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Hello Air-Childies 
EDIT: Latest download link will be posted here and in the thread below, where you can also find the list of updates:
Latest version(Alpha 0.2):
Previous version(Alpha 0.11):
]
First of all, thank you for taking the time to open this thread. I am working on my first project involving any kind of programming. It's nothing compared to what some other of our members have done, but it's a useful little tool and I'm a little proud of it. This project started as a school project, but ended up being much, much more than required for the course. I have made this for myself for the sake of programming practice and usefulness, but have thought for a while that I should check if there's anyone here interested. I would love if there were one or two interested to try it out and give feedback, as I'd like the experience developing applications. It isn't quite ready for distribution just yet, but it will be during this month (I hope). I'm just checking the ice prematurely.
So, the big drawback to this little "application" is, that it has been created using Microsoft's VBA, and therefore only works within Microsoft Office Excel. So having Excel is a requirement to use this. It should work in 2007 to 2013, created in 2010.
Now to the app itself: It is a "tour" planner for Air-Child pilots. It doesn't give you flight plans, but assists you in choosing which flights to book and fly. Since it was created for myself, it supports my kind of principles, which are:
- Using Advanced/Professional career
- Always departing from the arrival airport of the last flight
- Always using only the planes that are in the departure airports
- Mostly scheduled flights
These principles make planning one's flights a challenge, and this application is meant to make it easier. Note, the application does not require you to follow these principles (except for maybe some parts), only make it simpler to do so.
I'll give you an example: Before I was even allowed to fly the 737, my flight options were rather limited. I only flew the ATR and E190. So, I was in LOWW, and wanted to end up in Rotterdam, EHRD. I typed this citypair into my app, and it suggested a route something like this:
- Take an E190 via EDDS and EGCC to EGLC
- From EGLC take an ATR to EHAM
- At EHAM switch to another ATR to fly via EDDW to EHRD
Finding this kind of a route would of course be possible through the tools provided on Air-Child's website, but it is a little more time consuming. I enjoy flying scheduled flights with these rules and with the help of this little app, since it gives some kind of sense of purpose and achievement when you manage to fly from A to B using only the provided schedules. Recommended.
The application gathers data from Air-Child's website and organizes it into neat tables, which the code in the VBA-macros uses to find this kind of routes. There are a couple of other functions as well, but this is definitely the most important one. There will be more functions though. It is still a work in progress.
I don't know if I have been clear enough here. I'm new to advertising my programs to people, so if you have any questions, please, I would definitely appreciate if you asked.
I thank you for reading this far, and would be forever grateful if you had any input on this, and even more grateful if you were actually interested in trying it out. I know it's not an application worthy of commercial distribution, but it's a useful tool, made as a introductory programming practice work. A soft landing into the world of programming. I will be studying more of the subject during the following year, and IF there was some interest for this, my next practice work might be doing this using a more user-friendly platform than Excel...
The Very Best Regards,
Aleksi
EDIT: Since I realised that a comprehensive list of features might be useful for anyone reading, that will be added here:
About the structure of the file. The initial package would include:
- The main sheet:
¤ A table with all the aircraft the user has chosen to include with information on:
* Type
* Registration
* Status (whether scheduled, charter or spec ops)
* Base hub
* Current position
¤ All the main buttons that are used to interact with the main functionalities, these are listed
later
- A sheet with a plain table copied directly from air-child's hangar. This is what the code uses to get basic information on the planes. It also updates regularly, or when the user wants it to. This sheet has no interaction with the user and I could just hide it
- After these two sheets come the many individual plane schedule sheets. The schedule sheets show all the flights a plane has and the times of day. Currently no weekdays can be implemented, but for now there is a space if someone wishes to mark them down themselves. That's a lot of work though so I don't think anyone would. The initial package includes ALL ~350 planes Air-Child has, but this can easily be changed by the user.
Then the buttons on the main sheet, and their functions:
- Update positions -button
¤ Simply refreshes the large hangar-table, from which all of the position information in the
Excel is fetched. Therefore pushing this button you'll have exactly up to date information on
where all of the planes are.
- Refresh all schedules -button
¤ This might be changed or removed, but currently it rebuilds all individual schedules to account
for any changes, such as addition or removal of flights
- Manage database -button
¤ Opens a form that lists all aircraft types Air-Child has. Next to each type there's a checkbox.
Initially all boxes are checked, but if you uncheck boxes, the corresponding aircraft type will
be removed from your Excel file. Similarly, if you check a box that was previously unchecked,
it will be added to the database. These changes include adding or removing the planes'
information from the main sheet table plus adding or removing the individual schedule sheets.
- Plan routes -button
¤ This is the feature that everything else is made for. It opens a form with two tabs, both with
separate functions.
Tab 1 was the first thing I did, and it will get replaced by something more advanced at some
point. It simply asks the user for a plane's registration and then tells the user all the planes
that are currently positioned along the plane's schedule. This is to tell the user where they
could switch planes. The user can also, after the search, with a single click carry out the
same search for one of the planes found along the schedule, and this way build their plan.
Tab 2
This tab is the one that was used in my example from LOWW to EHRD. It's simple: the user
gives the airport codes and the program gives the user all the planes they need to use, and
where to switch. At least for now it does not give information on what flights the user needs
to fly on a plane, but that can easily be figured out by looking at the schedule. For example,
it could give you "From EHAM on PH-DBR (B737-700) to ESSA", and the user would then book
the appropriate flights to make it to ESSA on this plane, whether it be one or five flights.
This will be worked on.
On both tabs there's the possibility to leave any type of aircraft out of the search, and of course
only those types that you have included in your database can be used in the search.
