If you'd like to be able to give your Asterisk users the current weather and optionally the forecast, you can install the Weather::Underground module from CPAN and then use a Perl script to pull the weather conditions from Wunderground on a periodic basis. The weather conditions can be converted, using Festival, to a wave file which can be played by Asterisk, to a user.
Begin by installing the Weather::Underground Perl module:
su
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Weather::Underground
Then, put this perl script in a convenient location.
/etc/asterisk/local/FetchWeather.pl:
#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# Get the local weather from Weather Underground.
#
#
# Usage
# -----
#
# FetchWeather.pl [--Forecast] [--Place=place] [output_file]
#
# Forecast Switch indicating that the forecast is to be retrieved
# as well as the weather data. If the forecast can be
# fetched, it will be appended to the current conditions.
#
# Place The name of place whose weather data is to be retrieved.
# This should be a string like "Norwood, Massachusetts".
# The default place name is defined by the $DEFAULTPLACE
# variable herein ("Norwood, Massachusetts").
#
# output_file Optional output file name prefix. Two files will be
# generated, one with a ".txt" extension and one with a
# ".wav" extension. The prefix given here will be used to
# name those files. The default file name prefix is defined
# by the $DEFAULTFILE variable herein
# ("/home/monitor/wunderground/Weather-Norwood").
#
#
# Description
# -----------
#
# This program gets the current weather information (and optionally the
# forecast) from Wunderground and produces a wave file which can be played by
# Asterisk, when the user asks for the weather.
#
##############################################################################
#
# Include all of the modules that we use.
#
use Getopt::Long;
use LWP::UserAgent; # One include covers all of them!
#db use LWP::Debug qw(+); # LWP debugging, if needed
use URI::URL; # Or, perhaps not
use Weather::Underground;
#
# Local information, if not specified.
#
my $DEFAULTPLACE = "Norwood, Massachusetts";
my $DEFAULTFILE = "/home/monitor/wunderground/Weather-Norwood";
#
# Wunderground XML API URL, used to pull forecasts. Don't include the
# "http://" on the front. We add it automatically.
#
my $FORECASTURL = "api.wunderground.com/auto/wui/geo/ForecastXML/" .
"index.xml?query=";
#
# Table to convert Wunderground wind directions into something Festival
# can say.
#
my %WindDir =
(
"N" => "North",
"NNE" => "North North East",
"NE" => "North East",
"ENE" => "East North East",
"E" => "East",
"ESE" => "East South East",
"SE" => "South East",
"SSE" => "South South East",
"S" => "South",
"SSW" => "South South West",
"SW" => "South West",
"WSW" => "West South West",
"W" => "West",
"WNW" => "West North West",
"NW" => "North West",
"NNW" => "North North West"
);
#
# Options.
#
my $Place = ""; # Place to retrieve weather for
my $OutputFile = ""; # Prefix to use for generated files
#
# Option switches.
#
$WantForecast = 0; # Set true if we want the forecast
#
# The forecast, if there is one.
#
$Forecast = "";
#
# Process the command line options. If this fails, give a summary of the
# program's usage.
#
ProcessOptions() || UsageInfo();
#
# Use the default place, if we weren't given one.
#
$Place = $DEFAULTPLACE if ($Place eq "");
#
# Get the output file prefix, if any.
#
$OutputFile = shift;
$OutputFile = $DEFAULTFILE if (length($OutputFile) <= 0);
#
# Open the output file.
#
open(TXTFILE, ">".$OutputFile.".txt")
or die("Error, could not open ".$OutputFile.".txt: ".$@."\n");
#
# Get the weather from Wunderground.
#
my $WeatherHand = Weather::Underground->new(
place => $Place,
debug => 0)
|| die("Error, could not create new weather object: ".$@."\n");
$Weather = $WeatherHand->get_weather()
|| die("Error, calling get_weather() failed: $@\n");
#
# Dump the weather data to a text file.
#
my ($Key, $Value);
print(TXTFILE "Weather search for ".$Place.":\n\n");
foreach (@$Weather)
{
print(TXTFILE "Matched weather for ".${%{$_}}{place}.":\n");
while (($Key, $Value) = each %{$})
{
print(TXTFILE "\t$Key = $Value\n");
}
}
#
# If the user wants the forecast, see if we can get it.
#
if ($WantForecast)
{
my ($URLFCast, $Req, $Resp, $FCast);
#
# Set up the HTTP headers used to fetch the forecast. Just in case
# they're watching, we pretend to be Mozilla.
#
my $HTTPHdrs = HTTP::Headers->new(
'Accept' => 'text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,' .
