Default Weather Broke After Update

[sdetweil]

@DarrenHill yes, openweather (the default provider if you dont change it) has changed their business business model

they shut down their old free api and switched to their new (3yr old) api, which requires a credit card backing, and a free number of api calls (1000/day), so effectively free.

but this required changes to our code

so, you have to get a new apikey
and location/locationID no longer work, have to use lat/lon
and the custom module title doesnt work , as they don’t return the location name anymore

so much fun

[DarrenHill]

@sdetweil Thanks Sam - I recall they were changing but wasn’t sure if that was the root cause here, given it worked prior to the 2.30 upgrade (ie this morning).

Is it worth doing anything for the moment (getting the new api key etc), or is the module code going to change and so maybe better to wait?

Or I see the module can do other providers - is there a recommended one for the UK (as I think the met office here are also screwing around with their API if I remember well)?

[sdetweil]

@DarrenHill we changed the module code to match the new api. (which is why it stopped working) nothing new coming.

other providers are available. see the doc. i don’t know which ones work in which geography, or their requirements. (apikey…)

[sdetweil]

@DarrenHill said in Default Weather Broke After Update:

given it worked prior to the 2.30 upgrade (ie this morning).

they told us in no uncertain terms the old api was dead(stopped working) in January, June and October…

[DarrenHill]

@sdetweil OK thanks - clear.

I’ll have a quick play with the other providers, although the met office are also changing their API in September so probably one to also avoid if future-proofing is desirable.

As you say, so much fun…

Edited to add - swapped to the met office data hub one (not the main one, as that’s the one that’s expiring soonish) and was a fairly painless changeover after getting a new account and API key there. All good now.

[AndyHazz]

The same happened to me, my fix was a bit simpler but maybe only temporary …

It seems the default endpoint has changed - the documentation still says that the default for weatherEndpoint should be ‘/weather’, but I think in the latest update that changed to ‘/onecall’. For those of us with old api keys I think it’s still ok to use the /weather endpoint, you just need to specify that in the config now that it’s no longer the default.

weatherEndpoint: '/weather',

[sdetweil]

@AndyHazz did you also change the apiKey back to 2.5?

[joey]

@sdetweil I just re-set up my MagicMirror, and I had to change it back to 2.5. I was trying to change to the 3.0 API, but I did not want to give my credit card number. I tried to use two different pre-paid gift cards (two different types from two different sources), but OpenWeather’s system would not accept either. (Both said “this credit card cannot be used for this purchase” or something similar.) It makes me wonder if maybe OpenWeather had too much push-back on the 3.0 API (either the API change itself or issues or complaints about billing).

I do expect the 2.5 API to stop working at some point. Do you know if there is a way for the default weather module to detect an API failure and have it display an error, as opposed to the eternal “Loading…” message? It might help jog the memory for people like me, and give a better toehold for others when they come to the forums seeking help.

[sdetweil]

@joey no. almost none of the modules present good ui
messages.

[AndyHazz]

@sdetweil yes, I have apiVersion: ‘2.5’ in my config - I didn’t change that recently though, I think I changed that perhaps a year ago when it stopped working previously … whatever the latest update did, I now need the /weather endpoint specified as well. All good though, it’s working fine now.