GMTV Weather System

This project involved converting the UK and World Weather Datafeed provided by the Met Office into a customised format so as to provide an enhanced user experience as part of a general re-design of the GMTV website. The implementation was designed to be an extensible facility that maximises the possibilities contained within the Met Office data.

The original project was extended and the GMTV weather section of the website now has the following features:

• Import Met Office text data feeds into a new Weather Database
• Uses ColdFusion to allow future in-house development
• Uses Flash Player for a rich and extensible user experience
• Uses HTML for simplicity and accessibility
• Text search for Cities with Double Metaphone ''soundalike'' search
• Postcode search
• Accurate placement of Cities including an exact city location for UK maps
• Pollen Forecast mapping for the summer months
• Severe weather warnings
• Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple OS X Safari browser compatibility

By storing the Weather Information in a database, the information can be accessed in new ways to provide new information. The use of a database also allows information to be accessed using current development tools/skills to create new facilities on the website.

The use of a ColdFusion interface allows for standard code to access the information in the database. This will allow for full accessibility for the Visually/Motor impaired. Using the Adobe Flash Player allows for a visually stimulating design which will be backed up by the accessibility features in the HTML. Priority 1 accessibility features are used for the SWF itself.

The SWF file accepts a wide range of World Maps and a library of weather symbols. Supplied data provides Latitude Longitude information compatible with the supplied Map. The ActionScript within the SWF automatically composites on the fly, presenting the correct weather symbols for the date range selected. The underlying functional design also allows for any future map/data combinations.