Darksky

[Jachym]

Hi guys,

looks like we have, unfortunately, another problem. In the history of MT I have changed the data source for forecasts 3 times already, always trying to find the best free option.

Unfortunately, the current global trend is to discontinue all free products or reduce them to bare minimum, some sort of a trial. This has happened numerous times in the past and I fear it will be more and more common.

Today I received another email of this kind. Dark Sky, the main provider for all forecast data for Meteotemplate has been taken over by Apple and guess what, no more free API registrations and the current ones will work until the end of 2021.

My goal was to create a template that has no extra costs (other than a donation to cover the costs for licenses, hosting etc., which about 30 % users really provided). There are no other costs apart from maybe the GrLEVELX plugin which requires the GrLevelX software which is not free, but thats one plugin out of hundreds.

Dark Sky was the last data source, which provided data for free, but in a very good form, detailed. Now this is no longer the case, Apple immediately after purchase decided to stop this (you probably know I am not a fan of Apple, but in this case I am not saying this because of this, this is an objective statement). Similraly to what Weather Underground did a few years back when bought by another company.

Not quite sure what to do now. Maybe just remove all forecasts and concentrate on data from your station. The original concept was for you to create a very complex page with all sorts of weather information - data from your station was the basis, complemented by radar images, forecasts etc. etc. However, the global internet trends change, more and more often you run into copyright issues, paid services... We have to decide - either have a template basically just about your station data, or have a wider-focused template, but with additional costs (usually in the form of subscription, another popular trend of all companies to generate continuous profit).

[jay_hoehn]

Jachym,

Glad to see you are still checking in. Haven't heard from you for awhile.

I too am disappointed that Darksky has decided to go the way of Weather Underground. I would not like to see the forecast capability go away on my site. We are lucky in the US to have freely available forecast data. My visitors need this information. It would be a shame to have to send them somewhere else to get this information. Please don't take this away from the template.

On another note, I hope you and your family are well and stay that way. We are living in a difficult time, but hope to make it through this.

Keep healthy.

Jay

[Jachym]

Hi Jay,

it wont "go away", for example the NWS block is not affected by this. The only issue is that DarkSky provided the most detailed and accurate forecast from the global providers. This was used for the global forecast built-in to the main template. So regional forecasts will remain working.

[jay_hoehn]

Jachym,

Thanks so much for the clarification.

Take care,

Jay

[mchd17]

I love having just my weather data, but love having NWS forecasts. Never used DarkSky to begin with.

The wider focused template, with subscription costs wouldn't bother me either. Anxious to see how this plays out.

Adam

[andyk1]

Glad to see also you are still checking in from time to time Jachym. I also got the dreaded email from DarkSky as I'm sure most with still valid API keys have. Be safe everyone and it's OK to be anti-social these days.

[magical46]

I too got the email from DarkSky, I just posted on the Plugins problem page, and not sure if this is linked, but on my home page the darksky forcast is showing in the forecast block but on the Outlook plugin page the short and long term forecasts show no data.
www.philsweather.co.uk/meteotemplate/pa ... index.php
Phil