Flash CS3 and Yahoo Weather

[Flep]

We saw how load an external XML file with Actionscript 3.0 and also how to work with a RSS and Flash CS3 to create a titles slide.
Today, we will see how to use a free Yahoo service to retrieve the data of the worldcities weather prevision.

This service, named Yahoo Weather, gives us a RSS which is nothing else then an XML file.

Basically:

We call a script placed on the Yahoo server and we pass to it the "id" city and a value "c" (for centigrade) or "f" (for Fahrenheit) and Yahoo returns an XML file with the value for the chosen city.

Let us see how to do it"

I create a FLA and save it as "main.fla".
Into which, I create four levels from top to bottom:
- code: into which I add the codes seen next
- testo: a dynamic text field named "title_txt"
- logo: a MovieClip named "yahoo_mc" containing the Yahoo logo
- area: a TextArea component named "info_ta"

On the keyframe of the level "code", I write:

var location_id:String='ITXX0148';
var grades:String='c';
var url:String='http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss"p='+location_id+'&u='+grades;
var richiesta:URLRequest=new URLRequest();
var loader:URLLoader;

richiesta.url=url;
richiesta.method=URLRequestMethod.GET;
loader=new URLLoader();
addListeners(loader);
try 
{
	loader.load(richiesta);
} 
catch (error:Error) 
{
	trace('Unable to load requested document.');
}

function addListeners(d:IEventDispatcher):void
{
	d.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,completato);
}

function completato(evt:Event):void
{
	var vars:URLVariables=new URLVariables(evt.target.data); 
	var r:XML=new XML(evt.target.data);
	var myXML:XMLDocument=new XMLDocument();
	myXML.ignoreWhite=true;
	myXML.parseXML(r.toXMLString());
	var node:XMLNode=myXML.firstChild.firstChild;
	title_txt.text=node.firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue;
	var n:int=int(node.childNodes.length);
	for(var i:int=0;i < n;i++)
	{
		if(node.childNodes[i].nodeName=='item')
		{
			var s:int=int(node.childNodes[i].childNodes.length);
			for(var j:int=0;j < s;j++)
			{
				if(node.childNodes[i].childNodes[j].nodeName=='description')
					info_ta.htmlText=node.childNodes[i].childNodes[j].firstChild.nodeValue;
			}
		}
	}
}

yahoo_mc.buttonMode=true;
yahoo_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,go);
function go(evt:MouseEvent):void
{
	var request:URLRequest=new URLRequest('http://weather.yahoo.com/');
	navigateToURL(request,'_blank');
}

The result:



Let us analyse the code
A string variable into which I insert the value of the chosen city. To find out the id of a city, you can directly see it from the site Yahoo Weather
var location_id:String='ITXX0148';
a string variable into which I insert "c" or "f" based on the unit of measure I wish to use
var grades:String='c';
a string variable into which I insert the url of the Yahoo script to call. I also pass to it the two variables "location_id" and "grades"
var url:String='http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss"p='+location_id+'&u='+grades;
an URLRequest variable which will request the url
var richiesta:URLRequest=new URLRequest();
an URLLoader which will call the server side script and retrieve the returned values
var loader:URLLoader;
I request the url
richiesta.url=url;
I impost the type request to GET (this Yahoo service only accepts the GET request)
richiesta.method=URLRequestMethod.GET;
I instantiate the URLLoader
loader=new URLLoader();
I call the function addListeners
addListeners(loader);
I call the script
try
{
loader.load(richiesta);
}
catch (error:Error)
{
trace('Unable to load requested document.');
}
I add a listener to the event COMPLETE which will call the function "completato" so that we can retrieve the value passed by the script
function addListeners(d:IEventDispatcher):void
{
d.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE,completato);
}
In the next function, I apply a logic to retrieve the XML data returned by Yahoo. Those data and information offer many options and I chose to use only a few of them. If you are interested to retrieve all or some other values from the XML, you can study the XML format from http://developer.yahoo.com/weather/
function completato(evt:Event):void
{
var vars:URLVariables=new URLVariables(evt.target.data);
var r:XML=new XML(evt.target.data);
var myXML:XMLDocument=new XMLDocument();
myXML.ignoreWhite=true;
myXML.parseXML(r.toXMLString());
var node:XMLNode=myXML.firstChild.firstChild;
title_txt.text=node.firstChild.firstChild.nodeValu e;
var n:int=int(node.childNodes.length);
for(var i:int=0;i < n;i++)
{
if(node.childNodes[i].nodeName=='item')
{
var s:int=int(node.childNodes[i].childNodes.length);
for(var j:int=0;j < s;j++)
{
I assign the needed data in HTML format to the TextArea component using its htmlText property
if(node.childNodes[i].childNodes[j].nodeName=='description')
info_ta.htmlText=node.childNodes[i].childNodes[j].firstChild.nodeValue;
}
}
}
}
Next is the logic which control the click on the Yahoo logo
yahoo_mc.buttonMode=true;
yahoo_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,go);
function go(evt:MouseEvent):void
{
var request:URLRequest=new URLRequest('http://weather.yahoo.com/');
navigateToURL(request,'_blank');
}

Stay tuned !

