[Agent22]

This is a prototype of an app I'm working on. Based on the screenshots do you think it has potential? What sort of features would you find useful in an app like this?

iCal integration and emailing itineraries are already planned.

Any feedback appreciated.

[badtz]

VERY nice looking application.


It's kind of hard to tell and/or say what features to add when we don't have the application to test with

[MartiNZ]

Looks really nice - even a very good looking use of brushed metal, which is hard to come by . I'm just interested as to where it would be getting all the information - I'm assuming some US site meaning that it wouldn't tell me anything about domestic flights within New Zealand ... ?

Very cool map as well.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by MartiNZ:
Looks really nice - even a very good looking use of brushed metal, which is hard to come by . I'm just interested as to where it would be getting all the information - I'm assuming some US site meaning that it wouldn't tell me anything about domestic flights within New Zealand ... ?

Considering it's a program written by an Australian and it's shown charting a route that doesn't go through the United States, I'm betting that's not the case.

[cpac]

1 minor suggestion (perhaps it's already an option) - but I'd suggest using a political, rather photo-like map just because that conveys more information about whatever unlabeled dot you may be stopping in.

Also, you might want to have regional/zoom in maps for various domestic or pseudo-domestic flight information.

[DigitalEl]

Just wanna echo the "very nice app" sentiments. See it through, please.

Although, be sure it offers something the Dashboard widget showed off at Macworld won't. You don't wanna get Sherlocked/Konfabulatored outta business before you start.

[MartiNZ]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
Considering it's a program written by an Australian and it's shown charting a route that doesn't go through the United States, I'm betting that's not the case.

Ahh the small details . Yeah well, sounds really good!

[typoon]

Great looking app. Even if you are not an air traveller but are interested in stuff like that it would still be a cool ap to have.

[funkboy]

Here's an idea:

let a user set up his flight schedule, and show how the weather will change on his route. Line up the weather conditions from beginning to end, so the user can see what his weather will be like.

Also, make sure to let the user search by city, not just airport code. Show the airport code in the little info box on the right with the airport's full name, because sometimes I know the name of the city/airport but not its code.

Great-looking app, though, with a wonderful usage of brushed metal. I can't wait to try it out for my future travel plans!

[Randman]

I'd add Celsius to the Farenheit readings (or vice versa). USA Today's weather is nice in the way it's implemented.
Don't use Wednesd as the abbreviation in the extended forecast. I'd go with the standards on that, Wed, Thur, Fri, etc.

More details on the weather is also good, if you can manage it. Chance of rain, humidity, etc.

[Agent22]

Thanks for all the great comments guys.

MartiNZ: Rest assured, I'm trying to make this app useful for everyone, even new zealanders

cpac: Map zooming is already high on the todo list. You're right, adding political boundaries will definitely make things clearer. I'll have to add an option for boundaries to be overlayed over the map.

DigitalEl: Thanks, will do. I'll have to check out the widgets and make sure mine does something they don't!

funkboy: Actually that's exactly what I had in mind for the weather! At the moment I'm getting forecasts via NOAA's xml service so I can only get them for the US, will have to find another source for weather for the rest of the world. And yep, the airport search box already lets you put in airport code, name or city and returns a list of best matches.

Randman: For sure, I showed Farenheit for the benefit of US viewers. I'm a Celcius man at heart As for the weather I plan to have another window to show extended details for an entire trip, don't think I can jam much more into the window as it is.

I have to admit some things in the gui are purely cosmetic at the moment, like flight numbers, departure and arrival times, etc (the distance bit is "real" though). Initially those details will probably have to be entered manually. Ideally the user would be able to search for the flights they want (or have booked) from within the app, then add them to the itinerary. But I'm finding that sort of info rather costly to come by.

I'd love to release something for you to play with, but I don't think it's quite ready yet for public consumption, even as an alpha release. Will definitely let you know when it happens.

[shortcipher]

Originally posted by Agent22:
Thanks for all the great comments guys.
I have to admit some things in the gui are purely cosmetic at the moment, like flight numbers, departure and arrival times, etc (the distance bit is "real" though). Initially those details will probably have to be entered manually. Ideally the user would be able to search for the flights they want (or have booked) from within the app, then add them to the itinerary. But I'm finding that sort of info rather costly to come by.

getting the data will definitely be the hard bit, how are you plotting cities on the map out of interest? accurate city latitude/longitude data is also quite hard to get in my experience. I have written a similar program currently being used by travel agents in the UK, so keep an eye out at your local branch of STA travel!

[Agent22]

Originally posted by shortcipher:
getting the data will definitely be the hard bit, how are you plotting cities on the map out of interest? accurate city latitude/longitude data is also quite hard to get in my experience. I have written a similar program currently being used by travel agents in the UK, so keep an eye out at your local branch of STA travel!

That's awesome, wish I could get a gig like that
I'm using latitude/longitude to plot the points. The data that I've collected so far mostly come from aviation enthusiast sites (eg http://www.world-airport-codes.com/). It's been a bit tedious gathering and sorting all the info since there isn't one source where I can find everything I need. And as you mention accuracy is an issue, I'll go down to fractions of a second for latitude/longitude when I can manage to find that data for a particular airport, otherwise whatever I find will have to do for now.

[intake]

Originally posted by Agent22:
funkboy: Actually that's exactly what I had in mind for the weather! At the moment I'm getting forecasts via NOAA's xml service so I can only get them for the US, will have to find another source for weather for the rest of the world. And yep, the airport search box already lets you put in airport code, name or city and returns a list of best matches.

