php Weather

[aep]

Can anyone give me a php code that would allow me to extract data from this xml code...http://www.weather.gov/alerts/ny.rss. Also can anyone tell me of a php script that would allow me to get forecasts from http://weatheroffice.com without the use of XML codes?

I’ve been searching all over the internet and can’t find one for those anywhere!

Thanks lots,
Stefan

[Norman_Graham]

Hi Stefan

If you're using PHP5, make use of simple XML which is perfect for parsing RSS.

If you're using PHP4, try this article at DevShed. This is basically the format I used the first time I captured a feed for my PHP4 website.

HTH

Norm

PS: I can't open the Weather Office website at the moment. If it doesn't offer an RSS, leave it alone. You can scrape the HTML if you want, but they might send the boys round sooner or later.

[aep]

Now I feel stupid, but I don't understand any of that stuff...

[bpat1434]

You could always read my tutorial on coding your own weather script:

Simple Remoting with PHP

It uses weather.com, but you can adapt it I'm sure.

~Brett

[aep]

I used your code Brett, and these errors came back...

Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\solar1.php on line 22

Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\solar1.php on line 23

Notice: Undefined offset: 2 in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\solar1.php on line 24
Currently in :
the temperature is ?F.
It feels like ?F.

[aep]

Brett, could you throw one together for me that would get weather forecasts off of http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html

[bpat1434]

Possibly... let me work on it for a few minutes... I'll just edit this post with the code...

~Brett

[aep]

Okay, great thanks a lot! 🙂

[_theworks]

Heh i made a weather site ages ago.... here .

also SimpleXML is really easy to understand. consider this code..

<?
$xml = simplexml_load_file('http://www.weather.gov/alerts/ny.rss');

foreach ($xml->item as $item) {
 echo $item->title."<br>";
 echo $item->link."<br>";
 echo $item->description."<br>";
 echo '<hr>';
}

?>

[aep]

What php code did you use to create the graphs on weather world? And is it possible to make them for Canada and the U.S.A? 🙂

Also the above code does not work, page is all white...no data was loaded.

[bpat1434]

<?php

$url = 'http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html';
$handle = fopen($url, "r");
$weather = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($handle);

/**
 *
 *	Clean up the retrieved HTML code
 *	
 *  We clean up the source we got here.  Basically, we only want a section
 *  of the code.  We only need the working weather section.  So we cut out
 *  the meat, starting at '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">' and
 *  ending at '<div id="cityadditional">' which will give us just the info
 *  about the current conditions.  Exactly what we want!!
 *
 */
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">'), (strpos($weather,'<div id="cityadditional">')-strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">')));
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<h1>'), ((strpos($weather, '</dl>')-strpos($weather, '<h1>'))+5));

/**
 *  PERL RegEx Pattern to match
 *	
 *	The pattern of what the HTML will look like each time that page is hit
 *	by us (or any other viewer).  We define areas with parenthesis "()"
 *	and what their values can contain with ranges "[a-zA-Z]".
 *	Research Regular Expressions if you don't understand.
 *
 */
 $pattern = "@<h1>
              <a name=\"content\">&nbsp;</a>([-\s\w]*)</h1>

        <div id=\"city\">
          <div id=\"box\">
            <div id=\"citycurrent\">
              <h2>Currently</h2>
              <div id=\"cityobserved\">([-\w\s\:]*)</div>
              <dl>
                <dt>Temperature</dt>

                <dd>([- \d]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>
                <dd class=\"dd1\"/>
                <dt>Pressure/ Tendency</dt>
                <dd>([- \d\.]*) kPa<span class=\"[- \w]*\" id=\"[- \w]*\">([&;\w]*)</span></dd>
                <dd class=\"dd1\"/>
                <dt>Humidity</dt>

                <dd>([\d]*) %</dd>
                <dd class=\"dd1\"/>
                <dt>Dewpoint</dt>
                <dd>([-\d]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>
                <dd class=\"dd1\"/>
                <dt>Wind</dt>

                <dd>([ \w\n\/\t]*)</dd>
                <dd class=\"dd1\"/>
              </dl>@";

preg_match($pattern, $weather, $info);
preg_match_all($pattern, $weather, $info2);
?>

<pre>
<?php 
var_dump($info);
echo '<hr>';
var_dump($info2);
?>

</pre>

That's what I came up with. For some odd reason, the RegEx doesn't work, not sure why. If you put it in a RegEx checker (like the one from the makers of PHPEdit), it works perfectly!! But I couldn't get my local server (PHP5, Apache 2) to do it. I could go line-by-line with regex, but that was too tedius. preg_match_all should work with this pattern, but for some odd reason, it doesn't. Maybe someone else can figure it out.

