andrewevans0102/weather-text

Send a weather forecast as a text message using AWS Lambda and several APIs

duck-weather

This project uses an AWS Lambda to send a text message with the current weather.

Here's the process flow:

1. Lambda is triggered by a CloudWatch scheduled cron job
2. Lambda calls the OpenWeatherMap API for current conditions
3. Lambda calls the NOAA API for forecast data
4. A message is created with all of the content
5. A text message is sent via Twilio's APIs

AWS CLI

• Before running your own version of this project, please create an AWS account and setup the CLI.
• Go here to get started

ClaudiaJS

• This project uses ClaudiaJS to generate the AWS lambda
• Checkout the tutorial here https://claudiajs.com/tutorials/hello-world-lambda.html

OpenWeatherMap API

• In order to get the current weather I used the OpenWeatherMap API. The weather service is free, but you still need to register to create an API Key.
• Go here to get started

NOAA APIs

• In order to get the weather forecast, I used NOAAs APIs. These are free and open to the public.
• Go here to get started

Environment Variables

• This lambda uses several environment variables to do its work
• OPEN_WEATHER_MAP_API_KEY = the registration key for an OpenWeatherMAPAPI account
• LATITUDE = the Latitude of the location you want to get the forecast of
• LONGITUDE = the Longitude of the location you want to get the forecast of
• TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID = the SID of a Twilio account for sending text messages
• TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN = the auth token of a Twilio account for sending text messages
• TWILIO_FROM = the phone number that is to be used with the Twilio account for sending text messages
• TWILIO_TO = the phone number you want to send a text message to
• In order to easily setup these values, please fill out the corresponding <VALUE> and paste this at the bottom of your terminal's bash_profile (or other associated shell)

# weather-text
export WT_OPEN_WEATHER_MAP_API_KEY=<VALUE>
export WT_LATITUDE=<VALUE>
export WT_LONGITUDE=<VALUE>
export WT_TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=<VALUE>
export WT_TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=<VALUE>
export WT_TWILIO_FROM=<VALUE>
export WT_TWILIO_TO=<VALUE>

NPM scripts

• This project has npm scripts that will enable you to get up and running without a problem
• create-lambda uses the ClaudiaJS CLI and the AWS CLI to create a lambda in the AWS account on your machine
• update-lambda uses the ClaudiaJS CLI to provision your Lambda with the environment variables mentioned above
• local-test enables you to call your lambda from your local terminal

TO RUN THIS LOCALLY

• Create an OpenWeatherMap API account and get a key
• Create an AWS account and setup the CLI on your local machine (the account gives you a free year of services)
• Install the ClaudiaJS CLI on your local machine
• Create a trial account with Twilio (it is free and you get a starting credit)
• Setup the Environment variables in the npm script that I mentioned above
• Run the create-lambda script to create the lambda in AWS
• Run the update-lambda script to update the Lambda with the environment Variables
• Run the local-test script to see it in action (and test it on a phone number of your choice)
• and tada! 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 It should be working!

Contributions

• This is a very small project, but PRs are welcome!
• Reach out to me at @AndrewEvans0102 on twitter anytime!