DesktopX Weather Widget Issues

DesktopX Weather Widget Issues - Read This

Published on July 10, 2009 By Island Dog In OS Customization

As many of you know from reading the forums over the past couple of days, that weather feeds being pulled in from DesktopX created widgets/objects have stopped working. To make a short story even shorter, TWC has shown a requirement put upon all widget creators and users, and anyone else accessing their data to abide by new and quite specific demands/rules. This goes for anyone using the feeds, not just WinCustomize users.

If you want to continue to use TWC weather feeds you will need to abide by their new rules, which includes a requirement to place a logo and links back to them. Several DX coders including sViz and Vad_M have been posting new feeds, and some code fixes to help others fix their weather objects.

An ongoing thread from sViz can be found here:

https://forums.wincustomize.com/358753

Which ever new weather feeds creators decide to use, they need to make sure they also abide by any rules or guideline imposed by the originating feed provider.

Starting Monday, July 20th, we will start removing broken weather widgets from the WinCustomize galleries that have not been updated and/or violate any ToS/ToU in regards to weather feeds. The WC moderators are going to keep a close eye on the DesktopX queues so that updates will be pushed through as soon as possible. When updating a current skin, please be sure to make a note in the description that it has been updated with a new weather feed. If authors are do not have a copy of their widgets and are not able to retrieve them from Wincustomize, they are available by request to an admin.

We understand this has caused quite a stir, but this is nothing that can be easily fixed as it’s an issue that is not in Stardock’s nor WinCustomize’s hands. Please keep an eye on the forums for updates from DX coders who are looking at alternative solutions.

Regards,

Spencer
WC Admin

Comments (Page 10)

136

k10w3

on Jul 11, 2009

HG_Eliminator

reply 9

Originally skinning had 2 parts integrated, Graphics design and Code development. We used to have to do both ourselves.

We used to have to go to the well with a bucket to get water, too, but through the ingenious hard work of others, we now all have running water (most of us anyway) -- if suddenly the aquifer dried up for whatever reason, the water company wouldn't say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump."

137

karmat

on Jul 11, 2009

In times like these in the past, we would all yell OMGWTFBBQPUDDING. then all work together to find a solution. Not demand or expect others to fix it for us. Those who couldnt do much to help sat back and waited for the solution to arise, not add to the stress levels of those working on it..
Patience is a virtue.

EXACTLY!!! I wasn't around back then, and I'm not a skinner or a coder, but as a customization consumer, I'll be waiting patiently! There's lots of talented, bright people here and in other skinning communities that are working on a fix for this.

138

Jafo

on Jul 11, 2009

Originally skinning had 2 parts integrated, Graphics design and Code development. We used to have to do both ourselves.

We used to have to go to the well with a bucket to get water, too, but through the ingenious hard work of others, we now all have running water (most of us anyway) -- if suddenly the aquifer dried up for whatever reason, the water company wouldn't say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump."

Poor analogy, actually...

What HG means is that with modern skin applications such as SKS, and existing widget coding around for people to use it's quite apparent that there are skinners who have little or no understanding of the coding requirements of our craft.

That's fine in itself, but it does mean they are left dangling and lost when the code changes...or in this case...is broken [by whom-ever].

That analogy is more correctly worded thus...

We used to have to go to the well with a bucket to get water, too, but through the ingenious hard work of others, we now all have running water (most of us anyway) -- if suddenly there was a drought and the aquifer dried up, the water company would say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump".

...and even then it's not really a good analogy...

139

Bichur

on Jul 11, 2009

if suddenly the aquifer dried up for whatever reason, the water company wouldn't say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump."

actually, yes they would

but in this case it's more like the water company telling you 'we have water for you, but you can only get it through a pipe syste approved by us'

140

k10w3

on Jul 11, 2009

O.K., I stand corrected. Since DX is pretty much sorcery to me anyway, I'm going to just wait around and hope with time everything gets back to good.

