Announcing OpenWeatherMap binding for Eclipse SmartHome / openHAB

[ngalfas (Nick Galfas)]

My notes after upgrading to OH 2.4 and subscribing to OWM.
I added the binding in PaperUI and i saw the 2 things created. I added my API key and then i copied the .items file from the documentation. (not the .things)
I got all the current day data but no forecast data.
After searching to the OWM site, the forum etc i realized that the PaperUI initial installation of the " Local weather and forecast" thing, left the “Number of days for daily forecast” setting to 0 (zero).
So, the documentation was providing the items for 2 days of forecast but the initial installation has a default setting for 0 days. Somehow i missed that when adding the API key. I think that the default setting when installing should be 3 (the maximum settings for free OWM plan).

I just found that the UV index API is not yet implemented and this is a drawback from the WUnderground binding i was using. I live in Greece and UV index in summer is a very important thing to know every day.

Now i will find out how to import the data to HabPanel. Thanks for this binding!

[cweitkamp (Christoph Weitkamp)]

@ngalfas

the UV index API is not yet implemented

I am working on it. Will provide an enhancement PR soon.

[ngalfas (Nick Galfas)]

After 2 days i have figured out the whole business model / free API access of OWM
I think there should be some clarification on the documentation because i thought i could have min/max temperatures on the “tomorrow” forecast. This is something very confusing to a newcomer to OWM. I know this is not anyones fault here, i think there should be a “warning”.

So to sum it up for anyone searching for a WUndergound alternative:
OWM does NOT provide min/max temperatures for the forecasts on free accounts.
Only paid subscriptions provide the “forecastToday”, “forecastTomorrow” and “forecastDay2” channels stated on the demo .items on the documentation page.
I think the demo .items on the documentation should mention that the forecast items are only for paid subcriptions.

Oh, and the last note to newcomers:
The free “[5 days/3 hour forecast API]” gives you the forecasted temperatures on 3 hour intervals on seperate items.
What to do with these:

@cweitkamp

If I should make a proposal I would say create some groups, use the power of the group arithmetical functions (MIN,MAX,AVG), and stuff all items of the hourly forecast into them. Easy without much effort.

This will be a great addition to both this topic and documentation. It’s not that simple though. This has to be related to the forecast timestamps… not the “next 24 hours min and max”

[michaeljoos]

@ngalfas

Now i will find out how to import the data to HabPanel.

@ngalfas I’m trying this as well and struggling with the icons. “weather-underground-icons” does not work anymore as you get now a number for the condition-id. And the icon that you get out of the image-channel is too small for HabPanel-Integration.

[kugelsicha (@HerzScheisse ~ Holger)]

@michaeljoos

does not work anymore as you get now a number for the condition-id

I do it with a MAP transformation…

f.e.: (you need to install the map transformation service in PaperUI
create openweathermap.map in folder openhab2-conf/transform

601=snow
OWM_WEATHER_CONDITION_ID_NUMBER=YOUR_IMAGE

and in your .items file you have something like this:

String owmCurrentConditionId "Current Condition ID [MAP(openweathermap.map):%s]"

EDIT:
Or another way to do it…

Iconset: Animated Climacons

Thank you! After a bit more effort, I was able to find the list of Weather Underground conditions. I now map those conditions back to the appropriate Climacon name. Here they are: Drizzle=rain Rain=rain Snow=snow Snow\ Grains=snow Ice\ Crystals=freezing-drizzle Ice\ Pellets=sleet Hail=sleet Mist=fog Fog=fog Fog\ Patches=fog Smoke=dust Volcanic\ Ash=dust Widespread\ Dust=dust Sand=dust Haze=fog Spray=rain Dust\ Whirls=dust Sandstorm=dust Low\ Drifting\ Snow=blowing-snow Low\ Drifting\ Widespread…

[cweitkamp (Christoph Weitkamp)]

Here you are: Support for UV Index API

OpenWeatherMap Extension - Support for UV Index API

I like to hand over another Christmas present to you. The first extension of the OpenWeatherMap Binding: Support for UV Index API ::: tip Note The product will retire on 1st April 2021, please find UV data in the One Call API. One Call API includes current, hourly forecast for 7 days and 5 days historical UV data. ::: Nothing spectacular but maybe a nice enhancement for somebody. The implementation adds support for the current UV Index and forecasted UV Index (up to 8 days, including today)…

[JoeSey (Joe S.)]

