Add-on:Oz Weather

Oz Weather

See this add-on on the kodi.tv showcase Author: Bossanova808 Website: link Type: Weather information Repo: Kodi.tv repo v21 Kodi.tv repo v20 Kodi.tv repo v19 License: GPL-3.0-only Source: Source code Summary: Weather forecasting and radar images for Australia using Bureau of Meteorology data

Add-ons

Oz Weather

Need help with this add-on? See here.

Weather forecast data scraped from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology via WeatherZone - www.bom.gov.au and www.weatherzone.com.au. For full features (e.g. radar) make sure you install the replacement skin files found via the addon wiki (https://kodi.wiki/index.php?title=Add-on:Oz_Weather).

Installing

This add-on is installed from the Add-on browser located in Kodi as follows:

1. Settings
2. Add-ons
3. Install from repository
4. Weather information
5. Oz Weather
6. Install

This Add On is for Kodi Matrix plus (There is an old version that runs on Leia and below, but support from now on is Matrix and on only, due to the extensive Python 3 and BOM API re-write).

Support, discussion, release notification:on the Kodi forum thread. (If you like it and use it, and want to support it surviving into the future, there is a 'buy me a coffee' link in the first post in the form thread).

It has been adapted to source it's data directly from the BOM API (Australian Bureau of Meteorology) - as this is really the only authoritative source for weather data in Australia.

Features

• Animated BOM radar maps (auto locates your closest radar, but you can override this and choose any BOM radar loop if you wish. See notes on an addon to perform the skin changes needed for this, below)
• 7 Day Forecasts
• Today's extended forecast
• Direct access to 'ABC National Weather Update in 90 Seconds'
• Mini weather when you pause video & display video information etc. if you want (Confluence/Estuary only currently).

Version 2 of the addon (June 2021 on), looks like this with Kodi's default skin, Estuary:

<img src="https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/raw/master/repository-downloads/Other%20Downloads/Screenshots/OzWeather/OzWeather%20V2%20Estuary.jpg" width="720" height="405">

....or if you're old school and still using Confluence like me:

<img src="https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/raw/master/repository-downloads/Other%20Downloads/Screenshots/OzWeather/OzWeather%20V2%20Confluence.jpg" width="720" height="405">

Instructions

Go into Get More Add-Ons and choose Weather -> OzWeather... (Oz Weather is in the official Kodi repo). For radar support, see notes below on skin changes and a tool to help with this.

NB if you experience errors running OzWeather, particularly if using profiles other than the Master profile, please check in Settings->System->Addons->Manage Dependencies and make sure that the pytz, requests and urllib3 modules are all enabled!

To Configure - First, go to Kodi settings->Weather and choose the OzWeather add on as your selected weather information add on.

In the add on settings you can add up to three BOM locations - you can enter either your postcode or suburb - it will prompt you to choose from a list of matching locations. Ideally, enter locations in the 'Fallback' settings page as well - this will mean that if ever the BOM API is not available, the add-on will fall back to scraping data from an alternative site (WeatherZone). That data is not as accurate, but it's still a lot better for Australian data than other weather addons.

If you enable the extended features (see skin changes required below!) - you can have animated radars. The addon auto-selects the closest radar to you, but you can overrule this if you wish by manually putting in any BOM radar code. To find a radar code, go to the BOM site and find the radar you want, then check the url:

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml#skip

...the code you need to enter (precisely) is IDR023

...there is also a list of Radar IDs and what they are on the BOM site. Note not all codes actually work all the time, as some radars are only in part time use. The main capital city ones work well, e.g. IDR023 above which is the Melbourne 128km loop, or try IDR00004 for a nice national radar.

There is a map here with radar locations - if you hover your mouse over one of the radar diamonds, you can read the code you need from there: http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/radar/

Notes: If ever you experience issues with missing radar background images, wait a day or two, then use the 'purge backgrounds on next refresh' option in the add-on settings, and with luck your backgrounds will be re-downloaded on the next run.

Skin Changes

If you enable the extended forecasts & radar, skin changes are needed.

Utility to Patch Skins

If you're on Kodi Matrix and above, and you're using Estuary, Estouchy, or Confluence as your skin, I have written a utility tool to make this easier. Note that your skin folder MUST be writeable for this to work (meaning if you're on Android, you _may_ need a rooted device - nothing I can do about this, sorry!).

I am in theory happy to add support for other skins (and especially if you can develop & supply working skin files for the current Kodi version!) - just let me know what skin support you're after in the OzWeather forum thread.

To install the utility - you will need to install my repo...download the latest .zip for that here: https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/tree/master/repository-downloads/repository.bossanova808

Install that, and then install the 'OzWeather Skin Patcher' add-on from that repo. Then, just run it. It can both patch and restore the skin files as needed.

There is also an optional VideoFullScreenInfo that you can use if you want a mini forecast on your currently playing video info screen (shows radar map, current temp, predicted high, overnight low and tomorrow high). Hit 'info/i' or 'menu/m' on your remote/keyboard during video playback to bring this up.

If you want this, you will need to enable this feature in the Skin Patcher settings. Looks like this:

<img src="https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/raw/master/repository-downloads/Other%20Downloads/Screenshots/OzWeather/OzWeather%20Estuary%20-%20Seek.jpg" width="720" height="405">

or

<img src="https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/raw/master/repository-downloads/Other%20Downloads/Screenshots/OzWeather/PlaybackRadar.png" width="720" height="405">

The Manual Approach

Otherwise, if you're some sort of masochist, you can take a manual approach, using these instructions/files...note that there are updates to these files in the skin patcher add on so use that if at all possible.

You just need to copy some files into your skin/720p or skin/xml folder. Note this *will* break compatibility with other weather add ons, so best to back up the original files first if you're worried about this.

The latest version of the skin files can be found at: https://github.com/bossanova808/repository.bossanova808/tree/master/staging/script.ozweather-skinpatcher/resources/skin-files

...but the skin patcher add on above is a much easier alternative, so try that first!

Support & Troubleshooting

I've been supporting this add on for more than 10 years now. I use it myself, of course, and I keep it working as smoothly as the upstream sources allow me to.

If things don't work as expected and you need to ask for help - always supply a link to a FULL DEBUG LOG so I have some real chance of helping you. I will check it and help, if you supply it. But log snippets, or logs without debug logging, are NOT enough.

Do check your radar code carefully - is it _exactly_ as the BOM one - i.e. IDR023 or similar. You must include the IDR part! Does the URL in the debug log load if you paste it in to your browser?

Any issues, please post them on the Kodi forum thread.