LXDE - Lightweight X Desktop Environment / Bugs / #916 Lxpanel weather plugin stopped working

Lonely Stranger - 2019-01-08

labels: --> lxpanel

assigned_to: Lonely Stranger

Group: -->

Priority: 5 --> 6
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Lonely Stranger - 2019-01-08

Yes, Yahoo unfortunately ended free service at January 3.
New API requires registering the application and has unknown restrictions, and also will require registration from each user (see their EUA).
Abother issue that new Yahoo API requires digital signature for each request which in turn will involve libssl with all their restrictions.

Unfortunately all weather providers now made their API available via some kind of registration. We can force each user to register but that will be pretty inconvenient for users.
Well, another approach would be to register some token for LXDE developers public e-mail but if (for example) 500000 users will use the plugin and we set update time once in two hours, that will make 500000/120=4000 requests per minute, which exceeds number for any free subscription which definitely makes the plugin unusable at all, so this approach is not a way to go.
Thus I have no idea what else to do except to remove the plugin from distribution. :-(

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David Rosenstrauch - 2019-01-08

Might be worth looking at where the XFCE weather plugin gets its data from, and whether it's still functional.

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David Rosenstrauch - 2019-01-09

Does look like the XFCE plugin still works. (See attached.) Probably worth a look through the code to see what they're using.

Screenshot_2019-01-08_21-30-59.png

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Lonely Stranger - 2019-01-09

Apparently they use Norway Meteo site, however it will require quite a lot of changes to use it, but still worth trying.

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Ralf Mardorf - 2019-01-18

No weather plugin at all is way more inconvenient for users, than registration would be.
Is there already work in progress to get the plugin working with "Norway Meteo" or by another solution?

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- Lonely Stranger - 2019-01-18
  
  There is no work yet from my side, I'm pretty busy right now with life events and planned to try to do something on this next week.
  And if you want to do it then you are very much welcome!
  
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slasc - 2019-01-24

I would like to humbly suggest we consider https://openweathermap.org/

It looks like it is used in the weather plugin for Gnome ( https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/750/openweather/ )
Also, it has this to say on their FAQ page about FOSS development and API keys:

" FOSS developers: we welcome free and open source software and are willing to help you. If you want to use OWM data in your free software application please register an API key and file a ticket describing your application and API key registered. OWM will review your request lift access limits for your key if used in open source application."

I realize that might not be the most ideal solution, but it is probably better than axing the plugin.

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jc - 2019-01-27

The US NOAA offers the data freely and it may even be stable for now since they've gone to a standardized API. I do not know if there is a free aggregation service for international weather from various government servers. It makes the code a bit difficult.

https://www.programmableweb.com/api/noaa-national-weather-service-nws

https://graphical.weather.gov/xml/

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David Rosenstrauch - 2019-02-13

Just wondering: are there plans in the works to update this plugin and restore it to working status? If not, it would be useful to know, so people can start scoping around for an alternative.

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Lonely Stranger - 2019-02-19

Actually I almost got a lift from OWM. Plugin also works basically, except for 5 days forecast, that should be improved and decided how to represent it. Stay tuned, it will be pushed into GIT pretty soon, after I get a confirmation from OWM, so 0.10.0 version release coming soon.

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David Rosenstrauch - 2019-02-20

Awesome! Nice work! Looking forward to the new release!!! Pls let me know if you need any help testing a beta.

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Lonely Stranger - 2019-02-21

Since OWM confirmed lifting the restriction, I've pushed the change to GIT. Please, test it for few days, and I'll make new release then. Thank you.

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- Ralf Mardorf - 2019-02-22
  
  Thank you, I installed it right now. At the moment it works.
  
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- Ralf Mardorf - 2019-02-22
  
  The weather service for my hometown Oberhausen, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany is ambiguous. It showed "mist" by word, while it's very unlikely that anywhere else in my hometown there was that kind of "mist", as I understand the icon. The iOS weather thingy showed "cloudy", by word and icon, which is correct. Both show the same reasonable temperature.
  
