How to use IBM App Connect with IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition

IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition enables users to gain accurate insights and make informed decisions based on upcoming weather forecasts.

Availability:

App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release)
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support release)
Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-2 release)

Supported product and API versions

To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.

Connecting to IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page (previously the Catalog page) or flow editor. If necessary, work with your IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition administrator to obtain these values.

IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition connection fields:

API key

Your IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition API key

Required: True

To obtain the API key for IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition, see Obtaining connection values for IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition

To connect to a IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition endpoint from the App Connect Designer Applications and APIs page for the first time, expand IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition, take note of the following considerations:

To specify a location it is best to use geocode values; as latitude,longitude coordinates. (Weather data generally are stored and accessed in grids, and sending a postcode means the system has to look up the nearest grid point, which can introduce errors.)
If you want to find the value for a location Place ID, you can use a location action in a flow or use the IBM Weather Company API. For example, you can use the Get location by point action with a geocode value or use the following API call:
```
https://api.weather.com/v3/location/point?geocode=lat,long&language=en-US&format=json&apiKey=yourApiKey
```

The Get forecast action returns the weather foreacast for the next 14 days (as Agg1 through Agg14) starting from tomorrow. The following example shows the kind of response that is returned for this action.

{
  "point": {
 "id": null,
 "lat": 51.03,
 "lon": -1.4
  },
  "aggs": [
 {
"Date": "2022-03-02",
"Gust": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 7
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 7
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": null,
 "max": null,
 "avg": null
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": null,
 "max": null,
 "avg": null
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 7
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": null,
 "max": null,
 "avg": null
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": null,
 "max": null,
 "avg": null
  }
},
"PrecipAmount": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.66,
 "avg": 0.2520833333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.45,
 "avg": 0.18916666666666668
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.1,
 "avg": 0.02666666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 0.2,
 "max": 0.45,
 "avg": 0.30833333333333335
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.12,
 "avg": 0.07
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0,
 "avg": 0
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.1,
 "avg": 0.05333333333333334
  }
},
"RelativeHumidity": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 88,
 "max": 98,
 "avg": 93.875
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 88,
 "max": 98,
 "avg": 93
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 90,
 "max": 97,
 "avg": 93.5
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 92,
 "max": 98,
 "avg": 96.16666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 88,
 "max": 92,
 "avg": 89.83333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 90,
 "max": 95,
 "avg": 91.33333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 94,
 "max": 97,
 "avg": 95.66666666666667
  }
},
"Temperature": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 279,
 "max": 282,
 "avg": 280.2916666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 282,
 "avg": 280.75
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 279,
 "max": 281,
 "avg": 280
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 281,
 "avg": 280.5
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 282,
 "avg": 281
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 279,
 "max": 280,
 "avg": 279.6666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 281,
 "avg": 280.3333333333333
  }
},
"WindSpeed": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 4,
 "avg": 3.75
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 4,
 "avg": 3.9166666666666665
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 3,
 "avg": 3
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 4,
 "max": 4,
 "avg": 4
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 4,
 "avg": 3.8333333333333335
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 3,
 "avg": 3
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 3,
 "max": 3,
 "avg": 3
  }
}
 },
...
 {
"Date": "2022-03-15",
"Gust": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 10,
 "avg": 8.764705882352942
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 10,
 "avg": 9
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 8,
 "max": 9,
 "avg": 8.5
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 7,
 "max": 10,
 "avg": 8.666666666666666
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 8,
 "max": 10,
 "avg": 9.333333333333334
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 8,
 "max": 9,
 "avg": 8.333333333333334
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 8,
 "max": 9,
 "avg": 8.75
  }
},
"PrecipAmount": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.28,
 "avg": 0.14916666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.2,
 "avg": 0.16666666666666666
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.28,
 "avg": 0.14833333333333334
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 0.2,
 "max": 0.2,
 "avg": 0.20000000000000004
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.2,
 "avg": 0.13333333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 0,
 "max": 0.28,
 "avg": 0.1466666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 0.1,
 "max": 0.2,
 "avg": 0.15
  }
},
"RelativeHumidity": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 74,
 "max": 88,
 "avg": 82.58333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 74,
 "max": 88,
 "avg": 79.25
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 82,
 "max": 87,
 "avg": 85.41666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 75,
 "max": 88,
 "avg": 82.33333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 74,
 "max": 80,
 "avg": 76.16666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 82,
 "max": 87,
 "avg": 84
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 86,
 "max": 87,
 "avg": 86.83333333333333
  }
},
"Temperature": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 284,
 "avg": 281.7083333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 284,
 "avg": 282.6666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 282,
 "avg": 281.0833333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 284,
 "avg": 281.6666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 283,
 "max": 284,
 "avg": 283.6666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 281,
 "max": 282,
 "avg": 281.5
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 280,
 "max": 281,
 "avg": 280.6666666666667
  }
},
"WindSpeed": {
  "LOCAL_DAY": {
 "min": 5,
 "max": 8,
 "avg": 6.5
  },
  "LOCAL_DAYTIME": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 8,
 "avg": 7
  },
  "LOCAL_NIGHTTIME": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 6.583333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_MORNING": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 8,
 "avg": 6.666666666666667
  },
  "LOCAL_AFTERNOON": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 8,
 "avg": 7.333333333333333
  },
  "LOCAL_EVENING": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 6.5
  },
  "LOCAL_OVERNIGHT": {
 "min": 6,
 "max": 7,
 "avg": 6.666666666666667
  }
}
 }
  ],
  "datesAscending": [
 "2022-03-02",
 "2022-03-03",
 "2022-03-04",
 "2022-03-05",
 "2022-03-06",
 "2022-03-07",
 "2022-03-08",
 "2022-03-09",
 "2022-03-10",
 "2022-03-11",
 "2022-03-12",
 "2022-03-13",
 "2022-03-14",
 "2022-03-15"
  ]
}

A Get forecast action can sometimes return null values for some forecast variables; for example, null is reported for wind gusts when there is nothing significant over the average wind speeds. To test for null cases, you can use the JSONata isNull(variable); for example, a variable might be given the following JSONata expression:
```
$isNull($IBMWeatherCompanyDataLimitedEditionGetforecast.aggs[0].Gust.LOCAL_MORNING.max) ? $IBMWeatherCompanyDataLimitedEditionGetforecast.aggs[0].WindSpeed.LOCAL_MORNING.max : $IBMWeatherCompanyDataLimitedEditionGetforecast.aggs[0].Gust.LOCAL_MORNING.max
```
This example tests if the maximum gust for the morning (Gust.LOCAL_MORNING.max) is null. If it is null, the variable takes the value of the maximum windspeed for the morning. If it is not null, the variable takes the value of the maximum gust for the morning.
(General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
(General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Current conditions

Get current condition

Forecasts

Get forecast

Historical observations

Retrieve historical observations

Locations

Get locations

Locations by point

Get location by point

Near locations

Get near locations

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses IBM Weather Company Data Limited Edition