XoapWeather 1.1

[Aaron]

Brad,
The location shows up, no problem there.

It is Chandler, AZ

let me know what you find. very baffling.

[Hiller]

Is there any chance you would post the source code for the plugin? I'm thinking of working on a plugin and would love to see more source code to have more examples to work from.

Thanks,
Steve

[Chuck]

Bradsjm,

Could you give a code-moron a little insight on how to install the plug in?

Thanks
Chuck

[Chuck]

I got it installed, but now i have to incorperate it into a skin.

Thanks
Chuck

[turk30213]

I need help... I'm a newbie to all of this and I'm getting real frustrated.
I'm trying to put in the code to make all of this work BUT NOTHING IS WORKING FOR ME. When I go to edit the Display and in the Text field, I type "plugin>xoapweather>current>nowicon" (for example) and I GET NOTHING. Am I missing something? Please help before I just go insane!

[Chuck]

Turk,

Sorry I wish I could help you. I am using the skins already created, and I just couldnt get the weather at all. My problem was I had to create a directory for xoapweather, and put the files in it, as well as the imiages directory and files. Then under the Xlobby config screen go into plugins, and it was right there for me to use. I just had to add my locations.

Make sure you have the latest downloads of xlobby tho.

Does anyone know if I could put in USA or a national location to get a USA forecast? I know USA and North America do not work. It would be nice to see a North American Radar like the original Canada one.

Thanks
Chuck

[turk30213]

Sorry guys,
I needed to vent those fumes. I got so frustrated. I'm at work right now, I'll give that a shot when I get home. So, do I create the xoapweather dir in the xlobby root? or in the plugin dir?

Thanks!

[Chuck]

Not that I know anything about it but you put it in the plugin directory.

I get so frustrated every time I try to do something with my HTPC at all. Some days I think about getting a MAC. But then you tinker some more and more and then it just works.

Good luck.
Chuck

[turk30213]

Okay, I think it might be working. However. For some reason, when I put in "plugin>xoapweather>current>%temperature%", It says "Weather Data Unavailible". Does this mean that this plugin wont work for me?

[bradsjm]

Okay, I think it might be working. However. For some reason, when I put in "plugin>xoapweather>current>%temperature%", It says "Weather Data Unavailible". Does this mean that this plugin wont work for me?

That error I think should be when the data wasn't loaded sucessfully from weather.com. The weather is loaded in a background thread so it is normal to see this if you have a slow connection or are offline etc.

Can you tell me what location you are using?

[bradsjm]

Just an update on progress. I've taken your feedback and I am working on the next release. Things that are definitely in are:

* User-defined radar images. You can either let XoapWeather pick one automatically which works well for US locations or use the drop down pick list to choose from a list or add your own URL.

* More flexible XPATH statements. Right now I used "SelectSingleNode" which means the result must be a node, I have changed to use "Evaluate" which allows you to do more complex XPATH queries that return, for example, a substring.

* Revamped caching module. I am now using weak references to cached items which will stop memory bloat over time. I am also caching the variable substitution results for buttons (because I have a clock on my screen which means all the buttons on the entire screen update every second!)

* Granular update of weather data. I now follow the Weather.com specifications and update current conditions no more than once every 20 minutes and long term forecasts no more than every 2 hours. The data is combined so you will not notice the difference.

* Inclusion of national/regional forecasts in the XML data (see http://www.weather.com/newscenter/fcstsummary.html)

* Single DLL distribution. I am now embedding the default XML data in the DLL itself making installation and upgrades easier.

* BUG FIXES - Oh yes, there are a few in there

* Auto-upgrade of forecasts.xml file to include new tags.

* SourceForge source release planned

So what am I waiting on? I am working on the background thread that will keep the forecast data updated automatically. This requires I make the methods thread-safe and some other changes which will require better testing before release.

[justonemore]

Sounds great! Keep up the good work. Feel free to let me beta for you if you wish

[f29pc]

I am using the heavy metal skin (WS ver.), downloaded and installed everything as pub. Still can't get the WX plugin to work. I can enter my location and save it but I still get "No WX data avalable". Do I need to add all the variables ? If so how? I see the list, just don't know how to load them. Looking at the forcast XML file, the loacation shows up ok, but the list below is very short. The Variables XML does not show my location (or any for that matter, I've tried several) and contains no specific data (ie no actual temps or wind data). In Xlobby setup-databaes should there be one for weather ? Last question, I downloaded the WX images (one 3mb file correct?) do I need to make an image dir in the plugin and install there, or just paste it in the xoapweather dir. I am also conecting via direcway sat. could that be a problem ? If at this point you tell me to stick to the Weather Channel I'll undrstand...
Thnaks

[bradsjm]

I am using the heavy metal skin (WS ver.), downloaded and installed everything as pub. Still can't get the WX plugin to work. I can enter my location and save it but I still get "No WX data avalable". Do I need to add all the variables ? If so how? I see the list, just don't know how to load them. Looking at the forcast XML file, the loacation shows up ok, but the list below is very short. The Variables XML does not show my location (or any for that matter, I've tried several) and contains no specific data (ie no actual temps or wind data). In Xlobby setup-databaes should there be one for weather ? Last question, I downloaded the WX images (one 3mb file correct?) do I need to make an image dir in the plugin and install there, or just paste it in the xoapweather dir. I am also conecting via direcway sat. could that be a problem ? If at this point you tell me to stick to the Weather Channel I'll undrstand...
Thnaks

I replied to you in the support forum but to answer your other questions:

1. For the icons, you should make a directory called "images" in the xoapweather plugin directory (where the xoapweather.dll is) and put the icons in there.

2. The variables.xml file is just a configuration file and is generic and the forecasts.xml just lists the locations you want forecasts for. You don't need a weather database. The data is retrieved in real-time (well, it should be if it was working for you!)

Lastly, I'm not far off a new release which has many updates and should be a lot easier to debug with the addition of an event log display

[bradsjm]

The new version is complete. The source code has now been released and is available both in the distribution and from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xoapweather/.

This is most likely the last release of this plugin that I will produce as I must move on to new projects