A FOSS Weather Temperature Gauge VB6 WoW64 Widget for Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10/11+. There will also be a version for Reactos and XP, watch this space for the link. Also tested and running well on Linux and Mac os/X using Wine.

My current VB6/RC6 PSD program being finished now, 92% complete and on all gauges except for the pictorial weather gauge - with a mostly working ICAO feed source selector and fully functional preference form, an XML parser now generating correct sunrise/sunset times, a textual METAR information sub-form and a completed CHM help file. Awaiting the clock hands to indicate the correct time on the METAR data clock, moving the weather code to its own module, some refactoring to streamline and combine the overlay files, then finally, testing on laptops, testing on Windows XP/ReactOS and Win7 32bit, some multi-monitor checking, and the creation of the setup.exe. A bit to do but it works now and is operating on my desktop.

This VB6 Panzer widget is based upon the Yahoo widget of the same visual design and very similar operation.

Why VB6? Well, with a 64 bit, modern-language improvement upgrade on the way with 100% compatible TwinBasic coupled with support for transparent PNGs via RC/Cairo, VB6 code has an amazing future.

I created as a variation of the previous gauges I had previously created for the World of Tanks and War Thunder communities. The Panzer Weather Temperature Gauge widget is an attractive dieselpunk VB6 widget for your desktop. Functional and gorgeous at the same time. The graphics are my own, I took original inspiration from a clock face by Italo Fortana combining it with an aircraft gauge surround. It is all my code with some significant help from the chaps at VBForums (credits given in the code).

The Panzer Weather Temperature Gauge VB6 is a useful utility displaying the Weather in your chosen locality in a dieselpunk fashion on your desktop. This Widget is a moveable widget that you can move anywhere around the desktop as you require. The Weather data is extracted via an XML request to/from aviation.gov. The program extracts the temperature and barometric data from that XML and displays it via analogue pointers on several desktop gauges.

The following is a code snippet that parses the XML weather data.

objxmldoc.async = True
objxmldoc.LoadXML (myMSXML.responseText)

' get the values from the XML data response, the num results should be non-zero
Set nodeList = objxmldoc.selectNodes("response/data/METAR")
num_results = nodeList.length

Set MetarNode = objxmldoc.selectSingleNode("response/data/METAR") ' There's only the one METAR node

If num_results = 0 And val(PzGErrorInterval) <> 0 Then

    ' compare last PzGLastUpdated to current date time and if that exceeds the error interval then raise an error.
    TheDate = Now
    secsDif = Int(DateDiff("s", CDate(PzGLastUpdated), TheDate))
    If secsDif >= (val(PzGErrorInterval) * 3600) And firstPoll = False Then
        'if has just awoken from sleep then suppress the no data error message
        If gblJustAwoken = True Then
            gblJustAwoken = False
        Else
            answerMsg = "The source weather feed has been producing no valid data for " & secsDif & " secs."
            answer = msgBoxA(answerMsg, vbOKOnly + vbExclamation, "Poll Warning", True, "myStatusProcPollingWarning")
        End If

    End If

    weHaveData = False
    Exit Sub ' Return
End If

 If Not nodeList Is Nothing Then
     For Each node In nodeList

        On Error Resume Next ' prevents errors being generated from 'optional' nodes not present.

       ' get the values from the XML data and return strings - the easy stuff first

        observation_time = node.selectSingleNode("observation_time").Text
        raw_text = node.selectSingleNode("raw_text").Text
        station_id = node.selectSingleNode("station_id").Text
        temp_c = Int(node.selectSingleNode("temp_c").Text)
        altim_in_hg = node.selectSingleNode("altim_in_hg").Text
        dewpoint_c = Int(node.selectSingleNode("dewpoint_c").Text)
        wind_dir_degrees = node.selectSingleNode("wind_dir_degrees").Text
        wind_speed_kt = node.selectSingleNode("wind_speed_kt").Text
        Latitude = node.selectSingleNode("latitude").Text
        Longitude = node.selectSingleNode("longitude").Text
        visibility_statute_mi = node.selectSingleNode("visibility_statute_mi").Text

        ' the On Error Resume Next above is for the next two optional items that may/may not appear in the returned XML
        wx_string = node.selectSingleNode("wx_string").Text
        precip_in = node.selectSingleNode("precip_in").Text

        'the first and lowest height cloudbase is the one that really counts but there could be as many as three sky cover reading
        'the highest and lowest need to be reported.

