Flag @ Half Mast


#1

I would like to create a dashboard tile that tells me if today is a day that the US flag should be flown at half mast. Various US flag merchants provide widgets that they say you can insert into your website.

There is one on this page: https://flagdom.com/half-mast-widget

Any one got the skills, if even possible from the widget code, to create such a tile? Thinking it might just make a call each day through the widget to find out if today is half or not?

Separately anyone have any working ways to automatically raise and lower a flag on a standard flag pole? I would guess you need some sort of engine/motor linked to the halyard. I have electricity available to me @ the flagpole. Seems like a hobby project for sure. Any ideas?


#2

That widget probably subscribes to an rss feed, like this one:

http://halfstaff.org/feed/

You could get the feed and then parse out the data that you want - such as the date, times, event, etc. - from the rss feed using jquery (for example). Here’s a decent explanation: