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AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/07/16

General topics related to Rainmeter.
sgtevmckay

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by sgtevmckay »

I feel the risks are worth it, and in the long run, i am not alone; per say.

I did explain the situation, but there is also this to keep in mind, and it was pointed out to me by Mr. Sylvie. They give feeds for forecastfox, there is approximately 30, 000 draws to the IP at any given moment, and they have not had to kill the feed yet.
Forecastfox (Firefox Add-on) is their single largest Bandwidth draw, and their own software coming in second.

They believe that we will do just fine.

Ultimately I will do what I can, but as mentioned before, I am no cop; at least not any more. As Rainy suggested, I am going to go on the faith of the community, and that we are mostly competent individuals.
I will not take responsibility to keep our access, but will get it going, I made this very clear to the folks at AccuWeather. If the feed goes down, then ultimately we all lose. No one person will be responsible, if we all do what we can.

I do not wish to sound like Hard A**, but ultimately I will have done what I can, once I bring the code. I will guarantee nothing more beyond that.

It is what I can do, and I have no fear for mine or Rainmeters reputation in this matter. AccuWeather now knows exactly what they are getting into.

Have faith, I who had none a few months ago have seen glorious things happen for us here at the Rainmeter community. If this flies, then maybe the next time, we can get something really good going. As I have been reading, GM and others have been working out a Stock market feed.
If we are all good Raineers, i may be able to get us direct feed access, but I would like to have a history of fair and equitable use of feeds to take to the necessary commission. It is possible, and a direct XML, would be a heck of a lot better than our beloved GhostMage attempting to Parse heaven from hell.

Not to mention I have Mr. Sylvie looking into and annual cost to get the 15 day forecast for us, if it is affordable, even and indigent like myself, maybe able to afford to get something really good going, but I am not holding my breath on that. Just a pipe dream :roll:

If this works, more can , and will, come.

Ultimately I am a greedy SOB. and I am doing this as much for myself as for the community. The extra work that has gone into this, is my way of contributing, to make up for the ways I can not.
There are those here that are making incredible sacrifices, why should I do no less!?!!

Don't worry; "I Think this is the start a beautiful friendship"
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bhadkow
Posts: 36
Joined: May 5th, 2009, 7:28 am

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by bhadkow »

jsmorley wrote:Given that the worst case scenario is that they shut the feed down, I don't see any problem with this.

I am a tad concerned with you taking on in any way any responsibility for seeing to it that their conditions are met, but that is up to you. You are not going to make friends by sending comments on DeviantArt or Customize.org telling authors that they are not using the approved AccuWeather logo or that they didn't display attribution on the skin, but only in the .ini.

One thing you can be sure of.... Someone, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon - will put in an Update=1000 and forget to put in an UpdateRate= in the measure and will proceed to beat their API like a red-headed stepchild. I do wish they would either put a hits-per-hour limit per IP address or consider blocking by IP address when they see problems instead of emailing YOU about a skin out there somewhere that you have no way of even knowing about and then shutting down the whole thing when you can't do anything about it.

Just my two cents... If they are opening up a lot more data elements than are available through their public feed today (as well as for 5 days instead of 3) then I'm sure some cool skins can be made with it and it should be fun!

there is a full 100% possibility that this may happen! but i believe the cases where this is deliberately done will be almost zero., and to avoid any mistakes i suggest we create a manual for skinning as fast as possible. we can include in it some guidelines where they have to be followed no matter what for a greater good., explaining the reasons. keeping everything crystal clear.

sir, u have created a very good tutorial about parsing web pages. so in the same way tutorials (or a manual) must be created covering the very first basics ( all of the basics and examples for simple measures and meters), then moving on to extra details and complex measures and meters etc etc.,

the current manual available is great source but it's not the idle format., one would prefer reading a story than a dictionary !!! so its very essential that we (all raineers) lend out a hand in creating ultimate 'droplet' book (manual) ., and i am pretty sure it can be done within a very short time..,

if i may suggest.,

we know that rainmeter lacks in certain areas., so we keep all these areas aside and cover everything where it excels., and as developments occur we modify the 'remaining' parts where necessary. its very very essential that manual be crystal clear and clear all doubts of the user (skinner)., and, sir, ur idea of online manual is exactly the one thats necessary for keeping everything simple!! 'online manual - wiki' is the way to go., for example ,folks at xbmc (popular supercool media center software) have created just the same.