        Set SkyConditions = MetarNode.selectNodes("sky_condition") ' Get all the sky_condition nodes under METAR
        If Not SkyConditions Is Nothing Then
            uboundSkyConditions = SkyConditions.length - 1
            ReDim sky_condition_items(uboundSkyConditions)
            ReDim sky_cover(uboundSkyConditions)
            ReDim cloud_base_ft_agl(uboundSkyConditions)
            SkyConditionCounter = 0

            For Each SkyCondition In SkyConditions
                sky_condition_attributes_length = SkyCondition.Attributes.length  ' no of Attributes
                If Not sky_condition_attributes_length = 0 Then
                    attributeCounter = 0 ' sky_cover
                    skyNodeValue = SkyCondition.Attributes(attributeCounter).nodeValue

                    sky_condition_items(SkyConditionCounter) = skyNodeValue
                    sky_cover(SkyConditionCounter) = skyNodeValue

                    attributeCounter = 1 ' cloud_base_ft_agl
                    cloudNodeValue = SkyCondition.Attributes(attributeCounter).nodeValue

                    cloud_base_ft_agl(SkyConditionCounter) = cloudNodeValue

                End If
                SkyConditionCounter = SkyConditionCounter + 1
            Next
        End If
      Next node
End If
On Error GoTo myStatusProc_Error ' restart error trapping

'Cleanup
Set nodeList = Nothing
Set SkyConditions = Nothing

Hope the code is useful to anyone else building system metric utilities using VB6/VBS/VBA.

This widget can be increased in size, animation speed can be changed, opacity/transparency may be set as to the users discretion. The widget can also be made to hide for a pre-determined period.

Right clicking will bring up a menu of options. Double-clicking on the widget will cause a personalised Windows application to fire up. The first time you run it there will be no assigned function and so it will state as such and then pop up the preferences so that you can enter the command of your choice. The widget takes command line-style commands for windows. Mouse hover over the widget and press CTRL+mousewheel up/down to resize. It works well on Windows XP to Windows 11.

To make this operate in your area giving you the local weather, you need to find a METAR source. This will be a local airport. The widget takes the weather data from forecasts provided specifcally from airports and airfields. If you can find an airfield nearby that has an ICAO code then using this it will supply local METAR weather data. You simply enter your local town name and it will find the airport. If it has an airfield then it will have a current weather forecast. The reason we obtain the weather forecast via METAR is because the feed is free and works throughout the world. The data provided is fed through a US governmental site, Aviation Weather GOV -

aviationweather.gov/

The Panzer Weather Temperature Gauge VB6 gauge is Beta-grade software, under development, not yet ready to use on a production system - use at your own risk.

This version was developed on Windows 7 using 32 bit VisualBasic 6 as a FOSS project creating a WoW64 widget for the desktop.

It is open source to allow easy configuration, bug-fixing, enhancement and community contribution towards free-and-useful VB6 utilities that can be created by anyone. The first step was the creation of this template program to form the basis for the conversion of other desktop utilities or widgets. A future step is new VB6 widgets with more functionality and then hopefully, conversion of each to RADBasic/TwinBasic for future-proofing and 64bit-ness.

This utility is one of a set of steampunk and dieselpunk widgets. That you can find here on Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/yereverluvinuncleber/gallery

I do hope you enjoy using this utility and others. Your own software enhancements and contributions will be gratefully received if you choose to contribute.

BUILD: The program runs without any Microsoft plugins but does require some components as project Reference, specifically Microsoft XML, v3.0. See the project references section below.

Built using: VB6, MZ-TOOLS 3.0, VBAdvance, CodeHelp Core IDE Extender Framework 2.2 & Rubberduck 2.4.1, RichClient 6

Links:

https://www.vbrichclient.com/#/en/About/
MZ-TOOLS https://www.mztools.com/
CodeHelp https://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=62468&lngWId=1
Rubberduck https://rubberduckvba.com/
Registry code ALLAPI.COM
La Volpe https://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=67466&lngWId=1
PrivateExtractIcons code https://www.activevb.de/rubriken/
Balloon Tooltips - Elroy on VBforums.
Open File common dialog code without dependent OCX - https://forums.codeguru.com/member.php?92278-rxbagain
VBAdvance

Tested on :

ReactOS 0.4.14 32bit on virtualBox
Windows 7 Professional 32bit on Intel
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on Intel
Windows 7 Professional 64bit on Intel
Windows XP SP3 32bit on Intel
Windows 10 Home 64bit on Intel
Windows 10 Home 64bit on AMD
Windows 11 64bit on Intel

CREDITS:

I have really tried to maintain the credits as the project has progressed. If I have made a mistake and left someone out then do forgive me. I will make amends if anyone points out my mistake in leaving someone out.

MicroSoft in the 90s - MS built good, lean and useful tools in the late 90s and early 2000s. Thanks for VB6.

