Weather gadget not working- Cannot connect to service

Greetings Bru20,

There is no reason to make the config.xml file R/O. It does not get changed when the gadget fails.

The search function is, at this time, BROKEN! no funciona! Temporary or permanent? Who knows?

I have not detected any outgoing queries, and I expect the query site is down/dead/broken. Does anyone know where the queries should go?

T

Problem 2: CANNOT find location

This is a whole new problem! The lookup function is broken! Whether this is deliberate or accidental is a good question to which I do not have an answer. It does not appear to have anything to do with security settings. The Sidebar gadgets have access to the internet (specifically to akamaitechnologies.com), and I can find no firewall restrictions that apply to this problem.

The rather idiosyncratic AOL/weather.com location codes can be found using Volume Z's technique.

Note: Only the WeatherLocationCode value needs to be changed. The format is wc:{location}. The WeatherLocation string is updated automatically when the query runs.

To change the location code:

• use perfmon.exe to stop sidebar.exe.
• Edit the value for WeatherLocationCode in settings.ini and resave the file.
• Right click on the desktop to start the sidebar selector. The gadgets should restart.
• Close the sidebar selector.

Best regards,

T

Do you (or anyone else) know if the lookup function is broken no matter what?  Some said a file or setting may have become corrupted breaking the function.  Does anyone still have the lookup function working?

I understand how you can change the locaton code, trying to understand if the lookup function is permanently broke.

Hey Scott,

that's an excellent summary of the issues. I, too, have done some work on this and have a few things to add. If you agree, you might want to fold them into your original post, so all the info is in one place.

Problem 1: CANNOT CONNECT TO Service

• The service does not fail because of the time stamp. I have three different accounts, each with a copy of the same config.xml file. Copying the file (without changing the dates) to the failing account seems to be sufficient. The widget invariably fails shortly after a Windows update, and then only in the account that was logged on before or after the update. It seems that the update process sets a flag or a lock somewhere, and that is responsible, but I have not been able to track that down.
• The <languages> tag contains ordered pairs of ISO language/country abbreviations. These are used in various places, including generating filenames, registry keys, and the weather query.
• Settings.ini does not need to be changed unless the location is incorrect (more on that later).
• Windows does not need to be restarted.
• The cache files in "...Windows Sidebar\Cache\168522d5...9472" must be correct if they exist, but neither they, nor the directory, must exist when the gadget is started. If they do not exist, they are built automatically from the query reply. The cache filenames have the form _wc-{weather location code}F{language-country code}_.xml.
• The cache files contain forecast information as well as current weather data. Thus, the gadget dies a slow death: for a while it shows the weather (n hours ago), then it shows a forecast, then it runs out of forecasts and says it cannot connect to the service.

Problem 2: CANNOT find location

This is a whole new problem! The lookup function is broken! Whether this is deliberate or accidental is a good question to which I do not have an answer. It does not appear to have anything to do with security settings. The Sidebar gadgets have access to the internet (specifically to akamaitechnologies.com), and I can find no firewall restrictions that apply to this problem.

The rather idiosyncratic AOL/weather.com location codes can be found using Volume Z's technique.

Note: Only the WeatherLocationCode value needs to be changed. The format is wc:{location}. The WeatherLocation string is updated automatically when the query runs.

To change the location code:

• use perfmon.exe to stop sidebar.exe.
• Edit the value for WeatherLocationCode in settings.ini and resave the file.
• Right click on the desktop to start the sidebar selector. The gadgets should restart.
• Close the sidebar selector.

Best regards,

T