Just this evening, I noticed that Wunderground.com is giving condition information in XML format for RSS newsreaders. Maybe you can draw off of this.
Here is an example link for Paris: http://www.wunderground.com/auto/rss...ions/07157.xml
and one for the Bahamas: http://www.wunderground.com/auto/rss...ions/78073.xml

[shortcipher]

Originally posted by Agent22:
That's awesome, wish I could get a gig like that
I'm using latitude/longitude to plot the points. The data that I've collected so far mostly come from aviation enthusiast sites (eg http://www.world-airport-codes.com/). It's been a bit tedious gathering and sorting all the info since there isn't one source where I can find everything I need. And as you mention accuracy is an issue, I'll go down to fractions of a second for latitude/longitude when I can manage to find that data for a particular airport, otherwise whatever I find will have to do for now.

yeah I know that site, I used it to collate some of the city/country codes which were missing from other data sources we found. I don't think it likely that you will get flight route data without paying for it however, unless you scrape it off a commercial website like Expedia or something, but if you do find a source please let me know! Our route data comes from a system called BackAviation, but I dont think that system has the full schedule for each route, all we need to know for our app is that a route exists.

You might also want to experiment with different algorithms for translating lat/lon into x/y as it affects accuracy, there is a good open source java mapping application called OpenMap you might want to check out, source code fully downloadable. (Google it)

[Randman]

While it looks good, I wonder if keeping it simple would work better for air travellers. Or maybe having the option just to have a minimized window with key info.
When flying, I'll put flight/hotel/auto rental details on my iPod and cell phone (pda no longer in mix), but I don't want to open up my PB and get all of that info.
Plus, for long flights, such as transatlantic, you can get the flight plan onscreen.
I'd be more interested in how long it takes to get to my hotel, places to eat and have a drink nearby and driving directions/time to my meeting .

[Dog Like Nature]

What kind of projection are you using for the map? Are you going to correct for the distortions this causes when drawing the lines?
(I'm guessing this would increase the difficulty factor by quite a bit)

Also, do you take into account the air traffic corridors?

Apart from that, it looks like a good start!

[power142]

Yeah, I guess that would involve some calculation taking into account that the earth is (almost) spherical, rather than just plotting between points on a map.

Something more akin to this would be cool, though:

http://gc.kls2.com/

[Dog Like Nature]

Originally posted by power142:
Yeah, I guess that would involve some calculation taking into account that the earth is (almost) spherical, rather than just plotting between points on a map.

Something more akin to this would be cool, though:

http://gc.kls2.com/

That would account for the projection distortions. I'm guessing most of the flight restrictions/air traffic corridor tweaking would not be that noticable on a map of that scale.

[Agent22]

Originally posted by intake:
Just this evening, I noticed that Wunderground.com is giving condition information in XML format for RSS newsreaders. Maybe you can draw off of this.
Here is an example link for Paris: http://www.wunderground.com/auto/rss...ions/07157.xml
and one for the Bahamas: http://www.wunderground.com/auto/rss...ions/78073.xml

Thanks for that. I might be able to use them for current conditions info. The xml doesn't seem to have forecast info though, will have to look into it.

[Agent22]

Originally posted by shortcipher:
yeah I know that site, I used it to collate some of the city/country codes which were missing from other data sources we found. I don't think it likely that you will get flight route data without paying for it however, unless you scrape it off a commercial website like Expedia or something, but if you do find a source please let me know! Our route data comes from a system called BackAviation, but I dont think that system has the full schedule for each route, all we need to know for our app is that a route exists.

You might also want to experiment with different algorithms for translating lat/lon into x/y as it affects accuracy, there is a good open source java mapping application called OpenMap you might want to check out, source code fully downloadable. (Google it)

OAG and GoldenWare seem to be a major suppliers of extensive route/schedule info, no doubt their pricing will reflect that too. Web scraping is an option, but the possible legal consequences is scary. I shall continue my search for a source.

I'm currently using my home grown hack for displaying lat/lon on the map (which is working pretty well so far I must say). But will probably need a more sophisticated solution when I want to do more with the map. Will check out OpenMap, thanks.

[Agent22]

Originally posted by Randman:
While it looks good, I wonder if keeping it simple would work better for air travellers. Or maybe having the option just to have a minimized window with key info.
When flying, I'll put flight/hotel/auto rental details on my iPod and cell phone (pda no longer in mix), but I don't want to open up my PB and get all of that info.
Plus, for long flights, such as transatlantic, you can get the flight plan onscreen.
I'd be more interested in how long it takes to get to my hotel, places to eat and have a drink nearby and driving directions/time to my meeting .

Noted. In the future the app may have two modes of operation. A "planning" mode where you manage your itinerary, check weather forecasts, etc and a "traveling" mode where it would show the info you mentioned.

[Agent22]

Originally posted by Dog Like Nature:
What kind of projection are you using for the map? Are you going to correct for the distortions this causes when drawing the lines?
(I'm guessing this would increase the difficulty factor by quite a bit)

Also, do you take into account the air traffic corridors?

Apart from that, it looks like a good start!

I'm not sure what the map projection is, the map is from nasa's earth observatory. Every gridline you see marks 10 degrees of lat/lon starting from the equator/prime meridian.

No, at the moment the lines are simply straight lines direct from airport to airport. But great circle paths or real flight paths will most likely be added when the app is more mature.