I will add the planned features here later. This already is a huge amount of reading, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate if you've made it this far, but a massive thank you for your attention and please share your thoughts
EDIT: Latest download link will be posted here and in the thread below, where you can also find the list of updates:
Latest version(Alpha 0.2):
Previous version(Alpha 0.11):
]
First of all, thank you for taking the time to open this thread. I am working on my first project involving any kind of programming. It's nothing compared to what some other of our members have done, but it's a useful little tool and I'm a little proud of it. This project started as a school project, but ended up being much, much more than required for the course. I have made this for myself for the sake of programming practice and usefulness, but have thought for a while that I should check if there's anyone here interested. I would love if there were one or two interested to try it out and give feedback, as I'd like the experience developing applications. It isn't quite ready for distribution just yet, but it will be during this month (I hope). I'm just checking the ice prematurely.
So, the big drawback to this little "application" is, that it has been created using Microsoft's VBA, and therefore only works within Microsoft Office Excel. So having Excel is a requirement to use this. It should work in 2007 to 2013, created in 2010.
Now to the app itself: It is a "tour" planner for Air-Child pilots. It doesn't give you flight plans, but assists you in choosing which flights to book and fly. Since it was created for myself, it supports my kind of principles, which are:
- Using Advanced/Professional career
- Always departing from the arrival airport of the last flight
- Always using only the planes that are in the departure airports
- Mostly scheduled flights
These principles make planning one's flights a challenge, and this application is meant to make it easier. Note, the application does not require you to follow these principles (except for maybe some parts), only make it simpler to do so.
I'll give you an example: Before I was even allowed to fly the 737, my flight options were rather limited. I only flew the ATR and E190. So, I was in LOWW, and wanted to end up in Rotterdam, EHRD. I typed this citypair into my app, and it suggested a route something like this:
- Take an E190 via EDDS and EGCC to EGLC
- From EGLC take an ATR to EHAM
- At EHAM switch to another ATR to fly via EDDW to EHRD
Finding this kind of a route would of course be possible through the tools provided on Air-Child's website, but it is a little more time consuming. I enjoy flying scheduled flights with these rules and with the help of this little app, since it gives some kind of sense of purpose and achievement when you manage to fly from A to B using only the provided schedules. Recommended.
The application gathers data from Air-Child's website and organizes it into neat tables, which the code in the VBA-macros uses to find this kind of routes. There are a couple of other functions as well, but this is definitely the most important one. There will be more functions though. It is still a work in progress.
I don't know if I have been clear enough here. I'm new to advertising my programs to people, so if you have any questions, please, I would definitely appreciate if you asked.
I thank you for reading this far, and would be forever grateful if you had any input on this, and even more grateful if you were actually interested in trying it out. I know it's not an application worthy of commercial distribution, but it's a useful tool, made as a introductory programming practice work. A soft landing into the world of programming. I will be studying more of the subject during the following year, and IF there was some interest for this, my next practice work might be doing this using a more user-friendly platform than Excel...
The Very Best Regards,
Aleksi
EDIT: Since I realised that a comprehensive list of features might be useful for anyone reading, that will be added here:
About the structure of the file. The initial package would include:
- The main sheet:
¤ A table with all the aircraft the user has chosen to include with information on:
* Type
* Registration
* Status (whether scheduled, charter or spec ops)
* Base hub
* Current position
¤ All the main buttons that are used to interact with the main functionalities, these are listed
later
- A sheet with a plain table copied directly from air-child's hangar. This is what the code uses to get basic information on the planes. It also updates regularly, or when the user wants it to. This sheet has no interaction with the user and I could just hide it
- After these two sheets come the many individual plane schedule sheets. The schedule sheets show all the flights a plane has and the times of day. Currently no weekdays can be implemented, but for now there is a space if someone wishes to mark them down themselves. That's a lot of work though so I don't think anyone would. The initial package includes ALL ~350 planes Air-Child has, but this can easily be changed by the user.
Then the buttons on the main sheet, and their functions:
- Update positions -button
¤ Simply refreshes the large hangar-table, from which all of the position information in the
Excel is fetched. Therefore pushing this button you'll have exactly up to date information on
where all of the planes are.
- Refresh all schedules -button
¤ This might be changed or removed, but currently it rebuilds all individual schedules to account
for any changes, such as addition or removal of flights
- Manage database -button
¤ Opens a form that lists all aircraft types Air-Child has. Next to each type there's a checkbox.
Initially all boxes are checked, but if you uncheck boxes, the corresponding aircraft type will
be removed from your Excel file. Similarly, if you check a box that was previously unchecked,
it will be added to the database. These changes include adding or removing the planes'
information from the main sheet table plus adding or removing the individual schedule sheets.
- Plan routes -button
¤ This is the feature that everything else is made for. It opens a form with two tabs, both with
separate functions.
Tab 1 was the first thing I did, and it will get replaced by something more advanced at some
point. It simply asks the user for a plane's registration and then tells the user all the planes
that are currently positioned along the plane's schedule. This is to tell the user where they
could switch planes. The user can also, after the search, with a single click carry out the
same search for one of the planes found along the schedule, and this way build their plan.
Tab 2
This tab is the one that was used in my example from LOWW to EHRD. It's simple: the user
gives the airport codes and the program gives the user all the planes they need to use, and
where to switch. At least for now it does not give information on what flights the user needs
to fly on a plane, but that can easily be figured out by looking at the schedule. For example,
it could give you "From EHAM on PH-DBR (B737-700) to ESSA", and the user would then book
the appropriate flights to make it to ESSA on this plane, whether it be one or five flights.
This will be worked on.
On both tabs there's the possibility to leave any type of aircraft out of the search, and of course
only those types that you have included in your database can be used in the search.
I will add the planned features here later. This already is a huge amount of reading, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate if you've made it this far, but a massive thank you for your attention and please share your thoughts