Open Weather Map API needs an API-key to make the request.

Question

Hi,

In the challenge "Call the jQuery $.getJSON method" I saw something odd.

If I try to do a request with only these two data attributes (q and units) that we have right now in the code (i.e. copy and paste this URL: http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=Portland%2COR&units=metric)

I got an error message. "message": "Invalid API key. Please see http://openweathermap.org/faq#error401 for more info."

" Starting from 9 October 2015 our API requires a valid APPID for access."

To fix this I have created a new free account in openweathermap.org and with this I have one API key to request the data successfully (tested in my local machine).

var data = { q: "Portland,OR", units: "metric", appid: "MyAPIKeyHere" };

Example of the response with a valid appid:

{"coord":{"lon":-122.68,"lat":45.52},"weather":[{"id":802,"main":"Clouds","description":"scattered clouds","icon":"03n"}],"base":"cmc stations","main":{"temp":26,"pressure":1015,"humidity":39,"temp_min":24,"temp_max":27.78},"wind":{"speed":3.1,"deg":310},"clouds":{"all":40},"dt":1467855033,"sys":{"type":1," id":2274,"message":0.003,"country":"US","sunrise":1467894617,"sunset":1467950453}, "id":5746545,"name":"Portland","cod":200}

With this change (adding the valid API-key) I still have the error message in the challenge.

Thanks.

weather.js

$(document).ready(function() {

  var weatherAPI = 'http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather';
  var data = {
    q : "Portland,OR",
    units : "metric",
    appid: "MyKeyHere"
  };
  function showWeather(weatherReport) {
    $('#temperature').text(weatherReport.main.temp);
  }

  $.getJSON(weatherAPI,data, function(result){  showWeather(result);  });

});

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>What's the Weather Like?</title>
  <script src="jquery.js"></script>
  <script src="weather.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <div id="main">
    <h1>Current temperature: <span id="temperature"></span>&deg;</h1>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

Answer 1 · 2016-07-07T22:53:33Z

July 7, 2016 10:53pm

Rene,

You actually didn't need to make an account or anything. You're over-thinking the question.

If you rewatch the video that I'll link below, right around the 30 second mark, Dave explains how to write the $.getJSON function correctly.

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/ajax-basics/ajax-and-apis/making-the-ajax-request

You've posted this:

$.getJSON(weatherAPI,data, function(result){  showWeather(result);  });

and you're very close, but your callback function doesn't need an argument and you don't need to write out "function() {}..." Rewatch the video to see what you need to remove from your code to get the challenge correct.

I hope this helps.

John

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Rene Hinojosa

Rene Hinojosa

Open Weather Map API needs an API-key to make the request.

1 Answer

John Coolidge

John Coolidge