$me->Racking_his_brain_as_he_goes_to_get_drunk(...)

~Brett

[aep]

This is what happens when I use the code in my server...how can I fix this?

array(0) {
}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------array(11) {
[0]=>
array(0) {
}
[1]=>
array(0) {
}
[2]=>
array(0) {
}
[3]=>
array(0) {
}
[4]=>
array(0) {
}
[5]=>
array(0) {
}
[6]=>
array(0) {
}
[7]=>
array(0) {
}
[8]=>
array(0) {
}
[9]=>
array(0) {
}
[10]=>
array(0) {
}
}

[_theworks]

aep wrote:

the above code does not work, page is all white...no data was loaded.

oh yeh i didnt test it.. change

foreach ($xml->item as $item)
to
foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) 

aep wrote:

What php code did you use to create the graphs on weather world? And is it possible to make them for Canada and the U.S.A?

Umm yeh you could do one of the entire planet (if you really wanted to.)

i used wunderground.com's rss feeds they seem to have a least 1 city in most countrys.

doing the graph is simple i simply have a hourly cron which gathers infomation from wunderground and stores it on my server (its really primative( my 1st php project 🙂 never really finished it though)) that graph and temperature map were drawn with GD image functions...

[aep]

It still is not working...Parse error: parse error, unexpected '}' in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\solar1.php on line 9

<? 
$xml = simplexml_load_file('http://www.weather.gov/alerts/ny.rss'); 

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) 
echo $item->title."<br>"; 
echo $item->link."<br>"; 
echo $item->description."<br>"; 
echo '<hr>'; 
} 

?>

[bpat1434]

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) 

SHould be:

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item){

~Brett

[bpat1434]

HAH!!! I got it.....

<?php

$url = 'http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html';
$handle = fopen($url, "r");
$weather = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($handle);

/**
 *
 *	Clean up the retrieved HTML code
 *	
 *  We clean up the source we got here.  Basically, we only want a section
 *  of the code.  We only need the working weather section.  So we cut out
 *  the meat, starting at '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">' and
 *  ending at '<div id="cityadditional">' which will give us just the info
 *  about the current conditions.  Exactly what we want!!
 *
 */
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">'), (strpos($weather,'<div id="cityadditional">')-strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">')));
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<h1>'), ((strpos($weather, '</dl>')-strpos($weather, '<h1>'))+5));


/**
 *  PERL RegEx Pattern to match
 *	
 *	The pattern of what the HTML will look like each time that page is hit
 *	by us (or any other viewer).  We define areas with parenthesis "()"
 *	and what their values can contain with ranges "[a-zA-Z]".
 *	Research Regular Expressions if you don't understand.
 *
 */
 $pattern = "@<h1>[\s\n]*<a name=\"content\">&nbsp;</a>([\w\s\-.]*)</h1>[\s\n]*<div id=\"city\">[\s\n]*<div id=\"box\">[\s\n]*<div id=\"citycurrent\">[\s\n]*<h2>Currently</h2>[\s\n]*<div id=\"cityobserved\">([\w\-\s\:]*)</div>[\s\n]*<dl>[\s\n]*<dt>Temperature</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-.]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Pressure/ Tendency</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\.\-]*) kPa<span class=\"[\w]*\" id=\"[\w]*\">([\w&;]*)</span></dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Humidity</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-.]*) %</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Dewpoint</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Wind</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\w\-\n\/\t\:\s.]*)</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*</dl>@m";

preg_match($pattern, $weather, $info);

/**
 *  Remove the first array element
 *
 *  We remove the first element so that we can loop through the array and get
 *  only the values we need, minus the formatting so we can format it how we like.
 *  You can comment out the line and see the differences for yourself.
*/

array_shift($info);
?>

<pre>
<?php 
var_dump($info);
?>
</pre>

THat will give you what you want if you don't want to use the XML thing. It outputs the following:

array(10) {
  [0]=>
  string(12) "Chatham-Kent"
  [1]=>
  string(51) "Observed at: Ridgetown 31 December 2005 1:00 PM EST"
  [2]=>
  string(1) "2"
  [3]=>
  string(1) "C"
  [4]=>
  string(5) "100.4"
  [5]=>
  string(6) "↑"
  [6]=>
  string(3) "100"
  [7]=>
  string(1) "2"
  [8]=>
  string(1) "C"
  [9]=>
  string(12) "WSW 13 km/h "
}

