UK Weather Observations plugin for WordPress

My UK Weather Observations plugin for WordPress displays recent local UK weather observations based on RSS feeds published by the BBC. I wrote the plugin for one of the other web sites that I look after, but because we English are obsessed with our weather, I thought that I would make it generally available under the GNU General Public License.

Features

Displays local weather information, updated regularly during daylight hours;
Weather information is sourced from the BBC;
Weather information is updated automatically;
Admin interface to select locality and customize settings;
WordPress Widget enabled;
Written specifically for WordPress 2.7;
No PHP skills or file changes are required;
And more!

Pricing and Licensing

The plugin is free! I have released it under the GNU General Public License so you can use it free of charge on your blog. You can also change (improve) it if you wish – if you do, please email the improvements to clive@clive-publishing.com so that I can consider them for incorporation into a future version.

Please note that the BBC impose some restrictions on the use of their feeds – see www.bbc.co.uk/weather/bbcweather/features/RSS_termsandconditions.shtml for more information.

Download

The plugin is kindly hosted by WordPress. The direct download link is:

uk-weather-observations.1.0.zip

Installation

Download the ‘UK Weather Observations’ .zip archive and extract the directory/files into your wp‑content/plugins/ directory. Then go to your WordPress administration page, click on Plugins and activate it. See the Plugins section of the WordPress Codex for more information.

You will then have a new sub-menu item called “UK Weather Observations” under the “Settings” menu. You can enter your BBC location code there. If you don’t enter a code, weather observations for Marazion, Cornwall (the home of Clive Publishing) will be displayed.

To find your BBC location code, go to www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml and search for your nearest town or large village. If the search is successful, your BBC location code is the 4 digit number at the end of the URL. For example, if you search for ‘Marazion’, the search result URL is http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=3737 - the BBC location code is 3737. If the search is not successful, you are given the option of a post code search, which will give similar results, but does not always seem to choose the closest weather observation.

To display your weather information in a post or on a page simply type [ uk-wobs ] (no spaces) where you would like the information to appear.

If you would like to display the information in the sidebar you can use the plugin’s Widget.

If you wish to change the style of the information displayed, this can be done by making the relevant changes to your WordPress theme stylesheet; no changes to the code of the plugin are required.

Support

If you have comments, problems or suggestions or see something in the code which is not compliant with the WordPress Plugin Codex, please add a comment to this page, create a post at the WordPress support forum (tag it with “uk-weather-observations”) or send an email to clive@clive-publishing.com.

If you think you’ve found a bug, please send an email to clive@clive-publishing.com and I will do my best to fix it.

Donate

If you enjoy the plugin, you can thank me and leave a small donation for the time I’ve spent writing and supporting it.

Thank you for your support.

Supported by backstage.bbc.co.uk.

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January 12th, 2009 in Websites and software | tags: BBC, donate, GNU, PHP, plugin, weather, widget, WordPress

78 Comments

Jeff Paul Internet MillionsFebruary 17th, 2009 at 6:54 am

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Jeff Paul Internet MillionsFebruary 21st, 2009 at 10:05 pm

Hi, I applaud your blog for informing people, its just sometimes people seem to get themselves tied up in unnecessary knots over something that’s very simple.

bandicootFebruary 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

I’m trying to get this widget to work, but whatever location code I put in (and there seem to be a few for Edinburgh) all I’m getting is “No current observations available” even though the BBC site is displaying the weather for each of these locations.

CliveFebruary 25th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

Hi bandicoot,
Does it work if you do not put any location code in? If so, what location codes are you trying to use?
Cheers,
Clive

UK Weather Observations Plugin | WordPress Plugins Database - WordPressPluginsDatabase.comMarch 14th, 2009 at 11:13 am

[...] displays recent local UK weather observations based on RSS feeds published by the BBC… …..read more Download Plugin! Plugin Owner: Authors: Clive Goodhead, Clive Publishing Homepage: Visit [...]

DavidMarch 20th, 2009 at 5:10 am

I too am having the problem of just getting “No current observations available”. Regardless of what code I use, or if I use no code.

I’d like to use code 2268.

I have tried using cets_EmbedRSS and taken the feed from… feeds.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/rss/obs/world/4275.xml

[cetsEmbedRSS id='feeds.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/rss/obs/world/4275.xml' itemcount='5' itemauthor='1' itemdate='1' itemcontent='1']

Which works in a post, but I’d like to get it in the sidebar.