Olaf Schmidt - This tool was built using the RichClient RC5 Cairo wrapper for VB6. Specifically the components using transparency and reading images directly from PSD. Thanks for the massive effort Olaf in creating Cairo counterparts for all VB6 native controls and giving us access to advanced features on controls such as transparency.

Shuja Ali @ codeguru for his settings.ini code.

ALLAPI.COM For the registry reading code.

Rxbagain on codeguru for his Open File common dialog code without a dependent OCX - https://forums.codeguru.com/member.php?92278-rxbagain

si_the_geek for his special folder code

Elroy on VB forums for the balloon tooltips

Harry Whitfield for his quality testing, brain stimulation and being an unwitting source of inspiration.

Dependencies:

o A windows-alike o/s such as Windows XP, 7-11 or Apple Mac OSX 11.

o Microsoft VB6 IDE installed with its runtime components. The program runs without any additional Microsoft OCX components, just the basic controls that ship with VB6.

• Uses the latest version of the RC6 Cairo framework from Olaf Schmidt.

During development the RC6 components need to be registered. These scripts are used to register. Run each by double-clicking on them.

RegisterRC6inPlace.vbs
RegisterRC6WidgetsInPlace.vbs

During runtime on the users system, the RC6 components are dynamically referenced using modRC6regfree.bas which is compiled into the binary.

Requires a Panzer Temperature Gauge folder in C:\Users<user>\AppData\Roaming
eg: C:\Users<user>\AppData\Roaming\Panzer Temperature Gauge Requires a settings.ini file to exist in C:\Users<user>\AppData\Roaming\Panzer Temperature Gauge The above will be created automatically by the compiled program when run for the first time.

o Krool's replacement for the Microsoft Windows Common Controls found in mscomctl.ocx (slider) are replicated by the addition of one dedicated OCX file that are shipped with this package.

During development only, this must be copied to C:\windows\syswow64 and should be registered.

• CCRSlider.ocx

Register this using regsvr32, ie. in a CMD window with administrator privileges.

c:                          ! set device to boot drive with Windows
cd \windows\syswow64s	    ! change default folder to syswow64
regsvr32 CCRSlider.ocx	! register the ocx

This will allow the custom controls to be accessible to the VB6 IDE at design time and the sliders will function as intended (if this ocx is not registered correctly then the relevant controls will be replaced by picture boxes).

The above is only for development, for ordinary users, during runtime there is no need to do the above. The OCX will reside in the program folder. The program reference to this OCX is contained within the supplied resource file, Panzer Temperature Gauge.RES. The reference to this file is already compiled into the binary. As long as the OCX is in the same folder as the binary the program will run without the need to register the OCX manually.

• OLEGuids.tlb

This is a type library that defines types, object interfaces, and more specific API definitions needed for COM interop / marshalling. It is only used at design time (IDE). This is a Krool-modified version of the original .tlb from the vbaccelerator website. The .tlb is compiled into the executable. For the compiled .exe this is NOT a dependency, only during design time.

From the command line, copy the tlb to a central location (system32 or wow64 folder) and register it.

COPY OLEGUIDS.TLB %SystemRoot%\System32
REGTLIB %SystemRoot%\System32\OLEGUIDS.TLB

In the VB6 IDE - project - references - browse - select the OLEGuids.tlb

• SETUP.EXE - The program is currently distributed using setup2go, a very useful and comprehensive installer program that builds a .exe installer. Youll have to find a copy of setup2go on the web as it is now abandonware. Contact me directly for a copy. The file "install PzRAM Gauge 0.1.0.s2g" is the configuration file for setup2go. When you build it will report any errors in the build.

• HELP.CHM - the program documentation is built using the NVU HTML editor and compiled using the Microsoft supplied CHM builder tools (HTMLHelp Workshop) and the HTM2CHM tool from Yaroslav Kirillov. Both are abandonware but still do the job admirably. The HTML files exist alongside the compiled CHM file in the HELP folder.

Project References:

The following Project References MUST in place and must be set (ticked) in order for this project to build.

VisualBasic for Applications
VisualBasic Runtime Objects and Procedures
VisualBasic Objects and Procedures
vbRichClient6 - RC6Widgets (RC6Widgets.DLL)
vbRichClient6 - RC6 (RC6.DLL)
Microsoft XML, v3.0 c:/windows/SysWow64/msxml3.dll

LICENCE AGREEMENTS:

Copyright © 2023 Dean Beedell

In addition to the GNU General Public Licence please be aware that you may use any of my own imagery in your own creations but commercially only with my permission. In all other non-commercial cases I require a credit to the original artist using my name or one of my pseudonyms and a link to my site. With regard to the commercial use of incorporated images, permission and a licence would need to be obtained from the original owner and creator, ie. me.