Scripts, tutorials, and general Desktop X help
Published on July 8, 2009 By sViz In DesktopX

The purpose of this thread is to compile and post fixes for the recent weather widget problem for anyone who has the patience to implement them. I'll try to edit this post to keep it up-to-date.

 Edit 7/10: Important information for DX authors.

 Edit 7/12: Added clarification to 2a for DX users - ZubaZ

 Edit 7/13 : Removed fixes due to legal ambiguity

 

Contents

1. The Problem

2. The Fixes

e. Disable the Weather

3. For Authors

a. Using The Weather Channel Feeds

b. Using Another Source

c. Weather & DX Themes

 

1. The Problem

If your weather widget has suddenly stopped working properly, it is likely because the source, Weather.com, has changed their site to prohibit unlicensed usage. The majority of weather widgets on this site were built with the same code which is now outdated.

Symptoms of this particular problem are:

-You get a message saying the location is invalid
-When you try to clear this message it keeps popping up

 

2. The Fixes (as far as we know)

 

*** UPDATE 7/13/09 ***

I have tried to find more information and understand the legalities of the TWC XOAP data feed services and due to ambiguity I have removed these fixes so as not to put anyone else at risk of violating known or unknown weather.com license agreements.

A very good read on the situation with weather.com and their feeds can be found here: http://www.rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=615

At the present time the only remaining option for end-users is to disable and/or discontinue using the weather widgets.

 

 


E.  DISABLE THE WEATHER:

If you are using a combo widget or theme and would just like to disable the weather parts read below.

There are a few objects that need to be "turned off". To do this you will open the widget/theme in DX Builder (be sure to turn off internet connection first,) find the object, right-click and uncheck Script Enabled.

These objects may be several of the following. (You can ctrl + click to select more than one object in the object list, then r-click and uncheck Script Enabled.)


Version 1:

"weather_image"
"weather_temp"
"weather_location"


Version 2:

"kdockweatherimage" (and/or "kdockweatherimage2")
"Kdockweatherlocation" (and/or "kdockweatherlocation2")
"kdockweathertemp" (and/or "kdockweathertemp2")
"kdockforecastimage1" (through "kdockforecastimage5")


Version 3:

"Weather_Output"
"Weather_Script"
"WeatherFunction_ToggleUnits"
"CUI_SCripts"
"WeatherFunction_SetLocation"

 

 

 3. For Authors

A Notice From the WC Staff:

Starting Monday, July 20th, we will start exiling weather widgets from the WinCustomize galleries that have not been updated and/or violate any ToS/ToU in regards to weather feeds.

See here for more details.

 

Q: Can't I fix and reupload my widgets?

It's fairly certain that our widgets are not in compliance with The Weather Channel's license agreements. Among other things, a widget using TWC's feed now needs to include their logo and 5 advertisement links (to see the full details get registered and download the SDK file included in your confirmation email.)

This is aside from the fact that most of these fixes hard code YOUR license ID and KEY, and you CAN NOT allow others to use these; uploading a fixed widget with your ID and KEY is in violation of the license agreement.

The short answer is no. We can't use these fixes and then reupload our widgets.


Q: What CAN I do?

Right now you need to archive your skins before they are deleted from the galleries.


Q: So that's it? No more weather widgets?

Not necessarily. We have two options:  A. Re-build our widgets in compliance with TWC's license agreement or  B. find another data source.

 

 

A. USING THE WEATHER CHANNEL FEEDS

If you are looking to rebuild your widget in compliance with TWC's agreement you'll need to do the following:

- Register, download and thoroughly read the SDK file included in your confirmation email
- Comply
- Add a function to allow the user to input their license key and partner ID.
- Add a link to the registration page so users know where to get the key and ID.
- Be mindful of the fact that TWC could change their site again and consider putting contingencies in place to prevent further headaches. (i.e., Use and external script that can be copied onto the user's computer, and have as little code in the actual objects.)

 To be clear, anyone looking to make a weather widget using weather.com services MUST be in compliance with their terms of service and license agreements.

