"wX" Android opensource/free weather app - new beta release 3.4

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.4039 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:


https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is now required.

First some minor changes:
- for the help diaglogues you can now touch anywhere outside the box to cancel it
- many weather models have "FLT" ( floater ) sector added
- sounding activity now has an option to access SPC's help web page in the overflow menu

The major change:
Numerous source files were changed in support of TTS ( "text to speech" ) so now most activities with large amounts of text ( ie WFO text prod, WPC text products, SPC MCD/Watch, SPC convective outlooks, local weather alerts ) have a "play button" in the action bar that will trigger the TTS. For WFO/WPC Text the back/forward buttons have been removed which were used to access past versions of any product. If you would like for this functionality to remain please let me know and I'll put it in the overflow menu. To start TTS the arrow button needs to be accessed after the text is fully displayed on the screen. The audio stream will continue if the device power button is used to turn off the display or if one navigates to another part of the program. Please note if you want to stop the audio you must do it from the activity that started it and you must not have navigated away and then back. In the future the underlying infrastructure will change to allow stopping the audio from other parts of the prog and also from a notification. Please note that with a complete absence of SPC MCD/Watch and SPC slight risk ( in the past 3 days ) the notifications have not been tested for those areas. These notifications have been modified so that an "action button" displays to allow one to start the TTS. Since NWS uses numerous abbreviations there are almost 150 ( and growing ) abbreviations that are translated to complete words. One final note is that any other audio such as music or calls will be blended with any TTS audio triggered from wX.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

I guess the one thing this app is missing that could make someone completely independent from having to open up a web browser is the ability to view forecast soundings from the models. It would probably be tough to implement since most forecast soundings are accessed by clicking on the map. Scrolling around the map with your fingers would cause unwanted soundings to load. Maybe there could be like a double-click or toggle mode for viewing soundings.

 

[Joshua Tee]

Caleb,
Thanks for mentioning this - I'll add it to my todo list. I actually did have some code to implement this but it didn't rely on the map for selection of lat/lon but instead a static list of sites ( WFO ). I might re-enable that in the short term ( if I didn't remove the code completely ) until a better solution is in place.

Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.4068 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.


Changes:
- Models: added support for COD sounding / hodograph. Select model, time and then select sounding from overflow menu. Currently active wX location is used as a default but can use map ( pull out from right ) to select others.
- Models: added back NAM 4KM as COD re-implemented as part of GFS upgrade activity last week.
- Continued additions to NWS abbreviations that are translated in TTS ( 215 total ).
- Addition of TTS ( text to speech ) to NHC activity and generic text activity used in SPC Fire weather outlook.
- Addition of "stop" icon for TTS to activities with TTS support.
- All TTS objects are moved to a global object so any activity with stop/play button can stop existing audio stream.
- Location settings now support voice recognition for adding a location by city ( microphone icon ).
- For SPC Convective outlook download text first before images so that some data is presented earlier ( benefiting slower connections )
- Voice recognition ( beta feature ): microphone icon now appears in actionbar to support voice recognition for navigational commands. For example speaking "text" will display the last accessed text product ( AFD as default ) for the currently selected location. Speaking "text GRR" will display AFD for Grand Rapids, MI WFO. Additionally for any activity supporting TTS it will start playing as soon as the text is downloaded. This feature is in beta since the command phrases are not finalized given the occasionally problematic recognition of certain meteorological terms. In the shared google drive folder is a document "voice_commands_beta" describing the currently implemented commands.
- Media Control notification ( beta feature ): Can be enabled in main settings and fires a non-persistent ( can be cleared ) notification that has a stop/play ( rather re-play of the last text product to play ) and a microphone action to trigger the voice command activity. Beta only because it was coded in the last 1-2 days and hasn't received much testing.

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

Great work! Always look forward to the new features!

