License
Requirements
Download
Authors
Installation
Description
Button Guide
Screenshots
Translations
FAQ
How you can help:
Hosting costs are becoming an issue. At an average of 100-200 downloads a day at 3MB a pop, it doesn't take a genius to work out that that's a lot of bandwidth. If you like and use Liquid Weather ++, please make a small donation (by pressing the Paypal button) to assist with hosting costs and equipment, so that I can continue developing this application. If you can't afford to, or don't want to make a donation, please at least click on the ads on this page, it's only a click or two, and doesn't cost you a thing, and helps further development of this application.
License:
Released under the GPL, version 2. Except icon themes, which are released pursuant to the restrictions imposed by their authors.
Weather data provided
by weather.com
Requires:
Requires SuperKaramba >= version 0.35
Download:
The latest Liquid Weather ++ tarball is:
Authors:
- Original Karamba theme on which this theme is based by Rodion
- "Pythonised", "feature enriched" and most coding by Matt
- New BBC parsing code by Elad Tsur, as well as nifty new stuff for BBC daily forecasts
- Weather data processing code and original BBC parsing code by Heikki
- Other original gui configuration ideas by Adam Geitgey
- Umicons by Mattahan and used with permission. See Mattahan's websites: Mattahan.Web1000.com and Mattahan.deviantart.com
- Flat backgrounds provided by Andrew Crouthame
- Cynapses background by gladiac. Go here to get the cynapses system monitor theme.
- Flat Desktop Style backgrounds and icons provided by Danny Allen. You can get the rest of the Flat Desktop Style here.
- Crystal background provided by Skeezo.
Installation:
First make sure you've got the latest version of superkaramba installed (see requirements above). Also, make sure that if you've installed a binary version of superkaramba, that it's been compiled against the version of python that you have installed. Then get the liquid weather tarball, and untar it into the place where you keep other superkaramba themes. That's it. It's installed. Then run it as you would any other superkaramba theme.
Description:
This is a desktop applet for displaying weather information and forecasts. It all runs from a python script. You can click on the weather images to get more detail about the forecast for that day, or the current weather conditions. There are numerous weather maps for all world regions to view. You can also have up to 5 webcams available for viewing. If you get weather data from weather.com, you can view hourly forecasts for the next 12 hours. Configuration is all gui, and done through the right click configuration menu. The theme should be self contained in the "liquid_weather_plus" directory provided.
Button Guide:
Main Icon:
If you left click on this icon, then a panel showing the current weather details will drop down. Left click again, and it will disappear again. Middle click on this icon to get the hourly forecast for the next 6 hours (only works if you get weather data from weather.com - not available with BBC data source). Middle click twice again, and the hourly forecast for a further 6 hours will appear. Middle click again, and the hourly forecast will disappear. If you put your mouse over the icons in the hourly forecast, a tooltip will display the sky conditions.
Day Icons:
If you left click on one of these icons, then a panel showing the current weather details will drop down. Left click again, and it will disappear again.
Satellite Picture Icon:
This is the small left hand icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to get a list of regions available. Choose your region, and then you should get a list of available maps. Click on one of the menu items, and the relevant map will drop down. Left click on the button again and the map will disappear again. If you middle click on this button while the map is being displayed, then the fullsize image will open in a separate window - you must have kuickshow installed for this to work.
Webcam Picture Icon:
This is the small right hand icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to get a list of the webcams available to view. Click on one of the webcams, and the picture will drop down. Left click again and it will disappear again. If you middle click on this button while the webcam image is being displayed, then the fullsize image will open in a separate window - you must have kuickshow installed for this to work.
Screenshots:
Translations:
These are the latest language translations that I know of. If you know of any others, please email me with the translation file. To use these files, just put them in the "translations" directory (under the "liquid_weather_plus" directory), then select the language from the Configuration menu.
English
German
French
Italian
Spanish(ES)
Spanish(UY)
Finnish
Catalan
Dutch
Slovenian
FAQ:
Q: How do I tell Liquid Weather ++ to get the weather report for my local area?
A: Right click on the theme. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on either "Find weather on weather.com" or "Find weather on BBC", depending on which service you want to use. Then enter the name of your city. If there is more than one city with that name in the world, or more than one forecast for your city, you will be presented with a list of forecasts to choose from. If you are searching on weather.com, and there is only one forecast available for your city, then you won't get a list of options, your forecast will just load. If there is no forecast available on the service you are searching, then you'll get a message to this effect.
Q: How do add a webcam picture?
A: Right click on the them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Add webcam URL". Then enter the url that points to the webcam picture you want to have displayed when you middle click on the main weather icon. Make sure that this URL points to a static image. This means that you probably can't use a webcam that uses java, or some other fancy-dan protocol to stream its images. If the URL doesn't point to a static image, or a bad URL, the theme should spit an error at you. You will then need to add a label for the webcam. This will be the name that appears in the popup menu when you click the webcam button.