Hey there,

I need some help figuring out things with this binding - first off, I like this one very much, especially since Wunderground and Yahoo will stop their free API services soon.

I have a working API key for the free plan. I have figured out that I have to add the weather-and-forecast thing using

forecastHours=96, forecastDays=0

(the forecastHours something below 5*12 for the free plan and forecastDays set to zero because otherwise, I end up with @text/offline.conf-error-invalid-apikey errors.

What I am really missing is a hint on how to use forecast data beyond 24 hours. If I try to add items using a channel like openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#time-stamp (extrapolating the working items for Hours12 or Hours24), I get nothing (in PaperUI, those don’t even show up in the “Local Weather and Forecast” item list on the “Control” page). In PaperUI, I see items like openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastTomorrow#time-stamp advertised on the things-page of of the forecast thing, which result in having NULL/NaN data.

Are there any working examples using the free plan with forecast data for 3-5 days?

[kugelsicha (@HerzScheisse ~ Holger)]

@JoeSey

What I am really missing is a hint on how to use forecast data beyond 24 hours.

Hi, this is what i use in my items file…

// Forecast Hour48
Image					owmForecastHour48Icon			"2 Tage Vorhersage Wetterlage Icon"					    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#icon"}
String					owmForecastHour48Condition		"2 Tage Vorhersage Wetterlage [%s]"					    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#condition"}
String				    owmForecastHour48ConditionId	"2 Tage Vorhersage Wetterlage ID [%s]"				    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#condition-id"}
String				    owmForecastHour48IconId			"2 Tage Vorhersage Wetterlage Icon ID"				    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#icon-id"}
Number:Temperature		owmForecastHour48Temperature	"2 Tage Vorhersage Temperatur [%.1f %unit%]"		    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#temperature"}
Number:Pressure			owmForecastHour48Pressure		"2 Tage Vorhersage Luftdruck [%.1f %unit%]"			    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#pressure"}
Number:Dimensionless	owmForecastHour48Humidity		"2 Tage Vorhersage Luftfeuchtigkeit [%.1f %unit%]"	    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#humidity"}
Number:Speed			owmForecastHour48WindSpeed		"2 Tage Vorhersage Windgeschwindigkeit [%.1f km/h]"	    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#wind-speed"}
//Number:Dimensionless	owmForecastHour48WindDirection	"2 Tage Vorhersage Windrichtung [SCALE(wind.scale):%s]" {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#wind-direction"}
Number:Angle			owmForecastHour48WindDirection2	"2 Tage Vorhersage Windrichtung [%d %unit%]" {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#wind-direction"}
Number:Dimensionless	owmForecastHour48Cloudiness		"2 Tage Vorhersage Bewölkung [%.1f %unit%]"			    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#cloudiness"}
Number:Length			owmForecastHour48Rain			"2 Tage Vorhersage Regen [%.1f %unit%]"				    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#rain"}
Number:Length			owmForecastHour48Snow			"2 Tage Vorhersage Schneefall [%.1f %unit%]"		    {channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#snow"}
DateTime    owmForecastHour48Timestamp	"2 Tage Vorhersage Zeit [%1$tA, %1$td.%1$tm.%1$tY %1$tH:%1$tM]"			{channel="openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours48#time-stamp"}

sometimes you have to wait a couple of minutes to get the first data… but works perfectly here…

hope this helps

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

OpenWeatherMap daily forecast using the free API

The OpenWeatherMap binding can be used with a free API, but this does not provide daily forecasts. So, I wrote a JSR223-Jython rule using the openhab2-jython modules to take the hourly data and add/remove the Items into groups that provide the daily forecast information. Since there are about 600 groups and Items that are needed, I included their creation in the rule too. The script file contains more details. I think this is pretty much final, so I’ll start working on a Habpanel widget! [i…

[hansvandamme]

I have the same problem as @JoeSey

I installed the binding in OH 2.4 stable, using free openweathermap account.

