Carterlake Plugin Page - Printable Weather Flyer

Check out the new FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) board for a growing list of hints, tips and diagnostic suggestions.

[MCHALLIS]

I make a printable weather flyer page to help promote my weather site to locals.
http://www.642weather.com/weather/local-flier.php

The page is specially formatted to be printed as a flier (flyer). All the pertinent weather data should fit on one page. To see how it would look printed, click on "print preview" in your web browser. The flier may be freely used by local hotels, motels, restaurants, businesses, and local government offices to pin on bulletin boards or distribute to their patrons.

I have been posting it at the post office bulletin board every morning for a week.
This morning I got an email from a local resident:

"What a fantastic weather site!. I saw your weather flyer the other day at the post office and was curious as to the source of the data...
...Thanks for your efforts. I have seen a lot of weather sites. Yours is the most complete!"

The page uses many of the contributions from this site's users: carter lake templates, NWS RSS Forecast with icons, NWS Forecast Discussion, and NOAA RSS Advisories.
I use some of my own custom modifications to the script output to make it all fit perfectly on one printable page.

Carterlake Plugin Page - Printable Weather Flyer

Version: 1.12 - 06-Nov-2009
- Fixed forecast discussion for Louisville, KY zone.

Version: 1.10 - 13-Oct-2009
- Fixed forecast discussion had stopped working in some zones.

Version: 1.08 - 07-Oct-2009
- changed the included advisory file from rss-advisory.php to atom-advisory.php

Version: 1.07 - 31-Jul-2009
- much improved forecast discussion fetching for the wxflyer.php

Version: 1.06 - 04-Jul-2009
- fix for forecast discussion in Peachtree City GA
- added - wxflyer-uk.php contributed by Martin (Budgie) from http://www.hebwx.co.uk/wxflyer.php
rss-advisory.php must be at version V2.00 06-Jun-2009 BETA .022 or higher

Download:        
www.642weather.com/weather/scripts/wxflyer.zip

Look at the readme.txt inside the zip file for instructions.

[ktrue]

Awesome Mike!  It looks great, and sounds like it's getting your site some great extra exposure too.  Congratulations!!

Best regards,
Ken

[NorCal Dan]

Mine broke with the wxsim forecast but whats left of it is located at http://bvwx.com/wx14.html.   I don't remember who made it but was one of the users here.  Would probably still work for folks using the nws forecast in WD still...

[ANVANA]

What a great idea! I hope you don't mind, but I had a look at your example and used it as a guide to create my own. Now, to get it in the hands of some locals!

[Kojack]

Great product.
Local hotels pay quite a lot to UK Met Office for inaccurate flyers.

[MCHALLIS]

What a great idea! I hope you don't mind, but I had a look at your example and used it as a guide to create my own. Now, to get it in the hands of some locals!

No problem AVANA. Hey you have a very nice weather site 
Please edit your profile and put your location and a your web site url, thanks

[Clanger]

Great product.
Local hotels pay quite a lot to UK Met Office for inaccurate flyers.

 

[ANVANA]

Thanks for the kind comments about my site, mchallis. I could't do this without all the help and inspiration I get from forums like this and the fine folks who contribute their ideas and knowledge such as yourself.

[kray1000]

I have been posting it at the post office bulletin board every morning for a week.

U.S. Post offices aren't supposed to allow anything other than official posters to be displayed... just a heads-up for others thinking about doing this.  Your mileage may vary.

[MCHALLIS]

U.S. Post offices aren't supposed to allow anything other than official posters to be displayed... just a heads-up for others thinking about doing this.  Your mileage may vary.

I have permission from the postmaster so it is OK for me. This is a small town, they have 2 bulletin boards there for community announcements stuff only. You cannot post ads to sell stuff.

[MCHALLIS]

Ken and I added a new feature to the 'NOAA RSS Advisory PHP script' for printable flyer usage.

 Version 1.06 - 02-Feb-2008 - added flyer usage feature from from Mike Challis.
                              when used for a printable flyer, advisory titles are shown without URL links
                              added two new settings for flyer (off by default)
                              Live example: http://www.642weather.com/weather/local-flier.php
                              (the live example only shows advisories when they are currently active)

Download here:
http://saratoga-weather.org/scripts-rss.php#NOAARSS

[K3JAE]

I just got my flyer working thanks to Mr. Challis (aka the programming genius).

Feel free to view it at http://www.k3jae.com/wxflier.php and comments welcomed.

[NorCal Dan]

404 Not Found
The requested URL /local-flyer.php does not exist.

Ok, found it here: http://www.k3jae.com/local-flier.php

[K3JAE]

oooops...  

My bad... used "different" spelling of flier/flyer. correct url is:
http://www.k3jae.com/wxflier.php

[Stronghurst]

Been looking at this and have no idea how to implement it.    But would like to.

Mark