Amanda Watson
asked on
How has this flight information been added to this website?
Hi There,
I am just trying to figure out what third party plugin that has been used to add this flight info to this page
http://ballinabyronairport.com.au/arrivals-departures/
I know about amadeus and wonder if they have paid for some plugin with access, but could anyone shed some light on this?
Thank you
I am just trying to figure out what third party plugin that has been used to add this flight info to this page
http://ballinabyronairport.com.au/arrivals-departures/
I know about amadeus and wonder if they have paid for some plugin with access, but could anyone shed some light on this?
Thank you
In USA, we have several flight tracking companies with commercial APIs that you can license, hook up to, and display data. Here's one that, in my experience, has been reliable:
https://flightaware.com/commercial/flightxml/
https://flightaware.com/commercial/flightxml/
ASKER
Yes I am aware of the flight tracking software available, but can anyone see the one they are using on this site?
I can't seem to determine what it is from the code??
I can't seem to determine what it is from the code??
Ok, I think I didn't explain myself correctly.
Overall idea:
This information is only related to this airport, so they already have the information in their systems, it makes no sense to use an external provider for that.
It's the same as if you where the owner of a parking lot and you were using a third party service to know how many parking spaces you have available.
Implentation:
Anyway, I had a closer look to the thing and the data is actually rendered server-side, so there's no way to know what they are using there.
This is a very basic site that completely refreshes itself from time to time in order to update the data; just sit there for a while and you'll see the full page reloading.
There's also very few javascript used and there's actually zero ajax request (a rarity nowadays) so all the work is done server-side, making it impossible to know what they are using as a source of data... from what I technically see there, they can even be querying a DB directly, old school stuff :)
Additional Information
Take the example of my airport here in Geneva.
This is a different way to tackle the problem, this time with 4 main internal ajax calls to get parking, flights, weather and Emergencies info. Each information box gets updated independently but still always requesting internal resources.
Again, all data comes from inside because the airport itself already has all that, and more accurate than any third party... so why paying or even risk having inaccurate data when you have it all?
Just a small final note on costs saving
Sometimes, even if you use a third party service, let's say for weather information, you might still want to do it from the server.
The main reason if to cut the costs. These services (the good ones) often charge per call (or group of calls) so if you do it server-side you can simply cache this data instead of doing one request per page load.
With this approach, it's also impossible to know which service the site is using... (unless you identify the fancy icons :))
Cheers mate,
Alex
Overall idea:
This information is only related to this airport, so they already have the information in their systems, it makes no sense to use an external provider for that.
It's the same as if you where the owner of a parking lot and you were using a third party service to know how many parking spaces you have available.
Implentation:
Anyway, I had a closer look to the thing and the data is actually rendered server-side, so there's no way to know what they are using there.
This is a very basic site that completely refreshes itself from time to time in order to update the data; just sit there for a while and you'll see the full page reloading.
There's also very few javascript used and there's actually zero ajax request (a rarity nowadays) so all the work is done server-side, making it impossible to know what they are using as a source of data... from what I technically see there, they can even be querying a DB directly, old school stuff :)
Additional Information
Take the example of my airport here in Geneva.
This is a different way to tackle the problem, this time with 4 main internal ajax calls to get parking, flights, weather and Emergencies info. Each information box gets updated independently but still always requesting internal resources.
Again, all data comes from inside because the airport itself already has all that, and more accurate than any third party... so why paying or even risk having inaccurate data when you have it all?
Just a small final note on costs saving
Sometimes, even if you use a third party service, let's say for weather information, you might still want to do it from the server.
The main reason if to cut the costs. These services (the good ones) often charge per call (or group of calls) so if you do it server-side you can simply cache this data instead of doing one request per page load.
With this approach, it's also impossible to know which service the site is using... (unless you identify the fancy icons :))
Cheers mate,
Alex
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Great answers and thanks so much for the detail. That is a brilliant site builtwith, so thanks for that.
I appreciate all your help here.
Thank so much
I appreciate all your help here.
Thank so much
ASKER
So detailed, thank you
The information about the flights that land and leave the airport?
I don't know if I understood your question correctly but here's my answer:
That site is the site of the Australian Ballina Byron Gateway Airport.
The airport knows which planes are landing and departing, they don't need to integrate with any 3rd party APIs.
Cheers!
Alex