Invoke-RestMethod -Uri http:\/\/wttr.in\/Syracuse?format=2 -UseBasicParsing -DisableKeepAlive<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/wttr-basic.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nI thought that was pretty cool. Although the emojis only display in a terminal console that supports them, like a PowerShell session running in Windows Terminal. You'll have less luck running this in the PowerShell ISE or a VS Code console. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I need to push this concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Formatting the Location<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It was simple enough to build a quick script to run this command. I even added a location parameter. The location can be a ZIP code or place name. I was hoping to create output that included the location. But I wanted to make sure the location was properly formatted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
if ($Location -match '^([a-zA-Z\\s\\.\\,])+$') {\n $Location = [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ToTitleCase($location.tolower())\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nIf the location is a string, like \"chicago\", this snippet of text will convert it to \"Chicago\". A string like \"las vegas\" becomes \"Las Vegas\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using the Local Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As I was developing my code, I was including the current date and time. But then I realized that if I was running my script for another location, like Las Vegas, displaying my time in the Eastern time zone, might be confusing. I needed to get the time zone for the location so that I could adjust the time accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn't find anything in the basic wttr.in request that would include that information until I came across the optional v2 API. The format looks like http:\/\/v2.wttr.in\/chicago<\/a>. Unfortunately, there is no way to get the result as structured data like JSON or XML. So I had to resort to a regular expression to parse out the time zone name. I built a helper function to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFunction GetTZ {\n Param([string]$location)\n Write-Verbose \"Getting v2 data from wttr.in for $location\"\n $tmp = Invoke-RestMethod -uri \"http:\/\/v2.wttr.in\/$location\" -disableKeepAlive -useBasicParsing\n $rx = [System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::new(\"\\b([a-z_]+\\\/[a-z_]+)\\b\",\"IgnoreCase,Multiline\")\n $timezone = $rx.match($tmp).Value\n Write-Verbose \"Detected timezone $timezone\"\n $timezone\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis will give me a value like America\/Chicago. The next step is to determine the timezone offset. Fortunately, I had another code snippet that uses a REST API at http:\/\/worldtimeapi.org<\/a>. With this API, I create a custom object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tzdata-1024x105.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMy custom object includes the local time in that time zone which I can then use in my output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make It Pretty with ANSI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The last step was to make it pretty. I wanted to draw colored line box around the weather and location information using ANSI and special characters. Normally, this isn't too difficult because I can calculate line lengths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, there is a little challenge with emoji-strings. Even though PowerShell might show identical length for two different locations, if the weather emoji was different it could throw off the spacing. This meant my closing | for the line with the weather might be off. I have not found a way to account for kerning issues when using emojis, so I resorted to using Write-Host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this approach, I could save the cursor position of the previous line, display the weather line, move the cursor, and then display the closing |.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Write-Host $line1\nWrite-Host $line2\nWrite-Host $line3a -NoNewline\n#get the cursor position<\/em>\n$pos = $host.ui.RawUI.CursorPosition\n#adjust it<\/em>\n$pos.x = $line1.Length - $boxAnsi.Length - 1\n#move the cursor<\/em>\n$host.ui.RawUI.CursorPosition = $pos\n#write the closing box element<\/em>\nWrite-Host $line3b\nWrite-Host $line4<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jdhitsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/weather-samples-1024x905.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n