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Weather Collector

Weather Collector is a Windows Forms application written in C# that makes use of the OpenWeather API to get the current weather conditions for a specific location and store it into a SQL Server Database.

Main Application Window

History Screen

Settings Screen

Database Settings

• Server Name - The server where the database is stored, e.g. localhost
• Database Name - The name of the database, e.g. weatherHarvest
• Database User - The username of a login which has access to insert and update the above database
• Database Password - The password for the above user.

Log Location

• Root Location - For example C:\
• Folder Name - The folder you would like to use for logs e.g. Logs
• File Name - The name of the log file e.g weatherHarvest.log

API Settings

• API Key - Obtain an API key from here once you have it enter it in this box.
• Logitude - This can be obtained from here
• Latitude - As above this can be obtained from here
• Units - Which unit would you like the data to be returned in metric or imperial, if neither are selected the default will be used.

Application Settings

• Refresh Interval - This is the frequency in milliseconds that the application will request data from the API, free accounts are limited to 60 calls per minute

Database Schema

Below is a breakdown of the database schema used in the backend of this application.

runData

Column Name	DataType	Constraint	Default	Description
runID	INT	Primary KEY	None	Uniquie key to identify the run
runGuid	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	None	None
runTime	DATETIME	None	None	Time of the forecasted data
units	varchar(10)	None	None	Requested unit type (metric or imperial)
longitude	FLOAT	None	None	Longitude requested
latitude	FLOAT	None	None	Latitude requested
timeZone	nvarchar(200)	None	None	Timezone requested
timeZoneOffset	nvarchar(200)	None	None	Shift in seconds from UTC
invalid	BIT	None	0	To allow for the run to be marked as invalid
Deleted	BIT	None	0	To allow for the run to be deleted

rawWeatherData

Column Name	DataType	Constraint	Default	Description
ID	INT	Primary KEY	None
runID	INT	Foreign KEY	None	Uniquie key to identify the run
runGuid	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	None	None
rawData	NVARCHAR(MAX)	None	None	Returned JSON data

weatherData

Column Name	DataType	Constraint	Default	Description
ID	INT	Primary KEY	None
runID	INT	Foreign KEY	None
runGuid	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	None	None
collectionID	INT	None	None
summary	varchar(100)	None	None
description	varchar(100)	None	None
icon	varchar(20)	None	None

currentlyData

Column Name	DataType	Constraint	Default	Description
ID	INT	Primary KEY	None
runID	INT	Foreign KEY	None	Unique identifier for the row of data
runGuid	UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	None	None
temperature	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None	Temprature stored in the requested unit format
apparentTemperature	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
windSpeed	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
windGust	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
windBearing	DECIMAL(5,2)	None	None
dewPoint	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
humidity	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
pressure	DECIMAL(6,2)	None	None
cloudCover	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
uvIndex	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
visibility	DECIMAL(4,2)	None	None
ozone	DECIMAL(5,2)	None	None

Ref.Codes

Column Name	DataType	Constraint	Default	Description
ID	INT	Primary KEY	None	Unique identifier for the row of data
Main	varchar(100)	None	None	Main summary for the icon type e.g Drizzle
Description	varchar(200)	None	None	Description of the weather type the icon represents
Icon	CHAR(3)	None	None	Icon code
IconURL	nvarchar(100)	None	None	Collection URL for the Icon

Collected Data

The API in use by Weather Collector is the One Call API from OpenWeather this returns a collection of data points however at this time not all of them are in use by the Weather Collector, the below list shows which data points are used in the API

Please note: The entire JSON response is stored in the rawWeatherData table in SQL it is just not extracted for use by the application.

It is also worth noting that not all supported data points are available in all regions, some regions may return null values.

• lat Geographical coordinates of the location (latitude)

• lon Geographical coordinates of the location (longitude)

• timezone Timezone name for the requested location

• timezone_offset Shift in seconds from UTC

• current Data point dt refers to the requested time, rather than the current time

  • dt Requested time, Unix, UTC (This is converted to datetime in app)
  • sunrise Sunrise time, Unix, UTC (This is converted to datetime in app)
  • sunset Sunset time, Unix, UTC (This is converted to datetime in app)
  • temp Temperature.
  • feels_like Temperature.
  • pressure Atmospheric pressure on the sea level, hPa
  • humidity Humidity, %
  • dew_point Atmospheric temperature (varying according to pressure and humidity) below which water - droplets begin to condense and dew can form. Units – default: kelvin, metric: Celsius, imperial: Fahrenheit.
  • clouds Cloudiness, %
  • uvi Midday UV index
  • visibility Average visibility, metres
  • wind_speed Wind speed. Units – default: metre/sec, metric: metre/sec, imperial: miles/hour.
  • wind_gust (where available) Wind gust.
  • wind_deg Wind direction, degrees (meteorological)
  • rain (where available) Precipitation volume, mm
  • snow (where available) Snow volume, mm
  • current.weather
    • id Weather condition id
    • main Group of weather parameters (Rain, Snow, Extreme etc.)
    • description Weather condition within the group (full list of weather conditions). Currently returned in English only. Future plans include support for other languages
    • icon Weather icon id

More Information

If you are looking for more information on the OpenWeather API you can view the full documentation here

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I found a bug

You can open an issue or if you would really like you can change the code yourself and submit a pull request.

I want the application to do something else

Feel free to clone the repo and make changes to suit your individual needs or you can submit an issue requesting the change.