreamer]

I have a feeling they put a stop to people with hacks like us from using their weather forecasts.

[scottct1]

Mine is and has been working fine.

You can see it at http://www.dbstalk.com/home.php (you need to be loged in to see it.

[Lionel]

Today at 09:16 PM scottct1 said this in Post #287
Mine is and has been working fine.

You can see it at http://www.dbstalk.com/home.php (you need to be loged in to see it.

nope it does not.... try to show Miami

[gopherhockey]

One would think all they did was change a path or a filename or something along those lines.

How was this thing originally built? Seems it has done this a few times in its life but gotten fixed.

Anyone capable of looking into it?

[jbear6]

Mine is down also, what a shame this is a fantastic hack.