acarsparse

A Python project to read ACARS/VDL-M2 data from a TCP JSON stream, detect drama, and share it

• Read ACARS/VDLM2 by making a socket connection to an ACARS Hub
• Use a list of keywords of interest (drama) and phrases to exclude
• Facility for computing a "Drama Quotient" value to only publish or give priority to high-drama messages (needs work)
• Output matching messages to a Webhook (currently Discord is supported)

Areas for improvement:

• WebhookPoster.py - improve to support more destinations than just Discord (like Mastodon, hi Mike!)
• DramaDetector.py - better compute a .dq drama value to identify items worth sharing

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

2. Optional: set up a virtual environment

   python3 -m venv ~/.venv/acarsparse
   source ~/.venv/acarsparse/bin/activate
   python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel

3. Install required libraries: python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

4. cd acarsparse

5. Copy config-default.json to config.json

6. Edit config.json to map to your ACARS Hub ACARS and VDLM2 socket ports

7. Copy logging-default.yml to logging.yml

8. python3 AcarsParse.py

Configuration details

config.json

Configuration of ACARS/VDLM2 sources and destination for output.

• Auto-detection of ACARS or VDLM2 source
• Reconnects when disconnected (happens when updating ACARS Hub)
• Supports Discord as an output Webhook

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "host": "127.0.0.1",
      "name": "ACARS",
      "port": 15550
    },
    {
      "host": "127.0.0.1",
      "name": "VDLM2",
      "port": 15555
    }
  ],
  "logconfig": "logging.yml",
  "webhooks": [
    {
      "type": "discord",
      "url": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/..."
    }
  ]
}

drama.json

• Keywords in messages which increase drama (only single words)
• List of message labels which increase drama
• Exclusions: strings that, when matched, discard the message immediately

{
  "version": 1,
  "keywords": ["COFFEE", "LAV"],
  "labels": [],
  "exclusions": [
    "AIRPORT IDENTIFIERS NOT ENTERED FOR WEATHER REQUEST",
    "ATIS INFO",
    "DATALINK SERVICE SUSPENDED",
    "NO DEPARTURE CLEARANCE"
  ]
}

logging.yml

Configuration file for script logging.

If you wish to log to a Seq server, add seq to your handlers and then add a handler similar to:

seq:
  class: seqlog.structured_logging.SeqLogHandler
  formatter: seq

  # Seq-specific settings (add any others you need, they're just kwargs for SeqLogHandler's constructor).
  server_url: "http://seq.local/"
  api_key: "mySECRETapiKEY"

  # Use a custom JSON encoder, if you need to.
  json_encoder_class: json.encoder.JSONEncoder