Use Galaxy Watch Designer to Change the Weather
Jakia Sultana
Engineer, Samsung Developer Program
You can’t really change the weather using Galaxy Watch Designer (GWD). However, GWD version 1.7.1 introduced the ability to design a watch face that uses a button to display weather content in various units on the watch face. The temperature unit selector lets users change the temperature unit. Previously, you could set the Auto-refresh time of any weather data; now the update weather data feature allows users to update weather information, which is provided by OpenWeatherMap, whenever they want.
Get Started
The temperature unit selector and update weather data features both require the use of weather components.
Keep in mind the following limitations with using any weather components in GWD.
- You cannot use these features along with weather components:
- In-App Purchase
- Tag expression
- Text elements:
- Steps %
- Step counts
- Steps goal
- Speed
- Burned calorie
- Moved distance
- Heart rate
- Water intake
- Caffeine intake
- Floor
- You must use a weather API key to facilitate the use of any weather component. For more details, see this section. Note: The Weather API can determine a watch’s location to show the current weather data, but it can’t detect your location on the Galaxy Watch Designer tool. To see the current weather data on the GWD tool, select your location manually from Edit > Preferences > APIs > Current location > Select location.
Temperature Unit Selector
The Text > Temperature element displays the current weather temperature on your watch face. The temperature unit selector enables you to select the temperature unit (Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin). To create a temperature unit selector on your watch face:
- From the sidebar, click Text > Temperature:
- A dialog box opens, warning you of the limitation of using this element. Check Do not show again if you understand the limitation, and click OK. We recommend: Don’t check Do not show again, so you’ll be reminded of the limitations the next time you use this element.
- From Properties, click the Set as Button menu option.
- From Properties > Action, click Action > Interaction > Tap, and then set Action to Change Temperature Unit.
Update Weather Data
Follow these steps to add the update weather data feature:
- From the sidebar, click Text > {any weather type}.
- From Properties, click the Set as Button menu option.
- From Properties > Action, click Action > Interaction > Tap, and then set Action to Update Weather Data.
Test the feature
Test your ability to modify weather content using the sample GWD file.
Tap on the temperature text to change to another unit. If it is not the unit you want, tap again. Because there are three temperature unit options, you must tap twice to cycle through the units (see Figure 1).
Tap on the update weather data button for the latest weather data (see Figure 2). This figure shows the Weather icon with a time of 9:40, which is when OpenWeatherMap last updated weather data..
To check weather on a real device, make sure your watch is connected to the Internet, and location services are enabled.
Conclusion
Explore what's possible with Galaxy Watch Designer version 1.8.0. There’s a ton for you to try with this release, as you design for Galaxy Watch and other Galaxy wearables. We’re excited to see what you will build!
