VATSIM Stand Status

Table of Contents

• About
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
  • Construct an Instance
  • Loading Stand Data
    • 1. Loading from a CSV
    • 2. Loading from an Array
    • 3. Loading from OpenStreetMap (OSM)
  • Parsing the Data
• Data Types
• Examples
  • Constructing the library with a CSV data file
  • Constructing the library with a stand data array
  • Getting all the stands
  • Getting all occupied stands
  • Get all aircraft on the ground

About

Description

vatsim-stand-status is a tested, lightweight PHP library to allow the correlation between aircraft on the VATSIM flight simulation network and an airport stand.

VATSIM network data is downloaded and parsed by Skymeyer's Vatsimphp library.

Requirements

• PHP 7.3 and above

Author

This package was created by Alex Toff

License

vatsim-stand-status is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, which can be found in the root of the package in the LICENSE file.

All work is © Alex Toff 2020 and contributors

Installation

The easiest way to install stand status is through the use of composer:

$ composer require cobaltgrid/vatsim-stand-status

New to Composer? Here is a useful guide on getting started

Configuration

Stand Status's options are easily configurable through a series of setters on the base class. After changing the settings, make sure to run $standStatus->parseData() to (re)run the correlation algorithm.

Note that these are fluent setters, so you can chain them together.

Below are the available options. Prefix with get/set depending on what you want to change:

• maxStandDistance

  • This is the maximum an aircraft can be from a stand (in km) for that stand to be considered in the search for matching aircraft with stand
  • Default: 0.07 km

• hideStandSidesWhenOccupied

  • If true, stand sides (such as 42L and 42R) will be hidden when an aircraft occupies the 'base' stand, or a side. e.g. if an aircraft is occupying stand 42, the stands 42L and 42R will be removed from the list of stands
  • Default: true

• maxDistanceFromAirport

  • Aircraft filter. Aircraft that are within this distance from the defined center of the airport will be eligible for stand assignment.
  • Default: 2 km

• maxAircraftAltitude

  • Aircraft filter. Aircraft below this altitude will be eligible for stand assignment.
  • Default: 3000 ft

• maxAircraftGroundspeed

  • Aircraft filter. Aircraft below this ground speed will be eligible for stand assignment.
  • Default: 10 kts

• standExtensions

  • An array that defines the characters to indicate side stands.
  • Default: ['L', 'C', 'R', 'A', 'B', 'N', 'E', 'S', 'W']

• standExtensionPattern

  • A string that describes the pattern for stand names. MUST contain <standroot> and <extensions>. Default will work for any stand following the format 42L, 42R, 155, etc.
  • Default: '<standroot><extensions>'

Example

    // Sets the maximum allowed altitude to 4000ft, and searches aircraft within 5km of defined centre
    $standStatus->setMaxAircraftAltitude(4000)->setMaxStandDistance(5)->parseData();

Usage

There are 3 steps you need to take in order to get this library working:

Construct an Instance

If you have installed via composer, include the autoloader:

     require('./vendor/autoload.php');
     use CobaltGrid\VatsimStandStatus\StandStatus;

Then, an instance of the class must be made:

$StandStatus = new StandStatus(
        $airportLatitude,
        $airportLongitude,
        $standCoordinateFormat = self::COORD_FORMAT_DECIMAL
);

Required

• $airportLatitude - The decimal-format version of the airport's latitude. e.g. 51.148056
• $airportLongitude - The decimal-format version of the airport's longitude. e.g. -0.190278

Optional

• $standCoordinateFormat - Sets the format of coordinates in the stand data file. Defaults to decimal.
  • Use StandStatus::COORD_FORMAT_DECIMAL for decimal coordinates (-51.26012)
  • Use StandStatus::COORD_FORMAT_CAA for CAA / Aerospace Coordinate format (510917.35N)

Here is an example:

    use CobaltGrid\VatsimStandStatus\StandStatus;

    $StandStatus = new StandStatus(
        51.148056,
        -0.190278,
        StandStatus::COORD_FORMAT_CAA
    );

Loading Stand Data

After constructing the instance, you must load in the stand data for the airport.

There are currently 3 ways of getting stand data into StandStatus.

1. Loading from a CSV

Stand data can be read into the library via a CSV file, an example of which can be found in tests/Fixtures/SampleData/egkkstands.csv.

You can load in a CSV file's data like so:

    $standStatus->loadStandDataFromCSV('path/to/data.csv');

The first row can be used for headers if you so wish.

The order of the data should be ID, Latitude, Longitude.

• In the ID column is the stand name. This can be text, such as "42L", and doesn't just have to be a number.
• In the Latitude and Longitude columns should be the stand's latitude and longitude coordinate respectively. Current supported formats are:
  • Decimal (Default) - e.g. 51.0100 by -1.12000
  • CAA / Aerospace - e.g. 510917.35N

If your stand data file uses anything other than the default, you must specify this when constructing the instance (See above section)

In the end, you should have a CSV file that looks something like this (For a CAA / Aerospace format):

id	latitude	longitude
1	510917.35N	0000953.33W
2	510915.83N	0000952.81W
3	510914.31N	0000952.28W

2. Loading from an Array

Alternatively, you can load in stand data through an array that follows the format id, latitude, longitude:

    $standStatus->loadStandDataFromArray([
        ['1', '510917.35N', '0000953.33W'],
        ['2', '510915.83N', '0000952.81W'],
        ['3', '510914.31N', '0000952.28W'],
        ...
    ]);

Again, make sure you set the correct stand coordinate format in the constructor.