( http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual )

i think the manual with proper guidelines can solve most of the problems like we currently face in this thread.

vote for the manual!! :mrgreen:

ps: if 'everyone' lends a hand i believe even rome can be built in a day!! :D
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GhostMatrix
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 141
Joined: April 18th, 2009, 8:26 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada 45.5658°N, 73.5898°W UTC -5

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by GhostMatrix »

>sgtevmckay<
Due to the understanding of who we are, we will be essentially given Carte Blanche, with exceptions noted above.
Apparently their tech gut was very impressed and expressed and appreciation for seeing a resurrection of Rainmeter.
Two words that I don't need any translation for is "Carte Blanche", and I like those two words!
As of this time, we will not even be required to create a default skin.

Personal Note:
It would be nice if we did.
You can bet that I will!
So you will be able to send them their Rainy Droplet file, so they can upload it on their AccuWeather products download page if they want to ...

GM
If at first you don't succeed; call it version 0.1

Image
sgtevmckay

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by sgtevmckay »

@ GhostMage

This is incredibly Gracious of you, and I thank you in advance.
sgtevmckay

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/06/04

Post by sgtevmckay »

Need some help. I have a search URL (XML), and I need to create a search GUI via HTML, and I do not immediately remember how.

The following example is what I have:

Find all cities named London:
http://rainmeter.accu-weather.com/widget/rainmeter/city-find.asp?location=london

London can be changed to any location for a complete AccuWeather location Search.

I just need to build an HTML GUI to place to my web site and I will volunteer the space, so that Raineers have a place to go that will deal solely with their weather location.

Basically, I need to build a short end Search engine in HTML, based/connected on/to the URL above, and I do not immediately remember how :oops:
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/06/04

Post by jsmorley »

sgtevmckay wrote:Need some help. I have a search URL (XML), and I need to create a search GUI via HTML, and I do not immediately remember how.

The following example is what I have:

Find all cities named London:
http://rainmeter.accu-weather.com/widget/rainmeter/city-find.asp?location=london

London can be changed to any location for a complete AccuWeather location Search.

I just need to build an HTML GUI to place to my web site and I will volunteer the space, so that Raineers have a place to go that will deal solely with their weather location.

Basically, I need to build a short end Search engine in HTML, based/connected on/to the URL above, and I do not immediately remember how :oops:
I'm not sure I am following what you are looking for. You want a web page where a user can enter their city in a field and it will send a request to "http://rainmeter.accu-weather.com/widget/rainmeter/city-find.asp" adding the requested city on to the end as a ?parameter... Is that it?

If so, I can post the HTML / Javascript. Let me know if that is the goal.
sgtevmckay

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by sgtevmckay »

That is correct, and then returning the values, which could be several.

So far I have entered a search that returned 100+ line values.

Nothing fancy, and I am willing to run the code from my Windows live business web page.

Although a Rainmeter header would be nice.

And I would appreciate to keep the AccuWeather necessaries at the end of the example XML.
Actually it is an active XML, and you can change your location in the URL after the "=" sign to anything you want

If I have the images and the HTML code I can add it to my site very easily

Also, since I have you here:

You had mentioned you knew which code line in the forum format to change to get the forum width to 100% over the 800 wide that it is now?

If I could get that too, it would be great Morley-Sama
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by jsmorley »

sgtevmckay wrote:That is correct, and then returning the values, which could be several.

So far I have entered a search that returned 100+ line values.

Nothing fancy, and I am willing to run the code from my Windows live business web page.

Although a Rainmeter header would be nice.

And I would appreciate to keep the AccuWeather necessaries at the end of the example XML.
Actually it is an active XML, and you can change your location in the URL after the "=" sign to anything you want

If I have the images and the HTML code I can add it to my site very easily

Also, since I have you here:

You had mentioned you knew which code line in the forum format to change to get the forum width to 100% over the 800 wide that it is now?

