NANY 2014 RELEASE: Weather Station Warlock

[hamradio]

NANY 2014 Entry Information

Application Name	Weather Station Warlock
Version	1.0.0 build 1
Short Description	Retrieves the current weather conditions for about 1,800 to 2,500 locations across the United States and US Territories...
Supported OSes	Windows XP, Windows VISTA, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Web Page	Weather Station Warlock
Download Link	Weather Station Warlock
System Requirements	.NET Framework 4.0 Obviously a computer...
Version History	"1.0.x Version History" 1.0.0 build 1 - Current Version "0.9.x Version History" 0.9.5 build 1 0.9.0 build 1 "0.8.x Version History" 0.8.5 build 21 0.8.5 build 20 0.8.5 build 1 0.8.0 build 1 - This was last alpha version. "0.6.x ALPHA Version History" 0.6.2 build 7 0.6.2 build 1 0.6.1 build 1 0.6.0 build 2 0.6.0 build 1 - First Public Release
Author	hamradio

Description
Retrieves the current weather conditions for about 2,500 locations across the United States and US Territories...

Features

• Auto downloads the current weather conditions 15 minutes past every hour while running.
• Auto downloads the current weather conditions upon program startup.
• Built-in station finder where you can select multiple stations to add.
• Built-in station finder includes search by state or search by partial/full string of station name/id.
• Copying of selected/all data to the clipboard.
• Refresh all button.
• Minimize to tray.

Screenshots

The main screen...


The station finder...


Usage
Installation
Extract to any portable directory location and run.

Using the Application
Use built-in station finder to find your weather station, then select the ones you want, then click the add button.

Uninstallation
Delete the Weather Station Warlock directory.

Known Issues
None at this time. Let me know of any please...

Bonus Download*
wx_example_source_vs2012_csharp.zip
* This is the bonus download and not the main program.
* The main program download link is near the start of this post.
* The bonus download is just the source code of a very early and basic version of Weather Station Warlock.

[skwire]

Worked well in the testing that I gave it.  Plus, I always like your application's interfaces.  Kudos. 

[wraith808]

Very nicely done! 

[hamradio]

Thank you and I had to fix a few bugs and the fetch button added back in as well so an update has been uploaded.

Note: By the way...mouser did in fact help me figure out the final name...

[TaoPhoenix]

Everyone likes a warlock! : )

[kyrathaba]

Awesome, hamradio! 

[hamradio]

Updated to version 0.8.0.1 with new interface, improved station finder, and also now gets the current conditions for all stations added.  

Note 1: This version could break some data from old version.

Note 2: See first post for details/screenshots/download.

[mouser]

Beautiful. 

[hamradio]

Released final version of 2013 unless any major show stopping bugs found.

[hamradio]

Released a bugfix update. (Thanks silat for finding the bug.)

Also the bonus download should now be active...

RECOMMENDED UPDATE:

A unhandled exception which might occur on the downloading of data for some stations should be fixed now.

[kyrathaba]

It's nice to see the above. Some people release a program and forget it. I like the dedication of people who care enough to release bug-fixes.

[mouser]

One thing that's really nice about wsw is the ability to have multiple stations on screen at the same time -- great if you are interested in monitoring the weather in many places at once.

[kyrathaba]

Temperatures within a 100 miles radius of my location are varying, this morning, from 0 to 9 degrees F.

[TaoPhoenix]

Hi Ham Radio,

Some thoughts:

- Currently when I close it, the stations are lost. What if you made some feature where your stations are saved?
- Maybe you could make the text copyable because then you can make notes, send it in an email, and the whole shebang.
- Add a Minimize to the Tray
- This could be the counterpart to Skwire's sWeather. A buddy of mine is a Flight Attendant, so he always wants to know the weather here. So between the two, I can do a quick forecast and give your detailed warlock data of "current conditions".

[mouser]

Stations are saved for me -- maybe yours is running someplace where it can't save settings? I think it tries to save settings in the directory it runs from.

