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**bossanova808** · 2021-11-05, 07:13

Hmm, looks like they are doing some big changes there. Which probably means I'll just remove the WeatherZone fallback as the BOM is worlds better anyway....

Will have a look though, so if there's an easy fix. (Note for next time - need a full debug log...)

stevieland58 · 2021-11-08, 12:13

Hello all,

Not sure if this issue has been addressed but for the last week OzWeather has been giving a 0°c reading no matter what suburb you select and it won’t let you chose another suburb, just gives a Kodi log error when trying…

Am still on 18.9, and error is the same with default and confluence skins.

Steve.

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-08, 12:20

Same issue as above basically, changes at Weatherzone, which is the only data source for the old version with Kodi 18

Best option is to upgrade to 19... Which uses the BOM directly and is maintained.

But I will look at fixes if I have time but November is super busy at work for me so might take a bit.

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-08, 13:24

Yep, so they have completely changed their entire site, which means a lot of work to re-write it. I'll think about it, but certainly in the short term it's not looking good for the old Kodi 18/Python 2 version.

Yet another good reason to get on to V19!

**bossanova808** · (This post was last modified: 2021-11-08, 23:33 by bossanova808.)

OzWeather on Kodi versions *less than* 19 is currently broken due to very substantial upstream site changes.

OzWeather for Kodi 19+ is not affected - other than if you haven't yet re-configured your addon to use BOM locations (in which case the fallback to the old Weatherzone scraper will now be broken).
For Kodi 19 uses, if you're hitting that, the fix is easy - just go in to OzWeather settings and get your BOM locations setup and it will all work again.

Just to add more context:

OzWeather v1.x is the Kodi (up to 18), Python 2 version - Uses Weatherzone locations, & scrapes Weatherzone pages for its data (Weatherzone in turn got most of the data from the BOM). This worked with minor fixes for 10+ years. But Weatherzone has begun to use less BOM data, and have this last week or so published their entirely new website.

OzWeather v2.x is the Kodi 19+, Python 3 version - it uses an (unofficial) BOM API, getting BOM locations and data directly as JSON. It's a complete re-write & considerably simpler/more stable. I also built the skin patcher tool, and through that added support for the radar features to a bunch of popular skins. So far this has proved to be faster, more robust and is in all quite an improvement. As long as they don't shut off the API (they could of course!) - it should carry on working well.

(Both versions use the BOM FTP side for the radar).

To fix the Kodi 18 version means a re-write of a large section of that addon, in old Python 2, and again in a way that uses scraping (which is much more prone to breakage than using an API of course). I don't know how many folks are still on 18, and I am not sure if/when I will have time to do this. I honestly can't see any good reason, at this point, not to move to Kodi 19, and I am inclined to just draw a line under Kodi 18/Python 2 and move on. But happy to hear others thoughts on this.

(Of course I'd be very happy to accept a PR from someone if they care to fix it & submit such - it's a self contained Python 2 unit, perfect sort of thing for developing and using fairly simple Python skills as a learning exercise...)

stevieland58 · 2021-11-10, 05:42

(2021-11-08, 12:20)bossanova808 Wrote: Same issue as above basically, changes at Weatherzone, which is the only data source for the old version with Kodi 18

Best option is to upgrade to 19... Which uses the BOM directly and is maintained.

But I will look at fixes if I have time but November is super busy at work for me so might take a bit.

Thanks for the response. Would update to 19 but some 3rd party addons I still use haven’t updated to 19 yet.

Hopefully they do soon.

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-10, 05:55

I actually spent an hour this morning trying to poke the new weatherzone site to see how scrape-able it would be.

Unfortunately they're loading most of the actual data dynamically via javascript after page load now, so it's not looking good. I don't think Kodi has a module for a headless browser or similar thing that can get the js to load for subsequent scrapong.

They have an API, but it is behind auth and costs $s, so that's out.

So unless anything changes, it's not looking good for OzWeather on Kodi below <19.

Unless someone fancies backporting the BOM code to Python2, of course. Which would work. But I can't be bothered doing a whole lot of work for a legacy system, really. It wouldn't be very difficult, though...if someone is out there and willing to put in a few hours...?!

raspberrypie · 2021-11-17, 09:04

Hi Bossanova, thank you for your ongoing commitment to this great addon! May I please request three minor changes? They are:

1. switch the positions of Refresh and ABC Weather. My remote control Select button is getting a bit bouncy and going to Weather on the main page lands on ABC Weather and often starts displaying their short video thanks to the noisy switch. It wouldn't matter if it landed on Refresh instead.

2. Please put today's date in as well as the time for "...observed at $TIME" on the right hand panel.

3. Can Next Location and Prev Location continue to cycle through the locations instead of getting to their max (min) value and then doing nothing with more button pushes.

Thanks.

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-17, 09:14

1. Hmm, not sure I want to change that based on your flakey remote to be honest! I think it makes sense to have ABC as the default choice given the weather refreshes so often anyway? Happy to hear other views on this, but 'my remote button is stuffed' doesn't work for me...and if it were refresh, then you'd get a janky and probably not needed extra weather refresh happening...

2. The issue there is space - with longer locations, the text can actually already run off as it is. (What other date other than today would it be, anyway? If you're looking right around the date change, the time should be enough to work it out shouldn't it? Or is there something I'm missing?)

3. They already do (well, with Confluence, testing here now). Is this not the case for you?

@raspberrypie ^

raspberrypie · 2021-11-18, 00:47

3. Yes, you're right. Don't know why this wasn't happening for me before.

I'd still like to see today's date printed somewhere on the display - adding 10 (or 11 or 12...) hours to the date burned into the radar display is not part of sitting down for an evening's entertainment!

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-18, 00:55

I'm really not following - when would you need to add 12 hours?? The radar should be within a few mins of when you go into the window (if not, manually change radars to one that is updated regularly) - and the observations should also be pretty close.

Can you maybe take a screenshot showing me what you mean, as it might mean something is not working right if your dates/times are way off current?

raspberrypie · 2021-11-18, 05:28

No, meant the date/time at the bottom of every radar image, put there as a timestamp ("burnt in") by BOM. It is the only date that appears on the whole page. And since it is UTC, I have to add 11 hours to it (Eastern summer time) to get local time, which may increment the date. I just want the date somewhere on the page.

**bossanova808** · 2021-11-18, 05:31

I can't change that, as you say it's burnt in by the BOM. But at the top is the range of times the radar covers, already localised to your local time - so no need for any mental maths, it's already done for you. I'm really not seeing the point in having the date as well as by definition it's now/today...

knotnumb · 2021-12-04, 13:16

Please help a newb. I just installed Matrix. I had radar etc working on earlier versions by copying the files to required locations. I'm lost with the install instructions below.
I downloaded the .zip. What do i do with it to? I tried installing addon from zip filebut it fails. I've placed the zip file in download folder, xml folder and skin folder. But i'm lost, nothing works.

To install the utility - you will need to install my repo...download the latest .zip for that here: https://github.com/bossanova808/reposito...ssanova808

Lost with the next step... How do i "Install that"

....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.
Thank you for any help.

**bossanova808** · 2021-12-05, 00:07

@knotnumb

So a repository is a type of addon (that then, when installed, supplies other addons). So you need to go to your addons section and choose 'Install From Zip' - this varies a bit, skin to skin, but either in the main addons bit so the Settings -> Addons bit, there should be an option. So choose 'install from zip' then point it at the zip you downloaded, and then you should be able to follow the rest of the instructions.

The Kodi Wiki has more detailed instructions on this here: https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on_manager#Ho...a_ZIP_file