3. Loading from OpenStreetMap

This option leverages the powerful OpenStreetMap (OSM) Overpass API to attempt to find and download stand data that has been contributed on OSM. Unlike the other two methods, you don't have to do any data-digging at all, and just have to specify the ICAO code of the airport.

Some important notes:

• OSM data is constantly being edited. There is never any guarantee the data is accurate, or that it will stay up to date with changes. You should check the airport your want to use this method for has data available by taking a look on the OSM web editor. If it has no / limited data, change it yourself! Contribute to #opensource.
• OSM data is governed by the Open Data Commons Open Database License. The key take-away from this is that you must attribute OSM where you use the data. Check out their copyright site to find out more.
• The library will cache the data retrieved for an airport when the below method is first run to reduce unnecessary calls to the API. By default, this cache will last for 3 months.
• The library will search for the OSM data type aeroways=parking_position located inside the airfield boundary, using either the ref or name for the stand name. It will also use the latitude and longitude set in the constructor of the library, as well as the maxDistanceFromAirport setting to determine the search area bounding box.
• You must ensure the coordinate format set when initalising the instance is StandStatus::COORD_FORMAT_DECIMAL (the default)

To automatically download, cache and load the OpenStreetMap data, run:

    $standStatus->fetchAndLoadStandDataFromOSM($icao)->parseData();

    // Example for Heathrow
    $StandStatus = new StandStatus(51.4775, -0.461389);
    $standStatus->fetchAndLoadStandDataFromOSM('EGLL')->parseData();

If the API call fails, or there is an error parsing the data return, exceptions will be thrown. Check the source code to see what you want to catch.

Parsing the Data

You must then tell the library to download and parse the VATSIM data to assign aircraft to stands. This is done like so:

    $standStatus->parseData();

You can then use the methods to retrieve a list of stands with assigned aircraft, etc.

Data Types

There are two main object types used:

• Stand::class

  • Can call the stand's ID, latitude and longitude via properties (e.g. $stand->latitude)
  • $stand->occupier Returns the occupier (a Aircraft::class object), or null if none
  • $stand->isOccupied() Returns a boolean value for if the stand is occupied or not
  • $stand->getRoot() Gets the root of the stand. e.g. Stand 42R's root is 42
  • $stand->getExtension() Gets the extension for the stand, if it has one. e.g. Stand 42R's extension is 'R'

• Aircraft::class

  • The following properties are available on the instance (e.g. $aircraft->callsign)

  callsign,cid,realname,clienttype,frequency,latitude,longitude,altitude,groundspeed,planned_aircraft,planned_tascruise,planned_depairport,planned_altitude,planned_destairport,server,protrevision,rating,transponder,facilitytype,visualrange,planned_revision,planned_flighttype,planned_deptime,planned_actdeptime,planned_hrsenroute,planned_minenroute,planned_hrsfuel,planned_minfuel,planned_altairport,planned_remarks,planned_route,planned_depairport_lat,planned_depairport_lon,planned_destairport_lat,planned_destairport_lon,atis_message,time_last_atis_received,time_logon,heading,QNH_iHg,QNH_Mb

  • $aircraft->onStand() Returns a boolean value for if the aircraft is on a stand

Examples

For an integrated usage example, see the Gatwick demo in examples/egkkStands.php.

Constructing the library with a CSV data file

    use CobaltGrid\VatsimStandStatus\StandStatus;
    $standStatus = new StandStatus(
        51.148056,
        -0.190278,
        StandStatus::COORD_FORMAT_CAA);
    $standStatus->loadStandDataFromCSV('path/to/data.csv')->parseData();

Constructing the library with a stand data array

    $standStatus = new \CobaltGrid\VatsimStandStatus\StandStatus(
        51.148056,
        -0.190278);
    $standStatus->loadStandDataFromArray([
        ['1', 51.154819, -0.164813],
        ['10', 51.15509, -0.16466],
        ['101', 51.1568, -0.17706]
    ])->parseData();

Getting stands

    foreach ($standStatus->stands() as $stand){
        if ($stand->isOccupied()) {
            echo "Stand {$stand->getName()} is occupied by {$stand->occupier->callsign}</br>";
        }else{
             echo "Stand {$stand->getName()} is not occupied </br>";
        }	
    }

    // Output:
    // Stand 1 is occupied by SHT1G
    // Stand 2 is not occupied

Note that the output of stands() will hide "side stands" if the hideStandSidesWhenOccupied setting is true. If you want to get all stands, including this hidden stands, use allStands().

Getting all occupied stands

    foreach ($standStatus->occupiedStands() as $stand){
        echo "Stand {$stand->getName()} is occupied by {$stand->occupier->callsign}</br>";
    }

    // Output:
    // Stand 1 is occupied by SHT1G
    // Stand 3L is occupied by DLH49Y

If you want an associative array, where the index is the stand name, use ->occupiedStands(true). Use can use this on all the methods that return an array of stands.

Similarly, you can also use ->unoccupiedStands() to get an array of unoccupied stands

Get all aircraft on the ground

    foreach ($standStatus->allAircraft() as $aircraft){
        if($aircraft->onStand()){
            $stand = $aircraft->getStand($standStatus->allStands());
            echo "{$aircraft->callsign} is on stand {$stand->getName()}</br>";
        }else{
            echo "{$aircraft->callsign} is not on stand</br>";
        }          
    }

    // Output:
    // BAW53M is not on stand
    // EZY48VY is on stand 554

If you want an associative array, where the index is the stand name, use ->occupiedStands(true)