AccuWeather smart home integration, free and open source

AccuWeather forecasts, alerts, scene triggers and dashboard widgets for Gladys.

• Published by prohand
• Devices
• Version 0.0.1
• Requires Gladys >=5.1.0
• ★ 0

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This integration makes AccuWeather the weather provider of Gladys: the Gladys weather widget, the chat assistant and the weather alerts use it instead of the built-in OpenWeather service. It also adds AccuWeather scene triggers, scene actions and two dashboard widgets (Gladys 5.1 or later).

It is a cloud integration: it needs Internet access and an AccuWeather API key. Nothing runs on your local network.

Before you start

1. Create a free account on developer.accuweather.com.
2. In My Apps, add an app (any name) and copy its API key.
3. In Gladys, check that your house has a position: Settings > Houses, then place the house on the map. The integration asks to read the position of your houses when you install it: it uses the first house that has one.

Configuration

Open the Configuration tab of the integration:

Field	What it does
API key	The key of your AccuWeather app. Mandatory.
Language of AccuWeather texts	Language of the alert names and of the weather phrases ("Partly sunny"...). English, French, German or Spanish.
Refresh interval (minutes)	How often AccuWeather is asked, from 30 to 1440 minutes. 120 by default.
Hourly forecast (12 hours)	The next 12 hours. Needed by the "Rain expected" trigger and by the curve of the widget.
Severe weather alerts	Official alerts relayed by AccuWeather. Not included in every AccuWeather plan: when your plan refuses them, the integration stops asking.
AccuWeather location key	Optional. Leave empty to use the position of your house. Fill it in (for example 623 for Paris) to force another AccuWeather location.

Save, then click Test the connection: it shows the AccuWeather location found, the current weather, and how many requests your settings cost per day.

Your daily quota

AccuWeather counts every request. The oldest free keys allow 50 requests a day; the trial and paid plans allow more. One refresh costs:

• 1 request for the current conditions;
• 1 for the 12-hour forecast (if turned on);
• 1 for the alerts (if turned on);
• 1 for the 5-day forecast, at most every 3 hours.

At 120 minutes (the default) that is about 44 requests a day. Every answer is kept in a cache, also across restarts: opening a dashboard, the Gladys weather checks (every 30 minutes) and scenes do not cost extra requests. Only Refresh now buttons and the refresh_weather scene action ask AccuWeather at once (at most once every 5 minutes).

When the quota is spent, the integration keeps showing the last weather it received (up to 24 hours old) and waits an hour before asking again.

Configuration screen actions

• Test the connection — checks the key and the location, and shows the number of requests made over the last 24 hours.
• Refresh the weather now — asks AccuWeather now.

Scenes

The integration adds its own cards to the scene editor, in the Integrations category.

Triggers

Each trigger fires once per change, never at every refresh. The first refresh after the installation only records the current situation.

• AccuWeather: new weather alert (weather_alert) — an official alert was issued for your house. Filter on the severity (minor, moderate, severe, extreme) and on the phenomenon (wind, rain, thunderstorm, snow and ice...). Variables: {{triggerEvent.data.event}} (name of the alert), severity, type, description, starts_at, ends_at, location.
• AccuWeather: the sky changed (condition_changed) — the current conditions changed, for example from clear to rain. Filter on the new condition. Variables: condition, previous_condition, description, temperature (°C), location.
• AccuWeather: rain expected (rain_expected) — precipitation is forecast within the next 3 hours, where none was at the previous refresh. Needs the hourly forecast. Filter on rain, snow, ice or mixed. Variables: precipitation_type, starts_at, hours_until, probability, location.
• AccuWeather: frost expected (frost_expected) — a forecast day goes down to 0 °C or below. Fires once per day. Variables: date, temperature_min (°C), location.

Gladys also has its own "weather alert" trigger: it works with this integration too, and reacts within seconds when AccuWeather publishes or ends an alert.

Actions

• AccuWeather: read the forecast (get_forecast) — today, tomorrow or the day after. Gives condition, description, temperature_min, temperature_max, precipitation_probability, rain_expected, wind_speed and uv_index to the next actions. Example: "if rain_expected is true, send me a message".
• AccuWeather: read the current weather (get_current_conditions) — gives condition, description, temperature, apparent_temperature, humidity, wind_speed, uv_index and is_day.
• AccuWeather: refresh now (refresh_weather) — asks AccuWeather now. Gives refreshed and calls_last_24h.

Both reading actions use the cache: they cost no request. Choose metric (°C, m/s) or US (°F, mph) units in each action.

Dashboard

Add the widgets from the dashboard editor:

• AccuWeather now — temperature, feels-like, humidity, wind, a curve of the next 12 hours, the alerts, the rain to come, and the number of requests used over 24 hours. A Refresh button asks AccuWeather now.
• AccuWeather 5 days — the next days with AccuWeather's own words, day and night. Its setting Days shown goes from 1 to 5.

Troubleshooting

• "AccuWeather refused the API key" — copy the key again from developer.accuweather.com (My Apps), without spaces, and save.
• "The daily AccuWeather quota is spent" — raise the refresh interval or turn off the hourly forecast or the alerts. The quota comes back within 24 hours.
• "Set the position of your house" — your Gladys house has no position: set it in Settings > Houses.
• Wrong city — fill in the AccuWeather location key: search your city on accuweather.com, the key is the number at the end of its address.
• The integration logs are in the Gladys interface (integration page) or with docker logs on the host.

Configuration settings

These are the settings AccuWeather asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

Setting	Type	Required	Description
Getting started	section	No	Create a free account on developer.accuweather.com, add an app, and paste its API key below. The weather is fetched for the position of your Gladys house: set it in Settings > Houses. Every refresh costs up to 4 AccuWeather requests: keep the interval at 120 minutes or more on a free key (50 requests a day).
API key	secret	Yes	The key of your app on developer.accuweather.com (My Apps).
Language of AccuWeather texts	select	No	Language of the alert names and of the weather phrases.
Refresh interval (minutes)	number	No	How often AccuWeather is asked, 30 to 1440 minutes. At 120 minutes a day costs about 44 requests.
Hourly forecast (12 hours)	boolean	No	Needed by the "Rain expected" trigger and the curve of the widget. One request per refresh.
Severe weather alerts	boolean	No	Official alerts relayed by AccuWeather (not in every plan). One request per refresh.
AccuWeather location key (optional)	string	No	Leave empty to use the position of your house. Fill it in (e.g. 623 for Paris) to force another AccuWeather location.

How to install AccuWeather in Gladys

1. In Gladys, open Integrations: AccuWeather appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/prohand/gladys-accuweather:0.0.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/prohand/gladys-accuweather.

AccuWeather requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations

AccuWeather is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by prohand, not by the Gladys core team.

• Browse all integrations, native and community
• Build and publish your own external integration
• Source code on GitHub — source of this documentation

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