[Shortcode] Easily post an aviation TAF report into your WordPress post or page with shortcode

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A few weeks ago I posted some code that would retrieve an aviation metar from the NOAA website and display it within your WordPress blog post or page. As expected, it was followed with a few emails asking how we could output a TAF (or Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) instead. Using the same recycled code, it’s easily accomplished.

For all you non-aviation folk, a TAF is a format for reporting weather forecast information normally associated with a specific radius from an aerodrome. It is usually valid for a specified time period – usually from 3 to 24 hours. The validity of the report is included in the first line of the report.

The function is handy if you build a page that lists reports (perhaps in company with a Metar report) associated with your local airport. If you’re hosting an aviation event or airshow, it’s also nice to display weather.

There are two functions you can choose from. The first function will retrieve the TAF and simply display it on your website. As we’ve previously discussed, making repeated attempts to call the NOAA website may be deemed to be abuse (particularly if you have a busy website) so it’s better to locally cache the results for a specified time period. The second function below will do this using the WordPress Transient API.

Shortcode is the easiest way of including dynamic functionality into your blog so this is how the two functions are created for presentation within your post.

Example TAF report for Sydney (YSSY):

TAF FOR YSSY (Issued: Sat, May 18th 2013 6:33 PM UTC):TAF YSSY 181705Z 1818/1924 27013KT CAVOK FM182300 23013KT CAVOK

This is the most basic function. It will not cache results.

function get_taf($atts, $content = null) {
  extract(shortcode_atts(array(
    'loc' => 'YSSY'
  ), $atts));
$fileName = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/taf/stations/$loc.TXT";
	$taf = '';
	$fileData = @file($fileName) or die('TAF not available');
	if ($fileData != false) {
		list($i, $date) = each($fileData);

		$utc = strtotime(trim($date));
		$time = date("D, F jS Y g:i A",$utc);

		while (list($i, $line) = each($fileData)) {
			$taf .= ' ' . trim($line);
			}
		$taf = trim(str_replace('  ', ' ', $taf));
		}
	return "<blockquote>TAF FOR $loc (Issued: $time UTC):<br>$taf</blockquote>";
	}
add_shortcode('taf', 'get_taf');

The preferred function is below. It will cache the results for a time period as specified. It may be worth caching the results for the validity of the report or simply for one hour. By default, it will cache the results for 60 minutes although you can alter this by passing the parameter of time=”something” as detailed in the shortcode example below.

You will want to paste this code into your WordPress theme’s functions.php file.

function get_taf($atts, $content = null) {
  extract(shortcode_atts(array(
    'loc' => 'YSSY',
    'time' => '3600'
  ), $atts));

$transient = "$loc.taf";
$dbresult =  get_transient($transient);

if ($dbresult == true  )
	{
		return $dbresult;
	} else {

	$fileName = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/taf/stations/$loc.TXT";
	$taf = '';
	$transient = "$loc.taf";
	$fileData = @file($fileName) or die('TAF not available');
	if ($fileData != false) {
		list($i, $date) = each($fileData);

		$utc = strtotime(trim($date));
		$time = date("D, F jS Y g:i A",$utc);

		while (list($i, $line) = each($fileData)) {
			$taf .= ' ' . trim($line);
			}
		$taf = trim(str_replace('  ', ' ', $taf));
		}
	$result = "<BLOCKQUOTE>TAF FOR $loc (Issued: $time UTC):$taf</BLOCKQUOTE>";
	// 3600 will store the transient result for 1 hour
	set_transient($transient, $result, $time);
	return $result;

	}

}
add_shortcode('taf', 'get_taf');

You can output your default TAF (as specified in the function) using the shortcode of:

[taf]

If you want to generate a report of another airport (remembering that it has to be listed on the NOAA website), use the following format:

[taf loc=”YBBN”]

If you find this code useful, it would be nice to point others to the source.

Blue skies!

First Name: Your Email Address:

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