Stormpulse API

The Stormpulse API allows anyone with webmaster privileges (really, the ability to place a JavaScript tag on a page) the ability to embed custom hurricane tracking maps on their own web pages.

Just send us an email (stormpulse at gmail dot com) with the domain (URL) where you want to embed the map. We’ll reply and provide you with an API key to enable you to use our maps.

TERMS OF SERVICE (short and sweet):

ELIGIBILITY: In short, we have decided that the Stormpulse map should not be embedded on pages whose content is primarily an advertisement for another product or service or whose content is primarily that of an e-commerce site. We believe this is in the best interest of our customers so as not to confuse them regarding the source and purpose of the tracking map. E-commerce aside, a simple test is to ask yourself “Does this site have anything to do with weather? Is weather presented or discussed on this site in some fashion?” If the answer is no, we are likely to determine (after review) that your site is not a good fit for the map. We are willing to re-evaluate our decision if your site changes in this regard.

LINK BACK: In exchange for providing the map, we ask API clients to place a link to http://www.stormpulse.com below the map wherever the map appears: “Powered by hurricane-tracking software from Stormpulse.com.” wherein hurricane-tracking is a link to http://www.stormpulse.com.  Please note: This link must be a standard hyperlink, not the ‘nofollow’ kind (if you don’t know what this means, you don’t need to worry about it, but you can read more about nofollow if you’d like; in short, ‘nofollow’ prevents Stormpulse from receiving credit in the eyes of search engines like Google).

ADVERTISING: Currently, the map is advertisement-free. However, that is subject to change at any time. The Stormpulse map on The Palm Beach Post’s Storm2008 site has a sponsorship ad in the top-left corner. Stormpulse.com reserves the right to place a tasteful advertisement on the tracking map at any point in the future. We will, however, notify you before doing so. At that point, we will be willing to work with those of you that have contractual obligations forbidding certain forms of (or even all) advertising.

THE TECHNICAL NITTY-GRITTY:

Here’s an example of the HTML you would then need to place on your web page, where ‘ABCDEF’ should be replaced with your own API key:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/current/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

The ‘current’ phrase in the URL means that this will pull back a map showing current tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic basin. To highlight a particular storm (handy when multiple storms are active), simply change this phrase to a different phrase, such as ‘edouard’ or ‘tropical-storm-edouard-2008′ or even ‘five’ (since Edouard is the fifth Tropical Depression of the year):

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/tropical-storm-edouard-2008/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/five/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/tropical-depression-five-2008/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

You can even show storms from yesteryear using the same syntax, for example the legendary Hugo:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/hurricane-hugo-1989/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

Or perhaps you can only remember the name of an infamous storm; often you can get away with just using the name:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/gilbert/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

NEW!  SETTING THE STORM BASIN

Since the beginning of the 2009 season, Stormpulse.com has provided coverage of the Northeast Pacific Basin as well as the Atlantic.  The API map defaults to the Atlantic basin, so if you would like to focus on the latest activity in the Pacific, you need to add a reference to Pacific into your URL, like so:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/pacific/current/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

The same rules that govern choosing Atlantic seasons and storms also applies to the Pacific. For example, to bring up a map of Hurricane Iniki, you would use the following code:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/pacific/hurricane-iniki-1992/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

And to bring up the entire 2008 Northeast Pacific Basin hurricane season, you would use:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/pacific/2008-hurricane-season/?key=ABCDEF" type="text/javascript"></script>

SETTING THE HEIGHT AND WIDTH

You can specify the height and width of the map returned by the JavaScript tag by passing in an extra parameter (or two) to the URL–namely ‘height’ and ‘width’, for example:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/current/?key=ABCDEF&height=600&width=720" type="text/javascript"></script>

You can even request a full-screen map (one that consumes the entire browser window) by requesting height=100%, width=100%, for example:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/current/?key=ABCDEF&height=100%&width=100%" type="text/javascript"></script>

SETTING THE WMODE

One of the more advanced settings available to users of the embedded map is the ability to set the wmode parameter on the Flash app. This value controls whether or not HTML elements are visible above or behind the map. The three acceptable values are ‘window’ (default), ‘opaque’, and ‘transparent’. You can see examples of each here. Here’s an example of setting the parameter in the API call:

<script src="http://www.stormpulse.com/api/maps/current/?key=ABCDEF&wmode=opaque" type="text/javascript"></script>

This feature is somewhat “use at your own risk”, as we’ve heard of problems using certain wmodes with certain browsers (see: http://is.gd/kCCd). Please feel free to report what you encounter and let us know if we can do anything differently on our end to help.

FUTURE UPGRADES

The nice thing about this service, in addition to it being free, is that you will automatically benefit from enhancements we plan to roll out to the map in the near future, including the tracking of developing systems (invests/disturbances) in addition to those that have gained tropical depression status.

Thanks for using Stormpulse.