Data Feeds

FSE provides a lot of game data via XML and CSV.  This data allows players and groups to analyze their assets, crunch numbers in a spreadsheet, display information on a 3rd-party website, or even develop 3rd party tools to enhance the game-play experience. 

The data feeds available are on the FSE Game World website under the HOME > DATA FEEDS menu item.

There are two ways to access this data: one is with a Access Key (sometimes called a Read Access Key, Personal Access Key, Personal Key, or User Key), the other is with a Service Key. 

Service Keys are designed for websites and other programmed applications where the programmer can control the access that users will interact with. Access Keys are designed for the individual who likes to use a spreadsheet to analyze and manipulate his or her FSE information, or the information of an FSE Flight Group. 

The only difference between the two keys are timing options. 

Access Key

An Access Key is associated with either a user's personal account or with a group account, or both.  The key can be obtained on the Data Feeds page. By default, accounts do not have an Access Key enabled.  Access Keys can be enabled or changed by clicking the "reset" button next to your account name, or your Flight Group's name.

Some 3rd party tools may require you to enter your personal Access Key in order to use that tool. Although someone can use your personal Access Key to view private information (that is: information not available through the normal game interface) such as bank balances, it is not possible to write information back to the server.  Therefore, there are no security issues with providing your personal Access Key to others; just be aware that someone may see information not otherwise available to them.  If you decide to change your Access Key on the FSE Game World website, you will need to re-enter it into any tools or spreadsheets you are using.

Timing: The Access Key can hit the server 10 times within any rolling 60 second window, including multiple simultaneous hits. This is frequently the case for someone who opens a spreadsheet workbook with several sheets, each sheet containing it's own set of data to retrieve (i.e. sheet 1 pulls aircraft logs, sheet 2 pulls FBO logs, sheet 3 pulls payment logs, etc.). Read Access Keys are also limited to 40 hits within a 6 hour rolling window. 

Service Key

Service Keys must be formally requested by filling out an application, located on the Service Feed webpage.  On the application, you will describe what it is you're going to be doing and who the FSE Account points of contact will be. The FSE Administrators will review and approve/reject your application, or ask for more information. This process can take several days. The intent is twofold: first, to prevent users from inadvertently using Service Keys when an Access Key will work just fine; and second, to ensure that the proposed service will not be too much of a drag on the FSE Server's resources. 

Timing: A Service Key can hit the servers no more often than once every two seconds. If it does, then your "hit" is rejected. If the Service Key generates enough rejects, it may be suspended and/or the source IP address blocked. This means that if you put a "live pull" directly into a webpage, and 2 different people load that webpage simultaneously, one of them will not get any data returned.... plus the Service Key is logged as hitting the server too frequently. If you think your website user-base will not contribute too heavy a load, than pulling the XML info and rendering it as HTML to the user directly within the page might be ok. However, the "right" answer is for you to pull data in the background at intervals that you chose, use your own database to store that data, and then render that information to the user in whatever format you chose, without worrying that multiple users (or one guy on a refresh streak) are causing your page to go hit the FSE server too frequently. 

Available Feeds

There are a couple of dozen feeds available for analyzing game data in different ways.  This data ranges from personal information about an account (number of flights, account money balance), aircraft logs, FBO information, stuff for sale, assignments at an airport, and more.

All available data feeds are listed as URL hyperlinks on the Data Feeds page.  Each URL is broken into several different parameters that can be modified to retrieve custom information, such as a specific month from the payment logs, or a specific aircraft's records.  

By default, the listed URLs are set to "Example mode" so that you can see the various parameters.  If you are building your own application or custom spreadsheet, you can manipulate these URL parameters from within your application.  Otherwise, you can simply adjust the parameters at the top of the Data Feeds screen and click the "Update Selection" button to modify the URLs on the screen.  

View the data in a spreadsheet:

(each of the below examples assumes you have already established a personal Read Access Key for your FSE account)

1. Desktop spreadsheet

To view any of the data feeds in your local spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel or Libre Office, simply download the CSV (comma separated value) file for the data you would like to view. 

Step 1. Access the Game World Data Feed page, and set the Data Feed format to "CSV"

Step 2. (optional) If you want to look at "group stuff", then you also need to select the group name. Otherwise the data will be for your personal account.

Step 3. Click "Update Selections"

Step 4. Click the hyperlink for whichever feed you want to look at. This downloads a .csv file.

Step 5. Double click the .csv file you just downloaded, and it should open in Excel by default. Or, open Excel, then do a file > open, and find your downloaded CSV file.

2. Google Sheets

If you don't have a local spreadsheet application, or you would just prefer to use the Sheets app in your Google account, you can also easily import a CSV file.  Unlike a desktop spreadsheet, you do not download the CSV file. Instead, you use Google's ImportData function.

Step 1. Access the Game World Data Feed page, and set the Data Feed format to "CSV"

Step 2. (optional) If you want to look at "group stuff", then you also need to select the group name. Otherwise the data will be for your personal account.

Step 3. Click "Update Selections"

Step 4. COPY the hyperlink for whichever feed you want to look at.

Step 5. Open a new Google Sheet, and enter the following formula in cell A1:

=IMPORTDATA(ʺ ʺ)

Step 6. Paste the URL you copied in Step 4 into the formula above, inside the quotation marks, and press enter