Australia Weather Widget scripts - data source
Sunday, March 21, 2010 by Skarny | Discussion: DesktopX
Hi,
I don't know if Stardock/Wincustomize admin would read this.
I've asked Australia Bureau of Meteorology to get access to their weather data for the purpose of DesktopX gadgets/widgets. What I would like to know is, if I get permission would Stardock/Wincustomize consider writing a refresh server side script to pull the data from a link I provide on an hourly basis which would then be used as the primary source link for any resulting gadget scripts?
I know it's shifting the 'bandwidth' buck but I figure we might have better luck getting overall permission to use the data if they know they won't get many many hits all the time.
To further make it more palatable - can a server side script ensure that once an IP or whatever has requested a file, it prevents further downloads to prevent people spamming or overriding the frequency of the update calls?
Any thoughts?
Reply #2 Thursday, March 25, 2010 6:39 AM
LOL I forget that Windows Vista and 7 have a weather widget that works fine. Nevermind I guess.
Plus I went through a bunch posts from the weather feed bunk that went on a while back. It's probably a taboo topic or something.
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Reply #1 Monday, March 22, 2010 4:41 AM
As a follow up - I've received confirmation of my copyright permission to use/redistribute the data. It has some requirements of use but they don't sound as strict/intrusive as the US website which has previously been used for weather information. Of course it requires acknowledgements and cannot be associated with profit - I wonder if that makes it an unwanted solution by Stardock/Wincustomize if it means any widgets using the data would not be able to be sold for profit.
I need to read the copyright release carefully. My query to stardock/wincustomize/anyone else still stands as a parallell line of enquiry.
It also makes me think - surely the US has there own goverment run meteorology department - perhaps a similar arrangement can be made with them and DesktopX programmers won't be restricted to commercial 3rd party information distributors?