Data Servers

[Nestor Perez]

Hi,

 

During the last weeks, I’ve been programming some VATSIM-related stuff, and I’ve noticed that only 2 of VATSIM’s data servers (vroute... and whazzup... -when it’s available-) are actually able to return a 304 Not Modified code.

 

I wonder if it would be possible to add this feature to the rest of the servers, as in my opinion it is one of the easiest ways of reducing network and server load. And actually, why would the other ones return an “ETag” or a “last-modified” header if they are not able to give back a 304? If not, I am seeing myself forced to use only one of all servers (vroute), as currently it’s the only available one that is actually able to respond with such code.

 

Looking forward to hearing about it,

[Johan Tiesinga]

Agreed!

In my instance I only fetch from VRoute as I fetch the data more often than RELOAD advises (as it lies and it's refreshed more often). To save bandwidth on both sides I configured caching for the HTTP client library but only VRoute plays nice.

Both Aircharts.org and Harden.net send out ETag's in their response but don't actually handle them, causing them to send out several tens of kilobytes which I will trash as I already have those.

 

status.vatsim.net advises to pick one server at random but with caching this needs to have a consistent ETag across all servers to effectively receive 304's.

 

Kind regards,

 

Johan.