Q: How do I remove a webcam picture?
A: Right click on the them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Remove webcam URL". Select the webcam you want to remove from the list, and that's it.
Q: When I click on an icon, the detail panels cycle quickly through all the days, and then stop. How do I fix this?
A: Upgrade superkaramba to 0.35 or later.
Q: I hate the cheesy icon animations. How do I turn that shit off?
A: Just right click, and go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Then click on "Disable icon animation".
Q: Can I change the background image?
A: Funny you should mention it, cos you can. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Change Background". Choose a background from the list, and the background will be whichever you choose.
Q: I want to use a 24 hour clock. Can I?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check the "Use a 24-hour clock" option.
Q: I live in a modern country that uses the metric system. How do I get rid of that imperial rubbish?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check the "Use metric units (Celcius)" option.
Q: I have set my location using weather.com, but it doesn't change to my location. What can I do?
A: Send me an email on dmbkiwi@yahoo.com. You need to specify the location code you are using, so I can see what the underlying weather data looks like.
Q: The text is cut off. Can I fix this?
A: Upgrade to superkaramba 0.35. The text should be a fixed size relative to the rest of the theme. Previous text issues in superkaramba should be fixed in version 0.33. Also make sure you have the verdana and arial black fonts available - they are MS web fonts, and are included in the tarball under the "fonts" directory - if you right click on them in konqueror, you should be able to install them using the "Actions" submenu.
Q: I want to see the webcam picture full-size. How do I do this?
A: When the webcam picture is displayed in the theme, middle click on the webcam button and the image will open full size in kuickshow.
Q: The wind arrows point to where the wind is coming from, rather than where it's blowing to. That's not right. How do I fix it?
A: Right click on the theme, go to the configuration menu, and select "Wind arrows show where wind blows to". When I first did the theme, I thought it made more sense to have the arrows point to where the wind comes from. Others have said that is counter-intuitive. You choose which you prefer.
Q: Those sure are perty icons, but I'm getting bored with them. Got any others?
A: Yes. Right click, go to the configure menu, and select "Change the iconset". Then choose one of the four available iconsets.
Q: When temperatures are negative, the temperature text doesn't fit in the theme. Can I adjust the font size?
A: Right click on the them, go to the configure menu, and select "Use narrower font on forecast temp ranges". This changes the font for temperature displays, so that they are narrower, and the negative temperatures fit inside the theme properly. When you click this option, the theme switches to using the Arial Narrow font. If you don't have this installed, it is now included in the tarball in the "fonts" directory. Just install it as you would any other true type font. Bear in mind that there is a font install utility in the kde control centre.
Q: Whenever the theme updates, it freezes, and is unresponsive while it updates, and then returns to normal. Can you change things, so that it's reponsive when it updates?
A: The theme disables threading by default. This is because some people experience crashes if threading is enabled. If you want to try threading, uncheck the option in the configure menu. However, if you experience crashes, you will need to turn it off. Q: Sometimes the theme just crashes, and no longer works. This usually happens when the theme updates. What's going on?
A: The theme does not use threading by default. However, if you configure the theme to use threading, then you may experience crashes/freezes, beyond the transitional freezes that happen when the them updates. The threading doesn't play nicely with everyone's set up. There is an option in the configure menu to disable threading. If you are experiencing these crashes, then switch on the "Disable threading" option. HOWEVER, be warned; if you disable threading, then the theme will become unresponsive while updating. If you run several superkaramba themes off one superkaramba instance, then they will all become unresponsive while the theme updates. If you want to minimise this, run liquid weather from its own superkaramba instance.
Q: Even though I've set certain options on the configure menu, when I restart the theme, the settings have gone back to the default. How to I make the settings stick?
A: The config file is only updated when you close, reload, or quit the theme. If you exit the theme by just closing your KDE session, then the config file won't be saved.
Q: The theme found my city, but when I display the details for today, it shows a nearby city. How do I make it show my city?
A: Sometimes, the weather data is measured from a nearby city or town. If you want the theme to display your city name, right click on the theme, go to the configure menu, and click on the "Display alternative city" option.
Q: If I'm using imperial measures, the wind speed in the hourly forecast still shows as kph. What's up?
A: It's a known bug - I'm working on it.
Q: I'm not a native English speaker, and would like to run the theme in my native language. Can this be done?
A: Right click, and go to the "Configure theme" menu. Click on "Choose translation". This will give you a list of available translations. If your language isn't there, feel free to create your own translation. There is a template file in the main liquid_weather_plus directory. Just follow the instructions, and email the results to me, so I can release it for the rest of the world to enjoy - it's nice to share.
Q: I find it difficult to see the text of the theme against my desktop background. Can I change the font colour?
