Weather Data

Weather Data Grabber

A basic PHP script that grabs and outputs Weather Data in JSON for use on other UCF sites. Uses a simple caching mechanism that saves previously grabbed results and refers to that saved file if another request is made within the set cache duration. Conditions retrieved are relative to the Orlando area, but can be updated for other projects by modifying the WEATHER_URL_CURRENT and WEATHER_URL_FORECAST constants.

The script is currently written to accept and parse NOAA XML data. Condition codes for images are strings by default but are converted to the Weather.com/Yahoo condition code standard (since most of our sites are already using it anyway.) These condition codes are also used to generate a condition phrase, due to the default NOAA condition phrases being very verbose.

Links to various icon sets are provided within the feed; img/weather-small/ contains icons used on ucf.edu; img/weather-medium/ contains icons used in the GMUCF emails; img/weather-large/ contains icons used on UCF Today.

Usage

The Orlando area's current conditions feed is returned by default when index.php is requested. Use the GET parameter data to return different sets of data:

• ?data=forecastToday: Forecast for today; includes conditions/temperatures for today and tonight
• ?data=forecastExtended: 5 day forecast, divided into days ('days', grouped into 'day1-5')

Current Conditions & Forecasts Returned Values

successfulFetch (string--previously 'successfulCache' in v1.0.0)

Either 'yes' or 'no'; if the requested data was successfully fetched from the specified external source, this value is set to 'yes'. If some particular content is missing from the external source for any day, this value is set to 'no'.

provider (string)

The URL of the Weather Data provider.

date (string)

The date for the given set of weather conditions. (Format YYYY-MM-DD)

condition (string)

A weather condition phrase. These phrases are based loosely on the Yahoo Weather API code descriptions: (http://developer.yahoo.com/weather/#codetable)

imgCode (int)

A status condition code, based on the status code provided by NOAA. This code is translated into a Weather.com/Yahoo numerical condition code.

imgSmall, imgMedium, imgLarge (string)

Links to relevant weather icons. img/weather-small/ contains icons used on ucf.edu; img/weather-medium/ contains icons used in the GMUCF emails; img/weather-large/ contains icons used on UCF Today.

cachedAt (string)

The timestamp when this set of Weather Data was last cached.

feedUpdatedAt (string)

The timestamp when the feed provider (NOAA) last updated their feed content.

Current Conditions, Today's Forecast Returned Values

temp (string)

Current temperature reading. (Includes degree symbol)

tempN (int)

Current temperature reading. (Does not include degree symbol)

Extended Forecast Returned Values (per 'day')

tempMax (string)

Maximum predicted temperature for that day. (Includes degree symbol)

tempMaxN (int)

Maximum predicted temperature for that day. (Does not include degree symbol)

tempMin (string)

Minimum predicted temperature for that day. (Includes degree symbol.) Note that a 'day7' tempMin is not provided by NOAA.

tempMinN (int)

Minimum predicted temperature for that day. (Does not include degree symbol.)

Notes

• Sites using this service are expected to cache results on their end. Data should only be requested from this script at a set interval. Re-requesting this service will not trigger a fetch of new content unless the defined cache period has passed.
• Sites using this service should check for legitimate data values before displaying feed data to the user. Even if the 'successfulFetch' value is set to 'no', partial data may still be returned. Default fallback values have been removed as of v1.1.3.
• The cache is only refreshed with new data when the old cached data has expired, AND a newly-grabbed set of data was grabbed successfully. This script will continue to display good stale data until another successful data fetch is performed, as long as that stale data was retrieved within the same day.
• Note that the NOAA only refreshes their current condition data once an hour, at (roughly) 45 minutes past the hour. The weather grabber script is set to cache data for 15 minutes.
• As of v1.1.9, this project utilizes cURL to fetch NOAA data. Environments running this project must have libcurl installed to support PHP's cURL functionality. See PHP's documentation on cURL for more information.