NAME

Geo::Weather - Weather retrieval module

SYNOPSIS

            

              
              
use Geo::Weather;
my $weather = new Geo::Weather;
$weather->get_weather('Folsom','CA');
print $weather->report();
-or-
use Geo::Weather;
my $weather = new Geo::Weather;
$weather->{timeout} = 5; # set timeout to 5 seconds instead of the default of 10
my $current = $weather->get_weather('95630');
print "The current temperature is $current->{temp} degrees\n";
            
          

DESCRIPTION

The Geo::Weather module retrieves the current weather from weather.com when given city and state or a US zip code. Geo::Weather relies on LWP::UserAgent to work. In order for the timeout code to work correctly, you must be using a recent version of libwww-perl and IO::Socket. Geo::Weather was developed with libwww-perl 5.53 and IO::Socket 1.26.

FUNCTIONS

• new

  Create and return a new object.

• get_weather

  Gets the current weather from weather.com

  Arguments

  
              
  
                
                
  city - US city or zip code
  state - US state, not needed if using zip code
              
            

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $current = $weather->get_weather('Folsom','CA');
  if (!ref $current) {
          die "Unable to get weather information\n";
  }
              
            

  Returns

  
              
  
                
                
  On sucess, get_weather returns a hashref  containing the following keys
  city            - City
  state           - State
  zip             - Zipcode of US city
  pic             - weather.com URL to the current weather image
  url             - Weather.com URL to the weather results
  cond            - Current condition
  temp            - Current temperature (degees F)
  wind            - Current wind speed
  dewp            - Current dew point (degrees F)
  humi            - Current rel. humidity
  visb            - Current visibility
  baro            - Current barometric pressure
  heat            - Current heat index (Feels Like string)
  On error, it returns the following exported error variables
              
            

  Errors

  
              
  
                
                
  $ERROR_QUERY            - Invalid data supplied
  $ERROR_PAGE_INVALID     - No URL, or incorrectly formatted URL for retrieving the information
  $ERROR_CONNECT          - Error connecting to weather.com
  $ERROR_NOT_FOUND        - Weather for the specified city/state or zip could not be found
  $ERROR_TIMEOUT          - Timed out while trying to connect or get data from weather.com
              
            

• report

  Returns an HTML table containing the current weather. Must call get_weather first.

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  print $weather->report();
              
            

• report_raw

  Returns pipe delimited string containing the current weather. Must call get_weather first.

  
              
  
                
                
  Fields are: city|state|pic|cond|temp|wind|dewp|humi|visb|baro|uv
              
            

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $current = $weather->report_raw();
              
            

• report_forecast

  Returns an HTML table containing the ten day forecast. Must call get_weather first.

  Arguments

  
              
  
                
                
  table_width - Optional (integer) table width for the report. Default is '80'.
              
            

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $forecast = $weather->report_forecast();
              
            

• set_report_colors

  Set the HTML color values for the weather report. Must call before report or report_forecast to be effective. (DUH!)

  Arguments

  
              
  
                
                
  report_hdr_color - Report header color. Default is '#000000'.
  report_cond_color - Report conditions color. Default is '#000080'.
  report_result_color - Report reults color. Default is '#0000a0'.
              
            

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $status = $weather->set_report_colors('#ff0000', '#00ff00', '#0000ff');
              
            

  Returns

  
              
  
                
                
  0 if passed a bad value.
  1 if successful.
              
            

• data_check

  Returns a boolean value indicating if valid weather data appears to have been retrieved. Must call get_weather first.

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $valid = $weather->data_check();
  unless ($valid) {
          die "The weather data retrieved appears to be bad or missing.\n";
  }
              
            

• get_city

  Returns string containing the current weather city. This is useful when looking up weather by zip code. Must call get_weather first.

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $city = $weather->get_city();
              
            

• get_state

  Returns string containing the current weather state. This is useful when looking up weather by zip code. Must call get_weather first.

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $state = $weather->get_state();
              
            

• lookup

  Gets current weather given a full weather.com URL

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $current = $weather->lookup('http://www.weather.com/search/search?where=95630');
              
            

  Returns

  
              
  
                
                
  On sucess, lookup returns a hashref with the same keys as the get_weather function.
  On error, lookup returns the same errors defined for get_weather.
              
            

• lookup_forecast

  Gets the ten day forecast page given a full weather.com URL. Not intended to be called directly, but used by report_forecast.

  Sample Code

  
              
  
                
                
  my $raw_forecast = $weather->lookup_forecast('http://www.w3.weather.com/weather/print/95630');
              
            

  Returns

  
              
  
                
                
  On sucess, lookup_forecast returns an array containing the weather.com ten day forecast page data.
  On error, lookup_forecast returns the same errors defined for get_weather.
              
            

OBJECT KEYS

There are several object hash keys that can be set to manipulate how Geo::Weather works. The hash keys should be set directly following new.

Below is a list of each key and what it does:

• debug

  Enable debug output of the connection attempts to weather.com Valid values are 0 to 4, increasing debugging respectivley.

• timeout

  Controls the timeout, in seconds, when trying to connect to or get data from weather.com. Default timeout is 10 seconds. Set to 0 to disable timeouts.

• proxy

  Use HTTP proxy for the request. Format is http://proxy.server:port/. Default is no proxy.

• proxy_user

  Sets the username to use for proxying. Defaults to the HTTP_PROXY_USER environment variable, if set, or don't use authentication if blank.

• proxy_pass

  Sets the password to use for proxying. Defaults to the HTTP_PROXY_PASS environment variable, if set.

• *agent_string

  HTTP User-Agent header for request. Default is Geo::Weather/$VERSION.

AUTHOR

            

              
              
Geo::Weather was wrtten by Mike Machado I<E<lt>mike@innercite.comE<gt>>