If I could get that too, it would be great Morley-Sama
Ahhh... Creating a page to let the user enter a city name and submit it to that AccuWeather site is easy. It's just a "FORM" with and "INPUT" field and a simple javascript redirect to the AccuWeather site putting the ?Location=cityname at the end of the URL. Cake. They would get output from the AccuWeather page which looks like this:

Code: Select all

<adc_database>
−
<citylist us="10" intl="2" extra_cities="0">
<location cnt="1" city="Fairfax" state="CA" location="94930"/>
<location cnt="2" city="Fairfax" state="IA" location="52228"/>
<location cnt="3" city="Fairfax" state="MN" location="55332"/>
<location cnt="4" city="Fairfax" state="MO" location="64446"/>
<location cnt="5" city="Fairfax" state="OK" location="74637"/>
<location cnt="6" city="Fairfax" state="SC" location="29827"/>
<location cnt="7" city="Fairfax" state="SD" location="57335"/>
<location cnt="8" city="Fairfax" state="VA" location="22030"/>
<location cnt="9" city="Fairfax" state="VT" location="05454"/>
<location cnt="10" city="Fairfax Station" state="VA" location="22039"/>
<location cnt="1" city="Fairfax" state="Canada(Manitoba)" location="NAM|CA|MB|FAIRFAX"/>
<location cnt="2" city="Fairfax" state="New Zealand" location="OCN|NZ|NZ000|FAIRFAX"/>
</citylist>
<copyright>Copyright 2009 AccuWeather.com</copyright>
−
<use>
This document is intended only for use by authorized licensees of AccuWeather.com. Unauthorized use is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
</use>
<product>rainmeter</product>
<redistribution>Redistribution Prohibited.</redistribution>
</adc_database>
If having the users get this page as the result is the goal, it's easy...

Getting the results "back" and formatting the results on a page you control is another animal. That would be a bit of a challenge, and nothing that standard HTML can do. As soon as you "submit" the request to the AccuWeather site, the user's browser goes there, and you no longer are in the driver's seat. You can't capture the "result" in HTML/Javascript, they have completely left your web page as soon as they submit the request.

You would have to write an application, probably in PHP, to open a socket to the AccuWeather site, submit the HTML request, capture the return as a stream, parse and display it in HTML. Take a bit more effort than just some HTML code. Could be done, but I'd need to know what kind of control you have of your web site. Is PHP installed? Do you have FTP access to the site? Which web server software is running? (Apache, IIS, other?)

As I said, if the goal is to have the user get the unformatted XML back from AccuWeather, it's easy. If you want to have a page where they submit the request with the city, stay on your server, and jump to a page we format up pretty with the results, then it will take a web-based "program", not just an HTML page.

Let me know what you think. I have a server I control where I can develop and test an approach, and then, assuming we have PHP and FTP access on your site, just move it over when it is done.
sgtevmckay

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by sgtevmckay »

For my site, I have elected to turn off the FTP, and there is no DB support.

the next best option would be to add it to the forum somehow?

Although considering the small bandwidth load, I am not opposed to this idea, and since the skins would instruct folks to come here to get their code, it would be a great free draw to the forum and the code site at large.

Thoughts?
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/05/29

Post by jsmorley »

sgtevmckay wrote:For my site, I have elected to turn off the FTP, and there is no DB support.

the next best option would be to add it to the forum somehow?

Although considering the small bandwidth load, I am not opposed to this idea, and since the skins would instruct folks to come here to get their code, it would be a great free draw to the forum and the code site at large.

Thoughts?
Don't really need MySQL for this effort, just PHP and a way to get to the site to upload and edit code. Understand that this has nothing to do with the forum software, and would be installed in a completely different directory at the same level in the directory tree as "forum". No risk to the forums or any changes needed to the forums.

The forum site has everything we need, and yeah, doing it on the the forum site would be best in any case, so the users go to http://rainmeter.net/city_code or whatever you want to call it, instead of having to remember a completely different URL like http://sgtevmckays_anime_chicks.com/city_code.

:D

You haven't really answered my overall question though... Is what I am describing what you have in mind, or is having the user get the raw XML back enough? If it is the former, and you want to capture and pretty up the results, I may need a day or two. If it is the latter, and the XML from AccuWeather is good enough, it's 1/2 hour.