Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 4:36 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Indeed.

That's the general sentiment on the user forums as well. WU say that they believe that a CSV download is adequate replacement for the API for PWS owners. I suspect that few would agree.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:19 am
Korey offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

DaveL17 wrote:
Well, the news isn't good at all. I have not had personal contact with WU, but the word on the user forums is that the lowest paid plan will be $850 (£640) per month or about $10,000 per year. WU reps say that existing keys "will work for now" -- whatever that means. They suggest that users can download CSV files from PWS pages as an alternative.

With this very disappointing news, I'm announcing the deprecation of the WUnderground and WUnderstation plugins.

  • I strongly encourage users of either plugin to look for alternative sources for weather data as soon as possible.
  • There are several alternatives already available in the Indigo plugin store.
  • I'll keep supporting the plugins until our existing API keys stop working, but there will be no new feature development.
  • I'll leave the repos on GitHub in case anyone wants to fork them (until GitHub pulls a Weather Underground).

Thanks for using the plugins.


Crappy news Dave, I guess this will be the push for me to buy my own Davis VP2 weather station and just pull the data from weather snoop, certainly won't be sharing the data with WU.

Thanks for all your fantastic work over the years on this great plugin, I've had it in constant use since you first developed it. I know there are a lot of pissed off people over on the WXFourms. over WU decisions.

Decisions from greedy corporations like this is why I refuse to rely on anything "Cloud based" with my Indigo setup. :(

Perhaps there is a way to change the plugin to grab the data from the Dark Sky guys or another source?

--
Korey

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:53 am
johnpolasek offline
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Location: Aggieland, Texas

Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Korey wrote:

Crappy news Dave, I guess this will be the push for me to buy my own Davis VP2 weather station and just pull the data from weather snoop, certainly won't be sharing the data with WU.



I've been pretty pleased with the Davis Vantage Vue station at my house; it's half the price of the Vantage Pro and seems to be as reliable and accurate... It's true that I had to replace the original one I was given for Christmas in 1990 back in 2016 because it dropped the humidity readings and it's a pain to pull it down every spring to replace the internal battery, but I think 25 years is a pretty good run.

Or you might want to check if the latest WeatherSnoop can read any of the new Ambient stations; We put up a 2902 at the horseback riding program because it was half the cost of a VantageVue and (admittedly only 3 months in) it seems to be doing a pretty good job... although we may be going through the Ambient cloud server rather than continuing to send the data on to WU if they keep up this nonsense... But maybe enough of their datasources will say to heck with them and the backlash will be enough to make them come to their senses... Google used to charge $300 per year to supply a version of Google Earth that would calculate the area of a survey on the map, but late last year they threw in the towel and made "Google Earth Pro" a free download.

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:07 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API


I came here to drink milk and kick ass....and I've just finished my milk.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:10 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Korey wrote:
DaveL17 wrote:
Well, the news isn't good at all. I have not had personal contact with WU, but the word on the user forums is that the lowest paid plan will be $850 (£640) per month or about $10,000 per year. WU reps say that existing keys "will work for now" -- whatever that means. They suggest that users can download CSV files from PWS pages as an alternative.

With this very disappointing news, I'm announcing the deprecation of the WUnderground and WUnderstation plugins.

  • I strongly encourage users of either plugin to look for alternative sources for weather data as soon as possible.
  • There are several alternatives already available in the Indigo plugin store.
  • I'll keep supporting the plugins until our existing API keys stop working, but there will be no new feature development.
  • I'll leave the repos on GitHub in case anyone wants to fork them (until GitHub pulls a Weather Underground).

Thanks for using the plugins.


Crappy news Dave, I guess this will be the push for me to buy my own Davis VP2 weather station and just pull the data from weather snoop, certainly won't be sharing the data with WU.

Thanks for all your fantastic work over the years on this great plugin, I've had it in constant use since you first developed it. I know there are a lot of pissed off people over on the WXFourms. over WU decisions.

Decisions from greedy corporations like this is why I refuse to rely on anything "Cloud based" with my Indigo setup. :(

Perhaps there is a way to change the plugin to grab the data from the Dark Sky guys or another source?

Thanks Korey!