141

Doubird

on Jul 12, 2009

I've been reading the posts for the problem concerning the weather widgets and from what I read, there is a way for creators to fix their widgets so that they can re-submit them. I would not mind fixing all my widgets so that they can stay on wincustomize... so what I need is help from someone to show me how to do this or fix one of mine, then I could see how and do the same for my others. Thanks

Note:

I do understand all the arguments given so far and also those who will not wish to fix their widgets or include them in their themes because no one likes to be forced to add links or logos to their creations, so I respect everyone. But like most people who love the widgets, we do hope that the creators find a way to keep creating and sharing their work because that is why we all come here for.

Take care everyone, and don't give up.

Trudy

142

gef

on Jul 12, 2009

I have just uploaded themes that have had their weather object converted as shown in section 3a by neophil78. The weather objects now work perfectly but for some reason were rejected.

I also worked most of the night changing all my Master themes so that they also work perfectly.

As this method states :

- This hardcodes NOTHING and the widget goes fine

- If all goes okay (and it will), you can now export the widget again.

Anyone understand this ??

143

RickJP

on Jul 12, 2009

Anyone understand this ??

I used neophil78 's system to sort out a couple of widgets on my computer and worked perfectly.

This is fine as it's my computer and I can do what I like with it.

However from what I have read you cannot use this way to correct widgets and upload here.

Widgets here now have to be correct to Weather suppliers TOS so must include logo and links.

144

Vad_M

on Jul 12, 2009

that the creators find a way to keep creating and sharing their work because that is why we all come here for.

This is true! But seems I have no more desire to share anything on WC after what I've seen and heared here during last days. This work has totally lost a sence for me...

145

bilbo1930

on Jul 12, 2009

As this method states :

- This hardcodes NOTHING and the widget goes fine

- If all goes okay (and it will), you can now export the widget again.

Anyone understand this ??

Gef: u want use neophil's suggested method?

This is true! But seems I have no more desire to share anything on WC after what I've seen and heared here during last days. This work has totally lost a sence for me...

This is very sad news... ]

146

Vad_M

on Jul 12, 2009

This is very sad news...

This place already seen the much more significant events like loss Tiggs, Martin, Night Train and a lot of other famous people. What means a few widgets from one ukrainian guy for so Global Project like WC? Just NOTHING! (By the way this looks like in our scripts when we want to clear memory! Seems it's time to clear this memory page)...

So this is not a sad news. This is just a logical conclusion of a long way named "The place of my DesktopX understanding". And now you may trust me - I understood all!

147

bilbo1930

on Jul 12, 2009

Yeah I see... But I say again: This is very sad news..

I'm your "neighbour".. in Hungary..

have some Ukrainian "friends".. good peoples..

We are all loss, when our elders (masters/coders/skinners) went pack and left out...

148

2of3

on Jul 12, 2009

We are all loss, when our elders (masters/coders/skinners) went pack and left out...

Really!

I'm surprised over some of the drama shown here. My understanding is that people attain the rank of MASTER by being a leader and mentor in the community.

This is the time for the "pioneers" of coding/skinning to step up and come up with solutions (like a few are doing) not to point fingers and leave in a huff!

This attitude saddens me more than anything else.

149

HG_Eliminator

on Jul 12, 2009

This is the time for the "pioneers" of coding/skinning to step up and come up with solutions

well said.

150

Vad_M

on Jul 12, 2009

This is the time for the "pioneers" of coding

well said

Yes! But this is very funny! Show me at least one "pioneer" who can produce new codes and I'll be happy. At this moment I'm seeing only two persons who tries work on a new scripts - sViz and Littleboy. That's all and they are not pioneers. Do you really think that this is enough for so large community? Good luck.

EDIT: Sorry I forgot HAPTORK. But this does not change the final result...

I will not leave this place right now. I just stop all projects and will wait for a new version of DesktopX. Then I will take the final decision...

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