Tag: weather application

Adding Custom Cities to the HTC Weather App

htcweather

In the summer time I like to follow the weather more than usual, so as to not miss a single day of fun in the sun, as we get it so rarely where I live by the arctic circle. However, my new HTC Touch Diamond 2 did not have my town in the weather application! So I set out to get my small town added in, and eventually succeeded thanks to the forum over at xda-developers.com. So, here’s my recipe which takes into account more possible issues than the forums do.

  1. Download and install ActiveSync, .NET Compact Framework 3.5 Redistributable and CeRegEditor.
  2. Browse your HTC phone using Explorer and copy the file “2330fc3c_manila” from the Windows directory onto your PC. Right-click this file and select properties. Untick the box that says “Read-only”.
  3. Download SQLite Administrator. This program does not require installation.
  4. Open the “2330fc3c_manila” file from step 2 using SQLite Administrator on your PC (make sure you select “Any files” when browsing for it).
  5. Select the “Edit Data” tab and click to select the “Cities” table in the tree on the left.
  6. Pick a city you won’t need and edit the “CityName“, “Country” and “accuweatherCode” to match the city you plan to add. You should also edit the timezone and msid values to match another city in the same country and timezone. To find your correct accuweatherCode and other values, look up your desired city on AccuWeather and see the last part of the URL string in your browser that looks something like this: “EUR|NO|NO007|VADSOE“.
    Tip: If your city name contains special characters you may need to substitute them. Check for a city with the same special character and copy from it. This also applies to the city name in the “accuweatherCode” field, except for that the replacement characters may be different. For instance, The “CityName” field may use “Ã,” to replace “ø” in the HTC interface, while the “accuweatherCode” field uses “OE” or “O” to replace the same character. In the address bar of your browser, these characters may be displayed similarly to “%F8%7C”, but do not let that confuse you.
  7. Close the editor. Right-click the now updated database file and select properties. Tick the box that says “Read-only”. Copy the new file back to your HTC, replacing the existing file.Tip: To accomplish this on my HTC Touch Diamond 2 I had to use TotalCommander for Pocket PC. Install TotalCommander by downloading the CAB file to your HTC and running it. Browse to the Windows directory and scroll down to the “2330fc3c_manila” file. Open the properties and remove the “Read-only” attribute. Copy the new “2330fc3c_manila” file from your computer to any folder on your HTC except the Windows folder. Then copy it in TotalCommander to the Windows folder, replacing the old file.
  8. Almost done! Using CeRegEditor, add the following registry key:
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\Manila]
    “Weather.ServerURLOverride”=”http://weather.not2advanced.com/htcweather/forecastdata.php?ac=XDADevs&locCode=%25ls&version= 1&device=innovation”

    Tip: Do not include the “s. Add a new “String” with the name being the first part before “=” and value being the long URL.

  9. Shut down and start your HTC (aka soft reset) and it should now work when you add your new city (or cities)!
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\Manila]
"Weather.ServerURLOverride"="http://weather.not2advanced.com/htcweather/forecastdata.php?ac=XDADevs&locCode=%25ls&version= 1&device=innovation"