Simple API Utility & Weather Service

I know this has been done plenty of times before (through various available web services etc), but for what it's worth here's a simple stand alone app that will run on any home PC and interact with your rabbit through the standard API. You'll need Microsoft .net version 2.0 to run it, and the usual API key, serial etc. Thats it.

No great prizes for coding, but it's simple and allows you to have a go at interacting with your rabbit.

You can down load the app from here:
http://www.eabconsulting.co.uk/NabCtrl_v0.1.exe

Let me know if it is of use / works!

JB

Works for me, very good job, thanks for this API.

HI, thanks for this great job. Fonctions of the first tab are working like a charm, but I can't activate functions in the second table....

Me too !

The idea with the Weather event is that the app will announce the Weather if you put the Rabbit's ears in a set position (currently left ear pointing upwards!). The data is sourced from Weather.com (you have to register for their API service) so you can get much more specific information than Nabaztag allows you - current conditions, today's forecast and tomorrow's forecsast.

The announcement event is probably self explanatory but is only part written - at the moment you can schedule a single announcement which the rabbit will read out at a particular time of day.

If you are interested I can put up another version with this functionality enabled?

Let me know.

JB

Hi,

That could be great to have all these functionnalities also enable (weather & annoucement).

Can you also explain us the way you get the ears position (push or pull) to have the weather annoucment?

Thanks

OK. I'll re-enable the weather and announcement functionality and upload a new version later this evening. I'll also give you a link to where on Weather.com you need to register for their XML API service - you basically need to get a key and serial number like with the Nabaztag API which you enter in to the app.

The way the trigger works for the weather announcement is that every 60 seconds the application checks to see how the rabbit's ears are positioned. If it detects that the left ear is upright (at position 0 or two points either side) it triggers the weather announcement to be sent.

The intention is to eventually make it configurable which ear or ears and at what position the weather announcement is triggered - but I haven't got round to doing that yet!

JB

Thanks a lot, I was wondering you had found another way to get ears position... but not this time

Thanks for sharing your time and your software !

Right, here's a link to a new version with the additional functionality activated:
http://www.eabconsulting.co.uk/NabCtrl_v0.2.exe

Things to note are:
1) I thought you would need to register with Weather.com but strangely they seem to pass back the weather information even without providing the IDs normally required. Try opening this page to see an example for Paris (there is meant to be a parameter after 'par=' and 'key='):

Code:

http://xoap.weather.com/weather/local/FRXX0076?cc=*&dayf=2&unit=m&prod=xoap&par=&key=

(the forum reply box wouldn't accept such a long URL, hence the 'code' entry!)

If you stop getting weather information returned then you can register for Weather.com's XML data service here:
https://registration.weather.com/ursa/xmloap/step1?

2) Apart from activating the event, to trigger the weather announcement you need to move your rabbit's left ear to point upwards (position 0). Currently the app only checks for the ear position every 60 seconds so you may need to wait a short while before the announcement is sent

3) If you get weird results or the app crashes, try turning on the debug (bottom right hand side of the app). This will create a fairly detailed log file in the root of the C drive

Good luck!

JB

Sweet app JB!

This is BK over at Violet... just wanted to let you know that your app (or this thread, more precisely) has been linked to at the official blog

('')

Here's a link to an updated version of the utility which (should!) take in to account the recent changes to the Nabaztag API and has some additional functionality.

Once downloaded, just run the executable - oh, don't forget to set up your API details on the third tab!

http://www.eabconsulting.co.uk/NabCtrl_v0.4.exe

JB

What do you put in under "Key" I assume that's my bunny's name as most API apps ask for it.

I have the same problem with the key, where can I find it?

Hey,
the key is not yet mandatory,
and you can't genrenated it with the new website.
So.. No key for the moment.

Trying to use this and i'm not getting any actual announcement. When program is on, bunny's left ear moves to 5, when i pull ear back to 0, nothing happens although in the weather status box i get "time last announced" about the same time as i moved ears.
I get no actual annoncement. is this something to do with RSS feeds not working?

Hi,

If the ear is moving but no annoucement is being heard then there is either an error in transmitting the weather message from the app to Violet, or in Violet doing the text to speach conversion. As the temperature dipped recently in the UK and went sub zero the text to speach service wouldn't accept negative numbers (e.g. '-5') in the weather report that the app sends it. Not sure whether it's that cold where you are?!?

I've made an update to the app to work around this and have also updated the error reporting to give more information when this sort of thing happens. If it happens again, make sure 'debug' is turn to 'on' and let me know what the log file says (you'll find this is the root of the C drive).

New version here:
http://www.eabconsulting.co.uk/nabctrl.exe


JB

lol....
New version gives me this message -

HTTP Post to Nabaztag failed at outset, error: The remote name could not be resolved: 'api.nabaztag.com'

When i tried to test message.

the API is down right now, which is also holding me up on my program

It's up but i'm not sure it's working right, i've sent several commands to frank and the api says his ears have moved but they haven't. damn technology.

The API service is flaky to say the least at the moment, and 'up' doesn't necessarily appear to mean working! Having said that, seems to be working fine this morning as I can check the position and move the rabbit's ears.

Just tried to send a weather update and the Violet TTS service is rejecting the forecast again. I can only think that Violet has changed the rules around what are acceptable characters for a TTS message. Will look in to it.

JB

We've added yet another weather script using the National Weather Service in the U.S. If you'd like to download it and try out the Weather Bunny, the link is below. Just change the first few lines to pick your city and state and identify your bunny, and you're all ready to go.

http://nerdvittles.com/weather-bunny.zip

Enjoy!

hi,

anyone have the .exe ? the link ar down...

thx