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) 

SHould be:

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item){

~Brett

~Brett

[aep]

Thanks a lot, you're really good at this stuff!. Anyways, how can we change the code to make the output remove array(10) { , [0]=> and string(12)...ect? Ah man this stuff...

array(10) {
[0]=>
string(12) "Chatham-Kent"
[1]=>
string(51) "Observed at: Ridgetown 31 December 2005 1:00 PM EST"
[2]=>
string(1) "2"
[3]=>
string(1) "C"
[4]=>
string(5) "100.4"
[5]=>
string(6) "↑"
[6]=>
string(3) "100"
[7]=>
string(1) "2"
[8]=>
string(1) "C"
[9]=>
string(12) "WSW 13 km/h "
}

[bpat1434]

Yes... just remove the var_dump($info) line.

The reason I did that was so you can see how the array is set up. You can do this though:

<?php

$url = 'http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html';
$handle = fopen($url, "r");
$weather = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($handle);

/**
 * Clean up the retrieved HTML code
 *	
 *  We clean up the source we got here.  Basically, we only want a section
 *  of the code.  We only need the working weather section.  So we cut out
 *  the meat, starting at '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">' and
 *  ending at '<div id="cityadditional">' which will give us just the info
 *  about the current conditions.  Exactly what we want!!
 */
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">'), (strpos($weather,'<div id="cityadditional">')-strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">')));
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<h1>'), ((strpos($weather, '</dl>')-strpos($weather, '<h1>'))+5));


/**
 * PERL RegEx Pattern to match
 *	
 *	The pattern of what the HTML will look like each time that page is hit
 *	by us (or any other viewer).  We define areas with parenthesis "()"
 *	and what their values can contain with ranges "[a-zA-Z]".
 *	Research Regular Expressions if you don't understand.
 */
 $pattern = "@<h1>[\s\n]*<a name=\"content\">&nbsp;</a>([\w\s\-.]*)</h1>[\s\n]*<div id=\"city\">[\s\n]*<div id=\"box\">[\s\n]*<div id=\"citycurrent\">[\s\n]*<h2>Currently</h2>[\s\n]*<div id=\"cityobserved\">([\w\-\s\:]*)</div>[\s\n]*<dl>[\s\n]*<dt>Temperature</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-.]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Pressure/ Tendency</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\.\-]*) kPa<span class=\"([\w]*)\" id=\"[\w]*\">[\w&;]*</span></dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Humidity</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-.]*) %</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Dewpoint</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\d\-]*) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*<dt>Wind</dt>[\s\n]*<dd>([\w\-\n\/\t\:\s.]*)</dd>[\s\n]*<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*</dl>@m";

preg_match($pattern, $weather, $info);
array_shift($info);

/**
 * Define variable names.
 *
 *	Each array element will become a variable name.  You can use whatever
 *	naming scheme you wish, but this was easiest for me to understand.
 *
 *	Variable names will be:
 *		$loc
 *		$obs
 *		$temp
 *		$temp_scale
 *		etc. . . .
 */
$var = array(	'loc',				# Location
							'obs',				# Observation information
							'temp',				# Temperature
							'temp_scale', # Temperature Scale (Celsius, Farenheit)
							'barom',			# Barometric Pressure
							'barom_tend', # Barometric Pressure Tendency (rising, falling, steady)
							'humidity',		# Humidity
							'dewpt',			# Dew Point
							'dew_scale',  # Dew Point Scale (Celsius, Farenheit)
							'wind'				# Wind speed information
						);				

/**
 * Extract information from preg_match array into custom variables.
 *
 *	Loop through the array $info.  Using the array key as a point of reference, we
 *	create a variable with the name that corresponds to the key in the array $var.
 *	From that, we give that new variable the value it is supposed to have.
 *
 *	This is an alternative.  You can use $info[0] -> $info[9] to reference these values
 *	as well.  Either way will work.  It's up to you.
 */
foreach($info as $key => $val)
{
  $$var[$key] = $val;
}

// Echo out something about the weather....
echo 'Currently in '.$loc.' (<em>'.$obs.'</em>) it is <strong>'.$temp.' &deg; '.$temp_scale.'</strong>.<br>';
echo 'The barometric pressure is '.$barom.' and '.$barom_tend.' with '.$humidity.'% humidity.  ';
echo 'The dew point is '.$dewpt.' &deg;'.$dew_scale.'.  Winds are '.$wind;
?>

Read my comments, they'll help you out.

