[Bug 629646] [NEW] Locations using bom.gov.au for forecast data no longer can no longer retrieve forecast data

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by Evan Broder (broder):

[Impact]
libgweather is unable to parse the HTML data previously returned from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology

[Development Fix]
Fix committed upstream as a80552f51c641754ef8410eebea6debc23a25561, 73829e640d2ebd7f926563145ca81702c17d0abb. Picked up in 3.2.1-1ubuntu1

[Stable Fix]
Debdiffs attached for Lucid (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgweather/+bug/629646/+attachment/2610674/+files/libgweather_2.30.0-0ubuntu1.1.debdiff), Maverick (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgweather/+bug/629646/+attachment/2610675/+files/libgweather_2.30.3-0ubuntu1.1.debdiff), Natty (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgweather/+bug/629646/+attachment/2610676/+files/libgweather_2.30.3-1ubuntu1.1.debdiff), and Oneiric (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libgweather/+bug/629646/+attachment/2610677/+files/libgweather_3.2.0-0ubuntu1.1.debdiff)

[Test Case]
1. Login using a session with the gnome-panel (Ubuntu for Lucid, Maverick; Ubuntu Classic for Natty; GNOME Classic on Oneiric)
2. Right-click on the panel (Alt-right click for Oneiric) and select Add to Panel...
3. Choose the Weather Report applet and add it to the panel
4. Right click on the weather applet and choose preferences
5. Go to the Location tab 
6. Search for and select "Sydney Airport", then close the preferences window
7. Left-click on the weather applet
8. Click "Update" from the details tab
9. Switch to the "Forecast" tab, and observe that the forecast is not available (or is, with the patch)

[Regression Potential]
Minimal. The patch is isolated, only changes parsing for the affected region (AU), and cherry-picked from upstream

===================
Original bug description:
-----------------------------------
Issue Description
-----------------------------------

In relation to "weather-applet" and "libgweather" - over the past
several months, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has updated
its website to deliver a HTML forecast page for a number of locations
around Australia.

Currently - the <zone> tag from "Locations.xml" is used within the
"weather-bom.c" to retrieve information from the appropriate bom.gov.au
URL which if successful is then parsed in the "bom_parse" function.

With the new HTML forecast pages for various locations however, the data
can not be successfully parsed and instead the message "Forecast not
currently available for this location." shows up on the Forecast tab of
weather-applet.

-----------------------------------
Area of Interest
-----------------------------------

Within "weather-bom.c" - the following line of code points to URLs
(depending on location) that now have HTML forecast data rather than
plain text...

    url = g_strdup_printf ("http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?%s.txt",
      loc->zone + 1);

-----------------------------------
Suggested Fix
-----------------------------------

I suggest/propose that the URL above be changed to point to plain text
documents on the BOM FTP server (ftp://ftp2.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/)
with the appropriate weather station zone.

e.g. for Sydney (Zone IDN10064) - currently the code would point to:

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN10064.txt

However this is now a HTML forecast, which causes the issue noted
above... by pointing the code to:

ftp://ftp2.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/IDN10064.txt

The plain text forecast can be used without any modification to the
other functions/aspects of the code.

-----------------------------------
Patches - Untested!
-----------------------------------

Please see the attached "weather-bom.c" which includes the suggested fix
(i.e. patched version). Note it will need to be/should be tested by
someone who knows how to recompile the libgweather source.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System information
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description:	Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release:	10.04

libgweather-common:
  Installed: 2.30.0-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.30.0-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.30.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ftp.iinet.net.au/linux/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

** Affects: libgweather
     Importance: Medium
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: libgweather (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Low
         Status: Fix Released

** Affects: libgweather (Ubuntu Lucid)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: libgweather (Ubuntu Maverick)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: libgweather (Ubuntu Natty)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: libgweather (Ubuntu Oneiric)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: australia bom.gov.au libgweather patch weather
-- 
Locations using bom.gov.au for forecast data no longer can no longer retrieve forecast data
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/629646
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