 

B. USING ANOTHER SOURCE suggestions by Zubaz

If you decide to part ways with TWC, here are some alternative weather feed sources to consider (You will need to abide by their Terms of Service as well):

-  Wunderground.com  -- LINK

- Yahoo! -- LINK 

- rssweather.com -- LINK

 

Again, I strongly advise using an external script to save yourself (and by extension your end-users) from any headaches in future.

 

C. WEATHER & DX THEMES

If you are a DesktopX theme author, the best advice for now is to exclude the weather widget from your theme and consider uploading weather as a separate widget in future.

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now...

Leave questions, comments, and your experience reports below.


Comments (Page 12)
14 PagesFirst 10 11 12 13 14 
on Jul 31, 2009

Hey friends,

I think we are in a dead end with this damned problem! Nobody except a few people here could not use new scripts or edit/replace their own because the skinners could not be a coders.

Besides this DesktopX lost the most of its former great popularity and the leading position on the market. And seems the speed of this falling down will be significantly accelerated if Stardock will not solve this problem in general by purchasing the TWC License for DesktopX. Don't forget that Weather Informers was one the most popular DX applications...

Here's a Gloss Burgundy WTC widget with logo and link to WTC

1. You may not change the color of TWC logo.

2. You may not put the TWC Copyright on your own widget without their permission.

on Jul 31, 2009

 

1. You may not change the color of TWC logo

Yep i know

 

2. You may not put the TWC Copyright on your own widget without their permission.

 i thought it was one of the rules conditions

 

BTW, i've send a mail to them explaining the global situation of skinners doing weather widgets with DesktopX application ( ) and ask them who must do what and how, and if they can reconsider the recoloring Logo restriction because of the (in general) ported GUI weather widgets ... I'm waiting for answer ...

on Jul 31, 2009

Hey friends,

I think we are in a dead end with this damned problem! Nobody except a few people here could not use new scripts or edit/replace their own because the skinners could not be a coders.

Besides this DesktopX lost the most of its former great popularity and the leading position on the market. And seems the speed of this falling down will be significantly accelerated if Stardock will not solve this problem in general by purchasing the TWC License for DesktopX. Don't forget that Weather Informers was one the most popular DX applications...

 

on Jul 31, 2009

i thought it was one of the rules conditions

You must put the LINK to wether.com but hot the TWC Copypight! Otherwise you must be the TWC employee and they must pay money for your work. May be they already hired you?

i've send a mail to them explaining the global situation of skinners doing weather widgets with DesktopX application and ask them who must do what and how, and if they can reconsider the recoloring Logo restriction because of the (in general) ported GUI weather widgets ... I'm waiting for answer ...

That's good but... I think that letter must be written and sent from Stardock or at least from Wincustomize. Otherwise this makes no sence. Nor one from us have no rights to conduct the formal negotiations with TWC about so global problems...

 

 

on Jul 31, 2009

We have talked with some weather outlets, and they are not interested in partnerships for this type of thing. 

 

And seems the speed of this falling down will be significantly accelerated if Stardock will not solve this problem in general by purchasing the TWC License for DesktopX. Don't forget that Weather Informers was one the most popular DX applications...

As we have said before, we aren't going to be purchasing a license.  DesktopX hasn't stopped functioning because of this problem, it's the situation with the weather feeds that is the real issue.  Skinners have even approached some weather outlets willing to purchase licenses, and they weren't even interested in that.

The bottom line I'm sorry to say is, you have to comply with the feed terms for whichever weather outlet you are using.

 

on Jul 31, 2009


As we have said before, we aren't going to be purchasing a license.

 

Amen  I.D.

Thread need close..

on Jul 31, 2009

 

You must put the LINK to wether.com but hot the TWC Copypight! Otherwise you must be the TWC employee and they must pay money for your work.

That's not at all what's explained in the "TWCi XML Data Feed Licence Agreement.pdf" notice. Here's the part concerning the Logo & weather.com and usage of the symbol © (see examples given  )

 

click to see it in original size

 

BTW, who cares in fact (you know what i mean )

on Jul 31, 2009

As we have said before, we aren't going to be purchasing a license

Who said there's any licence to purchase ?? Did skinners who got a partner ID and Licenced Key have to purchase anything ? i didn't   

on Jul 31, 2009

 

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE AT THE END OF THIS AGREEMENT. BY CHECKING "I ACCEPT", YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL 16 SECTIONS OF THE AGREEMENT BELOW AND EXHIBITS A, B AND C. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS AGREEMENT AND ITS EXHIBITS, OR IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ACCEPT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, CLICK "CLICK TO DECLINE."