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.4090 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- bugfix for bug caused by recent change in SPC Convective Outlooks. Some images were not showing.
- More refinement and additional translation for abbreviations ( +360 total now ) in TTS
- new voice command "forecast" will TTS ( text to speech ) the 7 day forecast for currently selected location
- Most WPC text products are now downloaded from the main NWS server for text products instead of the WPC homepage. On slower connections it is noticeably faster.
- Enhancements to SPC Sounding/hodograph activity
For your give location if the current conditions is tapped the upper air site chosen is now determined by shortest distance instead of an attempted match to WFO
The favorites in navigaion has been decoupled from WFO text prod and GOES viewer favorites since many upper air sites are not WFO
Some sites in TX, MX, CO, and FL were missing from the map and have been added.
All sites now show proper city/state label

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.5119 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- Bumped version number to 3.5 to indicate this has been a development release with rolling updates for past few months. It is still considered good enough for day to day use from a stabilty viewpoint.
- More refinement and additional translation for weather abbreviations ( 435 total now ) in text to speech (TTS)
- New feature: "Playlist" ( beta ). Allows a group of text products to be collectively downloaded
local to your device for playback while the network is disconnected and in a continous fashion ( ie no need to play them one by one ). The WFO text product, SPC convective outlook, and WPC/OPC text product activities now have "add to playlist" at the bottom of the overflow menu. Under settings is a "Playlist" button to access the activity that allows one to initiate download, re-oder, delete, play from the middle of the list to the end ( by tapping a selection ), and to view the raw text. After a download is initiated a notification will fire once the downloads are complete.
- New feature: "ROAMING" location - designed for travel. Under location settings set the label of the location to "ROAMING", tap the icon that looks like an upside down raindrop ( to auto-fill lat/long based on android location settings ), and enable alerts. With these conditions met during every notification check interval ( 12min by default ) your current location will be checked against lat/long of the ROAMING location and if it's more then 5 miles away ( configurable via selector at bottom of main settings activity ) the location will auto-update with your current location. The label will change to indicate when the location was last updated.
- New feature: in SPC Mesoanalysis there is now a help option ( alpha, might cause crash in some circumstances ) which when selected will show the help via diaglogue for the currently chosen paramenter.
- New feature: In settings you can now choose "COD" as the provider for the cloud icon and radar mosaic in the main action bar ( instead of GOES ).
- Numerous text products ( incl SPC conv otlk ) have been changed to use the main NWS text product website for performance and stability reasons.
- More text products added to WPC text product activity and submenus were implemented to handle the growth.
- New voice commands accepted:
"playlist" - play the current playlist from start
"download playlist" - download all text products in playlist
"edit location" - edit current location
"edit location Chicago" - edit the current location and change the loction to Chicago
"add location Chicago" - add Chicago as a new location and change the current location to this new location


Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[ChrisKincaid]

This app is excellent! It is just what I was looking for! Thanks for your hard work!

 

[Joshua Tee]

thanks Chris for giving it a try .. Josh

---

The latest version 3.5157 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- fixed bug in HRRR model current run detection caused by upstream content provider HTML output change
- added 2 new parameters in Model->NAM: H7-H5 Avg. Fronto. , 850mb Frontogenesis
- Model->GFS, data every 3 hours through 240 now
- Model->GFS added sector "NHEM" ( northen hemisphere )
- Help is now availble for model parameters however some formatting issues do exist.
- In Settings->PlayList->Manage auto-downloads you can now establish and mangage times to download playlist content every day.
- Numerous activities now present a "Share..." menu entry allowing the text or image ( or both ) to be shared out via the standard Android sharing mechanism. To enable this the app now requests android permission "WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE". However, instead of writing to external storage in an adhoc fasion "Images.Media.insertImage" method is used to store in the generic media location.
- when the default "blue" theme is in use more decorative elements use dark blue instead of the gray descended from the stock Holo dark theme
- Titles in activities such as SPC Meso, Models, Mosaics are now more user friendly
- New voice commands accepted:
"add location roaming" - add a "roaming" location and turn on alerts as well


Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

I'm going to love the "Share" option. Thank you so much!

