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The app tells you if an entry returns no results or is invalid.
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The interface was inspired by the crappy Yahoo Geocities based websites of the late 90s.
We were inspired by the power of APIs and ability to stay connected in the world. We decided that we wanted to take full advantage of this and create this weather forecasting system. Enter a city and you will have an instant return.
Our application has both a client and server end. The server end processes inputs (the city you enter) from the client and sends out information to the APIs and then processes the return. The return comes as a JSON which is then parsed into usable data. The client then takes the returned information and creates a graphic with the information. We used Node.js to allow us to use JavaScript and we used React so we could have instantaneous and smooth page changes.
The app has numerous pages and allows you to also delete any existing blocks which don't don't automatically disappear so you can compare. If an entry is invalid, an error message will appear. There are also other pages which allow you to access credits and a possible error 404 page for any future expansions.
We created this application to look like websites from the Yahoo Geocities age. These websites are iconic despite them having generally poor design given that they were basic relics of the late 90s and early 2000s. This means we intentionally took steps of poor website design to emulate this retro design. We also used the same design techniques such as using tables for layout. We also used a simple texture repeated over and over for the background which is fixed in place as well. Our original program used Bootstrap for a custom header and buttons but we found them to look too modern.
We used the Weatherstack and Positionstack APIs. The latter took the city you enter and converts it to latitude and longitude that is then returned as a JSON. The server then parses it and submits this data to Weatherstack which then returns weather information.
Our weather titles came from OpenWeatherMap. Unfortunately they are improperly capitalized so they aren't proper in our app either.
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