This reader uses weather forecast data from customweather.com and requires a subscription. Changes and updates to this app are noted in the CustomWeather Reader Release Notes.

This weather reader supports the following forecast types when supported by your subscription.

Forecast Data Type

Forecast Data Type
Current Conditions
Daily (Expanded) Forecast	7 or 15 days
Hourly Forecasts	up to 24 hours
Detailed Forecast (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Overnight)	for the next 48 hours
Location Search	by name, postal/zip code, or ICAO airport code

Create Your Instance

The first time you launch the reader you will be prompted to create a new instance. You will need to provide 2 pieces of information.

Instance Name: this can be anything you want it to be.

Flow URL: this is the URL you use to access your instance of Chameleon or Tick-it Flow.

Examples:

http://localhost/tickit/
https://cloud.com/chameleon/

By providing the URL the reader is able to automatically fill in some of the setup information required.

Setup

Changes made will apply the next time the reader runs. The main piece of setup you need to do is to apply your User Id and Password and then select the language and units. The language option affects the text fields.

The units field will only control what units are applied to the extra data field values. The primary fields are converted to the default units specified in Flow for Chameleon.

The licensed days drop down allows you to select the correct number of daily forecasts you want to use and your subscription license allows.

The options available for units are: Metric or Imperial

Options

The day names options allow you to change how the day of the week name is saved in the data.

The abbreviated checkbox will either change the day name to it’s abbreviation or leave it as its full description. The Case drop down list allows you to select from:

Source (don’t change the data)
UPPER (convert to all upper case)
lower (convert to all lower case)
Title (first character is upper case and the rest is lower case)

Day Name Option Examples	Result

Day Name Option Examples	Result
	Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
	MON, TUE, WED
	monday, tuesday, wednesday

The use today icon option causes the reader to look for and use the weather icon from the daily forecast records for today when there is no weather icon available in the current condition data.

Locations

You add and remove locations to be updated by the reader using the Locations tab.

Adding Locations

You can search for locations to add using the Locations tab in the app. You can search by using:

location name
- be specific by adding province and/or country
- Examples
  - Toronto, ON
  - Munich, Germany
  - Hong Kong
postal code or zip code
ICAO airport code
- use all caps
- Examples: KLAX, KLGA, CYYZ, CYUL

Type your search text into the search box
Press the Search button or the Enter key.
The reader will lookup a list of possible matches and display them in the dropdown list below the search box.
Select the appropriate location and click on the Add Location button.
1. it will insert the location
2. it will retrieve current forecast data for the new item

Removing Locations

To remove locations from the reader you:

Select the location(s) you want to remove.
Right-click to activate the popup menu.
Click on Remove to proceed.
You will be prompted to confirm the removal.

If you remove a location from the reader it will no longer be available for use in Chameleon.
It will be removed from all playlists and rundowns.

You can multi-select using the Shift and/or CTRL keys when clicking on locations in the list.

Extra Data Fields

There are a number of additional data fields that can be added to the forecast records as dynamic fields. The data available for use in this way is not converted/translated by the app or Flow but is saved into the database as provided. Thus the default selected units and language on the Setup tab apply.

Logging Options

If you need to know more about the inner workings of the reader or check for errors - you can view log files.

View Logs

To view the logs click on

Help menu
- Logs menu
  - Show Current Log menu item

To find the log file location - after you open the log file simply select File menu, Save As….
The dialogue box should default to the folder of the current log file.

Verbose Logging

If you need to know the URL’s the reader is using you can turn on Verbose Logging in the Help - Logs menu. This will add extra details to the logs that you wouldn't normally need and is off by default. It also includes details about what data records are being updated. This setting is not saved.

Example verbose log entries:

Info: 	dev FR: Processing Paris - gn2968815 ... 
Info: 	dev FR: Pulling data from: https://xml.customweather.com/xml?product=current_conditions,astronomy_forecast_ext,expanded_forecast,day1_forecast&latitude=48.8534&longitude=2.3486&language=fr&client=userName&client_password=userPassword 
Performance: 	   372 ms: Paris: Forecast downloaded in 372 ms.

Performance Logging

If you want to check how long parts of the reading process are taking you can enable the Performance Logging option in the Help - Logs menu option. This will add extra details to the logs. This setting is saved.

Help Menu Options

Check for Updates

Use this menu option to check for and download any new updates for the reader.

Other Notes

Weather Icons

There are 38 possible weather types or icons. These include some unique icons for night forecasts.

Data Lookup via Latitude and Longitude values

The app uses the latitude and longitude values of the saved locations to request forecast data. This makes it easier to transition from another weather data source such as Dark Sky that also uses lat/long.

Hourly Forecast Notes

The data used for the hourly forecasts are identified as the current time’s hour plus the requested hour. For example if the current time is 12:37 pm and the requested forecast type is Hour 1 - then that forecast will have data for 1:00 pm and the Hour 3 will have data for 3:00 pm.

Daily Forecast Notes

The reader uses a combination of the expanded forecast and the day1 forecast products.

When using the expanded_forecast option to provide a 7 day forecast for a location it sometimes includes data for today + the next 6 days and sometimes it’s tomorrow + 6. The forecast for the first day switches over to the next day sometime between 2-8pm local time. Alternatively the day1_forecast product will continue to return the current day's forecast until midnight local time.

Day 1 / Today data

The Day 1 forecast is the forecast for today based on the local time of the location. It is retrieved by using the day1_forecast product.

Data Quality Notes

The data seems to be pretty good.

One thing I have noticed though is that the text description is sometimes not capitalized the way you might expect it to be. For example:

a few showers. Mostly cloudy. Cool.
a few showers. Broken clouds. Cool.

I did notice early on that a location in Saskatchewan was incorrectly reporting that it was in Manitoba. After I reported it they did correct it fairly quickly.