Update iOS BangleDumpWeather to use Apple Weather

[RKBoss6]

I recently got a bangle.js, and the first thing I did was try to connect it to my iOS phone. It worked well, but since then, I have been wondering why the BangleDumpWeather shortcut for pushing weather to the bangle used OpenWeatherAPI, which requires its own setup, when there was already a weather source available and ready-to-use: Apple Weather. I have been trying to customize the shortcut to use apple weather, and the last thing I need to do is set up the icon code. I tried looking in the bangle's weather app to see what the icon code could be, so I can push that from the shortcut. I could not find anything. Maybe I just didn't look in the right spots, but if someone could show me where to go, or what icon code is needed, I can get a full Apple Weather version of the shortcut up and running for everyone on iOS to use.

[RKBoss6]

Also, using the existing shortcut I modified, I am quickly realizing how much of an inconvenience it is to schedule automations for them every hour, or more of the day. I have experience with Swift, and had the idea of making a native Bangle.js app for iOS. However, I will probably get forward on making the app much later in the year, as I grow my experience with Bangle.js. For now, this shortcut will have to work.

[stweedo]

@eisengpferd I tried setting to German in the languages app and then I started getting errors related to the widget cache on my clock app so I had to reset settings on the watch. I just tried again and it works but the condition is still in English as well as all the menu text. Units did change. Maybe I have to use the translation feature in the more tab of the app loader?

@RKBoss6 a shortcut from the clock info to weather would be convenient. You can definitely set actions to them when tapped. I currently use pattern launcher to quickly launch it.

[RKBoss6]

Alright, I have created a PR that updates the readme, and adds the tap to open weather from clockInfo

[RKBoss6]

@stweedo I am putting your shortcut into the Readme as the shortcut to use.

[RKBoss6]

Also, it might be nice to have a feature where it displays if you have any severe weather alerts, by checking in the text in shortcuts for "severe". Bangle can then display an icon for warnings (⚠️) using a parameter in JSON. eg. (warning:true).

[stweedo]

I made a slight update to the shortcut to check for “cloud” and set code 802. Without that it did draw the cloud but in fg color and the question mark was also drawn with it. It must have seen the condition as “Cloudy” and parsed the text to get the solid colored cloud but also included the question mark. With code 802 it draws the dithered cloud.

Here is the latest version with that extra if block for cloud. https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/dbf7159200d945179e0938c15e64f102

[eisengpferd]

Hey I just want to pop in here: @RKBoss6 is the weather shortcut working for you? I got the openweatherapi working I think and the shortcut is generating a message. But in the bangle there is no weather update.
How can I test what is going wrong?
The app "weather" seems to have a long timeout and then popps up with the location "toronto" and no weather.
Do I need to configure some further app in bangle?

[RKBoss6]

Hmm... For me the app loads normally. Try making sure the city is correct. If so, then manually run the shortcut and check if the notification is showing any data. It uses JSON format for the notification, so it will be something like "temp":"35" for example. If it is not showing anything, try fiddling with the API, and make sure the key is correct and the plan is set. I am working on the Apple Weather sourced shortcut. which works for everything except the icon. The reason for working on a new shortcut is so users do not need to fiddle with an external API, so hopefully I can get the icon in shortcuts working :)

[RKBoss6]

For the icon, I have it set to push the condition (Partly cloudy, raining.) to the icon "code" field, so lib.js checks if it contains keywords in the string (Cloudy, etc.) However, even though it should work, it is not using that for generating the correct icon. Numeric format works, but it will be much more convenient and precise if we can get the string format working. I don't know whether it's a bug in lib.js, or if it's something on my end. @gfwilliams if you could take a look at it, that would be much appreciated. Here's the shortcut so far, maybe check if something's up on my end. As far as the bangle weather app, everything seems good, numeric icon code works, but we just need to figure out the condition icon code.

[gfwilliams]

Hi - I'm afraid I don't use iOS so I can't be that much help - but maybe you could enable the debug logging on your Bangle (via Settings), and then you should be able to see if there are any error messages when you connect.

If you can get me the exact object (as JSON) that's sent to the weather lib then I can take a look and see if anything seems off?

