Javascript / jQuery example error

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Dear FlightAware staff,

I am interested in using FlightXML API to show the real time flight location on a map.

I tried the example listed in the below page for REST / JSON using Javascript / jQuery.
Used the exact same code, just with my username and API key
flightaware.com/commercial/flig … t#examples

However I keep getting the following error for any flight I input
Failed to decode route: [object Object]

could you please advise what the problem is?
thank you so much for your help!


<html>
  <head>

<!--
 This example uses:
 * the FlightXML2 FlightInfoEx and DecodeFlightRoute functions over REST:
      http://flightaware.com/commercial/flightxml/
 * Google Maps API:
      http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery/map.html
 * jQuery, hosted by Google API
-->


<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

var fxml_url = 'http://YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_API_KEY@flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/';


google.load("visualization", "1", {packages:"map"]});


// When the button is clicked, fetch the details about the entered flight ident.
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#go_button').click(function() {
    $.ajax({
       type: 'GET',
       url: fxml_url + 'FlightInfoEx', 
       data: { 'ident': $('#ident_text').val(), 'howMany': 1, 'offset': 0 },
       success : function(result) {
          // display some textual details about the flight.
          var flight = result.FlightInfoExResult.flights[0];
          $('#results').html('Flight ' + flight.ident + ' from ' + flight.origin + ' to ' + flight.destination);

          // display the route on a map.
          fetchAndRenderRoute(flight.faFlightID);
       },
       error: function(data, text) { alert('Failed to fetch flight: ' + data); },
       dataType: 'jsonp',
       jsonp: 'jsonp_callback',
       xhrFields: { withCredentials: true }
       });
   });
});


// Fetch the planned route for a specified flight_id.
function fetchAndRenderRoute(flight_id) {
   $.ajax({
       type: 'GET',
       url: fxml_url + 'DecodeFlightRoute', 
       data: { 'faFlightID': flight_id },
       success : function(result) {
           // Initialize a data table using the Google API.
           var table = new google.visualization.DataTable();
           table.addColumn('number', 'Lat');
           table.addColumn('number', 'Lon');
           table.addColumn('string', 'Name');

           // Insert all of the points into the data table.
           var points = result.DecodeFlightRouteResult.data;
           table.addRows(points.length);
           for (rowid = 0; rowid < points.length; rowid++) {
                table.setCell(rowid, 0, points[rowid].latitude);
                table.setCell(rowid, 1, points[rowid].longitude);
                table.setCell(rowid, 2, points[rowid].name + ' (' + points[rowid].type + ')' );
           }

           // Render the data table into a map using Google Maps API.
           var map = new google.visualization.Map(document.getElementById('map_div'));
           map.draw(table, {showTip: true, showLine: true, lineWidth: 3, lineColor: '#009900'});
       },
       error: function(data, text) { alert('Failed to decode route: ' + data); },
       dataType: 'jsonp',
       jsonp: 'jsonp_callback',
       xhrFields: { withCredentials: true }
   });
}


</script>
  </head>

  <body>

    <form onsubmit="return false;">
    <p>Enter a flight ident to track: 
    <input type="text" name="ident" id="ident_text" value="COA423" />
    <input type="submit" id="go_button" value="Go" />
    </p>
    </form>

    <div id="results"></div>
    <div id="map_div" style="width: 400px; height: 300px"></div>

  </body>
</html>
2

To help diagnose, you can try changing the error message to log the variable in a more displayable way.

alert('Failed to decode route: ’ + $(data).serialize());

However, keep in mind that not all flight routes can actually be decoded by DecodeFlightRoute, and may still legitimately result in an error.

3

Thank you very much for your prompt reply bovineone.

I planned to use FlightXML API to track the live location of the air plane for shipment tracking purpose.

Since DecodeFlightRoute function does not guarantee results, could you please suggest some other function I can use for this purpose?

4

InFlightInfo will return the current position (lat, lon, altitude, etc) of a flight. flightaware.com/commercial/fligh … FlightInfo