eWeather Component

eWeather is a Joomla! component which will display a visually appealing weather forecast and current conditions, on your website. The weather data is supplied by a FREE XML, from The Weather Channel: http://registration.weather.com/ursa/xmloap/step1

Features:

-Front End-
** Clean visual presentation weather data feed
** Allows users to select own city

-Back End-
** New overview and management of installed regions/countries
** Default configuration of a City
** Weather forecast for up to five days
** Date/Time format freely definable
** Proxy definable


-Icon Packs-
** Purple Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,3904/Itemid,35/
** Stardock Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,3905/Itemid,35/
** Weatherpod Orange Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,3906/Itemid,35/
** Red Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4622/Itemid,35/
** Green Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4623/Itemid,35/
** Yellow Small -
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4639/Itemid,35/

--- NOTE: The screenshot shows the Purple Small Icon Pack applied. ---



CHANGELOG

-1.3.20-
** Fixed problems with Search Engine Friendly setting.

-1.3.19-
** Moved Mexico and Canada to the North America group. Mexico had been in the Central America group, and Canada had its own group. Neither was correct :) The United States still is its own group, since it's further broken down by state.
** Moved Bermuda to the North American Islands group from the Caribbean group.
** Changed English wording from "wind chill" to "feels like."
** Added Iran, Bosnia, and Slovakia cities.
** Added front-end translations for Bosnian, Finnish, and Slovakian.

-1.3.18-
** HTML Validation fixes. Big thanks to Keith Mueller (KMSpecialties.com), who did all of this work.
** Fixed problem with generated HTML for forecasts. When the number of forecasts per row was a multiple of the number of forecasts, bad HTML was generated.
** Added Albanian cities.
** Added Bulgarian language file for front-end (thanks Deyana!).
** Changed from strftime() to JHTML::date() function. This seems to work better for translating date information.

-1.3.17-
** Updated markup, so we now pass W3C XHTML Verification.
** Changed some of the inline CSS (style="blah") that dealt with fonts to use CSS instead.
** Added Saudia Arabia, Iraq, and Lebanon cities to the Middle East region. Also updated Italy cities.
** Added Arabic, and Portuguese/Brazil language files. Also updated German and Italian language files.

-1.3.16-
** Added Belarus and Serbia cities.
** Fixed some minor HTML problems.
** Refactored some code to allow the creation of a new eWeather Forecast M

Report

byadnankurtovic on September 1, 2009
This is very good extension. However, although I can say I am an "advanced Joomla user", I needed some time setting it up. Better manual and none of those bad reviews would exist.
Owner's reply

Great idea! I've been thinking about this for a while now, but I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance. I'll see what I can do. Thanks, for the feedback! =)

After installing the component you're lead through several minutes of multiple screens of advertising and giveaway crap. After you've already submitted your email address you get this.

Junk and I'll never use a component from this author again.
Owner's reply

I'm sorry that you're having problems, but it appears you may be confused or mistaken.

The component does NOT contain "advertising and giveaway crap"! Actually, the component is VERY clean and easy to use.

The "advertising and giveaway crap", you speak of, is most-likely The Weather Channel's XML Feed sign-up page. We are NOT affiliated with The Weather Channel, so unfortunately, we have NO control of what they decide to add to their site.

If you have any constructive criticism about the actual component, we would welcome you to visit the Support site, which is posted above.

Again, your issue is NOT part of the component! Thanks!

I really like this extension. Back end has all the info for changing from EU to USA type displays. Front end is very manageable and the drill down display is really nice. Quick reply to some back end problems and it was quickly solved.
Owner's reply

Thanks! We're glad you like it! =)

This component is great and works very well, but the HTML is terrible. It is going to take me hours to remove all of the tables, inline styling, and deprecated tags. Please learn how to use CSS, don't use tables, and don't use tags like .

Also, it takes way to long to install the location data. There should be an easier way to do that.

I can't really complain because all of the programming stuff is taken care of, it's just too bad that the markup needs so much work.
Owner's reply

Well... The original creator has been unreachable and unhelpful for several years now.

This project was picked up by the community (to troubleshoot issues) and then by Bob Lavey (to convert/port it to Joomla v1.5.x).