Things file:

Bridge openweathermap:weather-api:api "OpenWeatherMap Account" [apikey="my_api_key", refreshInterval=10, language="nl"] {
    Thing weather-and-forecast local "Local Weather And Forecast" [location="xxxxx,yyyyy", forecastHours=72, forecastDays=0]
}

In PaperUI, I see forecast channels 3hrs, 6hrs etc. But no channel beyond 24h.

To confirm that this is not related to PaperUI, I looked via the REST api:
http://openhabianpi:8080/rest/things/openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local. I found channels like

openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local:forecastHours24

, but for example no channels with “forecastHours27”, “forecastHours30” etc.

During my experimentation yesterday I believe I saw the channels momentarily, but then they seem to have disappeared after I made an edit to the .things file. Unfortunately I didn’t keep track of my changes. Now I waited about 24hrs to see if they would pop up, but they didn’t.

Any ideas?

[hansvandamme]

OK, I solved it by restarting the binding via Karaf:

First I activated debug logging:

openhab> log:set DEBUG org.eclipse.smarthome.binding.openweathermap

Then I found the bundle number and restarted the binding:

youropenhab> bundle:list
<SNIP>
242 │ Active   │  80 │ 0.10.0.oh240           │ Eclipse SmartHome OpenWeatherMap Binding
openhab> bundle:restart 242

Logging shows that channels and channel groups are created

2019-01-05 11:34:02.794 [me.event.ThingUpdatedEvent] - Thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local' has been updated.
2019-01-05 11:34:02.897 [hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'openweathermap:weather-api:api' changed from INITIALIZING to UNKNOWN
2019-01-05 11:34:02.916 [hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'openweathermap:weather-api:api' changed from UNINITIALIZED (HANDLER_MISSING_ERROR) to INITIALIZING
==> /var/log/openhab2/openhab.log <==
2019-01-05 11:34:03.055 [DEBUG] [nWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler] - Initialize OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler handler 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.
2019-01-05 11:34:03.076 [DEBUG] [nWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler] - Rebuilding thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.
2019-01-05 11:34:03.078 [DEBUG] [nWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler] - Rebuilding hourly forecast channel groups.
2019-01-05 11:34:03.080 [DEBUG] [andler.AbstractOpenWeatherMapHandler] - Building channel group 'forecastHours27' for thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.
==> /var/log/openhab2/events.log <==
2019-01-05 11:34:03.107 [hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local' changed from UNINITIALIZED (HANDLER_MISSING_ERROR) to INITIALIZING
2019-01-05 11:34:03.115 [hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local' changed from INITIALIZING to UNKNOWN
==> /var/log/openhab2/openhab.log <==
2019-01-05 11:34:03.136 [DEBUG] [andler.AbstractOpenWeatherMapHandler] - Building channel group 'forecastHours30' for thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.
2019-01-05 11:34:03.170 [DEBUG] [andler.AbstractOpenWeatherMapHandler] - Building channel group 'forecastHours33' for thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.
2019-01-05 11:34:03.251 [DEBUG] [andler.AbstractOpenWeatherMapHandler] - Building channel group 'forecastHours36' for thing 'openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:api:local'.

etc etc etc

[numo68 (Stanislav Meduna)]

The binding itself works fine for me on 2.4.0, the log however shows the following errors after a restart. Always for 27#time-stamp, the data is coming fine.

