Add-ons
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Wx 3 introduced a new and exciting feature, called "add-ons", which give each user the ability to customize Wx for their own lifestyle, hobbies, and outdoor activities. Add-ons extend the usefulness of Wx beyond just weather, making it a great planning and preparation tool.
Fourteen add-ons are available, including ski reports, marine observations, stream flow measurements, and tide tables. The great thing about add-ons is that they are really simple to develop, so users can make their own add-ons or collaborate with the Wx developer to create new ones. More details about creating add-ons are given below.
Add-ons are set up to augment each location's weather information, and add-ons can be combined to show multiple types of information. The add-on configuration sheet is shown below, and consists of an add-on help viewer at the top, and an outline view at the bottom with sections for each of the 20 locations Wx allows.
When Wx first launches, any installed add-ons (which are located in the "Library/Application Support/Wx" folder in your home directory) are loaded into the popup menu in the upper left of the add-ons tab. You can click the "Update List" button to refresh this menu if add-ons are installed while Wx is running. To view the help documentation for an add-on, select it in the popup menu and then click "View Help". Controls at the top of the add-on help browser allow you to navigate the help documentation which consists of web pages, some internal to the add-on, others external and accessed via the internet. You can return to the original help documentation at any time by pressing the "View Help" button. To search for text in the add-on browser, type a word or phrase into the search field at the top and click on the magnifying glass button.
Using information in the help documentation, you can enter add-on codes for each location in the lower part of the add-ons tab. A check box to the right of each entry will enable/disable the add-on code (and note that add-ons are only loaded for active locations -- inactive ones are skipped). Specific details on the add-on codes are given in the help documentation for each add-on, but in general, the format is:
where name is the add-on name and code is an input setting for the add-on (there can be multiple inputs, separated by colons). An example input for the ski report add-on is shown below:
Multiple add-ons can be linked with a "+", for example:
The previous example would load a ski report for Sugarbush Vermont, a stream flow report for the Mad River near Moretown Vermont, and a ski report for Mad River Glen in Vermont. The use of simple codes and conventions make it possible to come up with highly customized add-on settings. Note that in version 5, when you create a new add-on code for a location (using the "Add Row" button), Wx will automatically insert the "+" for you.
Add-ons can be self contained (such as the "tide_table" add-on), they can download information from the internet (such as the "ski" and "stream_flow" add-ons), they can post-process Wx data (such as the "snow" add-on), or any combination of the above, and more! Wx users are encouraged to create new add-ons and collaborate with the Wx developer on new add-on ideas. With author permission, user-created add-ons will be added to the Wx add-on page for everyone to use.
Once input settings are specified, add-ons will be loaded into the add-on WebView in Wx's location display. Add-ons are rendered as HTML documents, with browsing control buttons located off to the right of the add-on WebView. Examples of some add-on displays are given below:
Hurricane add-on (older version of Wx shown)
Sun/Moon (sun_moon) add-on (older version of Wx shown)
Marine observation (marine_obs) add-on (older version of Wx shown)
Ski report (ski) add-on (older version of Wx shown)
Installing add-ons
Add-ons are downloaded (below) as "zip" archives. After un-zipping these archives (your web browser may do this automatically), you will be left with a folder with a name like "snow.addon". Drag the .addon folder into the "Library/Application Support/Wx" folder in your home folder:
Available add-ons
Current Wx add-ons are listed below, alphabetically.
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adds
This add-on will load METARs and TAFs for selected airports.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
http
This add-on will download and display any http:// defined web page into Wx's add-on WebView. Unlike other Wx add-ons, multiple instances of this add-on cannot be specified, and this add-on cannot be combined with other add-ons.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
hurricane
This add-on will load tropical storm / hurricane projections and advisories for the United States.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
image
This add-on will download an image from the web and display it a location's add-on WebView, with optional scaling.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
link
This add-on will place a clickable web link into the add-on WebView. It is useful for keeping auxilliary web info at hand (for instance, to provide the link to a ski area's website along with ski report and snow quality add-ons).
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
marine_obs
This add-on downloads tidal, water-level, wave, and weather information from NOAA/NOS CO-OPS monitoring stations along the US coast (includes Alaska and Hawaii), US territories, and the Great Lakes.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
ski
This add-on downloads ski reports from SkiReport.com and displays them in Wx. Ski reports are available from ski areas around the world.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
snow
This add-on takes current conditions weather data from Wx and uses it to compute snowmaking quality and snow lifetime, with an optional elevation adjustment.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
stream_flow
This add-on downloads stream flow information from USGS monitoring sites in the United States.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
sun_moon
This add-on downloads and displays sun and moon information for a location. Information includes rise/set and phase.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
tide_table
This add-on generates 10-day tide tables for over 3000 locations around the world.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
two_day
This add-on downloads and displays a two-day weather data history for the NWS station in a given Wx location.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
uv_ozone
This add-on returns forecasts of UV index and total ozone column for a location (based on lat/lon) at local solar noon, for today and the coming 8 days, assuming clear-sky conditions and the absence of snow.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
winds_aloft
This add-on will load forecast winds and temperatures aloft from the National Weather Service Aviation Weather Center. Returned data contains forecast wind direction and speed as well as forecast temperatures.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
wu_nexrad
This add-on will load the NEXRAD radar loop from the Weather Underground, including storm tracks.
Read the help documentation for this add-on
Download this add-on
How to make your own add-ons for Wx
While the Wx developer will make new add-ons based on user requests whenever possible, users can make add-ons too. Wx add-ons are very simple! Most add-ons contain only two files, a processing script called "addon" and a short help documentation HTML file called "help.html":
Both files are contained in a folder with a ".addon" extension that Wx recognizes when installed in the "Library/Application Support/Wx" folder in your home folder. When a user views help for a particular add-on, the "help.html" file is used. When Wx calls an add-on during location loads, the "addon" script gets activated to download and process any needed data and information, and append it to an HTML file located at "/tmp/wx-addon.html". That HTML file gets loaded into Wx's add-on WebView for display. So, if you can work up the process necessary to generate simple HTML code, you can make an add-on!
Details about both add-on files are given below.
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The "addon" processing script
As discussed, the "addon" script does all the work. It can be a shell script, an AppleScript, a C or Fortran executable, or anything else that performs a series of steps to download/process data (as needed) and generate HTML code. Please contact the Wx developer if you'd like more information and sample code to help writing your own add-on script.
The "help.html" file
The help.html file gets loaded into the Wx add-on help viewer. It should contain basic information about how to use and specify codes for the add-on, in additional to version information and author contact info. If the add-on uses data or information from an external source, it's a nice courtesy give credit to the source with a link and logo. The "help documentation" links given for each add-on on this web page load the same "help.html" files used in the actual add-ons.
If you create an add-on and would like to make it available to other Wx users, please contact the Wx developer. Submitted add-ons will be put through some basic checks before being listed here.