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 11)

151

neophil78

on Jul 12, 2009

Gef: u want use neophil's suggested method?

BTW i still didn't see any conditions rules using the xml instead of xoap

If someone can give a link on these eventual conditions rules it would be fine

152

Island Dog

on Jul 12, 2009

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...

Seems kind of extreme to me. You make some of the most creative DX stuff out there, why stop and leave because of this issue with a weather widget that I'm confident will be corrected in short time?

153

gef

on Jul 12, 2009

Seems kind of extreme to me. You make some of the most creative DX stuff out there, why stop and leave because of this issue with a weather widget that I'm confident will be corrected in short time?

I don't think it is extreme. In my case I will have over 100 themes deleted - 6 years work.

Also, I tried to update themes because of this issue but unfortunately, I missundersttod what is required so those themes are now impossible to update again because they are not there to update.

154

Vad_M

on Jul 12, 2009

why stop and leave because of this issue with a weather widget that I'm confident will be corrected in short time?

Dear ID,

There was many reason for this. Just a situation around Weather Widgets was the last straw which "overflowed the cup of my patience"...

1. Remember the Maxton Contest and starnge drop the rating of my skin from 10 (which kept about 2 months!) to 6 exactly before the end of this contest. This can not be true...

I'm very modest person who don't need a fame. And I don't need any prizes or gifts from WC. I just want to say that the Rules of any Contests must be very transparent and honest. Otherwise I lose my interest to take part in these actions and never more will repeat this.

2. Look at the results of selling my Master Skins. Did you really think that a few years of my life may cost so little? The people who downloads the beta preview around 100 times per day with a lot of bugs (that rated to 10 by the way). But they don't like the full versions (without any bugs) which was rated to 7 and 8! This is absurd and I'm not ready to continue it.

3. I wrote a big letter to Zu with all of my thoughts about TWC TOS. If we begin to strictly observe the rules let's ask to people: "How the hell you create your skins?" Did you really have the legal copy of Photoshop (which cost around $700 by the way)? Or: "Did you have the legal copy of SkinStudio or DesktopX PRO?" There are a lot of the similar questions that have no answers...

4. I'm not a skinner. No doubt I can make any skins (buy the way my copy of Photoshop and of a few other Graphic Redactors are totally legal!) but it doesn't interesting for me. Any skin without coding is only the dead set of images. And only through the using of scripts, you can breathe a life into your creation! But when I hear that I couldn't edit new AccuWeather plugin because of some TOS(s) I finally lose my interest even take it in my hands.

And finally I'm so tired during the all these years that I want to relax a bit. Hope I have a right to do this...

155

gef

on Jul 12, 2009

Out of curiosity, is 'ACCUWEATHER' as used by Objectdock also not to be used?

156

ZubaZ

on Jul 12, 2009

Gef (and neophil) . . the work-around in 2a of sViz's thread is a fix for end users. It is NOT a solution for authors. The XMLreturned clearly shows that there is a licesne and copyright in place as you can see here http://xml.weather.com/weather/local/48375.

<weather ver="2.0">
<head>
<locale>en_US</locale>
<form>MEDIUM</form>
<ut>F</ut>
<ud>mi</ud>
<us>mph</us>
<up>in</up>
<ur>in</ur>
</head>
<loc id="48375">
<dnam>Novi, MI (48375)</dnam>
<tm>10:30 AM</tm>
<lat>42.46</lat>
<lon>-83.46</lon>
<sunr>6:08 AM</sunr>
<suns>9:11 PM</suns>
<zone>-4</zone>
</loc>
</weather>

Any author using the XML feed will have to abide by the weather.com ToS

I have updated the Fix thread to make sure that point is clear.

157

gef

on Jul 12, 2009

I have updated the Fix thread to make sure that point is clear.

Thank you for clearing that but you state:

"These fixes are NOT for gadgets, as gadgets can not be modified. If your weather gadget isn't working, discontinue use and contact the author to inform them of the problem. These fixes are for end-users only."

We all know what the problem is - we honestly don't need contacting about it.

158

ZubaZ

on Jul 12, 2009

We all know what the problem is - we honestly don't need contacting about it.

We can't know if every gadget maker is aware of the problem or not. Better to error on the side of caution, no?

159

neophil78

on Jul 12, 2009

Here's the complete Terms off use

http://www.weather.com/common/home/legal.html

... and as far as i can understand, any kind of use of the service has to be priory authorized directly by WTC, it's not only a question of logo and link to them, that means (i think) that each skinner have to get the WTC permission to do what he wants to do, widgets or so

160

RedneckDude

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 ??

Gef, allowing a weather widget that don't conform to the feed owner's TOS would be parallel to allowing rips to be posted in the galleries. No difference at all.

161

RedneckDude

on Jul 12, 2009

Seems kind of extreme to me. You make some of the most creative DX stuff out there, why stop and leave because of this issue with a weather widget that I'm confident will be corrected in short time?

My gosh people...It's a WEATHER WIDGET!!! It's not the end of skinning as we know it! This, IMO, has been so blown out of proportion it's pathetic. Let's move on. No reason for people to be leaving WC over a weather widget. Seems very extreme, all of this does.

162

ZubaZ

on Jul 12, 2009

Which section do you think indicates this?

163

az0th

on Jul 12, 2009

Hi,

I finally got on my other PC to change the script on a couple of weather widgets using neophil78's fix and just noticed the Objectdock weather docklet is still working on weather.com's feed!

I didn't register coz I'm in Europe.

Very odd...

164

RedneckDude

on Jul 12, 2009

I don't think it is extreme. In my case I will have over 100 themes deleted - 6 years work.

Also, I tried to update themes because of this issue but unfortunately, I missundersttod what is required so those themes are now impossible to update again because they are not there to update.

Join the club. I have more than that. And as Jafo stated, even when they're gone, they're not gone. All mine are gone, but I'm still updating them. I hope you had copies of all your work? If not, and if I understand correctly, you can still get them from WC if requested.

165

bilbo1930

on Jul 12, 2009

..maybe .. for you..

Not for me, and some other skinners..members.. maybe the community..

This was my hobby (and lot of skinners too), it was part of my life... so ..You DON'T TRY suggesting: "I'ts not so big problem" ..

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