HAMweather Usage : Zipcodes

Usage: Zipcodes

NOTE: The HWzipcode add-on is available that will allow most zipcodes to be used to fetch forecasts for the US. It can be downloaded from http://www.hamweather.com/downloads/

NOTE: As of HW 2.035, HAMweather can support international zipcode files. This can allow a person to enter a zipcode for a country and have the current conditions displayed. Currently HAMweather only has the one US zipcode database available but you are free to further create your own for international countries. The setup and usage of these is the same as for US usage, with any differences noted through out.

Configuration

Since there is no web based administration yet for zipcode database files you will have to do this the hard way. Actually its not too hard, you will simply need to create and/or edit a few text files. You create a separate text files for each state, thus allowing for different associations in the different states. The naming convention for the text files is:

XX.txt

Where XX is the first two characters of the zipcode. For example, the zipcode database file name that would contain the zipcode 24060 would be named 24.txt and would hold the informaiton for all zipcodes between 24000 and 24999.

Again the US zipcode DB has already been created by HAMweather, LLC and if available for download at: http://www.hamweather.com/downloads/

INTERNATIONAL USAGE NOTE: For non US altplace files the naming convention is ZZ-XX.txt where ZZ is the countries two letter abbreviation and XX is the first two characters of the zipcodes in that file. For example for the Italian zipcode 00139, the zipcode database file which held this would be titled it-00.txt and woudl hold the info on all italian zipcodes between 00000 to 00999. HAMweather can support zipcodes that have characters besdies just numberas as well. Everythign works the same except if your zipcode has spaces when you input the information in the files you leave out the spaces. (the end user can still put i nthe spaces, for HAMweather will take care of this.)

Zipcode Associations

In each zipcode Database file you will have a separate line for each zipcode. Each line will contain, the zipcode, the actual city and the actual state. HAMweather will then look up this actual city, state combination in the altplace files. So be aware that there must be an entry in the altplace files for the place you enter in the zipcode DB. (the exception to this is the US zipcode DB)

zipcode|ActualPlace|ActualState

where:

Item Description

Zipcode The zipcode requested, without any spaces.

ActualPlace This is the actual place name that HW will use to look up in the altplace files to get the required info for this city.

ActualState This is the actual two letter state abbreviation that W will use when looking up the place, state combination. For international zipcode database files that are not using state/provinces this must be the countries two letter abbreviation.