How do I add current weather to my website?
I have a new Web site and I'd really like to be able to add a little weather "bug" to it so people can check on the weather in my neighborhood. I've looked at some sites that offer weather forecasts but am completely befuddled. How do I add a weather forecast box to my Web site?
This is a fun question, and having dug around for a bit, I can see what you mean. Sheesh, there are some highly, highly technical solutions out there. However, there are also some pretty easy forecasts you can get from sites like Weather.com...
The two solutions that seem the easiest are from Weather.com and from Weather Reports.com. Let's look at each.
Weather.com
The site's overrun with advertising, but I have to admit that the little weather "bug" they make available for you to add to your own site - free - is darn attractive:
Boulder, CO
Get the 10 day forecast
Garden Calendar
For Your Lawn
For Your Garden
21°F
Light Snow Shower
Feels Like: 12°F
Humidity:89%
Wind: NE at 7 mph
Download Desktop Weather
The greatest reservation I have recommending this one is that you have to sign up for it, including a required mailing address and date of birth. Um, this is just a weather bug, guys, why do you need to know my age? Anyway, sign up and it'll eventually give you a simple script-based line of code. Couldn't be easier:
Obviously, the region code and such are encoded in the "key", but the template value can be changed for different looks, if you're so inclined. Nothing an enthused reverse engineer person couldn't do. :-)
Weather Reports.com
The other site I've found that has weather you can drop on your site is WeatherReports.com. Their format is a lot easier to work with and they don't require any sort of signup.
Here's what one of their code blocks look like (they have six different template sizes):
WeatherReports.com
The code underlying that is very similar to the Weather.com snippet:
You can learn more about their service, including exact details of configuration and more, all at Add Weather to your Site.
For people outside of the United States, there are fewer options, but one notable alternative is WeatherZone, focused on Australia. Another nice, elegant weather bug you can add to your site.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment