[RELEASE] DarkSky.net Weather Driver, no PWS Required

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 4:09pm

Is there a way I can get the weatherSummary into a notification? And into a dashboard?

Thanks.

Matthew · September 24, 2019, 4:18pm

Notifcation? .... perhaps. I have a RM4 rule that will send a Pushover message anytime the 'alert' changes. You could do the same with the 'weatherSummary'.

weatherSummary, or any other attribute you have selected can be put on a dashboard. Select the device, then 'attribute' then the attribute you want to show. (If it is an 'optional' attribute make sure you have it turned 'on' in the device preferences).

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 5:16pm

Great, thanks. Will try it.
Yeah, I'd like to send the text from weatherSummary to myself each morning in a notification.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 5:31pm

Tried to stuff the weatherSummary into a variable using the device attributes. Doesn't work. Tried also to refresh the poll prior in the rule. Still doesn't work.

Seems like there should be a way to get a device attribute into a variable and then use it in a message or notification surely?

I'm seeing this error in the logs...

Matthew · September 24, 2019, 6:18pm

This is a question for a RM4 topic, not this driver. The weatherSummary attribute is available .... you just need to figure out how to get it to do what you want. I don't beleive that requires any driver modifications (let me know if you think it does). Your question (for a RM4 topic) should be 'How to get a notification containing the contents of a custom attribute?'

corerootedxb · September 24, 2019, 6:20pm

Is your weatherSummary variable defined as a string?

Matthew · September 24, 2019, 6:21pm

Yes

corerootedxb · September 24, 2019, 6:22pm

Not yours! I know yours is (I've been studying your code a bit ) LOL

That was for @Angus_M That's what I think is the failure in setting the weatherSummary to a variable; The local (or global) variable isn't defined as a string.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 7:32pm

Agreed. I will raise it to @bravenel.

Dear Bruce - is it possible to stick the string contents of a custom variable into a notification/message please? I'm hoping to have the weatherSummary from the awesome new Darksky driver available in a notification/message every morning. Can't work out how to do it.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 7:35pm

Yeah it's a string. I set it up like this...

I just get "Null" in my notification and spoken at my Google Mini, which is the initial value I gave the string when I set the (local) variable up. It's not getting the value from the driver. I guess I'm doing it wrong somehow.

corerootedxb · September 24, 2019, 7:36pm

Well, that shot down my theory! Hopefully Bruce will have an answer.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 7:39pm

Yeah, no worries. Thanks for trying to help.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 8:04pm

I tried it also with a Global Variable in case that would help, but same difference.

bravenel · September 24, 2019, 8:08pm

Just use %variable-name% in the message.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 8:14pm

Tried that, as above. It didn't work (see error posted above).

Actually, I just managed to fix it by changing the name of the variable to 'weatherSummaryText'. Prior to that it was the same as the attribute ('weatherSummary'). I guessed maybe there was a conflict and by changing it, it now works! Maybe that's something you can check and resolve? It should be ok to have a variable with the same name as an attribute right?

corerootedxb · September 24, 2019, 8:17pm

Just my opinion, but if we are going based on good programming principles, then no. Attributes should probably be reserved for attributes only, much like keywords are in programming languages.

Angus_M · September 24, 2019, 8:26pm

It puts the weatherSummary into a notification nicely, however it won't play on the Google Mini. Maybe the message is too long? Not sure if there's a limit. I also note that the text contains an html tag at the end with the Darksky attribution. Maybe it's that. It would need to be stripped off anyway before being spoken.

Here's the Chromecast error in the logs:

If I copy/paste the string into the driver text attribute for the Google Mini it plays very nicely. So it seems there is no issue with this long string with all the degrees and percentages in it. But it won't play from RM.

No worries. Anyway it's a nice notification message to get every morning with the latest weather and forecast and I learned something new today

Update: stripping off the attribution allows the Chromecast to play the string properly. I have an on-demand weather report straight to my Google Mini in beautifully enunciated English. It's perfect!

corerootedxb · September 24, 2019, 8:39pm

So, I have a question... Wouldn't it be easier to create a Google Assistant or Alexa routine to do the same thing?

Matthew · September 24, 2019, 9:10pm

[UPDATED]
V1.1.1
09/24/2019

Many 'behind the scene' changes and some noticeable changes inspired by @nh.schottfam. (at least I think it is @nh.schottfam? The changes came from 'imnotbob' through Github. There is no user 'imnotbot' in this community, but my not-so-good stalking led me to believe that 'imnotbob' and @nh.schottfam may be the same user?)

Corrected MoonPhase calculation.
Optimized the update lux routine so it would check at least every five minutes to see if a daytime/nighttime schedule change was needed (without polling) even if long polling intervals were selected.
Re-ordered the Preferences to make it a bit more intuitive (I hope).
Corrected that some of the 'Grouped' optional attributes were not showing as available in dashboards and rules.
Created three 'Dash' groups for attributes that are required by some dashboard weather tiles (see details below). If your dashboards are not showing/updating information from this driver you think it should be, check these and turn on for the dashboard in question. You should only turn on what you need to minimize database utilization.
Changed the Dark Sky optional attribution to show both the light text and the dark text logos, if selected. You still need to select which of those you want to use in 'myTile' and 'weatherSummary' even if you do not have the Dark Sky attribute selected.
Corrected so that extended logging automatically turns off after 30mins.
Optimized some coding to reduce the file size.

DASHBOARD ATTRIBUTES
(please provide feedback if you believe any of this is not right and I will correct ASAP)

josh · September 24, 2019, 10:10pm

Thanks for putting this together! I didn't see it in the chart, but SharpTools.io also accepts temperature as the primary displayed temperature value. (edit: Looking at the code, I'd guess that's because humidity and temperature are included as normal values that are always published)

Here's an image showing where each of the attributes map to on the tile:

The only required attributes are weather and either weatherIcon or forecastIcon (only one of the icons is needed).

If any of the other attributes are missing they will automatically be hidden from the tile.

PS. There's a typo in the heading of the chart and the first post of the thread - SharpTools.io should have a trailing 's'