Functional concepts

Functional concepts#

Functional concepts of integration with AEMET in Plone and Volto.

Introduction#

The integration of AEMET (State Meteorological Agency) with Plone CMS and Volto enables official meteorological information to be incorporated into a website, providing users with up-to-date data on weather conditions, forecasts, weather warnings and other relevant climate information.

This integration facilitates the reuse of the web services (REST APIs and XML/JSON files) published by AEMET, enabling Plone to act as an intermediary between the platform and the user interface developed in Volto.

Objectives of integration#

The integration aims to achieve the following objectives:

  • Display official weather information directly on the website.

  • Centralise access to AEMET services via the Plone backend.

  • Reduce direct calls from the browser to external services.

  • Facilitate the reuse of weather data across different Volto blocks and components.

  • Enable configuration of the service via the Plone Control Panel.

Integration architecture#

                +---------------------------+
                |          Volto            |
                |       React Frontend      |
                +------------+--------------+
                             |
                        REST API
                             |
                +------------v--------------+
                |          Plone            |
                |    Integration service    |
                +------------+--------------+
                             |
                      HTTP / HTTPS
                             |
                +------------v--------------+
                |        API AEMET          |
                +---------------------------+

Functional components#

Backend (Plone)#

The backend is responsible for:

  • Managing authentication with the AEMET API.

  • Making enquiries to meteorological services.

  • Processing responses in JSON or XML format.

  • Temporarily storing the information (cache).

  • Exposing its own REST services to Volto.

  • Logging errors and events related to the integration.

Frontend (Volto)#

Volto utilises the REST services provided by Plone to:

  • Display the weather forecast.

  • Display weather icons.

  • Show maximum and minimum temperatures.

  • Display weather warnings.

  • Integrate the information into reusable blocks.

Service configuration#

The integration must allow the following to be configured from within Plone:

  • Base URL of the service.

  • Default county or municipality.

  • Logging level.

These settings can be stored via a configuration panel (Registry) accessible from the Control Panel.

Weather forecast#

One of the main features is the ability to obtain a forecast for a specific town or town.

The information may include:

  • Sky conditions.

  • High temperature.

  • Low temperature.

  • Chance of precipitation.

This information can be displayed on a card or block within Volto.

Weather warnings#

Users can view the official warnings issued by AEMET.

Examples:

  • Heavy rain.

  • Snowfall.

  • Strong winds.

  • Coastal phenomena.

  • High temperatures.

  • Low temperatures.

These warnings can be highlighted using visual elements with different priority levels.

Volto blocks#

The integration may offer specific reusable blocks, for example:

Weather Block#

Display:

  • Weather icon.

  • Current temperature.

  • High and low.

  • Sky condition.

Forecast Block#

Displays the multi-day forecast.

This may include:

  • Day.

  • Icon.

  • Temperatures.

  • Chance of rain.

Error handling#

The integration must account for situations such as:

  • AEMET service unavailable.

  • Timeout.

  • Municipality does not exist.

  • Communication error.

The system must log these events and provide clear responses to the frontend.

Security#

The following practices are recommended:

  • Keep the configuration on the backend only.

  • Always use HTTPS.

  • Validate the parameters received from Volto.

  • Limit the number of permitted queries.

  • Log invalid access attempts.

Use cases#

Institutional website#

Display the weather forecast for the city where the institution is located.

Benefits of integration#

  • Official information from AEMET.

  • Decoupled architecture between backend and frontend.

  • Reusable components in Volto.

  • Centralised configuration via Plone.

  • Scalability for future weather-related features.

Best practices#

  • Centralise all calls to AEMET in the Plone backend.

  • Expose only proprietary REST services to Volto.

  • Implement a configurable cache.

  • Design reusable blocks for presenting information.

  • Keep the access key secure and separate from the frontend.

  • Log errors and monitor the status of the integration to facilitate maintenance.

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