FairWeather

FairWeather is a lightweight WordPress plugin that displays the current weather in a simple two-line format using a shortcode.

• Line 1: location (City, State, Country Code)
• Line 2: weekday + date + current temperature (for example: Tues. 4 72°F)

It is designed for theme areas like headers, widgets, and Elementor containers where a compact weather block is needed.

Build Overview

This plugin is a classic PHP WordPress plugin with no build steps.

Core parts:

• fair-weather.php: plugin bootstrap, constants, activation defaults, hooks
• includes/class-settings.php: Settings API registration and admin menu page
• admin/settings-page.php: settings page UI
• includes/class-weather-client.php: location resolution + weather API calls + caching
• includes/class-shortcode.php: shortcode rendering and scoped/global style injection
• assets/frontend.css: default front-end styles

Dependencies

Runtime Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4+

External APIs

• OpenWeatherMap
  • Required for geocoding and current weather data
  • You must provide your own API key in plugin settings
• ip-api.com
  • Used server-side for visitor IP geolocation when no shortcode location override is provided

Internal/Platform Dependencies

• WordPress Settings API
• WordPress Shortcode API
• WordPress HTTP API (wp_remote_get)
• WordPress Transients API (get_transient / set_transient)

Installation

1. Place the plugin folder in wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate FairWeather in WordPress Admin.
3. Go to Settings -> FairWeather.
4. Add your OpenWeatherMap API key.
5. Configure defaults (location, unit, optional global CSS).
6. Insert shortcode [fairweather] where you want output.

Plugin Settings

Open: WordPress Admin -> Settings -> FairWeather

1) OpenWeatherMap API Key

• Field: OpenWeatherMap API key
• Get a key from: https://openweathermap.org/api
• This key is required for weather/geocoding requests.

2) Default Location

• Field: Default location
• Example: Atlanta, GA
• Used as fallback when IP geolocation is unavailable or fails.

3) Default Temperature Unit

• Field: Default temperature unit
• Options:
  • Fahrenheit
  • Celsius

4) Global Custom CSS

• Field: Global custom CSS
• Optional CSS rules loaded on pages where the shortcode appears.
• Useful selectors:
  • .fairweather
  • .fairweather__location
  • .fairweather__meta
  • .fairweather__temp
  • .fairweather__error

Shortcode Usage

Base shortcode:

[fairweather]

Shortcode Attributes

• location (optional)
  • City/region string, or lat/lon format: "33.7490,-84.3880"
  • If omitted, plugin tries IP geolocation, then falls back to the default location setting.
• unit (optional)
  • f or c
  • If omitted, uses the admin default unit
• class (optional)
  • Additional CSS classes added to wrapper
• css (optional)
  • Scoped declaration block applied to this shortcode instance

Examples:

[fairweather location="Atlanta, GA"]
[fairweather unit="c"]
[fairweather location="33.7490,-84.3880" class="header-weather"]
[fairweather css="font-size:14px;color:#fff;"]

How Location Is Resolved

Resolution order:

1. Shortcode location attribute (if provided)
2. Visitor IP geolocation
3. Default location from plugin settings

When IP is private/local (common in local development), it skips IP geolocation and uses the default location.

Caching and Performance

• Current weather values are cached via WordPress transients for 20 minutes.
• Cache key includes rounded coordinates and units.

Notes

• This plugin outputs weather server-side at render time.
• If API key is missing or API calls fail, an error message is rendered in the shortcode output.