A: Right click, and go to the "Configure theme" menu. Click on "Change text colour on main widget". Then enter the r,g,b value for the colour you want - you can get the value from the kde colour chooser tool, and then type it into the liquid weather dialog. I know this is pain, but can't be helped until kdialog gets a colour chooser dialog.
Requires:
Requires SuperKaramba >= version 0.35
Download:
The latest Liquid Weather ++ tarball is:
Authors:
- Original Karamba theme on which this theme is based by Rodion
- "Pythonised", "feature enriched" and most coding by Matt
- New BBC parsing code by Elad Tsur, as well as nifty new stuff for BBC daily forecasts
- Weather data processing code and original BBC parsing code by Heikki
- Other original gui configuration ideas by Adam Geitgey
- Umicons by Mattahan and used with permission. See Mattahan's websites: Mattahan.Web1000.com and Mattahan.deviantart.com
- Flat backgrounds provided by Andrew Crouthame
- Cynapses background by gladiac. Go here to get the cynapses system monitor theme.
- Flat Desktop Style backgrounds and icons provided by Danny Allen. You can get the rest of the Flat Desktop Style here.
- Crystal background provided by Skeezo.
Installation:
First make sure you've got the latest version of superkaramba installed (see requirements above). Also, make sure that if you've installed a binary version of superkaramba, that it's been compiled against the version of python that you have installed. Then get the liquid weather tarball, and untar it into the place where you keep other superkaramba themes. That's it. It's installed. Then run it as you would any other superkaramba theme.
Description:
This is a desktop applet for displaying weather information and forecasts. It all runs from a python script. You can click on the weather images to get more detail about the forecast for that day, or the current weather conditions. There are numerous weather maps for all world regions to view. You can also have up to 5 webcams available for viewing. If you get weather data from weather.com, you can view hourly forecasts for the next 12 hours. Configuration is all gui, and done through the right click configuration menu. The theme should be self contained in the "liquid_weather_plus" directory provided.
Button Guide:
Main Icon:
If you left click on this icon, then a panel showing the current weather details will drop down. Left click again, and it will disappear again. Middle click on this icon to get the hourly forecast for the next 6 hours (only works if you get weather data from weather.com - not available with BBC data source). Middle click twice again, and the hourly forecast for a further 6 hours will appear. Middle click again, and the hourly forecast will disappear. If you put your mouse over the icons in the hourly forecast, a tooltip will display the sky conditions.
Day Icons:
If you left click on one of these icons, then a panel showing the current weather details will drop down. Left click again, and it will disappear again.
Satellite Picture Icon:
This is the small left hand icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to get a list of regions available. Choose your region, and then you should get a list of available maps. Click on one of the menu items, and the relevant map will drop down. Left click on the button again and the map will disappear again. If you middle click on this button while the map is being displayed, then the fullsize image will open in a separate window - you must have kuickshow installed for this to work.
Webcam Picture Icon:
This is the small right hand icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to get a list of the webcams available to view. Click on one of the webcams, and the picture will drop down. Left click again and it will disappear again. If you middle click on this button while the webcam image is being displayed, then the fullsize image will open in a separate window - you must have kuickshow installed for this to work.
Screenshots:
 Default Background
|
 Alternate Background/Icons |
 Detailed Forecast |
 Hourly Forecast |
 Regional Maps |
 Current Situation |
Translations:
These are the latest language translations that I know of. If you know of any others, please email me with the translation file. To use these files, just put them in the "translations" directory (under the "liquid_weather_plus" directory), then select the language from the Configuration menu.
English
German
French
Italian
Spanish(ES)
Spanish(UY)
Finnish
Catalan
Dutch
Slovenian
FAQ:
Q: How do I tell Liquid Weather ++ to get the weather report for my local area?
A: Right click on the theme. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on either "Find weather on weather.com" or "Find weather on BBC", depending on which service you want to use. Then enter the name of your city. If there is more than one city with that name in the world, or more than one forecast for your city, you will be presented with a list of forecasts to choose from. If you are searching on weather.com, and there is only one forecast available for your city, then you won't get a list of options, your forecast will just load. If there is no forecast available on the service you are searching, then you'll get a message to this effect.
Q: How do add a webcam picture?
A: Right click on the them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Add webcam URL". Then enter the url that points to the webcam picture you want to have displayed when you middle click on the main weather icon. Make sure that this URL points to a static image. This means that you probably can't use a webcam that uses java, or some other fancy-dan protocol to stream its images. If the URL doesn't point to a static image, or a bad URL, the theme should spit an error at you. You will then need to add a label for the webcam. This will be the name that appears in the popup menu when you click the webcam button.
Q: How do I remove a webcam picture?
A: Right click on the them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Remove webcam URL". Select the webcam you want to remove from the list, and that's it.
