JNews - Weather

For the news blog that already runs JNews and wants the weather in plain sight

Adding the weather to a local outlet or a news blog seems minor until you have to do it: either you embed a third-party widget that brings its own design and ads, or you rely on custom code that someone has to maintain. JNews - Weather solves it inside the theme itself, with a forecast element you place wherever you need it.

It fits you if:

• You already work with the JNews theme: this plugin is installed and activated from the JNews panel and its settings live in the theme customizer.
• You are fine creating an account with a weather data provider and pasting your API key.

It is not for you if you use another theme or expect it to work without any key: without a data provider there is no forecast to show.

Four providers on the list and only one free one that responds

JNews - Weather connects to four sources: Yahoo Weather, Dark Sky, Open Weather Map and Aeris Weather. Here is the catch for anyone choosing from the list: Yahoo Weather, Dark Sky and Aeris Weather no longer work. OpenWeather now limits its API usage and requires a subscription. If you want a free API, the only real option is WeatherAPI, and it is the one to keep in mind before you start.

With WeatherAPI you can also adjust the response fields in your account so that each data request is faster.

Units and cache

You choose whether temperature is shown in Celsius or Fahrenheit and how long the forecast is cached. If you change something, reload the page to see it. To clear the current cache, select the disable cache option, reload and set the expiration time again.

JNews - Weather in the top bar: a fixed city or the visitor's own

In the theme's header options you decide where the weather appears in the top bar. The location is written as the city alone or city and country code (for example, london or london, uk).

If your audience is spread out, turn on automatic location detection and each visitor will see the weather for their area. If your outlet is local, a fixed city is usually more consistent with what you publish. You also control what information the element shows and how the next days' data behaves, which you can hide.

Widget with its own background image and a shortcode for posts and pages

The JNews : Weather widget is added to any widget area from Appearance. Its options:

• Title, location and a visible location name (if left empty, it uses the location).
• Automatic detection of the visitor's location.
• Date format, which you can leave empty to hide the date.
• Current day details, show or hide.
• Forecast for the next days and how many items to display (this number has no effect if you hide those days).
• Your own background image; without it the default style applies.

To place the weather inside a post or page there is a Weather button in the editor. If you use Visual Composer, you can insert the weather shortcode into a text block.

Frequently asked questions before installing it

Does it work with any theme?

It is built for JNews: it is managed from its panel and its settings are in the theme customizer.

Do I need an API key?

Yes. Dark Sky, Open Weather Map and WeatherAPI require their own key, and Aeris an ID and a secret (although it no longer works).

Which provider should I pick if I don't want to pay?

WeatherAPI, the free option that still works. OpenWeather requires a subscription.

Can I show the weather in more than one place at once?

Yes: top bar, widget and shortcode are separate elements, and the top bar and the widget each have their own configurable location.