The plugin was written specifically for WU and converting it to another service would be significantly more work than starting from scratch I’m afraid.

I have a ton of work on my own setup to unwind all the hooks into WU and will be looking for a replacement.

Can’t make any commitments right now, but I will be looking.


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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:41 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

This makes me really sad to see another service monetized to the point of being ridiculous (Google maps being the other, but you expect that nonsense from Google). Hopefully Weathersnoop won't go that way since it's a paid software but this just really sucks. Sorry Dave, you have put so much hard work and dedication into this plugin that it just seems unfair to pull the rug out from under you when your plugin has done so much to promote Weatherunderground over the years. Personally I didn't use WU all that much until I used your plugin when I had issues with the built in NOAA plugin, and since then I've used WU quite a bit. I think that this cash grab could end up really hurting them.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:00 am
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

This is a huge bummer, Dave... I love the WU plugin! At least many other services (including Google Maps) are offering a free tier of some sorts -- sounds like WUnderground just wants out of the business of individual users completely.

A super-quick search looks like nearly all the once-free Weather APIs have pulled out, though... Weather Bug, The Weather Network, etc. either don't give details or say to contact sales. SO, who is up for writing that Dark Sky Weather Plugin?? :-|

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:00 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
This makes me really sad to see another service monetized to the point of being ridiculous (Google maps being the other, but you expect that nonsense from Google). Hopefully Weathersnoop won't go that way since it's a paid software but this just really sucks. Sorry Dave, you have put so much hard work and dedication into this plugin that it just seems unfair to pull the rug out from under you when your plugin has done so much to promote Weatherunderground over the years. Personally I didn't use WU all that much until I used your plugin when I had issues with the built in NOAA plugin, and since then I've used WU quite a bit. I think that this cash grab could end up really hurting them.

Yeah, it’s a pain for sure.

I’m going glass half-full on the whole deal because I got a lot of use out of the plugin myself, and learned a ton about developing for Indigo in the process.

If they kept a reasonable paid level for non-profit use, I’d happily pay it. But as it stands now, I plan to let my paid WU subscription lapse. It’s not so much about the money (it’s only $10 a year) — it’s the principle — they’re really shafting their PWS providers. That’s why I’m leaving.


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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:07 am
Different Computers offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
Sorry Dave, you have put so much hard work and dedication into this plugin that it just seems unfair to pull the rug out from under you when your plugin has done so much to promote Weatherunderground over the years. Personally I didn't use WU all that much until I used your plugin.


I mirror this sentiment. Though with a BloomSky, I was pretty much locked to WU because that's the only way I can get my data out of the device and into Indigo, I hadn't bothered at all with WU until I wanted to use your plugin.

Appropriate change of avatar for you. I'm surprised you didn't go with this:
4665.png
4665.png (9.05 KiB) Viewed 5803 times

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:11 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

LOL!

Now I don’t have to.


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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:22 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

I came across this site that lists some good free API's. While it is still a massive rewrite of your plugin, there seems to be a handful of good alternatives for you to launch a new and fresh version. Maybe it'll inspire you to improve on things you have been wanting to improve without the headache of breaking your existing plugin.

Continue to be "Our Weather Guy" Dave :).

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:34 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

RogueProeliator wrote:
SO, who is up for writing that Dark Sky Weather Plugin?? :-|


Perry did it already, though I admit I've never used it.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:41 am
johnpolasek offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

What about CWOP? I hadn't been posting my data there because WU was easier to set up, but I'll probably start now.

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:44 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

jay (support) wrote:
Perry did it already, though I admit I've never used it.

I've used that for some things over the years. It isn't as full featured as WU was but few things really have been. I still have it installed and still tie into some of the data from it for some of my automation.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:48 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
I came across this site that lists some good free API's. While it is still a massive rewrite of your plugin, there seems to be a handful of good alternatives for you to launch a new and fresh version. Maybe it'll inspire you to improve on things you have been wanting to improve without the headache of breaking your existing plugin.

Continue to be "Our Weather Guy" Dave :).

As soon as I finish a refactoring of the GhostXML plugin, I'm going to look at alternatives--including other currently available plugins.

I'm not going anywhere. 8)

I came here to drink milk and kick ass....and I've just finished my milk.

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