OpenFlights.org mapping tool now open
 

OpenFlights, the free flight logging/mapping/stats tool I announced a while back, has completed its closed beta stage and is now open to the public:

http://www.openflights.org

And it even works on Internet Explorer and Safari now. Brief recap of what it's all about:

• OpenFlights has a way cool map. You can pan, zoom, select, scroll and explore all you like!
• OpenFlights is user-friendly and efficient. Everything's on the same page!
• OpenFlights works in realtime. Make any change, and you'll see it right then and there.
• OpenFlights supports "trips". You can join up any flights together into a trip, which you can then display on its own page and even share with friends.
• OpenFlights is free, period. No need to pay for "premium" access, although heavy users may be asked to chip to pay for the upkeep.
• OpenFlights is free in spirit. No lock-in: importing your data and export copies for safekeeping is easy.
• OpenFlights is free software. All our source code and (public) data is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License and can be downloaded from SourceForge, so you can set up your own copy or just use the bits you like.

While all core features are there, the site is still being actively developed further, so any feedback and suggestions are more than welcome. Features in the immediate pipeline include importing and exporting, tools for quickly entering many flights and lots more graphical razzmatazz.

Special thanks to FTers FCYTravis, KiwiFlyer, marc, sbm12 and trsqr for taking the time to shake out the bugs and the worst interface warts!

So is it an alternative to flightmemory? Or a graphical version of BA97?

At first glance it seems to be an alternative to Flightmemory/Flugstatistik. Which raises the question - what has it got to make it worth the effort of transferring data over from Flightmemory? Just zooming?

PS I hate the phrase 'way cool map'. Sound like somebody trying too hard to sound hip and cool. YMMV!

Wow! Quite a response from FT, over 1000 new flights have been added in the last 24 hours. ^

If the bulleted list above isn't enough for you, here's a partial list of existing features unique to OpenFlights:

• Easier input. Return flights and copies of flights can be both generated with a click of a button. You can even click on any two airports on the map to add a flight between them.
• Per-airline maps and stats. Choose an airline in the filter, and you can see that airline's flights, your top airports and routes on that airline, total mileage flown on it, etc.
• Trips. You can select any flights to form a "trip", for which you can calculate stats separately and which can be shared on its own. Perfect for trip reports! (Which is why I created it :D ) Example: http://openflights.org/trip/3
• Privacy control. You can choose to share nothing at all, your map and stats, or everything... and not just for all your flights, but individually for each trip as well.

But most importantly, it's open source and being actively developed, so if there's something you'd like to see, you can suggest it, or even plunge forward and implement it yourself.

Also, if you're planning to migrate your flights from Flightmemory, I suggest you hold on for a while: I'm currently working on an import feature that will let you copy flights more or less automatically.

lets give it a try

Can I import from FM, and easily import later flights as not to get duplicates? I'd like to continue using both.

I like the multi-colored airports (even though the icons are a bit cluttering I guess...) and different width of frequent flight paths... Any reason for using an extra-old map of Poland (the voivodeships changed like 10 years ago)? ;)

Looks great so far! Keep up the good work.

Custom date ranges (or at least yearly reports) would be nice as well..

probably not for long, but if you filter out JetBlue most of those flights are mine.... and I don't even fly that much!

--Russ

Wow, just realized that when you share the flights with others (the middle "privacy" choice) everyone can see your notes for the flights.... :td:

Not so -- it's just that if you look at your own public map (/user/tamcap) while still logged in as you, it knows you're you and lets you see everything. If you log out and try again, or if somebody else looks at your map, they can only see what you let them see. But yes, this is a little confusing, and I'll see if I can fix it.

And the rest:

• The maps and any Polish voivodships within them are from Metacarta, not me. Switch to the purely geographic NASA map (top right "+" button) if you don't like 'em :p
• Yearly/custom date range filters are Coming Soon(tm).
• True to the name, the "Recently added flights" map you see when not logged in shows recently added flights. It's updated daily, so while you may see your flights today, they probably won't be around tomorrow anymore...

Yeah, this tool doesnt replace FM, but compliments it nicely

phew. I m finished putting flights in, it was a much easier process than FM,
by year statistics would be nice, I love the zooming and the by airline stats.

Perhaps expanding the lists beyond top 10?

I can't signup. The "Sign up" button doesn't seem to do anything. Evidently some of you have gotten it done. Any trick?

I suspect that your pop-up blocker is being too enthusiastic? Please add "openflights.org" to the list of allowed sites and try again.

I think that about 500 of those were mine. :D Actually I just looked and most of the 131 EWR flights actually are mine (http://openflights.org/user/sbm12).
I am particularly enjoying this feature, including the ability to link out from the trip to a different website. RTW trips are particularly fun to do this way (http://openflights.org/trip/13). One interesting effect of the "Trips" feature is that it seems that you can actually see all the trips/airlines for the user in question. If you click on the link above and then go to the right column in the filters area you'll see the four different trips I have in the system and all the airlines I have. Dunno if that is on purpose or not.

