[FIX] Fancy Widget 1.3.0 Not Updating Weather Info

[Guest chall32]

I love this widget, but recently (for me at least), it's problem with weather updates has got worse and worse. And thats just annoying :D

As we know, the developer Android Does has been served a cease and desist from HTC (booo! :angry: ). So it looks like we are on our own with any issues - at least until the developer release's a new "HTC compliant" widget.

Looking through the v1.3.0 comments on Android Does, I see that the widget is using Google Weather API to obtain it's base weather info. This is confirmed by looking at logcat output whilst performing a manual weather refresh; the following can be seen:

1777  GoogleWeather  D  http://www.google.com/ig/api?hl=en_US&weather=Ashford%2C+Kent

Using firefox to to hit that URL (check the source code of resulting page), I discovered that there was no weather info being returned. Just the following blank data:

<?xml version="1.0"?><xml_api_reply version="1"><weather module_id="0" tab_id="0" mobile_row="0" mobile_zipped="1" row="0" section="0" ><problem_cause data=""/></weather></xml_api_reply>

Dropping the "%2C+Kent" from the URL, we receive valid data:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <xml_api_reply version="1"> <weather module_id="0" tab_id="0" mobile_row="0" mobile_zipped="1" row="0" section="0" > <forecast_information><city data="Ashford, Kent"/> <postal_code data="Ashford"/> <latitude_e6 data=""/> <longitude_e6 data=""/> <forecast_date data="2010-07-19"/><current_date_time data="2010-07-19 21:50:00 +0000"/> <unit_system data="US"/> </forecast_information> <current_conditions> <condition data="Clear"/><temp_f data="72"/> <temp_c data="22"/> <humidity data="Humidity: 53%"/> <icon data="/ig/images/weather/sunny.gif"/> <wind_condition data="Wind: SW at 5 mph"/> </current_conditions>

yadda yadda So, it looks like the google api has stopped replying to queries using fully qualified city data (In my case <city data="Ashford, Kent"/>), but as we have seen above, if we drop the city data suffix ", Kent" from the query all is good. This is confirmed by testing with single place names - Eg "London" or "Kent" or "Sussex" etc etc - anywhere that doesn't need qualifying with a coma and a county after it. It turns out that the fix is easy, no apk hacking required (not that I condone that kind of thing). Fancy Widget stores it's preference data in the file: /data/data/com.fancywidget.android/shared_prefs/com.fancywidget.android_preferences.xml So a quick tweak in the file:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>

<map>

<long name="prefs_last_refresh" value="1279575601399" />

<string name="prefs_refresh_interval">3</string>

<string name="prefs_alt_location">Ashford</string>

<float name="prefs_alt_latitude" value="0.0" />

<string name="prefs_clock_tap">0</string>

<boolean name="prefs_auto_refresh" value="true" />

<string name="prefs_date_tap">0</string>

<boolean name="prefs_use_my_location" value="false" />

<boolean name="prefs_use_24hr" value="true" />

<string name="prefs_alt_postal">Ashford</string>

<float name="prefs_alt_longitude" value="0.0" />

<long name="prefs_next_refresh" value="0" />

<string name="prefs_weather_tap">0</string>

<boolean name="prefs_use_celsius" value="true" />

</map>

And all is fixed! The widget updates and checking via logcat, the query now looks like:

1781  GoogleWeather  D  http://www.google.com/ig/api?hl=en_US&weather=Ashford

;) Nice. No more annoyance and an properly updating widget once again!

- Chris

Edited July 19, 2010 by chall32

[Guest Simon O]

That;s strange because I get updates fine:

<xml_api_reply version="1"><weather module_id="0" tab_id="0" mobile_row="0" mobile_zipped="1" row="0" section="0" ><forecast_information><city data="Nottingham, Nottinghamshire"/><postal_code data="Nottingham, United Kingdom"/><latitude_e6 data=""/><longitude_e6 data=""/><forecast_date data="2010-07-19"/><current_date_time data="2010-07-19 22:20:00 +0000"/><unit_system data="US"/></forecast_information><current_conditions><condition data="Rain"/><temp_f data="66"/><temp_c data="19"/><humidity data="Humidity: 64%"/><icon data="/ig/images/weather/rain.gif"/><wind_condition data="Wind: S at 10 mph"/></current_conditions><forecast_conditions><day_of_week data="Mon"/><low data="59"/><high data="78"/><icon data="/ig/images/weather/mostly_sunny.gif"/><condition data="Mostly Sunny"/></forecast_conditions><forecast_conditions><day_of_week data="Tue"/><low data="57"/><high data="68"/><icon data="/ig/images/weather/rain.gif"/><condition data="Rain"/></forecast_conditions><forecast_conditions><day_of_week data="Wed"/><low data="53"/><high data="69"/><icon data="/ig/images/weather/chance_of_rain.gif"/><condition data="Chance of Rain"/></forecast_conditions><forecast_conditions><day_of_week data="Thu"/><low data="51"/><high data="68"/><icon data="/ig/images/weather/sunny.gif"/><condition data="Clear"/></forecast_conditions></weather></xml_api_reply>

[Guest chall32]

Hmm

In that case there must be something funny going on with the google weather api. Looks like its not consistant across locations.

[Guest Azurren]

Hmm

In that case there must be something funny going on with the google weather api. Looks like its not consistant across locations.

Sometimes I do sometimes I don't get updates. Depends on where I go :angry:

Sadly this fix won't help me as it only messes up in certain areas not in my home location :D

[Guest chall32]

Sometimes I do sometimes I don't get updates. Depends on where I go :angry:

Sadly this fix won't help me as it only messes up in certain areas not in my home location :D

OK. :D I guess I must live in one of those "certain problem areas" ;)

Anyway, for me at least, with the fix above Fancy Widget is again finally firing on all cylinders.

mmm nice.

[Guest brooksie]

where do i find the file "/data/data/com.fancywidget.android/shared_prefs/com.fancywidget.android_preferences.xml"

im sort of a newb so please help me out :(

[Guest BigBearMDC]

where do i find the file "/data/data/com.fancywidget.android/shared_prefs/com.fancywidget.android_preferences.xml"

im sort of a newb so please help me out :(

What?

You already said it...

in /data/data/com.fancywidget.android/shared_prefs/

:P

Run

adb shell

mount -o rw /dev/block/mtdblock2 /data

exit

adb pull /data/data/com.fancywidget.android/shared_prefs/com.fancywidget.android_preferences.xml "X:\some-folder\com.fancywidget.android_preferences.xml"[/code]

Job done :(


Best regards,

BB