[hamradio]

Hi Ham Radio,

Some thoughts:

- Currently when I close it, the stations are lost. What if you made some feature where your stations are saved?
- Maybe you could make the text copyable because then you can make notes, send it in an email, and the whole shebang.
- Add a Minimize to the Tray
- This could be the counterpart to Skwire's sWeather. A buddy of mine is a Flight Attendant, so he always wants to know the weather here. So between the two, I can do a quick forecast and give your detailed warlock data of "current conditions".

1. It does as mouser said in his post for saving as soon as the find stations dialog is closed with the finished button it should save the stations list and refresh all data as well.
2+3. Perhaps soon.

[TaoPhoenix]

Stations are saved for me -- maybe yours is running someplace where it can't save settings? I think it tries to save settings in the directory it runs from.

Oh, I think I figured it out. For a lot of these little apps I tend to extract them to my desktop and play with them, then move them to my "resources" folder (aka utilities). So I must have moved the app and it lost contact with its settings.

The second time I tried it and moved the whole self contained subfolder over, it looks like it's staying put now.

[gemini06720]

Just curious...  

Why are you presenting us with a choice of 'State/Province' when there is no province in the list of options - I am in Canada, more precisely in beautiful British Columbia...  

From where exactly are your getting the weather information (it appears you might be getting some of the information from the local METAR stations)?

Ray.

[hamradio]

Just curious...  

Why are you presenting us with a choice of 'State/Province' when there is no province in the list of options - I am in Canada, more precisely in beautiful British Columbia...  

From where exactly are your getting the weather information (it appears you might be getting some of the information from the local METAR stations)?

Ray.

The National Weather Service which states...

"...across the United States and US Territories..."

and I am unsure if those territories use state or province so I just did State/Province.

That's my logic to it.  If you can clarify for sure if they do not use province I will change it.

[doglady1]

My husband is going to love this!  He's a weather nut and loves to see what's going on everywhere.  Thank you!

[gemini06720]

The National Weather Service which states...
"...across the United States and US Territories..."
and I am unsure if those territories use state or province so I just did State/Province.

I do not think there are such things as 'provinces' within the United States of America or its Territories - the only 'provinces' I know of, within North America, are those of the country Canada ... I am sure none of the canadian 'provinces' would like to be considered 'US Territories'. 

But, you have not answered my second question "From where are your getting the weather data (it appears you might be getting some of the information from the local METAR stations)?"

If you are using the data provided by the local METAR stations (through the National Weather Service), then, you could possibly add the of 10 canadian provinces and 3 territories to the list of USA states and territories ... to make the Weather Station Warlock a truly north american weather information utility. 

Ray.

[hamradio]

My husband is going to love this!  He's a weather nut and loves to see what's going on everywhere.  Thank you!

Your very welcome!

The National Weather Service which states...
"...across the United States and US Territories..."
and I am unsure if those territories use state or province so I just did State/Province.

I do not think there are such things as 'provinces' within the United States of America or its Territories - the only 'provinces' I know of, within North America, are those of the country Canada ... I am sure none of the canadian 'provinces' would like to be considered 'US Territories'.  

But, you have not answered my second question "From where are your getting the weather data (it appears you might be getting some of the information from the local METAR stations)?"

If you are using the data provided by the local METAR stations (through the National Weather Service), then, you could possibly add the of 10 canadian provinces and 3 territories to the list of USA states and territories ... to make the Weather Station Warlock a truly north american weather information utility.  

Ray.

It is using xml from the nws @ http://w1.weather.gov/xml/current_obs/seek.php which does stuff a little different than what I have been able to find on the Canada weather service pages.  

However I may look into it more in the future as time permits.

Note: Slight version increase to fix the wording of a couple controls in the find stations dialog.

[mouser]

Featured on ILoveFreeSoftware.com today: http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/15/windows/weather-station-warlock.html

[hamradio]

Featured on ILoveFreeSoftware.com today: http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/15/windows/weather-station-warlock.html

Nice to see it is getting some use by several other people than just me using it.

[hamradio]

- Maybe you could make the text copyable because then you can make notes, send it in an email, and the whole shebang.
- Add a Minimize to the Tray

I can confirm that both of those will be in a release that should happen in the next week or so.