Weather Forecast in Xlobby - Here is how you do it

[stevenhanna6]

Just curious why you guys would use this with the xweather plugin that can do multiple forecasts around the world. I don't know I never tried what was outlined in this thread...so forgive me if it offers something I don't know about.

[jowaldo]

Just curious why you guys would use this with the xweather plugin that can do multiple forecasts around the world. I don't know I never tried what was outlined in this thread...so forgive me if it offers something I don't know about.

Yeah I didn't quite get it either... Before there was a plugin I understood, but now...

[riekl]

Well most of us don't really care about "multiple" forecasts, they are sufficiently inaccurate that we usually only care about what is going on in our own backyard, so that really isn't a selling point.

At the same time this particular method allows more detail, and a much more visually appealing and "wow" factor then the xweather plugin. It is not just about the data on the screen but how it is presented and I have never seen it done better then with this method and with the original posters config file.

[stevenhanna6]

point taken, jo will probably make a better layout then my default one. What ever works

[riekl]

Steven,

You have an AMAZING product I really think you are trying to spread yourself to thin, stop caring about the weather stuff Keep working on that killer plugin support each person will have his own tastes nothing you make will ever fit every situation, the more modular the plugin support, the more free the plugin api the more diverse and better mods that will come for it.

This has always been my biggest gripe about myhtpc, its pretty much been dead for the last year while pablo worked on H2, that should not be the case, if it had proper plugin support even with the core not changing new and better plugins would constantly be evolving and making the product better. The goal of a product like Xlobby should to be to provide a killer core, (which it does !!) and the ability to quickly and easily add plugins. You've already gone a long way with very extensive skinning support. I love the product and have fully changed over from myhtpc, you can also expect some cash from me once i get my paypal account organized as I support good stuff (in this case great stuff).

I guess the gist of the post is .. quit working so hard on so many differnt things .. keep improving the core, skinning engine and plugins, let your supporters spend the hours developing the dozen different news modules, weather modules, ebook modules (no one has ever tried one of these ! =)

[Marbles_00]

Thanks for the tutorial on using Samurize. I did not use the same plugin, but used one aimed more towards Canadian weather, but the interface to Xlobby would be the same. The only problem I had was figuring out the button activation in Xlobby, as I'm still a complete newbie.

I may have solutions for a couple of your known issues.

As for the task bar issue. I have not looked yet, but in the options of Samurize, there may be a selection as to having Samurize reside in the taskbar by the clock or not. I believe that is the reason why the taskbar appears when launching the application.

For the position of the display, move your information around the Samurize setup window. That window is a rough guess of the size of the monitor. When testing, I've placed all my incoming information down in the right corner of the Samurize window, and when I launched the config file, my weather forcast overlapped my task bar clock area. By positioning it, you may get a better location where it will appear in Xlobby.

Thanks again for the great tutorial.

[Marbles_00]

The task bar issue is still rather unfortunate. I too have to minimize the task bar and now trying got figure out how to regain focus back to Xlobby. The sendfocus.exe software doesn't seem to work.

What is really nice is that Samurize can utilize command lines which enable the user to use one config for a weather page and then a seperate config for something else. I've currently have the main weather page, and using a seperate config which displays current temperature, and forcast on the main menu.

Steve, to help you with your curiosity as to why anyone would want to use this route when Xlobby has a weather plugin, well for me, after initial weather downloads, I could never get the Xlobby plugin to update the weather (either Xweather or Xoapweather). I've written a couple of posts for help, but I think I'm in a rather unique situation where no-one has been able to help. So Samurize is the only logical route to take. And has worked very well so far. Most information is download from weather.com except for my radar map of the Golden Horseshoe which I download from weather.ca. And it updates fine every hour no probs.

[dalanik]

Taskbar? Why don't you guys just use different shell? I use minimalistic litestep on my HTPC and never have to worry about taskbar...