 

[Joshua Tee]

Caleb, no problem. Hope it's working well for you..Josh

---

The latest version 3.5219 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- App was migrated to the appcompat v21 library which allows among other things "Material Design" theme to work on both Android 5.X and Android 4.X. As a res
ult the appearance of the app is mostly the same across major Android versions. ( NOTE: I have not completed the non-default app color themes yet so only the default "blue" is working )
- In models HRRR was swapped with RAP in ordering in the action bar
- In models if the model is changed but the new model doesn't support that existing parameter it will default to a new one
- Sharing capability was added to additional activities
- Sharing capability in some activities was enhanced to sharing text and multiple images

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[Joshua Tee]

The latest version 3.5238 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- Additional icons added to actionbar in various activities including share icon and "add to playlist" ( 3 stacks of paper with plus sign )
- For Android 5.0, notifications now have a dark blue background surrounding the icon.
- New setting "OU for sounding", enable the sounding/hodo activity ( accessed via tapping current conditions on main screen ) will show sounding graphic from OU as opposed to SPC. The OU sounding site is in beta so recommend to validate the time stamp on the graphic is current. SPC remains the default.
- Bug fix, generic images activity was using menu from NWS mosaics after conversion to Support library in last release
- Icons refreshed from pure white to off-white to match Android 5.0 built-in icons
- Upgraded navigation drawer ( used in models, SPC meso for example ) from v4 to v7. Only noticeable change is additional animation and icon by default goes to parent activity instead of opening drawer.
- Minor additions to text to speech NWS translations for abbreviations
- In models added the following:
NAM4KM: prec_irsat
GFS: 925mb wind speed, temp, theta-e, rel hum
GFS: 850mb temp advection ( 850_tadv )
NAM: added Moisture diverg. ( con_mdiv ) Dewpoint depression ( sfc_dwpd )
NAM: 850mb Temp Advection ( 850_tadv )

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

 

[plreardon]

The latest version 3.5238 has been uploaded to the URL below as "wX.apk". The next oldest version has been renamed to include the version number:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9OogdTO1kXqYzktaHZzdGdQSEk&usp=sharing

Android 4.2 or later is required.

Changes:
- Additional icons added to actionbar in various activities including share icon and "add to playlist" ( 3 stacks of paper with plus sign )
- For Android 5.0, notifications now have a dark blue background surrounding the icon.
- New setting "OU for sounding", enable the sounding/hodo activity ( accessed via tapping current conditions on main screen ) will show sounding graphic from OU as opposed to SPC. The OU sounding site is in beta so recommend to validate the time stamp on the graphic is current. SPC remains the default.
- Bug fix, generic images activity was using menu from NWS mosaics after conversion to Support library in last release
- Icons refreshed from pure white to off-white to match Android 5.0 built-in icons
- Upgraded navigation drawer ( used in models, SPC meso for example ) from v4 to v7. Only noticeable change is additional animation and icon by default goes to parent activity instead of opening drawer.
- Minor additions to text to speech NWS translations for abbreviations
- In models added the following:
NAM4KM: prec_irsat
GFS: 925mb wind speed, temp, theta-e, rel hum
GFS: 850mb temp advection ( 850_tadv )
NAM: added Moisture diverg. ( con_mdiv ) Dewpoint depression ( sfc_dwpd )
NAM: 850mb Temp Advection ( 850_tadv )

Please let me know if you have any issues or suggestions on this new functionality.

thanks,
Josh

Hello Josh,
Continued great job with your app!

Fyi.....I have a Galaxy S5 that upgraded to Lollipop this weekend. Before that the share option wouldn't work but now it does. Pretty useful.

One quirk though. I cannot bring up any options for the SPC Comp Map. I'll press the menu option but get kicked back to the main SPC. Don't know if I'm goofing something up or not.

Impressive app though.....keep up your great work!

Pat

 

[Joshua Tee]

Pat,
Thanks for the feedback ! Regarding the share option it's possible there were some activities that didn't yet have the correct code in place yet but showed the option in the menu ( since many activities share the same menu items ). I think at this point it's implemented in most areas when it makes sense. ( assume you would select the share option and nothing would happen - no errors, etc ? )

Regarding the menu icon I do see the inconsistency now both in SPC Compmap and also in SPC storm reports. I hope to have a new release to fix this posted tomorrow or Tue. In the meantime you can access the nav drawer by swiping left to right starting slightly off the screen on the left side ( and below the top toolbar ).

thanks,
Josh

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Your app has become my "go to" when I am going to look at models on my phone. It is faster than trying to look on my computer. I cant say thanks enough for sharing this with all of us and your continued work on this app.