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DesktopX Weather Widget Issues - Read This

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DesktopX Weather Widget Issues - Read This

from JoeUser Forums

As many of you know from reading the forums over the past couple of days, that weather feeds being pulled in from DesktopX created widgets/objects have stopped working.  To make a short story even shorter, TWC has shown a requirement put upon all widget creators and users, and anyone else accessing their data to abide by new and quite specific demands/rules.  This goes for anyone using the feeds, not just WinCustomize users.

If you want to continue to use TWC weather feeds you will need to abide by their new rules, which includes a requirement to place a logo and links back to them.  Several DX coders including sViz and Vad_M have been posting new feeds, and some code fixes to help others fix their weather objects. 

An ongoing thread from sViz can be found here:

Which ever new weather feeds creators decide to use, they need to make sure they also abide by any rules or guideline imposed by the originating feed provider.

Starting Monday, July 20th, we will start removing broken weather widgets from the WinCustomize galleries that have not been updated and/or violate any ToS/ToU in regards to weather feeds. The WC moderators are going to keep a close eye on the DesktopX queues so that updates will be pushed through as soon as possible.  When updating a current skin, please be sure to make a note in the description that it has been updated with a new weather feed.  If authors are do not have a copy of their widgets and are not able to retrieve them from Wincustomize, they are available by request to an admin.

We understand this has caused quite a stir, but this is nothing that can be easily fixed as it’s an issue that is not in Stardock’s nor WinCustomize’s hands.  Please keep an eye on the forums for updates from DX coders who are looking at alternative solutions.

Regards,

Spencer
WC Admin

627,180 views 248 replies
Reply #226 from WinCustomize Forums Top

actually....Al Gore should be the TWC affiliate.....he invented the internet and Stardock's just an intemediary between the internet (Al Gore) and the end user......

What i mean is that license is necessary / obligatory when :

1°)  you want to use the WTC service on a website

2°)  when you purpose "Drive downloads of your product through consumers installing The Weather Channel's downloadable products" 

As the products are weather widgets / DesktopX themes, it's not the skinner which has copyright on that, but Stardock which is the owner of DesktopX program  (am i wrong on this point ? ) Things should be different if skinners want to sell the widget / gadget / desktopX theme (this time he has to become THE WTC Partner)

3°) the end-user has not in any case to register as he just use it for it's personal use

Once more, that's what i understand in WTC using rules conditions (which would be probably the same with other weather feeds producers ...

Reply #227 from WinCustomize Forums Top

it's not the skinner which has copyright on that, but Stardock which is the owner of DesktopX program (am i wrong on this point ? )

yes you are wrong.......that would be like saying that Stardock has the copyright on every Windowblinds skin ever made......and I'm sure there are a few who would argue that.

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #228 from WinCustomize Forums Top

DesktopX is a development platform.  It's like a sheet of paper that someone writes on and someone else then reads.

The paper company is not involved with what is written, right?

Reply #229 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Though, Stardock has not to be the weather feeds producer partner, end-user has not to be, it keeps the skinner who has to ? That's what's you're meaning ?

Reply #230 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Though, Stardock has not to be the weather feeds producer partner, end-user has not to be, it keeps the skinner who has to ? That's what's you're meaning ?
No.  I believe that if the skinners wnat to form a partnership, fine.  If the user wants to form a parntership, fine.

Stardock is not going to be the middleman here.  Wincustomize will not be the one responsible if some feed fails.

  • Stardock created a program that runs the code (not associated with feeds)
  • Users wrote the code that tells a widget to call a feed
  • Users run a widget that uses the code to pull the feed data.
  • Wincustomize hosts the widgets (not associated with feeds)

 

Reply #231 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Though, Stardock has not to be the weather feeds producer partner, end-user has not to be, it keeps the skinner who has to ? That's what's you're meaning ?

No....Stardock will not be.......so the skinner has to make a decision.....IF he uses TWC.......he can decide to enter into a partneship with TWC or he can develop his widget to meet the TOS and let the end user register for the service and enter his information into the widget to receive data........

No one says he MUST use weather.com and frankly I'd rather use one of the other services considering the way the change requirements without any advanced warning.

