Weather App Assignment

Introduction

In this assignment, you will build a simple Java application that connects to a weather API and retrieves information about the current weather conditions of a given city.

Objectives

• Learn how to import and use a JSON library by reading its documentation
• Parse and process JSON data in Java
• Understand how the getWeatherData() function works and makes HTTP requests to retrieve data from the weather API
• Use Git for version control and collaborate on a codebase
• Use Maven or Gradle as package manager
• Write a report on the assignment

Requirements

• Java 8 or later
• Git
• Maven or Gradle

Tasks

1. Get an API key from https://www.weatherapi.com/. You need to sign up and verify your account.

2. Fork this repository and clone the fork to your local machine.

3. Create a new Git branch and switch to it (branch name: develop)

4. Add a the org.json package (or any other JSON library that you plan to use) to Gradle. You must include the necessary code in the dependencies section of the build.gradle file to import the JSON library. Be sure to check https://www.mvnrepository.com/ for more information.

5. Write a Java class WeatherApp that does the following:

   • Prompts the user for a city name
   • Parses the JSON response to extract the temperature and humidity
   • Prints the temperature and humidity to the console

6. Write a detailed report explaining the steps you took while working on this assignment

7. Commit your changes and push them to your own fork on Github

Notes

1. This project uses Gradle by default, but you are allowed to create a new project and use Maven as your package manager instead.
2. You can learn more about the Weather API by reading its official documentation at https://www.weatherapi.com/docs/. You can also experiment with the API by visiting the API Explorer tab in the website.
3. Your report should primarily be focused on the research you conducted on the JSON data format and your chosen JSON library.
4. Your report doesn't need to follow a specific report template, but it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with these templates before writing your report.

Evaluation

• Your code should compile and run without any errors
• Your code should correctly retrieve and display the temperature and humidity for a given city
• Your code should be well-organized, readable, properly commented and follows clean code principles
• You should use Git for version control and include meaningful commit messages

Attention: Using ChatGPT or any other AI generative model for any section of the assignment will result in a score of 0 without any warnings.

Bonus Objectives

1. Extend the WeatherApp class to also display the current wind speed and direction

2. Add error handling to handle cases where the API returns an error or the city name is not found

3. Revise your report to make it as comprehensive as possible with more details about your approach.

4. Implement a simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) for your project. This GUI should be able to display the city name and its temperature and humidity as text. There are several GUI libraries available for Java, But we would recommend using either Swing or JavaFX:

   • Swing is an older UI toolkit that has been part of the Java Standard Edition (Java SE) since its inception. Swing is still widely used and remains a popular choice for building desktop applications, especially for applications that require a more lightweight UI toolkit.
   • JavaFX, which is a more recent addition to the Java platform, is considered more powerful and provides more features and capabilities for building modern, visually rich desktop applications.

Submission

• Push your code to your fork on Github
• Upload your report as a PDF file to your fork on GitHub

The deadline for submitting your code is wednesday, March 1 (10th of Esfand). Any commits made after this date will not affect your score.

Good luck and happy coding!