Q: When I click on an icon, the detail panels cycle quickly through all the days, and then stop. How do I fix this?
A: Upgrade superkaramba to 0.35 or later.
Q: I hate the cheesy icon animations. How do I turn that shit off?
A: Just right click, and go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Then click on "Disable icon animation".
Q: Can I change the background image?
A: Funny you should mention it, cos you can. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Change Background". Choose a background from the list, and the background will be whichever you choose.
Q: I want to use a 24 hour clock. Can I?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check the "Use a 24-hour clock" option.
Q: I live in a modern country that uses the metric system. How do I get rid of that imperial rubbish?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check the "Use metric units (Celcius)" option.
Q: I have set my location using weather.com, but it doesn't change to my location. What can I do?
A: Send me an email on dmbkiwi@yahoo.com. You need to specify the location code you are using, so I can see what the underlying weather data looks like.
Q: The text is cut off. Can I fix this?
A: Upgrade to superkaramba 0.35. The text should be a fixed size relative to the rest of the theme. Previous text issues in superkaramba should be fixed in version 0.33. Also make sure you have the verdana and arial black fonts available - they are MS web fonts, and are included in the tarball under the "fonts" directory - if you right click on them in konqueror, you should be able to install them using the "Actions" submenu.
Q: I want to see the webcam picture full-size. How do I do this?
A: When the webcam picture is displayed in the theme, middle click on the webcam button and the image will open full size in kuickshow.
Q: The wind arrows point to where the wind is coming from, rather than where it's blowing to. That's not right. How do I fix it?
A: Right click on the theme, go to the configuration menu, and select "Wind arrows show where wind blows to". When I first did the theme, I thought it made more sense to have the arrows point to where the wind comes from. Others have said that is counter-intuitive. You choose which you prefer.
Q: Those sure are perty icons, but I'm getting bored with them. Got any others?
A: Yes. Right click, go to the configure menu, and select "Change the iconset". Then choose one of the four available iconsets.
Q: When temperatures are negative, the temperature text doesn't fit in the theme. Can I adjust the font size?
A: Right click on the them, go to the configure menu, and select "Use narrower font on forecast temp ranges". This changes the font for temperature displays, so that they are narrower, and the negative temperatures fit inside the theme properly. When you click this option, the theme switches to using the Arial Narrow font. If you don't have this installed, it is now included in the tarball in the "fonts" directory. Just install it as you would any other true type font. Bear in mind that there is a font install utility in the kde control centre.
Q: Whenever the theme updates, it freezes, and is unresponsive while it updates, and then returns to normal. Can you change things, so that it's reponsive when it updates?
A: The theme disables threading by default. This is because some people experience crashes if threading is enabled. If you want to try threading, uncheck the option in the configure menu. However, if you experience crashes, you will need to turn it off. Q: Sometimes the theme just crashes, and no longer works. This usually happens when the theme updates. What's going on?
A: The theme does not use threading by default. However, if you configure the theme to use threading, then you may experience crashes/freezes, beyond the transitional freezes that happen when the them updates. The threading doesn't play nicely with everyone's set up. There is an option in the configure menu to disable threading. If you are experiencing these crashes, then switch on the "Disable threading" option. HOWEVER, be warned; if you disable threading, then the theme will become unresponsive while updating. If you run several superkaramba themes off one superkaramba instance, then they will all become unresponsive while the theme updates. If you want to minimise this, run liquid weather from its own superkaramba instance.
Q: Even though I've set certain options on the configure menu, when I restart the theme, the settings have gone back to the default. How to I make the settings stick?
A: The config file is only updated when you close, reload, or quit the theme. If you exit the theme by just closing your KDE session, then the config file won't be saved.
Q: The theme found my city, but when I display the details for today, it shows a nearby city. How do I make it show my city?
A: Sometimes, the weather data is measured from a nearby city or town. If you want the theme to display your city name, right click on the theme, go to the configure menu, and click on the "Display alternative city" option.
Q: If I'm using imperial measures, the wind speed in the hourly forecast still shows as kph. What's up?
A: It's a known bug - I'm working on it.
Q: I'm not a native English speaker, and would like to run the theme in my native language. Can this be done?
A: Right click, and go to the "Configure theme" menu. Click on "Choose translation". This will give you a list of available translations. If your language isn't there, feel free to create your own translation. There is a template file in the main liquid_weather_plus directory. Just follow the instructions, and email the results to me, so I can release it for the rest of the world to enjoy - it's nice to share.
Q: I find it difficult to see the text of the theme against my desktop background. Can I change the font colour?
A: Right click, and go to the "Configure theme" menu. Click on "Change text colour on main widget". Then enter the r,g,b value for the colour you want - you can get the value from the kde colour chooser tool, and then type it into the liquid weather dialog. I know this is pain, but can't be helped until kdialog gets a colour chooser dialog.