U.S. based Weather program

[romanoj]

I updated my U.S. zipcode based weather program, "weather_xml". It can be used with firefly or any other HTPC setup. As you may or may not know, I wrote this program to "act" like a plug-in for FIREFLY or Beyond Media Basic since it didn't have a weather plugin.

The program is free. It has no spyware, adware or anything. It is my way of giving something back to the community. It is a simple program to just give you current conditions, upcoming conditions and now a RADAR Map. It can also display an animated RADAR or Satellite images if you provide it the link. See the readme file. It can be found at

http://www.geocities.com/romanoj/weather_xml.html

To use it with Firefly, copy the weather_xml.xml file to your profiles directory.

Enjoy.

[dequire]

Cool. Will check out. Thanks!

[Randall]

Hey romanoj, very cool and your work is much appreciated.

[romanoj]

Thanks. It was fun writing it.

Now, it appears that Snapstream has written a weather plug-in for their Beyond Media program. It's not bad. To me, it's a little crowded with info for viewing at a distance and it lacks radar map. I just got Visual .NET installed so now, I may try to convert my XML program into a plug-in for BM. This will give people choices.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by romanoj

Thanks. It was fun writing it.

Now, it appears that Snapstream has written a weather plug-in for their Beyond Media program. It's not bad. To me, it's a little crowded with info for viewing at a distance and it lacks radar map. I just got Visual .NET installed so now, I may try to convert my XML program into a plug-in for BM. This will give people choices.

That would be great. The BM weather plugin is effective, but a little short on features

[dequire]

romanoj -

This app rocks with live dopper maps!!! Thanks again, and for the FF profile as well. Please consider making a BM skin for it.

-PS, I sent you a 'gift' via PayPAL. Hopefully, more will do the same. Thanks for a great app!

[DanielS]

Yes, how about a BM Skin or Plug-in. A PayPal gift from me to if you could.

[romanoj]

Thanks for the encouragement. I had been concentrating on the MediaMVP BTV skin for the past couple of months. I stopped working on this. I didn't think anyone cared about this program anymore. However, I am suddenly inspired to try to create the BM plugin version of this. Give me a couple of weeks and let me see what I can do. I have to learn the plug-in thing. stay tuned....

p.s. thanks for the paypal gift.

[dequire]

No problem! Good luck on the skin project. Keep us posted.

[david.fagan]

Thanks for a cool plug in. Currently, I am able to get the current weather, but forecasts do not work. I noticed that you are using ejse.com site. It requires a registration to access information. I also noted that you are using rssweather.com for the current weather. The rssweather.com XML feed includes forecasts as well. Can the program use rssweather for everything? Can a username / password be supplied for ejse.com?

[dequire]

Yes, the weather forcast no longer seems to be working for me either.

[romanoj]

It looks like everytime I settle on some free site, they either stop updating it or they change. The ejse.com website change on me. It is still free and still works but you now have to login with username and password. (you register with them). Of course, that broke my program. (also affects the beyondtv MVP skin) I got to fix that.

I want to use rssweather.com for everything but they don't give the high and low temperature predictions in their XML feed. That's why I use ejse.com. If I want the hi/lo from rssweather then I have to parse the html web page. I could do but it will take time to figure out and it is not possible to parse html in Javascript (needed for the MVP)

To make a long story short, I am actively working this on my free nights (yes, I do have a day job) and will find a solution. Just not there yet.. .. and no, I will not use the Weather.com XML feed. They have too many restrictions. I just can't/won't.

If anyone has a good XML feed that does not require a login, let me know. I guess soon or later I can't avoid the login part but it adds complication to the program and user. I wanted it to be nice and easy on the user.

Sorry guys about the broken links. It's out of my control but I am trying to keep up with it.

I am making progress on the BM plug-in but I'm learning how to do plug-ins and learning C# (VB Net) all at the same time. it's tough but i'll get there. thanks for your patience.

Jack

[DanielS]

Originally Posted by romanoj

...I am making progress on the BM plug-in but I'm learning how to do plug-ins and learning C# (VB Net) all at the same time. it's tough but i'll get there. thanks for your patience.
Jack

No worries mate! Take your time and learn, learn, learn. We'll all be here when you're ready. May the "source" be with you.

[dequire]

Glad to hear from you. I'm trying to learn c# as well. What we need is similar to what I saw on Media Portal, which is a complete novice walkthrough in making a plugin for Media Portal in C# using Visual Studio.net. It was well received. Good luck on the skin and weather info.

As an aside, didn't SS make the source code available for the weather module? If so, it would seem that it would be easier to tweak that into what you wanted, as opposed to starting from scratch.

[romanoj]

As an aside, didn't SS make the source code available for the weather module? If so, it would seem that it would be easier to tweak that into what you wanted, as opposed to starting from scratch.

I have not seen the source code for the weather plugin. You're right, it would be easier if I had it. Can someone post the link or send me the source? If not, I will make do with my stock plugin example. I'll get there. It's just matter of how fast I get there.

I'm finding that C# isn't too bad to pickup. It is similar to javascript.