DOH! I just manually copied over my FM. :( On the plus side, I did get to add a few new airports to the system.

I don't think that either this or FM are 100% solutions. There are parts of both I like.

In my lofty opinion, great circle mapping would make this a "FlightMemory killer," even if it were really rough (say, plotting four or five intermediate points on routes of more than 5000 km, or something like that).

The great circles don't make much of a difference if you're flying short-hauls or kangaroo routes all the time, but for frequent transpaccers like me they are a must-have.

Minor update
 

Just pushed out a new version of OpenFlights, please reload with CTRL-F5 to make sure you're using the latest version. Quite a few changes, but they're mostly in the background:

- Support for private flights (not on commercial airlines) added.
- Support for totally private (non-IATA, non-ICAO) airports added.
- Google Ads now added, and the bottom panel (stats, lists of flights, new flights) etc now works on a "stack" system.
- Fixed a bunch of minor bugs/quirks reported on SourceForge (thank you, Mr. Anonymous!)

And for joejones: [ 2113606 ] Great circle mapping for long routes

Building the FlightMemory.com import tool is coming along nicely, but it's complex enough that I'll test it privately for a while before unleashing it on the world sometime next week. Hang in there :D

Imports from FlightMemory!
 

It took a bit of hacking, but the first version of the FlightMemory import tool is now ready. As FlightMemory doesn't actually do exporting (except as near-useless PDFs for "Premium" members), you need to use a slightly more hacky approach: log into FM, choose the "FlightData" tab, and save it as HTML, page by page (50 flights per page). Then upload those pages into the OpenFlights import tool, and Bob's your uncle! @:-)

And in other news, instead of drawing two identical lines for (say) JFK-LHR + LHR-JFK, the rendering engine now only draws one, speeding up things by nearly 100% (if, like most people, your flights are usually return flights). This also has the handy side effect of letting "Top 10 Routes" easily merge the two directions together. Don't worry though, the direction is still preserved in the flight list and detail views.

So, what I should I concentrate on next? More statistics, more filtering options, exporting (incl. KMZ files for 3D plotting on Google Earth), speed and usability...?

what about premium FM members, can we import that?

Ooooooo... there's an idea

--Russ

Filter by date.

Cool site! Thanks!

The import from FM worked very well. Had to add a few local airports thought:)

A cool feature that I wish FM had was an ability to filter by aircraft. I keep track of reg numbers and it would be neat to keep track of how many times I fly on a specific aircraft.

(I just signed up, so this may be something I just haven't figured out yet...)

Edited to add:
Another useful feature would be a "Next Flight" button when we are editing flights. Currently, you have to save, then click on "list flights" then scroll down the list to where you were to get to the next flight. A next flight would significantly shorten the editing process.

One last suggestion:
I like the trip feature! One suggestion, the ability to add a flight to a trip from the "list flights" section would also be useful.

Thanks! I love this programme. Still loading my flights in :)

Edited to say can't get back in and I'm to dim to figure out how to change my password or to get it emailed to me :(

Another 1000+ flights loaded in yesterday! Glad to see the import seems to be working. :cool: A few minor nits were discovered though, so I've tightened up the filters a bit: all date formats are now validated in the "Parsing" phase, it can automatically convert distances in km to miles, and registrations are imported without a trailing "</td>".

AMRivlin: Sorry, automatically parsing "Premium" PDFs does not seem to be feasible. You'll have to do it page by page like the hoi polloi... or pester FM to implement a "real" export.

sbm12: I can't say no to the site's #1 user by flight count, so your wish is granted: you can now filter flights by year. :-:

TTT: Can you clarify how you'd like to see/use the filter by aircraft? (As in registration, I presume, not just plane type?) Writing up a short feature request would be ideal, so I can get input from other registrationheads too.

And you're right, the "edit flight" tool is not very user-friendly now; not only does it kick you back after each change, but it also reloads and redraws the entire map every time. I'll be working on this next, and the "next/previous" buttons are a great idea! ^

splatnz: It's not just you, resetting forgotten passwords by mail is not implemented yet (oops). You've got PM.

Done.

Also, thanks for the filter by year feature^

Is there any way for users to change(i.e. correct) the location of an airport? Somebody placed MHT (Manchester, NH) in the middle of Kasachstan...suspecting there is a "-" in the coordinates missing...

No, there isn't at the moment, but just let me know and I'll fix it. (MHT should be fixed now.)

Allowing users to add their own airports is a bit of a two-edged sword, but given the gaps in the existing DB and that 99% of user-added entries are correct, I figure the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

So can I import my flights from My Premium PDF from FM?