I believe we are close to posting a moderation "requirements guideline" for DX Weather widgets/gadgets.......it stills needs a few more approvals....

Reply #232 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hmm lets see. Stardock came up with DestopX. Now I can make cute little gadgets.. wedgets.. blah blah. Some site now says .. we dont like so many pinging.. getting info without our LOGO or whatever. Stardock now fixes the cute little gadget they had. Tells .shows me what I.. ME.. ME need to do. And try there best to somehow let me know if I dont fix my cute little wedget, gadget.. blah blah .. they will have to delete it. Now if I .. me dont fix it its.. MY fault no more no less. Guys.. its STARDOCK.. like there sitting there. OOH this will really piss them off!. They will fix it.. show you what you need todo. You guys act like its ALL startdock's fault. I MADE the gadget.. ME. A site tells ME, startdock EVERYONE you need to fix your link. So you cry because YOU have to FIX something YOU made. LOL.
Reply #233 from WinCustomize Forums Top

MaxBlade has the situation pretty right....though punctuation seems to have deserted him...;)

Reply #234 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I, for one, have gotten past this.....why can't everyone else?  This may be one of those threads I wish I could "Unsubscribe" from....lol. (remember that thread?)

I am secure in knowing that the coders will let us know when it's fixed, and Stardock/Mods will lets us know what our options are.   ;) :yes: :d

Reply #235 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I thought all the weather objects were to be removed yet they are all still available for download - has the removal process not started yet?

Reply #236 from WinCustomize Forums Top

...........ANSWER TO "This doesn´t appear a valid zip code"-.....................

By Howserneitor Posted September 27, 2009 15:02:40

I think I got an answer, you need to Disabled the MessageBox editing the script

 

1.-Sorry about my english.

2.-Switch DesktopX Client to DesktopX Builder, right click on Desktop Icon on bottom pf the screen to switch it.

3.-When the DesktopX Builder is already loaded, right click on upper-left corner of the Weather Widget (where a Sun or Cloudy Image appears) and select "EditScrip" option.

4.-The DesktopX Script Editor will be pop up with the 'code' of the weather widget, then search the code line with the sentence:

   Widget.Preference("location").defaultvalue = "MXSP0079" (usually at line 11) 

   We need to change the default location ID.

5.-To get our location ID, go to this page  http://www.weather.com/ and search your city on search browser, this is only to ensure that our city is included on data base. (In my case San Luis Potosi,Mexico)

6.-Once we have our "exactly location name" we go to this page

    http://xoap.weather.com/search/search?where=San Luis Potosi,Mexico

    and replace San Luis Potosi,Mexico with your "exactly location name", if your city is included on data base it will show you a id-locations list

    of your city and near cities to, with this template:

    <loc id="MXSP0079" type="1">San Luis Potosi, Mexico</loc> (My city San Luis Potosi , location id = "MXSP0079")

7.-When you have your location id (with the quotation marks "") replace in this code line, after = symbol.

    Widget.Preference("location").defaultvalue = "MXSP0079" (usually at line 11) 

 

8.-The instructions above are for setup our location name, now we have to disable the Message Box with the alarm

    "This doesn´t appear a valid zip code"

9.-After relocated you id, on the same scritp file, search for any Msgbox instruction (I found it at line 48) and comment it

10.-When we comment a code line, the main code doens´t included.

11.-To comment a line in the Script, type an apostrophe (  '  ) before the linelike this

      'Msgbox "This doesn't appear to be a valid zip code." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "Please try again.", vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, "Zip error
                '

12.-I only find this Msgbox in my script, maybe you have a few of them, remember only disabled the MsgBox with the message:

     "This doesn't appear to be a valid zip code." & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & "Please try again."