  Indeed, the sky is "hazy", so while "mist" still might be the correct term, at least the icon is inappropriate, since my interpretation of the icon is "ground fog" and there unlikely was "ground fog" anywhere in my hometown.
  
  Btw. my language settings are en, so I can't test the de translation.
  
  Compared to the old weather service used by the plugin, the new service seems to be "Mist" (which is the German word for "Shoot")!
  
  IIUC the English word "mist" seems to be for a "hazy sky", "cloudy sky", as well as for "ground fog", but it seemingly does cause confusion to chose an appropriate icon, or else the icon easily could be misinterpreted and there still might be another icon for "ground fog"/"dense fog".
  
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- Ralf Mardorf - 2019-02-22
  
  PS:
  
  Maybe the issue is related to the update, the sky was and is cloudy, but I didn't check when it was updated. I selected updating every 20 Minutes, but that not necessarily means that the weather service provides current information every 20 minutes, perhaps there was "fog" in the night.
  
  Now it shows "intense drizzle" perhaps somewhere in Oberhausen there is or was "intense drizzle", other than the quasi impossible "fog", "intense drizzle" is quite possible, I had a little bit of "drizzle" here, too and I even might haven't noticed that it was "intense" for a while ... which changed to "mist" while writing.
  
  The weather service not necessarily is wrong, but less clear than the old weather service used by the plugin was and the iOS weather service still is.
  
  Perhaps just a temporarily issue, since weather services could fail. The old used service of the plugin maybe was, as well as the iOS service might sometimes be unclear or mistaken, too.
  
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Lonely Stranger - 2019-02-21

status: open --> pending-fixed
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Lonely Stranger - 2019-02-21

Note that you have to reconfigure weather plugin, Yahoo selection would not work with OWM. And hopefully you will see it all translated to your language now.

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Ralf Mardorf - 2019-02-23

Is there something you could do about the icons?
Since they are from low quality, it's very good that they are that small. However, the icons chosen by the old weather plugin where way better.

lxpanel-git-0.9.3.r2448-clear_sky_icon.jpg

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Marek G - 2019-02-28

How do I install this new version on Fedora 29?
Also, will it be included in Fedora updates?

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- Ralf Mardorf - 2019-02-28
  
  Hi,
  
  you need to compile it. Since you were already using lxpanel all runtime dependencies should already be installed. To compile it, you also need the make dependencies. Fedora is one of those distros that split packages. The header files of dependencies you need to compile are provided by development packages.
  
  For example, for libfm-gtk there is a package named libfm-gtk-devel available. (apps.fedoraproject.org)
  
  After cloning the git repository you need to change into the directory and then you can take a look at the README files, that explain how to build lxpanel.
  
  $ git clone https://git.lxde.org/git/lxde/lxpanel.git $ cd lxpanel/ $ head -15 README LXPanel is a lightweight X11 desktop panel. To build this program you need some development packages: libtool 2.2 or newer, intltool, libgtk 2.18 or newer, libfm-gtk 1.2 or newer, libwnck, libkeybinder. Optional development packages may be required to build some modules: libmenu-cache, libalsasound ('volumealsa' plugin isn't built if missing), libindicator 0.3.0 ('indicator' plugin isn't built if missing), wireless-tools (required to build 'netstat' plugin), libxml-2.0 (required to build 'weather' plugin). To install this program, three other packages are needed: menu-cache, libfm-gtk, lxmenu-data. Please install them before installing lxpanel. $ grep -A3 '#### 3' README.checkinstall #### 3) compile ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-man --enable-indicator-support make
  
  You should be able to use checkinstall to build a rpm package, too, if it shouldn't be possible, you need to install using 'make install'.
  
  Regards,
  Ralf
  
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- Mamoru TASAKA - 2019-02-28
  
  Please consult Fedora side maintainer (i.e. me). Testing updates will be available tomorrow: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2019-2d0527d781
  
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Lxpanel weather plugin stopped working

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#916 Lxpanel weather plugin stopped working

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