How to Create Weather Widgets That Work (without using a credit card)

[cafmoms]

To be completed by the original poster:

CMS Version

Version 3.3.5

Player Type

Linux

Player Version

Linux Player version 1.8-R7 Code version 240 (this version, btw, is the only Linux player that I have been able to get to work. If you already have the xibo-player snap installed and it is not on code version 240, do this: ‘snap refresh xibo-player --channel=edge’. Replace the “refresh” with “install” if adding the snap for the first time.)

Issue

As far as I have been able to find, the solution to weather widgets displaying SFA is to input a credit card to OpenWeather to be able to use free API calls. Reference this article,

Weather doesn’t work with Open Weather Free API Keys - Get Help / CMS Features and Functionality - Xibo Community

Looking for a better solution, the following details how to make a weather widget in a layout.

Requirements:

1. An API key from OpenWeather. Sign up or login here: Сurrent weather and forecast - OpenWeatherMap
2. Navigate to their widget builder here: Weather widgets constructor - OpenWeatherMap
3. input your API key. The site validates its authenticity upon entry.

4. Type the city and select it from the list.
5. Select your unit preference.
6. Select one of the three themes.
7. Click the ‘Get a Code’ button under your desired weather widget.

• a pop-up will contain the code. Copy this code to the clipboard (buffer).

8. Add the Embedded widget to a blank Region in a Layout.

9. Under TEMPLATES, select “HTML to Embed”

10. Paste your copied widget code into the box, replacing the default code. Click Save. The layout has a weather widget now.

Carry on and have fun! I pray these steps help someone save themselves time and aggravation trying to get the weather widget to work without a paid plan.

[dan]

Thanks for posting this - embedding weather using HTML is certainly a way to get a weather widget out on your screen.

Given that OpenWeather is supported via our API, I have to just add that Xibo have not checked if using OpenWeather’s HTML widgets in this manner is aligned with their terms of service, and anyone using this method should check that ahead of time.

Thanks!