Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | DVA Site Updates

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Four Million Mile Club

"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,347 legs, 9,466.0 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
2,005 legs, 8,259.1 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,383 legs, 9,600.9 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 13:01 ET by Luke Kolin

Recent talk about site performance and rewrites got me thinking again about rewriting the site in an open-source fashion. My work situation actually facilitates this, since I was focused in the project scheduled for delivery after our current one. That means I'm effectively idle all day.

I've therefore decided to move forward on rewriting the site. My goal is to build the site using open, non-proprietary software, and eventually open-source the code so that others many benefit from this. After checking the mySQL web site, it appears that the current version supports basic SQL functionality like transactions and foreign keys in InnoDB tables (the ISAM ones are garbage) so I'm going to be basing things on mySQL 4.1. Here's the technology map:

Tomcat 5.0.x applicationn server
Apache 2.0.x HTTP stack
mySQL 4.1.x database server

We're going to be using Java, not PHP, since my background is in Java and I don't like scripting languages for back-end work. That being said, we're going to be using JSPs for the presentation layer and anyone familiar with PHP or ASP shouldn't have too hard a learning curve to go through.

I anticipate meeting my professional fate in early March, so my goal is to achieve some level of critical mass in the project by then. I make no guarantees on this, but the site does need a rewrite and this is probably my best chance at it for the next three years.

Cheers!

Luke

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA1008
Senior Captain, B757-200

Joined on December 14 2002
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club
Online Six Century Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Fly 'till the map turns blue"
Kokomo, IN

633 legs, 1,731.3 hours
613 legs, 1,689.9 hours online
212 legs, 792.3 hours ACARS
35 legs, 77.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 14:23 ET by Matt Young

What happened to the old beta site?

Matt Young

Senior Captain, B757-200

DVA953
Senior Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL

Joined on November 17 2002
50 State Club
Double Century Club
Online Double Century Club

"V1 means V1..."
West Lafayette, IN USA

214 legs, 376.8 hours
211 legs, 373.0 hours online
117 legs, 223.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 14:43 ET by James Brickell

I have a pretty solid foundation in PHP and MySQL. Let me know what I can do, I like doing this sort of stuff, so..

James Brickell (DVA953)

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 14:43 ET by James Brickell

Forgot to add, I will be happy to learn some JSP..

James Brickell (DVA953)

DVA548
Captain, B757-200

Joined on April 06 2002
Century Club

Northeastern United States

100 legs, 245.5 hours
72 legs, 184.6 hours online
1 legs, 2.5 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 16:22 ET by Trevor Bigwood

I have some ASP knowladge. Mostly around Access, but I'll give Java a whirl.

- BD

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 17:25 ET by Luke Kolin

Thanks for your offers of assistance. I am busy downloading everything and will probably get my development environments created tomorrow. I already have the core utility code and am working on the beans. Once the beans get completed, I'll need to starting building the database tables. Here's a basic excel spreadsheet that indicates how they are going to be laid out. You mySQL experts can take a peek and see if I have my data types correct. I have indicated the foreign keys with an FK but I haven't written down what table they link to, although in most cases it should be evident.

One of the advantages of the servlet model is that I can separate the back-end business logic code from the front-end presentation. JSPs allow you to use basic tags to get information from the java beans (really, just java objects) that the servlet will pass to you - so very little programming is required.

Cheers!

Luke

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA1392
First Officer, B737-800

Joined on November 16 2003

Northeastern United States

33 legs, 62.1 hours
30 legs, 57.3 hours online
4 legs, 7.8 hours ACARS
8 legs, 19.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on January 21 2004 20:12 ET by Ross Carlson

Hi Luke, best of luck with the rewrite and the job situation. Will you be continuing to host the site at home or looking for other hosting options? My offer still stands if you need any help with hosting or development.

Also, have you considered Postgres for the SQL server? It has had transaction capability much longer than mySQL and I'd be more inclined to trust it, though I've never used it as all my project work has dictated mySQL as the engine. Just curious if you have considered and/or ruled out postgres.

-Ross

Ross Carlson (DVA1392)

For flight simulation purposes only. Not a commercial website. In no way are we affiliated with Delta Air Lines, its affiliates, or any other airline. All logos, images, and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Delta Virtual Airlines is a non-profit entity engaged in providing an avenue for flight simulation enthusiasts.