Any ideas why it isn’t working?

CliveMarch 20th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

Hi David,
I’ve never used cets_EmbedRSS, but I have tested my plugin using code 2268 (Fochabers) and it works as expected in the sidebar.
Cheers,
Clive

RaiulBaztepoMarch 29th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
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PiterKokonizApril 8th, 2009 at 5:54 am

Hi !!
My name is Piter Kokoniz. oOnly want to tell, that I’v found your blog very interesting
And want to ask you: is this blog your hobby?
Sorry for my bad english:)
Thank you:)
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CliveApril 8th, 2009 at 10:16 am

Hi Piter,
Thank you for your interest in my blog.
I make some of my income from internet marketing and this blog helps me with that so it is more than a hobby.
Much of the code behind the UK Weather Observation plugin for WordPress was written as a hobby, but the final plugin I regarded as work.
Kind regards,
Clive

ClalleygodyApril 13th, 2009 at 10:45 am

I’m new to this blog.
Thanks

Jeff Paul Big League Players ClubApril 14th, 2009 at 5:36 am

I’ve been reading your post and found it interesting! Internet Marketing these days is spread almost everywhere in the IT world. I run a blog on Internet Marketing so I can use something from your blog as well.

LeandaMay 29th, 2009 at 2:13 pm

Struggling to get this working on a site I’m working on, I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. I’ve tried it in the sidebar and within a post and I just get “No current observations available”.

The site url is http://www.lakelandbelvedere.com/

Tried it with and without a code, but to no avail

Can anyone who has managed to get it to work help?

CliveJune 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 pm

If you install the plugin as instructed but get the output “No current observations available” it is likely that your PHP installation is blocking access to the BBC data. Recently identified causes of this include safe mode being on – solution is to turn it off – and allow_url_fopen set to Off – solution is to set it to On.

Leanda solved her problem by installing a local copy of php.ini with appropriate settings.

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LeandaJune 17th, 2009 at 10:51 am

Hi Clive

Having lots of trouble with the plugin, it’s now completely broken in WordPress 2.8. If I go to the settings and hit save the plugin displays the weather info for a little while and then shortly reverts to ‘No Observations Available’. Prior to 2.8 it was displaying the weather data, but I was having to again go into the plugin settings to manually refresh the feed.

The site url is http://www.lakelandbelvedere.com/

Any ideas? Might have to look at another way of displaying the weather info

CliveJune 27th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

Hi Leanda,

Sorry you could not get the plugin working. I have now checked it under WordPress 2.8 and it seems to work and I have had reports from others that it works too. I will be updating it soon so that it will use Curl if it is available, which will hopefully get around the ‘No observations available’ problem.

Cheers,

Clive

CliveJuly 2nd, 2009 at 10:52 am

Hi Clive,
Thank you for taking the time to put this useful contribution together.

I seem to be having a few problems too with wordpress 2.8 compatability,

The feed doesnt seem to update everyday?

http://www.bedfordgardeners.org.uk

The codes on the bbc weather website seem to be different now, I can only get a 3 digit code for Bedford from the website source.

Any pointers would be great, thanks

Clive

KevJuly 9th, 2009 at 11:15 am

The BBC uses a 3 digit code for Oxford, this does not work when I type that into the settings for this plugin.

Any ideas?

Do I have to leave it on and wait for an update on BBC end for the location to change in my sidebar?

KevJuly 9th, 2009 at 11:17 am

Sorry its a 2 digit code for Oxford (25)

CliveJuly 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Hi Kev,

The BBC have changed the URL and the codes again. I have written an updated plugin which I am currently testing. When it is released (a couple of days I hope) the code for Oxford should be entered as ’0025′. The new plugin not only deals with the changes in URL and codes but also provides for the use of Curl to download BBC files which should fix many of the ‘No current observations available’ errors that people have been seeing.

In the meantime you should be able to use the old code ’2935′ with the existing plugin, but the observations seem to update only once per day.

Cheers,

Clive

CliveJuly 10th, 2009 at 10:42 am

Version 2.0 of the WordPress UK Weather Observations plugin has now been released. See the announcement and plugin page for more information.

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