Local Weather Delivered Direct To Your Calendar!

Every once in a while, I stumble upon a script so brilliant, so amazingly cool, that I just have to share it with everyone that will listen. Enter RSS2ICal. Once uploaded to a PHP supportive server, the file extension changed to .php, the user is then free to drop in any RSS feed of their choosing as to create a customized ICS file.

In my case, I wanted to create an ICS file for use with my favorite calendar application create an environment where I would see my local WeatherBug weather data, all from within the day’s event planner. Allow me to walk you through how I did this.

1. Download and install RSS2ical onto your own PHP enabled web server.
2. Go to Rss.WeatherBug.com and create a text only RSS feed.
3. Go to your server ***/rss2ical.php and drop in your feed, then hit subscribe.
4. Assuming you have access to iCal, Evolution, Kontact, Sunbird or other supported calendars, it should import automatically.

Which calendars does this seem to work best with? iCal and Sunbird have produced the best results.

Sunbird - Cross platform calender, compatible with Mozilla Thunderbird as “Lighting“. As you can see below, Sunbird’s weather information is best presented by rolling your cursor over the Forecast entry.

OS X’s iCal calendar application, included with all Apple computers, seems to be the best fit. Then again, consider the fact that the PHP script was designed with iCal in mind. Easy to read in iCal and fun to use.

Evolution for Linux desktops. The first application I tested this in, Evolution did not yield the same level of “viewability” as the other two calendar applications. Yet if WeatherBug were to tweak the original feeds a tiny bit, this would change instantly. Long story short, the weather information only becomes truly visible when you open any particular forecast post to your calender. Again, this could be easily fixed.

Outlook2003 was not as fluid as I had hoped. As it turns out, when I hit the subscribe button on my ***/rss2ical.php page, neither Firefox or even Internet Explorer new what to do with the request. I double checked IE7 to make sure Outlook 2003 was the default calendar, it was.

So I went back to my ***/rss2ical.php page and opted to view the ICS file. I then went back to Outlook 2003 only to find out that it only allows for ICS imports as direct from the desktop files - not web calendars. So I did what any geek would do, simply made the relevant webpage the Outlook Today home page.

As for me providing a link directly to my own install of the PHP script, I am afraid that it is for personal use only and the simple server account could not take such a huge hit. Then again, this will work with any cheap hosting account offering PHP support. All you need to do is FTP it over, it could not be simpler!