Thread by @thebaldgeek

For better or worse, I am going to 'live' X this.
Got the Middle East geofence ACARS limping.
So lets do this. Lets roll it out to the site in real time.
Here is the box. I had @GuardedDon help me position it, so if you don't like it, tag him! <grin>

Right, so lets look at the @NodeRED flow that makes this work.
We get the aircraft every 10 minutes from an API call (via the yellow 'http request' node).
Then we have to split up the ADSB / ADSC aircraft into separate database calls. Then we look up each ICAO of what's inside the box.

Next we have to take the ICAO of the aircraft we just looked up (of which there might be many) and check what ACARS we have heard from it over the past 48 hours. Its just like your site searches you do.
Yes, I use #sqlite for reasons that are lost. I used to use #mysql but it just seemed too heavy.

Backing up a bit, the _main_ reason we do the 'AC' look up is to not just get a little more info on each ICAO (ie rego), but also to get the 'military' or not flag.
So anything with a 1 in front of the poorly named 'interest' column in my db (best you don't ask) is military, so we need to split them out for @airman941 other wise... bad things...
This screenshot shows the switch node that routes mil or civ to the right outputs.

Ok, so here is the overview of the output of the mil/cil switch node.
I just take military from the top three and anything that is not military must be civil right?
They go into a function node that unescapes the raw ACARS. If you don't escape it on the way into the db, it blows up the database insert statement. Ask me how I know that.
Once its back to human readable, it then goes into a FIFO or First In First Out rotating stack which will feed the two tables on the new page.

Ok, so next things get tricky. We need to build the new page and add it to the site.
Now, when I add a new page, it changes everyone's bookmarks and I get a ton of angry DMs. (Even though I tell everyone to only bookmark the main site URL, no one (and I mean NO ONE) listens.
So, lets try something...
Since no one uses 'Site Search One' (check my Tweet from a few days back) lets delete that and make that page position the new page.

Ok, so I have just renamed 'site search one' to Middle East. I figure no matter what call it I am going to make someone angry. I'm truly sorry about that.
Let me know what it should be called and I will average out the angry DMs.

Ok, we have a new page in the position of the old site search one page.
Now, lets flesh out the tables that are parked there.

Now fleshing out the tables with the columns.
I am trying to make the tables the same as the others on the site.
So the names and widths etc should be roughly the same. I might need to tweak these a bit to make them blend in better.
It will be a lot of work, but I might be able to add callsigns to the table as well (like the mission code/mil move page tables).

Ok, up and limping.
Lets add the 'Military' to the top table and watch it for a bit.

Flames and feedback welcome!

Ok, I think the Cloudflare cache is getting angry with me pushing so many changes so I am going to back off and leave it for a bit.
I think we have a good page that is working as intended.
The images help I think? Right?
Remember the page is live. No need to click refresh on your browser etc.
Only the one bit of feedback thus far (change the link URL), so have a look and think. Add to this thread or DM me.
Thanks for following along. A bit nerve racking, but I think a good outcome.

As usual, when sitting a bit quieter and looking at things, I see some tweaks... Just added labels to the screenshot and bumped it to the right a bit so its naturally centered a bit better.
Yes, it sucks on mobile. I know. Its on my to-fix list.
Yes, we are waiting for another military ACARS message message to come in.

Just got another hit from a military aircraft.
I also tweaked the description to just be the short form 'type' and also added the ACARS message source. Knowing where the message came from can be really helpful. (Brain fart leaving it out).
Ok, this time I really am leaving it alone.
Once again, any and all feedback apricated and thanks for following along on how the ACARS sausage is made.