Getting VATSIM data into an app

[Udo Thiel 1267398]

Hi, I'm the author of XAirport for Mac and iPad. I'd like to support VATSIM in my app. I have been looking around a bit but can't find an SDK or any other info about how programs like ServInfo and VatSpy get their data.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance,

-Udo.

[Svilen Vassilev]

What kind of data do you need, Udo?

[Udo Thiel 1267398]

What kind of data do you need, Udo?

 

Well that depends on how easy it is to fetch. For a start, probably a map display where everyone is in the virtual world.

 

Thanks, -Udo.

[Svilen Vassilev]

OK, for online stations data (atc, pilots) this file is a good starting point:

 

http://status.vatsim.net/status.txt

 

You'll notice links there to several servers hosting the vatsim-data file, such as for example:

 

http://info.vroute.net/vatsim-data.txt

 

That's the csv dump of all active connected stations.

 

From there on it's a matter of parsing the data and visualizing it in any manner you want.

 

Best practices include calling the status file rarely, let's say once per 6-12 hours or so, then choosing a random server from the available to pull the csv dump from (to distribute the load).

[Udo Thiel 1267398]

Thanks Svilen. Final question: Is this docomeented somewehere? Where did you get that information from?

[Svilen Vassilev]

Not that I know of. The Vatsim web infrastructure and know-how is generally patchy and lacks uniformity. The sacred knowledge is mostly p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ed mouth to ear although bits and pieces and sometimes implementation examples can be picked by reading the Webmasters section of the forum. Admittedly those bits and pieces shrunk after the recent forum rollback. Some services are self docomeented or self-explanatory, like the files I linked to. I suppose you're concerned about whether the method I gave you is the really "official" one and if there's a better way of doing it. There isn't.

[Udo Thiel 1267398]

Thanks Svilen for giving me a starting point.