Heather — Polished Weather App (Avalonia/.NET)

Heather — Polished Weather App (Avalonia / .NET)

Heather is a lightweight, polished desktop weather application built with Avalonia and .NET 8. It targets Linux (and other desktop platforms supported by Avalonia) and provides current conditions and short-term forecasts with a focus on clean visuals and a macOS "Tahoe"-like dark style.

Key features

• Current conditions: temperature, feels-like, wind speed/direction, gusts, humidity, cloud cover, dew point, precipitation
• Short forecast: 1–3 day forecast selectable (hourly details available in the API)
• Astronomical data: sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, moon phase, moon illumination
• AQI snippets: the WeatherAPI air_quality block is preserved and available to show
• Unit toggle: Celsius by default, Fahrenheit supported and converted client-side
• Accessibility: keyboard navigation and visible focus styles
• Local-first: API key is provided via environment variable (no keys are committed)

Screenshot

(Add screenshots here after you run the app locally — see "Try it" below.)

Quick start (Linux)

1. Install .NET 8 SDK (see https://dotnet.microsoft.com for instructions).
2. Clone this repo and cd into it:

git clone https://github.com/cogrow4/Heather.git
cd Heather

3. Set your WeatherAPI key (recommended via environment variable):

# bash / zsh
export WEATHERAPI_KEY=005dbfba0d8e4bfda6524825251709

Important: do not commit your API key. Use environment variables, dotnet user-secrets or another secure store for production.

4. Restore, build and run:

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project Heather.csproj

Usage notes

• Search box: type a city name, postal code, or latitude,longitude and hit Search.
• Days selector: choose 1–3 days for the forecast. The default is 3 days.
• Unit toggle: click the °C / °F button to switch temperature units locally.
• If the app shows an error banner, check that WEATHERAPI_KEY is set and that you have network access.

Developer notes

• Project: Heather.csproj targets .NET 8 and uses Avalonia 11 packages.
• API client: Services/WeatherApiClient.cs calls https://api.weatherapi.com/v1/forecast.json and deserializes into Models/WeatherResponse.cs.
• ViewModels: ViewModels/MainWindowViewModel.cs contains the UI logic, day selection, unit conversion and subtle UI pulse when data updates.
• Controls: Controls/WeatherSvgIcon.axaml is a small SVG-based icon control used for crisp weather icons.

Model compatibility checklist

• The WeatherAPI JSON returns location, current, and forecast.forecastday[].
• current fields we use: temp_c, feelslike_c, wind_kph, wind_mph, gust_kph, dewpoint_c, is_day, condition (text/icon), and air_quality.
• astro.moon_illumination is numeric — the model Astro.MoonIllumination maps to int? and the ViewModel converts it to string for display.

Troubleshooting

• NU1903 advisory for System.Text.Json was present earlier. The project upgrades the package reference; if you still see advisory warnings, run dotnet restore and make sure the SDK has network access to pull the newer package.
• If the app fails to start with an exception citing WEATHERAPI_KEY, ensure the env var is exported correctly in the same shell where you run dotnet run.
• XAML parse errors usually indicate malformed XAML. If you edit XAML files, keep backups and run dotnet build frequently.

Roadmap / next polish items

• Replace the slim built-in SVGs with richer Apple-like SVG icons and micro-animations.
• Add hourly drill-down UI for each forecast day.
• Persist user preferences (units, last-search, selected days).
• Caching / offline mode for last-known conditions and expiration.

Contributing

• PRs welcome. Please keep API keys out of commits and use feature branches.

License

• The project includes the repository LICENSE file. Verify licensing before re-use.

Contact

• Open issues or PRs on https://github.com/cogrow4/Heather

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Built with Avalonia and ❤️ — enjoy Heather on your desktop.