[dannbkk]

I have put together the weather script found similar from this site:
Making a Flashy Weather Widget from shift+control

It is working fine when I test this on my local machine, but when i test this on the server and view on the internet, it seems like it's not grabbing the results from yahoo?

This is the code of the php file I have:
forecastrss.php

This is the code of the actionscript I have:
scripts/content.as

// import the event dispatcher class
import mx.events.EventDispatcher;

// init values
var xml_components_to_load = 0;
var xml_components_loaded = 0;

// intialize event dispatcher
EventDispatcher.initialize(this);
this.addEventListener("containerInit",getContent);
this.addEventListener("xmlInit",getContent);

// create a new array to hold the data
weatherDays = new Array();
var weatherDayIndex = 0;

// event controller function - this function processes all events
function getContent(evt){

    // everything is ready to load RSS data from source
    if(evt.type=="containerInit"){

        // create data provider and begin loading from data source
        contentDP = new XML();
        contentDP.ignoreWhite = 1;
        contentDP.load(feedURL);
        
        // make call to function when the data has completed loading
        contentDP.onLoad = loadRSSWeather;
        xml_components_to_load++;
    }

    if(evt.type=="xmlInit"){
        xml_components_loaded++;
        if(xml_components_loaded==xml_components_to_load){
        }
    }

}

// load the XML from the RSS feed
function loadRSSWeather(){ 
    
    // The following parsing algorithm is made specifically for the Yahoo Weather RSS feed. 
    // The parser looks for the exact path to the weather data we are looking for:
    //         rss.channel.item.{yweather:condition, yweather:forecast}
    
    xmlData = this.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes;
    todaysWeather = new Weather();

    for(var i=0; i0){
                    if(itemData[j].nodeName.indexOf("condition")>0){
                        // this is the current conditions
                        // attach weatherDay from library and pass all tag attributes from data source                        
                        obj = _root.attachMovie("weatherDay","todaysWeather",getNextHighestDepth(),itemData[j].attributes);
                        weatherDays.push(obj);
                    }else if(itemData[j].nodeName.indexOf("forecast")>0){
                        // this is part of the forecast
                        // attach weatherDay from library and pass all tag attributes from data source                        
                        obj = _root.attachMovie("weatherDay","forecastWeather_"+j,getNextHighestDepth(),itemData[j].attributes);
                        obj._visible = 0;
                        weatherDays.push(obj);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    dispatchEvent({type:"xmlInit", target:this});
}

// function to check the next day's weather (and make the appropriate movieclip visible)
function nextWeatherDay(){
    weatherDays[weatherDayIndex]._visible = 0;
    if(++weatherDayIndex>weatherDays.length-1){
        weatherDayIndex = 0;
    }
    weatherDays[weatherDayIndex]._visible = 1;
}

// function to check the prev day's weather (and make the appropriate movieclip visible)
function prevWeatherDay(){
    weatherDays[weatherDayIndex]._visible = 0;
    if(--weatherDayIndex<0){
        weatherDayIndex = weatherDays.length-1;
    }
    weatherDays[weatherDayIndex]._visible = 1;
}

This is the action I have set in flash:

// go to http://weather.yahoo.com, find the page for the city you
// want to use and then copy the link to the RSS feed.  make sure you
// grab the RSS link and not the link to the HTML page.  it should look
// something like this...
feedURL = "http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=CAXX0343&u=c";

// include the script to grab the XML data and import it into the flash movie
#include "scripts/content.as"

// fire event to display current weather conditions
dispatchEvent({type:"containerInit", target:this});

// when button is pressed, shift it's position
function btnPressed(btn) {
    btn._x += 1;
    btn._y += 1;
}
// when button is released, put it back
function btnReleased(btn) {
    btn._x -= 1;
    btn._y -= 1;
}

and

// next/prev button actions
nextBtn.onRelease = function() {
    nextWeatherDay();
    btnReleased(this);
}
nextBtn.setLabel("»");

prevBtn.onRelease = function() {
    prevWeatherDay();
    btnReleased(this);
}
prevBtn.setLabel("«");

stop();

Any ideas why its not pulling results from yahoo properly? it shows in the web browser as though its trying to pull from yahoo?
The link:
Untitled Document

[dannbkk]

This is the code of the php file I have:
forecastrss.php


$url="xml.weather.yahoo.com";

//http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=CAXX0343&u=c
$fp = fsockopen ($url, 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
if (!$fp) {
echo "$errstr ($errno)
\n";
} else {
$out = "GET /forecastrss?p=CAXX0343&u=c HTTP/1.0\r\n";
$out .= "Host: xml.weather.yahoo.com\r\n";
$out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";

fwrite($fp, $out);
while (!feof($fp)) {
$str.=fgets($fp, 128);
}
fclose($fp);
}

$str=substr($str,strpos($str,'
print $str;

?>

[Flep]

Hi,
you are off-topic

Did you see this is an Actionscript 3.0 forum ?

[dannbkk]

Oh my apologies, I didnt realise it was to do with actionscript 3.0. can you still help me? I need help badly.

[Flep]

I think you have problems loading the Yahoo RSS ( permission problems ).
I never worked with Yahoo Weather and Actionscript 2.0 + PHP before.

[dannbkk]

I have posted in tha actionscript 3.0 section:
http://www.flepstudio.org/forum/acti....html#post5965

Please Help.. :(