Since we weren't the original creators, there is a LOT of the code which hasn't been re-written. Much of the HTML, tables, inline styling, and deprecated tags are a part of this original code.

If you would like to contribute, please visit the Support Forum here: http://tinyurl.com/eWeatherSupport

I think the extension is great, minus the link to the weather channel, and, biggest of all, the data from weather.com or weather channel is consistently wrong wrong wrong - At least for my Canadian province's cities. Has the developer thought of using Google's weather API (like ROKWeather) or some other more reliable data source for the weather feeds? - Its too bad the data is never reliable at all (at least for Canada) as this is a great extension.
byLambas on July 22, 2009
This is a very useful component!
Installs and works great without problems !

What i dont like both to the component and its module are the extra links that have nothing to do with the weather

-Local Pollen Reports
-Airport Conditions
-Lawn and Garden Weather
-Rush Hour Traffic

a credit link would be ok ... but 4 extra links are too much!

*This may coming from weather.com and not the developer of the component thats why i didnt rate with that in mind.

Thanks very much for this great tool
Owner's reply

The four "report" links are required, to comply with The Weather Channel's SDK. If they weren't a requirement, I would definitely consider removing them!

Having had version 1.1.0 for over a year running on Joomla 1.0.15 with absolutely no issues, The Weather Channel decides to change the format of its XML feed which caused my old version to flip. No problem, Bob at Eweather was quick to help. We had a fix within 24 hours.

You don't even get that level of support on occasions from from a commercially supplied product.

Outstanding!
Owner's reply

Thanks, for the GREAT review! We are always glad to help anyone who needs assistance! =)

Everything shows up just wonderful, but I am also having the same problem with getting it to switch from C to F.
Owner's reply

I still haven't been able to reproduce this issue.

Again, you may want to double-check your server permissions.

// MOD: For more support go to the site DEV

I also had the same problem as other people. Registered with the weather channel to only end up without the required info.
Owner's reply

This is an issue with The Weather Channel, not eWeather.

I'm sorry you only gave it one star. =(

// MOD: For more support go to the site DEV

I installed this component and module to an heating and air company a while ago. only problem that i am having is that i can't get the degree from "C" to "F". It's default display is on C. I changed the system over from metric to english, but that still doesn't cut it. Can anyone help?
Owner's reply

Changing from Metric to English should have worked.

Make sure you have the correct permissions set on your server.

byMohdoh on January 22, 2009
It seems an interesting component, useful for my site.
bynaukhez on December 18, 2008
Every thing is fine with this component, i find it very helpful and responsive but the only thing which might decrease its popularity is lack of different data file like i live in pakistan and i dit'nt find pakistani cities, the component reply did "Location File (.php) for Pakistan not available! " even i have added it manually but the error is still alive,
It looks great and has all the necessary info I have been looking for. A few issues though, I performed the fix to display the degree symbol. Following the fix the wind direction arrow went screwy, and lists it as VAR.
Also, I can't get the link for more information to work correctly, it displays "No partner ID available!" and the module to the right does not display any information. The module works great on my home page, just not the more info page. Keep up the good work!!
bythasniper on September 15, 2008
Hello!

This is one of the best free weather modules I ever seen. And it fits exactly what I need. I can't find any other that displays the current weather details on a module, that will extend the info and also forecasts on a component, and that also allow users to set their own city!

But it have many issues...

1. My site, like many others, are targeting the worldwide users. So, I have to provide as many countries weather as possible, for users to choose from. I have been at your site downloading every country weather files that someone posts. But adding the countries is a very tedious task because you have to add country by country in the admin backend. Some of the additions also require to apply a direct query to the database. It takes forever to add all the countries! Can you provide a script that would automatically add every country file present on the countries folder on the server, or something?

2. You should also create a new version with all the bugfixes applied. There is also a bugfix collision that I don't know how to handle: "Fix For 'Forecast Not Showing' (LNKS Fix).txt" collides with "Fix For 'Forecast Not Showing' (SWA Fix).txt". How can I apply both?

3. It would be great if you upgrade it to be Joomla! 1.5 native. I think this is the future...

Thank you!
byrichardprice on August 13, 2008
I cannot seem to get the temperature to change from F to C even if I switch from english to metric.