2019-01-06 11:17:51.179 [ERROR] [nal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler] - An error occurred while calling method ‘ThingHandler.initialize()’ on ‘org.eclipse.smarthome.binding.openweathermap.int
ernal.handler.OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler@9f31238’: Duplicate channels openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:cf7c8411:local:forecastHours27#time-stamp
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Duplicate channels openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:cf7c8411:local:forecastHours27#time-stamp
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:159) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:151) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:147) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.binding.builder.ThingBuilder.withChannel(ThingBuilder.java:74) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.binding.openweathermap.internal.handler.OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler.initialize(OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler.java:153) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:?]
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler.invokeDirect(AbstractInvocationHandler.java:153) [102:org.eclipse.smarthome.core:0.10.0.oh240]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.Invocation.call(Invocation.java:53) [102:org.eclipse.smarthome.core:0.10.0.oh240]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266) [?:?]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:?]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:?]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:?]
2019-01-06 11:17:51.216 [ERROR] [core.thing.internal.ThingManagerImpl] - Exception occurred while initializing handler of thing ‘openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:cf7c8411:local’: Duplicate
channels openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:cf7c8411:local:forecastHours27#time-stamp
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Duplicate channels openweathermap:weather-and-forecast:cf7c8411:local:forecastHours27#time-stamp
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:159) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:151) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.util.ThingHelper.ensureUniqueChannels(ThingHelper.java:147) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.thing.binding.builder.ThingBuilder.withChannel(ThingBuilder.java:74) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.binding.openweathermap.internal.handler.OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler.initialize(OpenWeatherMapWeatherAndForecastHandler.java:153) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:?]
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:?]
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:?]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.AbstractInvocationHandler.invokeDirect(AbstractInvocationHandler.java:153) [102:org.eclipse.smarthome.core:0.10.0.oh240]
at org.eclipse.smarthome.core.internal.common.Invocation.call(Invocation.java:53) [102:org.eclipse.smarthome.core:0.10.0.oh240]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266) [?:?]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:?]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:?]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) [?:?]

Unfortunately the quality of data in the free hourly forecast is at least for my location (Bratislava, Slovakia) miserable. I tried to write a rule collecting min and max temperature of the following three days, got weird numbers and started to investigate. I checked on their webpage and the data is inconsistent there as well - e.g. for tomorrow the daily forecast shows -6.1 °C max, -6.7 °C min, the hourly data however contain -3.1 / -10.3. Huh. Two usually reliable sources show -2/-4 and -1/-5, let’s see what the reality is but I highly doubt the -10.

[Noam_Shaharabani (Noam)]

I’m getting an error when trying to install this binding

[ERROR] [core.karaf.internal.FeatureInstaller] - Failed installing 'openhab- 
binding-openweathermap': Error: Resource mvn:org.apache.karaf.jaas/org.apache.karaf.jaas.modules/4.2.1 does not 
contain a manifest

[vzorglub (Vincent Regaud)]

The duplicate channel bug is fixed in the snapshots

[cweitkamp (Christoph Weitkamp)]

Hi Noam,

How did you try to install the binding? Which OH2 version do you use?

[jsable (John Sable)]

Anyone know how to convert the temperature to Fahrenheit? I tried adding units=“imperial” at the end of the thing configuration, but does not seem to help:

Thing weather-and-forecast local "Local Weather And Forecast" [location="42.99, -71.14", forecastHours=0, forecastDays=7, units="imperial" ]

I’ve searched on the OpenWeather site and it reads to get fahrenheit, add units=imperial to the API call, but I am not sure where to add this. I figured on the Thing configuration would be the place, but alas, no. It also did not work not having imperial in quotes.

Thanks,

~John

[Noam_Shaharabani (Noam)]

i’M USING OPENHAB 2.4

installed from the paper ui addon

[butteryak]

I have the same question. Not sure how to convert to Fahrenheit.

[dominikkv (Dominik Vorreiter)]

OpenHAB can do it for you. Just use Fahrenheit in your label. Have a look at https://www.openhab.org/docs/concepts/units-of-measurement.html#numberitem-linked-to-quantitytype-channel

[jsable (John Sable)]

Thanks Dominik (@dominikkv), that resolved my issue!

~John