~Brett

[aep]

Okay, how did you know it would be $dew_scale and not $dewpoint_scale? Also on the webpage http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html, would it be basically the same thing for the text forecast at the bottom of the page? Would it be <b><?echo $forecasttitles[1]?>: </b><?echo $forecasttext[1]?><br>...ect? How would I set this one up?

[aep]

The oddest thing happened with your code... I changed the location, to this http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-143_metric_e.html and it no longer works. Would it be because it has a current observation, and an image (ex. light snow, with a picture of light snow)? How can this code be changed to include this?

The errors are as follows:
Notice: Undefined variable: loc in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 32

Notice: Undefined variable: obs in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 32

Notice: Undefined variable: temp in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 32

Notice: Undefined variable: temp_scale in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 32
()
Temperature: °

Notice: Undefined variable: barom in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 33

Notice: Undefined variable: barom_tend in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 33

Notice: Undefined variable: humidity in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 33
Barometric Pressure: -
Humidity: % humidity.
Notice: Undefined variable: dewpt in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 34

Notice: Undefined variable: dew_scale in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 34

Notice: Undefined variable: wind in C:\Sites\Single25\litohin\webroot\example2.php on line 34

Dew Point: °
Winds:

<?php
$url = 'http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/city/pages/on-11_metric_e.html';
$handle = fopen($url, "r");
$weather = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($handle);

$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">'), (strpos($weather,'<div id="cityadditional">')-strpos($weather, '<div id="citybanneradright" class="right">')));
$weather = substr($weather, strpos($weather, '<h1>'), ((strpos($weather, '</dl>')-strpos($weather, '<h1>'))+5));

$pattern = "@<h1>[\s\n]<a name=\"content\">&nbsp;</a>([\w\s-.])</h1>[\s\n]<div id=\"city\">[\s\n]<div id=\"box\">[\s\n]<div id=\"citycurrent\">[\s\n]<h2>Currently</h2>[\s\n]<div id=\"cityobserved\">([\w-\s:])</div>[\s\n]<dl>[\s\n]<dt>Temperature</dt>[\s\n]<dd>([\d-.]) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]<dt>Pressure/ Tendency</dt>[\s\n]<dd>([\d.-]) kPa<span class=\"([\w])\" id=\"[\w]\">[\w&;]</span></dd>[\s\n]<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]<dt>Humidity</dt>[\s\n]<dd>([\d-.]) %</dd>[\s\n]<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]<dt>Dewpoint</dt>[\s\n]<dd>([\d-]) &deg;([F|C]{1})</dd>[\s\n]<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]<dt>Wind</dt>[\s\n]<dd>([\w-\n\/\t:\s.])</dd>[\s\n]<dd class=\"dd1\"/>[\s\n]*</dl>@m";

preg_match($pattern, $weather, $info);
array_shift($info);

$var = array( 'loc', # Location
'obs', # Observation information
'temp', # Temperature
'temp_scale', # Temperature Scale (Celsius, Farenheit)
'barom', # Barometric Pressure
'barom_tend', # Barometric Pressure Tendency (rising, falling, steady)
'humidity', # Humidity
'dewpt', # Dew Point
'dew_scale', # Dew Point Scale (Celsius, Farenheit)
'wind' # Wind speed information
);

foreach($info as $key => $val)

{
$$var[$key] = $val;
}
echo '<font face="arial" size="1">'.$loc.' (<em>'.$obs.'</em>)<br>Temperature: '.$temp.' &deg; '.$temp_scale.'<br>';
echo 'Barometric Pressure: '.$barom.' - '.$barom_tend.'<br> Humidity: '.$humidity.'% humidity. ';
echo '<br>Dew Point:'.$dewpt.' &deg;'.$dew_scale.'<br> Winds: '.$wind;
?>