Plus the full forecasts do not show up?

Installs quickly and configures easily.
Owner's reply

For the "F to C", you may have a permission issue to address. If this isn't the case you may wish to try the "UTF-8" fix, which is listed in another response below.

For the "Forcast Not Showing" issue, please review the following text file:
http://www.sages.us/belwi/iconpacks/Fix%20For%20-%20Forecast%20Not%20Showing.txt

This is the best weather component that I've used for Joomla 1x. But I too am having problems with the new terms and conditions from weather.com.

I made the file changes as mentioned previously (&link=xoap&prod=xoap)but now the weather component only shows the current conditions and no 10 day outlook and also the required 4 additional links to weather.com (pollen count etc) that should display aren't showing up so I think that there is something else that needs to be edited.

I wonder if it's possible to let us know what else needs to be changed or better still if the updated files could be added to the download section.
Owner's reply

The issue with the 10-day forecast not showing is different than the link issue.

To correct the "Forecast Not Showing" issue, please review the following text file:
http://www.sages.us/belwi/iconpacks/Fix%20For%20-%20Forecast%20Not%20Showing.txt

bymelvinx on July 1, 2008
Hi there

I think this is an excellent module. Busy testing it on a site www.globalskippers.com
Would love the inclusion of a search module or function. Will probably use the weather.com search function for now, but that will take users away from my site.

If you want to show multiple locations in the module, use the RAF weather module. They work really well.

Thanks
Melvin
The component and module installed cleanly on my Joomla! 1.5.3 site with Legacy enabled. Configuration wasn't completely intuitive but not difficult either. One little quirk is that it doesn't show the Partner or Location values previously entered in the eWeather - Settings panel. However, it appears to use them correctly when presenting the module. There also seems to be a character set problem I haven't worked out yet -- the degree symbol comes up as a question mark. I would agree with a previous poster who said it was missing the ability to show weather for multiple locations. This is something that zWeather provides by cloning the module. I'd like to be able to do this with eWeather as well because I much prefer the display, even with the required weather.com advertising.
Owner's reply

Yeah, there are some quirks with Joomla v1.5.x.

To fix the question mark issue:

Download the files below from your server, open each with Notepad, re-save with the following:

File name: "no change to the name"
Save as type: "All Files"
Encoding: "UTF-8"

Re-upload them to your server, and overwrite upon warning.

FILES TO FIX:
mod_eweather.php
eweather.html.php
eweather.main.php
eweather.php
language/english.php

Please tell me how to add a zip code choice so people can see different areas if they want, Other than that I had little problem installing and setting up
Owner's reply

Once a user logs in, at the bottom of the Detailed Forecast page, there is a "Select your city..." link to do this.

I have really enjoyed using this tool! I haven't had any issues with it till Weather.com revised their terms of use policy and started to require different a differently formatted xml request address. After trying to get intouch with the email address above and finally after the site came back up I could not get a response on this issue.

I wound up making a few changes on my own to the website and it is working again.
Owner's reply

Yep! Weather.com changed their SDK requirements. The XML call will need to be changed slightly.


Fix For eWeather "XML Call"
----------------------------------------------

At line 50, in "/components/com_eweather/eweather.main.php", you will see the following line:

$weather_url = "http://xoap.weather.com/weather/local/".$weatherDefaultLocationID."?cc=*&dayf=".$weatherDayForecast."&unit=".$weatherUnits."&par=".$weatherPartnerID."&key=".$weatherPassword.;



Find the part of that line that looks like this:

.$weatherUnits."&par=".$weatherPartnerID.



Add the following, just before the '&' in that line:

&link=xoap&prod=xoap



Your PARTIAL line should look like this:

.$weatherUnits."&link=xoap&prod=xoap&par=".$weatherPartnerID.



Your FULL line should look like this:

$weather_url = "http://xoap.weather.com/weather/local/".$weatherDefaultLocationID."?cc=*&dayf=".$weatherDayForecast."&unit=".$weatherUnits."&link=xoap&prod=xoap&par=".$weatherPartnerID."&key=".$weatherPassword.;



Now, at line 111, you will need to do the same steps above.

Save your file.

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