 

 

I read the above in the PDF document sent to me by TWC in the SDK. I found no place to click I accept or decline.

on Jul 31, 2009

DesktopX hasn't stopped functioning because of this problem

Yes. But it should lose a lot of its popularity for developers. At least for me...

Who know what of the other rules or copyrights (which are totally unknown for me by the way) may be violated in one of my next project? Media Player may violate the copyright of Composer or Singer. Web Browser may violate the copyright of Site Owner. And even my Rainbow Clock may violate Stardock's copyright bacause it reads and hacks the UIS Skin Format.

This looks like a permanent hammer kicks on a big grenade...

So. If I don't know what I may do and what I may not do I'LL BEGIN TO DO NOTHING... This work takes much more time that I'm ready to spend for development gadgets which may be removed from gallery in any moment because of somebody's idiotic rules or copyrights. Besides I have a lot of other hobbies and interests in my life.

I said all...

BTW, who cares in fact (you know what i mean )

I know...

Thread need close..

I totally agree...

on Aug 03, 2009

Hop, re-open

As we have said before, we aren't going to be purchasing a license


Who said there's any licence to purchase ?? Did skinners who got a partner ID and Licenced Key have to purchase anything ? i didn't

and here it is ...

Weather XML Data Feed
Now you can include weather from The Weather Channel in your own application by signing up for access to our XML data feed. We'll enable you to search for a location and to integrate current conditions and the forecast for today and tomorrow in your application - for FREE!

 

on Aug 03, 2009


Weather XML Data Feed
Now you can include weather from The Weather Channel in your own application by signing up for access to our XML data feed. We'll enable you to search for a location and to integrate current conditions and the forecast for today and tomorrow in your application - for FREE!
 

hmm..

 

Need change ur nick to Neostarker

 

on Aug 04, 2009

Need change ur nick to Neostarker

Did you mean NeoSkyWalker ?

on Aug 05, 2009

I was looking into an Accu Weather feed and got this reply. I removed the email addresses.

Hi, Jim. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you; my one day out of the office backed me up more than I thought it would. Unfortunately, we can’t provide feeds for projects intended for wincustomize.com, because we can’t control usage of our feeds. We have to be sure our feeds aren’t being abused because of the cost of serving data, and we can’t do that here…

 

Best,

Michael

________________________________________

From:

Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 12:00 AM

To: accuweather.com

Subject: Re: Widgets

 

Michael, I would be making the widgets for uploading at www.wincustomize.com for users to use for free. I do not charge for them. We were using TWC but things got a little iffy with TWC. I know Stardock already has a deal of some sort with your company because they make Gadgets with your feeds in their MyColors themes.

 

I am just a contributer to the site, I do not work for Stardock. My site, and some of my work, can be found here.  http://redneckdude.wincustomize.com

I hope we can come to some kind of agreement on a weather feed from your company.

 

In a message dated 7/31/2009 5:40:26 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,@accuweather.com writes:

Hi, Jim. Are you building widgets for a personal project, or will you be distributing them commercially?

 

Regards,

Michael

 

Michael Sylvie

Research & Development Group

814-235-8638

AccuWeather, Inc.

385 Science Park Road || State College, PA 16803

www.accuweather.com

 

________________________________________

From:

Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 2:26 AM

To: @accuweather.com

Subject: Widgets

 

Dear sir, I would like information on making weather widgets and gadgets. I am a widget designer and would like to know how to tap in to your weather feed for my free widgets.

 

Thanks, Jim Dillard

 

You can see my work at http://redneckdude.wincustomize.com

on Aug 06, 2009

I was considering emailing accuweather but figured there was a reason why they did a for-pay license with Stardock. Thanks for that update Jim.

I've contacted about 3 other weather sites, only one of which has replied so far to say they don't do free feeds. I'll give weather.com that much, at least we can use their stuff...for now.

Scores of other weather sites are just using NOAA/NWS's information.

14 PagesFirst 10 11 12 13 14