13.-I hope this will help you, My computer have 5 hours without the message

14.-Sorry about the writting, if you have any question this is my email "[email protected]"

Reply #237 from WinCustomize Forums Top

As I stated in the other thread, IMO, the above action amounts to nothing more than cracking an app.   Tsk-Tsk. >:(

Reply #238 from WinCustomize Forums Top

no I would take back to wal-martvand get a new TV.

if I bought a theme from stardock and it dinot work then the chould have a update for it not going to the person that made it the work for stardock anyway now if somebody made a theme then you sould go to that person to get the update if the now how to fit git

that what I thing

nitromt

Reply #239 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting nitromt, reply 238
no I would take back to wal-martvand get a new TV.

if I bought a theme from stardock and it dinot work then the chould have a update for it not going to the person that made it the work for stardock anyway now if somebody made a theme then you sould go to that person to get the update if the now how to fit git

that what I thing

nitromt

 

Just FYI.....There are a crap load of working weather widgets to be found here:

http://redneckdude.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=34

Reply #240 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I see this thread is nearly a year old.  Well I just bought the Object Desktop suite and I am currently downloading DesktopX widgets and themes that contain broken weather widgets.  Its VERY annoying to a newbie to encounter these issues especially since this particular issue results in an infinite loop of error message click-throughs that you can't cancel out of.  In some cases the theme removes your taskbar so you can't even shut down DesktopX.

Broken widgets should be completely removed from the site...

Reply #241 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting udderjuice, reply 240
I see this thread is nearly a year old.  Well I just bought the Object Desktop suite and I am currently downloading DesktopX widgets and themes that contain broken weather widgets.  Its VERY annoying to a newbie to encounter these issues especially since this particular issue results in an infinite loop of error message click-throughs that you can't cancel out of.  In some cases the theme removes your taskbar so you can't even shut down DesktopX.

Broken widgets should be completely removed from the site...

I agree. And if you don't mind a little shameless plugging on my part, you can go here and be sure that every weather widget works.

Weather by RedneckDude 

I deleted all my non working ones and reupped new, working ones. WC said we had so much time, a week or so, if I remember right, to remove our bad widgets and then they were going to do it for us, well, I did, they didn't. So now there are a bunch of broken widgets in the galleries. I'd be pissed too, if I were you.

The reason my weather widgets are now seperate from my DX themes, is because I may need to do it again in the future. I don't want to have to replace all my themes too.

Reply #242 from WinCustomize Forums Top

In some cases the theme removes your taskbar so you can't even shut down DesktopX.

Broken widgets should be completely removed from the site...

 

Ctrl/Alt/Delete will get you the task manager, then you can kill DX there. Disconnect from the internet to reload the theme, then remove the weather part. (Unless it's my theme, where this is unneccessary). Then reconnect the net.

Reply #243 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks for the reply, maybe you can help me with my NEW problem.  You seem to have created a lot of content on this site.

I was loading this theme https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/desktopx_themes/3512/ when the zip code issue occured.  I did exactly what you said and killed DesktopX in the Task Manager.

Well, something in the theme made my task bar completely disapear.  Its not been resized.  When I press CTRL+ESC the start menu pops up but not the task bar. When I lock the task bar in the start menu properties other programs leave a space across the bottom for the task bar but its not there.  F11 does nothing.

I'm not an idiot when it comes to Windows but I am at a loss at how to restore my task bar at this point.

Very annoying.

Reply #244 from WinCustomize Forums Top

udderjuice...if you slowly bring your mouse cursor down to the bottom of the screen edge...does it change to a size arrow?

If so...while it's such left click...hold and drag up....;)

Reply #245 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Figured it out.  The "Hide Windows Taskbar" option in Object Dock Settings.

I have to say, this zipcode issue renders 90% of the stuff on this site unusable to the average end-user.  Not good...

Reply #246 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting udderjuice, reply 245
Figured it out.  The "Hide Windows Taskbar" option in Object Dock Settings.

I have to say, this zipcode issue renders 90% of the stuff on this site unusable to the average end-user.  Not good...

 

You can use zipcodes in my new widgets.  :grin:

Reply #247 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 246



Quoting udderjuice,
reply 245
Figured it out.  The "Hide Windows Taskbar" option in Object Dock Settings.

I have to say, this zipcode issue renders 90% of the stuff on this site unusable to the average end-user.  Not good...



 

You can use zipcodes in my new widgets. 

LOL.  Can you make me a Halo Reach desktop suite with a something similar to your Observation Deck but Halo themed and a desktop dream with an animation of a Covenant fleet flying by to put undernieth it?

That's what I'm trying to peice together from what's available without having to create anything on my own...

Reply #248 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I could do the DesktopX theme, I don't do dreams, yet, and I don't do the windowblinds, yet.