Change weather provider to yr.no for the default weather app

[247]

So, as some of you may know, last year Jolla stopped paying for Foreca’s license (supposedly, i don’t recall being confirmed) and as a result foreca stopped providing weather coverage for the default weather app

I have switched in the meantime, like probably most of you, to MeeCast which is a wonderful app and it does works with multiple providers. Unfortunately i can’t really get used to it, and despite being objectively better i would love to have the default app back

Considering the situation with foreca likely won’t be solved anytime soon, wouldn’t be better to just change the weather provider?for example to yr.no which is still finnish and free?

I know it has been asked already somewhere else but since it’s probably buried under tons of other posts i created this one to explicitly ask jolla to change weather provider, so we can see (and they can see) how many people would love to have the app back

[eson]

yr.no is Norwegian, obviously.

[emva]

And it is already paid by me (as a taxpayer).

From: Frequently Asked Questions

General API use

Do you have a pricing model for high-volume sites?

No. This is a public service funded by Norwegian taxpayers, primarily to assist in our mission to protect life and property in Norway, but also globally. In fact api.met.no has been approved as a digital public good by the UN-led Digital Public Goods Alliance, as the first of its kind.

While we believe our data should be free and accessible to all, our human and technological resources are not unlimited. As a non-commercial operation we cannot really offer any higher levels of service to paying customers; instead we try to share out our services evenly while giving priority to partners we consider giving the most benefits to the general public. If you feel your service is amongst those, please contact us.

[247]

Ahahah well my bad then

[247]

Are you saying sailfish does not apply to that?

[tuplasuhveli]

In case you are not aware, @247, this topic was on the agenda in the latest community meeting:

https://irclogs.sailfishos.org/meetings/sailfishos-meeting/2024/sailfishos-meeting.2024-02-15-08.00.log.html#l-69

08:16:27 <rainemak> #topic Restore Sailfish Weather  (5mins -- asked by cquence)
08:16:36 <rainemak> #info <cquence> Will the native Foreca Weather app be restored in the next
08:16:36 <rainemak> #info <cquence> release? Also are there any possibilities to use the native app
08:16:36 <rainemak> #info <cquence> with different configurable backends? User will have to provide
08:16:36 <rainemak> #info <cquence> their own key/credentials for paid services.
08:16:45 <rainemak> #info <Jolla> Foreca Weather app is not restored to the next release. Having means
08:16:45 <rainemak> #info <Jolla> to use different backends is something that we’re thinking as well.
08:16:45 <rainemak> #info <Jolla> Community raised yr.no as plausible option and it would a good
08:16:45 <rainemak> #info <Jolla> candidate to check how feasible it’d really be.

[tohaturok]

I’m trying to switch Weather app to OpenWeather Api. I’m just making changes in app’s .qml files. I’ve completed switching ‘searching city’ screen to OpenWeather geo Api and started working on main screen (as far as I understood, data from this screen is going to weather system banner and indicator). IMO, It looks like it’s possible to patch Weather app .qml file to use OpenWeather Api, but I’m not a expert of qml and I don’t understand how some part of qml code is working((( Also don’t have an idea how to share these patches with other users and how they will apply this patches without pain))) I hope I will post about my result soon

[247]

No was not aware but thanks for pointing that out

C’mon they raised 10M€ and they don’t have a spare grand to pay foreca?

Just joking of course

Foreca is damn reliable in my area, but i guess also yr.no or openweather will suffice, so let’s hope it’s feasible to use one of them

Also, despite being a very frequent topic, i would say updating the weather app can also be done via an hotfix, not necessarily a major update (despite being the most requested thing in 2023 after volte)

[nephros]

You can use patchmanager, it’s what it was made for:

GitHub - sailfishos-patches/patchmanager: Patchmanager for SailfishOS

[tohaturok]

I have converted the main weather screen to the OpenWeather Api. As I suspected, the banner and indicator also work. Still need to switch 5 days forecast screen. There are a few of my screens:

I think there is some issues with converting weather code from Foreca to OpenWeather, but for now for me it looks good.

[247]

Wow that is awesome, hope you can make a guide for doing that…

[247]

Was reading now that openweather gives free apis to opensource projects

Maybe it’s time to opensource the weather apb? xD

[tohaturok]

I’ve completed the task of transitioning the forecast to the OpenWeather API. Below are some screenshots of my work. Everything is functioning well. Here is the plan for the next phase of work::

1. Create a page to set the OpenWeather API token for API usage.
2. Create a patch of my changes and share it using PatchManager.

P.S. I want to express my gratitude to my friend, Sergey Pekhteerau (https://siaroza.com/), who assisted me in creating the small OpenWeather icons. If you need help with design, he is the right person for the job.

[espen]

I’ve all my nine years as a SFOS user gotten my weather information from having one window in the net browser stay open with yr.no.

What have I missed / what can I gain from rather using SFOS’s weather app?

[rainemak]

I like to envision this so that you’d not need to do any patches that one needs to apply via patchmanager rather you could contribute them back directly. More on the later – stay tuned. I’d warmly wish you to follow fortnight newsletter and community meeting logs.

That said, this is awesome stuff!! This community rocks!

[smyru]

The benefit of having one such integration is that you can have this in the notification view as well as on the lock screen.

[espen]

Well, the general forecasts are normally of such a good quality that they don’t change substantially that often and need to be monitored from minute to minute. What really is of interest on a more short-term is yr.no’s live radar based graphical local precipitation warning for the next 90 minutes, and I believe no such stuff can be offered on the lock screen or in the notification view, anyhow.

[smyru]

Sure, don’t get me wrong. I also have a .desktop of a bookmark that leads to my favourite numerical forecast from meteo.pl.

[eson]

You’re Norwegian right? I have to give you that yr.no is good, but unfortunately good isn’t enough to keep our ‘precious’ weather app running in notification area or lock screen.
So if you are happy with an open web site, please stay with it. Me to have a bookmark to my area on yr.no, while not open 24/7.

[pvuorela]

To note here as well, on 4.6.0 loading of the weather widget is disabled by default as out of the box it doesn’t work too good.

Wrote about it there SFOS 4.6 / Foreca: How to enable the Weather infos is in the the Events view - #5 by pvuorela but in short to get it back can set dconf key /desktop/lipstick-jolla-home/force_weather_loading true and install lipstick-jolla-home-qt5-weather-widget-settings package for events view settings switch.