Not receiving AeroAPI push notifications

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

I have created flight alerts:

"events": {
                "arrival": false,
                "departure": false,
                "cancelled": true,
                "diverted": true,
                "filed": true,
                "out": true,
                "off": true,
                "on": true,
                "in": true
            }

But I am not receiving the notifications, whether I include a target_url or simply use the default one set through the /alerts/endpoint endpoint.

I can confirm that no message is being sent at all. I have also tested with “AeroAPI Push Notifications - FlightAware” and it simply says the message has been added to the queue but is never being sent either.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

2

Our system shows several alerts being successfully delivered to your AeroAPI endpoint between 2024-02-23 and 2024-02-27. Can you confirm whether you have been able to receive them?

3

It is. Appears it took 24-48hrs for alerts to start being sent after the API key was generated.

4

I recommend making your endpoint output a short and simple message such as “OK”, perhaps a transaction number or similar, in response to receiving a pushed alert. This will allow you to view these confirmations on our monitoring page.

5

Thanks!

What are the specs for this? We currently return HTTP/200 if it’s a success.
Just raw text or part of a json element?

Also, do you know how I setup the secret token to authenticate the alert notifications? I don’t see this anywhere in the API specs.

6

HTTP/200 status code is the minimum requirement. However, you can optionally output a brief body (longer bodies are fine, but will get truncated and ignored by us). The format is not important, since it is not parsed just logged. You may also optionally use Content-type: text/plain. Doing both of these will make debugging in the future easier for everyone involved. This guidance is possibly not listed in the current documentation but was in the historical documentation.

7

Thanks!

And, do you know how I setup the secret token to authenticate the alert notifications? I don’t see this anywhere in the API specs.

8

Thanks!

And, do you know how I setup the secret token to authenticate the alert notifications? I don’t see this anywhere in the API specs.

9

That’s not supported.

10

Oh. So what is this about? @bovineone

How can I be sure a push alert sent to my endpoint came from FlightAware?

One method would be to include a unique token parameter when setting your alert endpoint via the /alerts/endpoint resource. Then the endpoint would be expected to verify the value. https://myserver.example.com/path/handler.cgi?secretkey=abc123

It is also possible to use basic authentication on the endpoint by submitting a username and password in the legacy URL encoding method. However this method is not recommended and will only function with endpoints configured for HTTPS. https://user:password@myserver.example.com/path/handler.cgi

11

That information was written during the v2 era of our API and we are no longer promoting use of URL-based secrets.