Thanks.
Yeah, I was glad I could add a couple airports (BHB & RKD) yesterday - I guess not too many people fly to these airports in the middle of nowhere :D

David

Just added my 900+ flights from FM... looks a bit messy on the map... It would be nice though if the great circle paths can be plotted rather than just straight lines...

I added my flights, too (thanks to a boring meeting :D) and I second that. Esp. sind EWR-SIN is across Africa on the map :rolleyes: instead of Nothpole

Added my flights, too and added a few airports along the way.

One issue I encountered: I have a flight from Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg Airport. This airport has both the MLH and BSL IATA codes. In flightmemory, I have it recorded as BSL. Openflights did not have BSL, but MLH. I added in BSL now, and had to skip the ICAO code since this would have resulted in a duplicate.

There should be a way to add aliases for airport codes to avoid this.

Two of the airline names were also not imported correctly: "SAS Scandinavian Airlines" imported incorrectly as "SAS Braathens" and "SN Brussels Airlines imported incorrectly as SNCF". Hm, turns out it is not so easy to change these in retrospect as I can't find them as the list of flights does not give the airline name. Can you add this to the list of fields that are displayed?

OK, it is actually easy - select the airline in the filter and the list the flights.

However, there is still a problem: When I try to enter "SN Brussels Airlines" it changes this automatically to "Brussels Airlines (SN)". However, these are two distinct airlines - actually, the latter was formed by the merger of ther former with Virgin Express.

Just imported some 130+ flights from FM and one thing that bothers me is if you don't remember the airline it becomes Private Flight. Surely there must be a way to leave the airline name field empty (or add N/A, Don't Remember and some such)

There's also no way to add a IATA code to an entry that's already in the database but doesn't have it (DAFIF).

Indeed... that will make the site uniquely different from FM

SmilingBoy: Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg is such a strange duck that it's not worth rejigging the whole database structure to accommodate it. I think what you're done is fine: MLH is now the "main" entry (with the ICAO code), and BSL is another airport that just happens to be in the same place.

I've just implemented the idea of "airline aliases", which works around some of the most common FlightMemory<->OpenFlights naming discrepancies, and eg. SAS Scandinavian and SN Brussels flights should now import correctly.

Airline history, like SN representing Sabena, SN Brussels and Brussels at various points in time, gets really complicated. For imports, there isn't really a practical way to differentiate these: it will use the code, and that code maps to current airline using it, in this case Brussels. The option to add new airlines, incl. historical ones, and assign your flights to them is in the works though.

apoivre: To add an IATA code to an existing DAFIF airport, you need to [Load] it into the editor, add the IATA code and city name, then save it. The new, saved copy goes into the OpenFlights DB, which can then be used for your flights.

tfung: Anybody's map will look a little messy with almost 1000 flights all over the world. :eek: But I've slimmed down the flight paths for frequently flown routes a bit. Great Circle routes are on the to-do list, but the rendering math involved gets pretty complicated pretty fast.

Update: Editing streamlined
 

Just rolled out a fairly major change to OpenFlights, although it doesn't look like it at first glance. Basically, the flight editing framework was given a total rewrite:

• You can now move backwards and forwards in any flight list
• The system tracks whether you've made any changes: you can only save once you've made some, and you're alerted if you forget to save
• When you exit the flight editor, the flight list is automatically updated.

This makes it much faster to, say, fix import errors or assign flights to a trip. However, due to the amount of new plumbing behind the scenes, this will also probably throw up some bugs in the next few days, so please let me know ASAP if you get any strange behavior.

A few usability questions:

• Is anybody actually using the "click on airport to enter it" feature in the flight editor? This seems to confuse the hell out my on-site tester ("why don't I get the bubble any more when I click on that airport?"), so I'm thinking of dropping it entirely.
• Instead of requiring you to manually "Save", should the editor just automatically save any changes unless you click on "Undo"? (Which doesn't exist yet, but could easily be added.)

And by popular demand, I guess I'll have to implement great circle plotting. Busy week ahead though, so it may take a while...

This is a great site, keep up the good work!

However, I can't seem to add any new flights. The page always gets stuck at the airline. No matter what I enter in that box it never searches the database. Thus when I click "Add" nothing happens. I have the same problem using both Firefox and IE.

I'm too lazy to check if this has been suggested in an earlier thread...


but is there a way to integrate future flights into this? (like BA97 Calendar)


I think this would be pretty neat for people that don't fly much like me to list future fligths which would automatically become taken flights after the date fo the flight when you could go back and edit the details like the plane registration number, plane name, etc.


--Russ

It appears you can add future flights without a problem... as I just tried.

I believe FT doesn't let you do this, hence my original question.

--Russ