[horde] Weather Block and the Weather Channel API

[Michael J Rubinsky]

Quoting Simon Brereton <simon.brereton at buongiorno.com>:

> Hi
>
> I guess - like a lot of people on this list - that this email from  
> the Weather Channel is cause for some concern...
>
> Dear Registrant:
>
> We are writing to you because our records indicate that you are a  
> registered user of the weather.com® XML Data Feed  
> (http://xoap.weather.com.)
>
> As a valued subscriber, we want to let you know that our data feed  
> service offerings are changing. Beginning the week of October 10th,  
> 2011, we will be launching a new subscription service, The Weather  
> Channel® API.
>
> The Weather Channel® API is a subscription offering created by The  
> Weather Channel specifically to provide developers with access to an  
> easy to use weather data feed that they can use to power commercial  
> applications across a variety of technology platforms.
>
> Key Features include:
> •	access to the most comprehensive global forecast set available anywhere
> •	white label solution (no logo; no links)
> •	weather data provided by weather.com®
> •	data may be accessed in either XML or JSON format
> •	leverages a world class cloud-based Infrastructure
> •	product support for the world wide web, the mobile web,  
> downloadable web / PC applications, and downloadable mobile phone /  
> smart phone applications
> •	multi-language support for English, Spanish, French, German, & Portuguese
>
> What this means to you:
> In order to have access to an XML data feed from The Weather  
> Channel, you will need to subscribe to The Weather Channel® API.  
> This letter serves as formal notice to you that your access to the  
> weather.com® XML Data Feed will terminate at midnight Eastern time  
> on October 31, 2011. To evaluate The Weather Channel® API as an  
> alternative to the weather.com® XML Data Feed, please go to  
> http://portal.theweatherchannel.com.
>
> --
>
> My question is - is there an Open Source alternative, and what is  
> the Horde roadmap for integrating it in H4?  We have 2 weeks to fix  
> this before that block becomes 404.

Horde currently also supports METAR weather (aviation weather  
reports). While not as pretty, it is at least a source of free weather  
information.

As far as what Horde plans to do, the package that actually takes care  
of the communication with weather.com is not a Horde package, but a  
PEAR package. We will, of course, make any updates to Horde code and  
update the minimum version of the PEAR package required once/if the  
PEAR package is updated. Not much else we can do about it...

-- 
mike

The Horde Project (www.horde.org)
mrubinsk at horde.org