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Flight Finder

API

Application exposes one endpoint: /

It requires query parameters for "from" and "to" airport iata and icao codes. Codes are not case sensitive:

  • from_iata or from_icao for providing souce airport.
  • to_iata or to_icao for providing destination airport.

Response

In pseudo-ts:

Response {
    from: Airport;
    to: Airport;
    route: {
        success: boolean;
        stops?: Airport[];
        message?: string;
    };
};

Airport {
    id: string;
    name: string;
    iata: string;
    icao: string;
    lat: float;
    lng: float;
};

If success is true, stops are defined. If success is false, message describing why the stops cannot be provided. Possible reasons for that:

  • Do not know the best route: The API is not fully spec compliant. It's not able to find a route if the most efficient route in terms of distance is over 4 stops, but there exists a path that is 4 stops or under.
  • No path between provided airports
  • Path between provided airports too long: Gapped on 4 stops.

Successful path found

Example: curl localhost:3000/?from_iata=tln&to_iata=HHN Response:

{
  "from": {
    "id": "1438",
    "name": "Toulon-Hyères Airport",
    "iata": "TLN",
    "icao": "LFTH",
    "lat": 43.0973014832,
    "lng": 6.14602994919
  },
  "to": {
    "id": "355",
    "name": "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport",
    "iata": "HHN",
    "icao": "EDFH",
    "lat": 49.9487,
    "lng": 7.26389
  },
  "route": {
    "success": true,
    "stops": [
      {
        "id": "1438",
        "name": "Toulon-Hyères Airport",
        "iata": "TLN",
        "icao": "LFTH",
        "lat": 43.0973014832,
        "lng": 6.14602994919
      },
      {
        "id": "548",
        "name": "London Stansted Airport",
        "iata": "STN",
        "icao": "EGSS",
        "lat": 51.8849983215,
        "lng": 0.234999999404
      },
      {
        "id": "355",
        "name": "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport",
        "iata": "HHN",
        "icao": "EDFH",
        "lat": 49.9487,
        "lng": 7.26389
      }
    ]
  }
}

Failure responses

Failure responses are also formatted as JSON. Example:

Example: curl localhost:3000/ Response:

{
  "error": "At least from_iata or from_icao required"
}

Generating the DB

The database can be created from OpenFlights data:

node src/database/openflights.parser.js airports.dat routes.dat > database.json

Source files can be downloaded from https://openflights.org/data.html. Also available from direct links:

  • airports.dat: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jpatokal/openflights/master/data/airports.dat
  • routes.dat: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jpatokal/openflights/master/data/routes.dat

Running

Easiest way to get the project running is to use the pre-built Docker image with the database built in:

docker run -p 3000:3000 -it rauno56/flight-finder:full

To use the image without database, you need to map that as a volume to the default location of database.json:

docker run -p 3333:3000 -v /path/to/database.json:/app/database.json -it rauno56/flight-finder:latest

Structure

Project is logically split into 4 parts:

  1. Path finding: this part is free from any airport metadata and only deals with the routing part based on ID-identified nodes and distances between them. ./src/PathFinder.js.
  2. Airport metadata: Looking up any additional data for enriching the results from the PathFinder and converting the user input to IDs Path Finder understands. ./src/airportCacheGenerator.js.
  3. API: Pulls #1 and #2 together for an HTTP API. ./src/api.js, ./src/index.js.
  4. DB Tools: For creating a clean and concise DB out of openflights data sets. ./src/database.

Parts 1 and 2 could be cleanly separated into their own services if needed. DB tools is separated not to couple OF data into this application too much. The tools also provide a way to serialize and deserialize the data for conveniency - JSON is not the most optimal storing big datasets.

Configuration

  • FF_PORT: port to listen for http traffic. Defaults to 3000.
  • FF_DB_PATH: location of the database file. Defaults to database.json in project root.

To Do

If time permitted I'd work on following things:

  1. The solution. Solving the case when the algortihm does not find the optimal solution. That is when the shortest path by distance is over 4 legs, but there exists a path that is 4 legs or under.
  2. Configuration management. The address and port the application listens on and the location of database can only be configured in a primitive way. I'd enable setting those values via configuration file.
  3. Build pipeline. I'd build an automated way of getting the project from code to a working application.
  4. Logging. logging successful requests. Doing structured logging in JSON.
  5. Handling errors. That is connected to logging. Errors should be coded, documented and worded consistently.