It seems that the Yahoo query table that I've been using to convert latitude and longitude into this thing called a Where On Earth ID (WOIED) which is used to look up the weather was shut down January 22, 2016. This has lead to a number of emails saying the weather has stopped working. Fortunately there is a work around... If you go into the weather settings then choose "static location". You'll be prompted for a location and you'll get a list of choices if there's more than one. After the location is set use the next option down "use static location". This will give you a choice of three options, choose "always". The weather should load upon returning to the main screen.
There's a couple problems with making a fix for the issue. Yahoo doesn't seem to provide a different way to convert latitude and longitude in to this WOEID. The next biggest problem is that I've had a serious lack of free time since finding out about the issue so I really haven't researched it yet. The next big problem is that I currently don't have a development environment set up any more. As I've always said, I'm a lunch time android developer and I started a new job about 6 months ago. I've been working on other side projects and haven't installed anything to do Android development. Which leads to the next problem... I didn't keep up with Android Studio (the "new" Google built IDE) and never converted the old eclipse project, so there's a bit of work to be done before I can fix the problem.
I do have two possible solutions once the development environment is setup.
- Another free API (or APIs) to find the WOIED. This is the simplest solution. I've thought about finding a way to convert Latitude and Longitude into an address and then feeding that through the same process as the static location. This way I can re-use the weather code.
- Another free weather source. openweathermap.org has been in a updates file as a possible replacement for the yahoo weather source, but this means a completely new API and completely re-writing the weather code (plus issues with images, etc). This might be the best solution, but I don't know if I'll have the time to do it.
The bottom line is that I know there's an issue. I know exactly where the problem is, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done before I can publish a new APK. Please be patient, I'll get a fix out eventually.
