FYI Apple buys dark sky

Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 8:14 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Apologies mclass -- I took a quick look at both and didn't come up with global reach for either. My mistake.

I will take a closer look at them. Thanks very much for the suggestion!

Cheers.
Dave

p.s. There is *no* prerequisite that the API be US-based. None. Nada. Zilch. Just global.

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Posted on
Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:02 pm
Monstergerm offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Dave,
did you look at WeatherFlow? They have a free API and they are pushing into home automation and making this API better over time. Similar to WUnderground, they have a global network of really cool weather stations. You can access any public station, or your own station. The API pushes data every minute. They are working on improving the API to include forecast data and everything else their free iOS app offers. By the time DarkSky stops working this might be a pretty good service.
There is already an Indigo plugin that works nicely with WeatherFlow.

Posted on
Mon Jun 29, 2020 5:25 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I haven't looked at Weather Flow in detail, but their API should work with the GhostXML plugin. Personally, I think I've settled on OpenWeather (which also works well with the GhostXML plugin by the way). Given that the data is easily accessible through GhostXML, there's not a lot of added value in rewriting the Fantastic Weather Plugin yet again. To be honest, it's unlikely that I'll port FUWU to yet another service, but I haven't ruled it out completely.

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Posted on
Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:50 pm
Monstergerm offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I have to checkout the GhostXML plugin.

OpenWeather now has a new One Call API that gives you for free 1000 calls per day. You get with just one API request Current Weather, Minute Forecast for 1 hour, Hourly Forecast for 2 days, Daily Forecast for 7 days. Seems to be a good service unless you want to target a particular weather station like WU or WeatherFlow has.

They also provide a detailed migration guide for how to switch from DarkSky to OpenWeather.

OpenWeather recommends no more than 1 call per 10 minutes since their internal data for geo locations or cities update every 10 minutes. So 1000 calls per day is plenty and allows you to place some extra calls for Historical weather data or other locations. Their website mentions that if you exceed your call limits they send you an email first and only after not getting any feedback will suspend your account You would then have to renew it.

BTW, for those people who need instantaneous windspeed data, WeatherFlow has an API that gives you real time wind data from your own station or any public station.

Posted on
Mon Jun 29, 2020 3:53 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

The GhostXML plugin has two device types--one that saves all the data as strings and another which tries to coerce the data into the most obvious type (boolean, string, float, etc.). I would recommend trying the second one which will greatly reduce the amount of work when using the data for logic. I've been testing it on the side with Open Weather and it seems to work well.

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Posted on
Mon Jun 29, 2020 4:07 pm
Monstergerm offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I guessed correctly and chose the second device type.
I haven't done anything with logic, but what is the best way to display formatted data on control pages? With your regular weather plugin you had the option of displaying formatted data with a certain decimal precision and units, like mph. How do I now display 'Windspeed: 10.0 mph' on a control page without making this too complicated, i.e. Static text for 'Windspeed: ' combined with device state and caption, or first converting device states into Indigo variables with desired decimal precision and unit strings added?

Posted on
Mon Jun 29, 2020 5:02 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

You'll need to provide for the conversion yourself--the GhostXML plugin is agnostic and presents the data the way it's received. There are other plugins that do a great job of handling data conversion like this (like the Adapters plugin for example). Then you can link directly to the Adapters plugin device state. That's what I do in these circumstances.

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Posted on
Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:37 am
cesarvog offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

DaveL17 wrote:
The GhostXML plugin has two device types--one that saves all the data as strings and another which tries to coerce the data into the most obvious type (boolean, string, float, etc.). I would recommend trying the second one which will greatly reduce the amount of work when using the data for logic. I've been testing it on the side with Open Weather and it seems to work well.


Many thanks for both Fantastic Weather and GhostXML plugins. I've been using Fantastic Weather w/ DarkSky data for some time and always thought it to be the superior alternative in the Indigo plug-in store for obtaining weather information. Unfortunately, with Apple buying DarkSky, and you advising users to search for an alternative, I decided to heed your recommendation and give GhostXML w/ openWeatherMap.org data a try. Worked like a charm on first try!

Once again, thanks for you hard work enhancing Indigo with your great plug-ins.
Last edited by cesarvog on Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

Posted on
Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:26 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Thanks for letting me know. I do hope that Apple will reverse course and keep the API for those of us that aren't using the data for commercial purposes--perhaps with an API usage limit that would stop any commercial use from being viable. Even 100 calls a day would suit my needs (that'd be roughly every 15 minutes which would be plenty). I'm not holding my breath; however.

I've been keeping an eye on OpenWeather for my own use and plan to use the GhostXML plugin with it. My future plans--probably when the DarkSky API goes down for good--is to sunset WUnderground, WUnderground7, WUnderstation and Fantastic Weather. I plan to leave the code on my GitHub for the foreseeable future (just in case).

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Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 9:25 am
roquej offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Thank you for the create plugin!

I am using the GhostXML plugin with OpenWeather OneCall API and it works well, except for alerts. Nothing really compares with the ease of use and elegance you built into your plugins.

Any suggestions on the way to address the alerts for someone with low python skills? The multiple lines, the time they are active, and so on?

Thank you, again.

JP

Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 10:12 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Are you getting any weather alerts data with your API return?

Based on my reading of the API docs, weather alerts data requires API 3.0. I can't access API 3.0 with my current API key (2.5 works, 3.0 doesn't). I've generated a new API key to see if that makes a difference, but it will take a few hours for that key to be activated. I'll check back later to see if I can figure something out.

Thanks for the nod on the weather plugins. The problem with that level of nuance is that it has to be hard-coded into a plugin.

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Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:28 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Okay, I've done some digging and it looks like Openweather requires a US$180 per month subscription to access national weather alerts data.

In addition, it looks like they are requiring a registration and payment information to access API 3.0 ("One Call by Call" subscription) which allows 1,000 per day for free and then US$0.0015 per call after that). API 2.5 does not require a subscription or payment information.

I would say that Open Weather isn't a legitimate source for weather alerts for DIYers.

Source: https://openweathermap.org/price

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Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:41 am
roquej offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

The OneCall API, does return Alerts, is just messy.... The same problem is with the NWS feed using GhostXML. The NOAA plugin doesn't return alerts.

Individual API keys allow you one thousand calls per day free (One Call API), even making calls every ten min, is only 144 calls. Not enough for everyone to use the same key, but more than enough for individual users. The question is, would it be possible to make an OpenWeather plugin and have each individual user use their own?

Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 12:20 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I don't have any weather alerts in my area right now to look at the data from Open Weather -- I trust what you say is true, but according to their own pricing page, the free tier doesn't include weather alerts. Did you add billing information to your account? I haven't done that.

Absolutely someone could write a plugin to use the Open Weather API, but I'm sorry to say it probably won't be me. I've lost a lot of time and effort put into both the Weather Underground API and the Dark Sky API only to have that effort wiped out. I'm not ruling it out completely, but I have no plans to do it now.

I'm working with Matt and Jay on improvements to the built-in NOAA plugin and hope that a future version will include alerts. That's going to take some doing as it appears that the NOAA API provides alert data at the state level and I want to see if there's a way to filter that down to a more precise geographic region.

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Posted on
Mon Jul 04, 2022 4:33 pm
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Quick update -- I found a paper that shows how to get weather alerts at the county or zone level--but they don't necessarily make it easy. They also include GPS polygons, so there's most likely a way to see if a user's GPS coordinates are within the polygon.

EDIT: for the NOAA API.

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