[eisengpferd]

when I just installed "weather" and start it it says "no connection to gadgbridge"
Then I trigger the shortcut.
After this the weather ap needs 1min to load and then displays the "toronto" weather. But the humidity seems to be ok :-)

This is the text from the shortcut message:

BangleDumpWeather
BangleDumpWeather
{"temp":"295,22", "hi":"295,22", "lo":"295,2
2", "hum":"51", "rain":"O", "uv":"0" "wind":"3,
09", "code":"800", "txt":"Meist bewölkt",
"wdir": "60", "loc":"Sankt Augus-tin"}

(the - in the town "Sankt Augustin" is looking wrong)

[RKBoss6]

I think something might be wrong there. Toronto looks to be the default city if nothing else shows, so I would say for now, if you have not paid for the openWeatherAPI, try the shortcut I am working on. It should work, except for the icon

[eisengpferd]

hmm I loaded your shortcut but this pops on at the bangle as mail message... So it is not recognized as weather-message...

Perhaps this is a problem with my language settings and with an all-english setup it would work...

[RKBoss6]

Yes, as far as I know, it is only recognized as a weather notification if the name is 'BangleDumpWeather'. I think in other languages it will not work.

[eisengpferd]

oh, sorry. I renamed it to keep the other one... ok standby I try the correct name :-)

[eisengpferd]

ok, you ar right. The Name of the shortcut must be BangleDumpWeather.
But my app "Weather" is still needing 1m to load and didnt update...

[RKBoss6]

I'm not sure what else the problem might be. Try the shortcut I am working on, and see if it has the same problem.

[eisengpferd]

this is your shortcut... I did install it on the iphone.

This is the message your shortcut generated:

BangleDumpWeather
{"temp":"293,812", "'hi":"300,552", "lo":"28 5,527" "hum":"52" "rain":"0" "uv":"0", "wind
":"7,162 km/h","code":"txt
"thunderstorm" "txt":"Meist
bewölkt", "wdir": "72", "loc":"Sankt Augus-
tin'"}

[RKBoss6]

Is it working?

[RKBoss6]

If not, it might be due to language settings. For now, try changing the language to english, and see if it works.

[eisengpferd]

oh yes :-)
I changed the language to "gb en_GB" and the weather app is starting very fast. The text is displayed (Meist bewölkt) and the town. Wind and temperature is still missing...
I will try with different units in the language app...

[eisengpferd]

yes must be some language settings. US and Eng is working (for fast loading the weather app) but other languages dont work.

I just checked one language with also a . as decimal separator (in german it is , ) but this does not make a difference...

thanks for helping... We need someone to dig intside the code from "weather"...

[eisengpferd]

Hello again. I did some new testings.
@RKBoss6 I pasted your example from here https://github.com/orgs/espruino/discussions/7791#discussioncomment-13552429
in the Iphone shortcut. And with this data the weather in bangle ist working.
In my opinion the main difference seems to be the "," separator in a german iphone compared to the "." separator in english language.
Do you have any idea how to change the separator in the shortcut? I am not familiar with this stuff...

/Hendrik/

[RKBoss6]

Hmm... I think there's a translate function you can add in that translates from any language. Try translating to english for the word code, and then still push the actual text condition as the untranslated one.

[eisengpferd]

Yes the translation seems to work. But I have to modify a few other things in the shortcut (replace , with . ) to get it work.
Normaly I would have said that the OWM data is better because it is made to use i scripts... But the OWM weather is realy bad... it says constantly "clear sky" here it no sun is visible... So the Apple weather is much better.
But with this bunch of modifications in the shortcut to handle the text-based ios-weather-output it is likely that this shortcut will make problems with other languages... But we will see.
And I will have to finde a way to share the shortcut when I am finished...

[eisengpferd]

one more sidenote: I just modified the settings of the iphone. Set language to english and the "number format" to "1234567.89". After this the shortcut from this thread here is working.
So I can change the shortcut and test with different languages if it is working.

[RKBoss6]

Ok, so the phone language fixes it... If you don't want to change the phone language, then you said you were running into some problems?

[eisengpferd]

Yes, as said above.
You can simply test it. Just go to Settings, General, Language & Region, Number Format and change to tho top selection (1.234.567,89)
Then Apple Weather will send the temp and windspeed with "," as separator.