晴天钟/7Timer

　　新晴天钟再次进行了若干修正，详列如下：

• 重写了XML和JSON API；
• 民用及民用简化版加入了“零星阵雨”和“局地阵雨”两种天气状况，民用、民用简化版及两周展望进行了一些发报机制修正；
• 预报页面加入地址解析功能，预报图表下方同时显示图例以及相关信息。

　　若无重大改动，晴天钟将在7月31日前正式切换到新平台上使用，旧平台网站界面将不再对外提供服务，但预报界面（含API）将至少运转到今年底。

A few modifications are made on the new 7Timer platform. They are:

• Re-write the XML/JSON API output.
• "Occasional showers" and "isolated showers" are added to CIVIL and CIVIL Light forecasts, plus some adjustment of the forecast scheme.
• Adding current site geocoding of the forecast pages, as well as in-page icon definition table. Sun/moon/twilight information as seen on the old platform are also migrated in.

As my time for the development of the new 7Timer has already run out, I have no plan for further major revision. If no serious bugs are found, the new platform will become official by July 31th. The web interface of the old platform will then be deprecated and can not be accessed, while the old forecast diagrams as well as their APIs will be operational until no early than Dec. 31, 2011. I recommend all program/website developers to migrate to the new version APIs.

新晴天钟网站界面

　　我高兴地宣布，经过一段时间的开发，晴天钟第四版已经可以公开测试了，大家可以访问 http://www.7timer.com/v4 来使用新版本。

　　新版本是一次彻底的变革，晴天钟几乎所有的组件都被重写以便更有效率地为大家提供预报，同时还引入了许多让人兴奋的新特性，比如：

• 针对不同用户群的预报产品，包括民用、天文用途以及气象用途，重新设计的简洁图标让大家无需借助说明文档也可把握预报内容，同时也有信息量丰富的“气象用途”产品，包括了诸如950-200百帕垂直风场及湿度场剖面等专业数据。
• 集成Google Maps API的网站界面，舍弃第三版繁杂的地址数据库，依托于Google平台的地址查询功能，查询更加便利。
• GeoIP及W3C智能定位，支持iPhone和安卓等移动平台。
• 以及使用XML及JSON格式封装的开放的API，以期帮助程序编写者有效地采集气象信息。

　　目前新晴天钟处于公开测试阶段，可能仍存在相当数量的程序错误，欢迎各位指出（在此处留言或给我发邮件），我会视情况进行修正。按照目前计划，若两周内没有发现重大程序错误，新晴天钟将正式运行并取代现有版本。现有晴天钟的图像API将至少保留半年。

It is my pleasure to announce that the 4th version of 7Timer! is now ready for test. You may visit http://www.7timer.com/v4 to take a look at.

This is one of the largest renovations in 7Timer! history and almost all components have been re-written. A number of amazing new features have also been introduced, such as:

• Multiple products for users with different needs, such as for civil users, astronomers and meteorologists. The forecasted weather conditions would be presented by beautiful and easy-to-read weather icons which (I hope) can save your time on reading the manual. For the METEO product, a number of professional information is included such as the 950-200hPa relative humidity and wind profile.
• The web interface is now built under Google Maps API, so we no longer need a complex site database as we do in the 3rd version. Site search queries will be forwarded to and processed by the Google engine.
• 7Timer! now offers highly flexible and easy-to-use APIs in XML and JSON standards for programmers to access our data. They can be accessed directly without registering an API key. It is my hope that the release of API can help programmers to get weather forecast data more conveniently.

The new 7Timer! is now under testing phase, meaning that many bugs may exist at this period of time. Please let me know if you find one, or have suggestions, either by commenting in this post or send me an email. We expect that the testing phase will lasts about two weeks. If no major bugs are found, the new platform will become official and the old 3rd version will be deprecated. However, the old API will still be operational at least until 2012, although I encourage all programmers and website administrators to migrate/move the code to the new 4th version.