'text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,*/;q=0.5',
'Accept-Charset' => 'ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,;q=0.7',
'Accept-Language' => 'en-us,en;q=0.5',
'User-Agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; ' .
'en-US; rv:1.7.13) Gecko/20060414');
#
# Set up a user agent to do the fetching. The agent looks like a
# full-fledged browser. And, it handles just about everything the remote
# site can throw at it.
#
my $UserAgent = LWP::UserAgent->new(
requestsredirectable => ['GET', 'HEAD', 'POST']);
#
# Build a URL that we can use to look up the forecast.
#
$URLFCast = $Place;
$URLFCast =~ s/^\s+//; $URLFCast =~ s/\s+$//;
$URLFCast =~ s/\s,\s+/,/g; $URLFCast =~ s/\s+/+/g;
$URLFCast = URI::URL->new("http://".$FORECASTURL.$URLFCast);
#
# See if we can get the forecast.
#
$Req = HTTP::Request->new("GET", $URLFCast, $HTTPHdrs);
$Resp = $UserAgent->request($Req);
#
# If we got a forecast, process all of the day forecasts within.
#
if ($Resp->is_success)
{
$Resp->content =~ /\<txt_forecast.?\>(.+?)\<\/txt_forecast/gis;
$_ = $1;
#
# Loop through all of the day forecasts.
#
while (m/\<forecastday.?\>(.+?)\<\/forecastday/gis)
{
$FCast = $1;
#
# If we have a title, compose the forecast for that period.
#
if ($FCast =~ /\<title.?\>(.+?)\<\/title/)
{
$Forecast .= ("Forecast for ".lc($1));
if ($FCast =~ /\<fcttext.?\>(.+?)\<\/fcttext/)
{
#
# The droid has trouble with a few expressions and some
# of the punctuation that Wunderground likes to use.
#
$FCast = $1;
$FCast =~ s/\s\r?\n\s/ /gs;
$FCast =~ s/\s\.\.\.\s*/, /gs;
$FCast =~ s/\'/\'\'/gs;
$FCast =~ s/\bmph\b/miles per hour/gis;
$FCast =~ s/\bmph\.]/miles per hour./gis;
$Forecast .= (". ".$FCast." ");
}
else { $Forecast .= " is not available. "; }
}
}
}
}
#
# Turn the wind speed and direction into English.
#
my ($Wind);
if ($Weather->[0]->{wind_milesperhour} eq "0.0")
{ $Wind = "the winds are calm"; }
else
{
$Wind = "wind direction is ".
((exists($WindDir{$Weather->[0]->{wind_direction}}))
? $WindDir{$Weather->[0]->{wind_direction}}
: $Weather->[0]->{wind_direction})." " .
"at ".$Weather->[0]->{wind_milesperhour}." miles per hour";
}
#
# Figure out how to end the weather information.
#
my ($Sec, $Min, $Hour, $Finish);
($Sec, $Min, $Hour) = localtime(time());
if (($Hour >= 23) || (($Hour >= 0) && ($Hour < 4)))
{ $Finish = "good night"; }
elsif ($Hour >= 18) { $Finish = "pleasant evening"; }
else { $Finish = "pleasant day"; }
#
# Let's get Festival to turn this into a wave file that Asterisk can use.
#
system("echo 'Weather for ".$Place.". " .
"Current temperature is ".$Weather->[0]->{temperature_fahrenheit}." " .
"degrees, " .
"conditions are ".$Weather->[0]->{conditions}.", " .
"visibility is ".$Weather->[0]->{visibility_miles}." miles, and " .
$Wind.". " .
"Current humidity is ".$Weather->[0]->{humidity}." percent, " .
"and the dew point is ".$Weather->[0]->{dewpoint_fahrenheit}.". " .
$Forecast .
"Have a ".$Finish.".' " .
"| /usr/bin/text2wave -F 8000 -o ".$OutputFile.".wav");
#
# We're getting outta here.
#
close(TXTFILE); exit 0;
##############################################################################
sub ProcessOptions
#
# Process command line options and set the appropriate variables.
#
{
my ($Result);
#
# Get options using standard option processor.
#
$Result = &GetOptions(
"Forecast", \$WantForecast, # Switch for forecast as well
"Place=s", \$Place); # The place to get weather for
#
# Return success if options gotten OK.
#
return ($Result);
}
##############################################################################
sub UsageInfo
#
# Routine to display program usage information. Called whenever the command
# line parameters don't make sense.
#
{
#
# Exit after giving help.
#
print <<USAGE ;