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Getting Started

Overview​

The plugins and scripts for vmsACARS are written in Typescript, and then transpiled to JS. Typescript ensures that the interfaces required are following, and that the proper things are returned so ACARS can run them. While Typescript isn't required, it's best to use it to ensure proper values are passed - especially around enums.

This PDK includes build scripts to:

  • Convert Typescript to JS, with type checking/linting
  • Stamp the distribution package with versioning
  • GitHub Actions to build and deploy
  • Scripts to help with development

The General Steps​

First, fork the acars-pdk repository. Follow the setup below. Then start editing the scripts in the /src directory, depending on what you want to do. Then, you upload it, and phpVMS will distribute it to all of your pilots.

  • Complete the setup, including the .env file
  • Disable downloading the latest updates
  • Run npm run dev to then test in ACARS
  • Run npm run dist to create the ZIP
  • Upload this zip somewhere
  • Update the phpVMS ACARS Admin to point to the above URL
  • ???
  • Profit!

Setup​

Required:​

  • nodejs/npm or pnpm
  • Typescript
  • Gulp

Run:

npm install

Customizing using the .env file:​

Next, copy the .env.default to .env. Then edit this file to change the profile name.

The available options:

  • ACARS_PROFILE_NAME - The default profile to use for testing
  • ACARS_CONFIG_PATH - The default usually works, but you can change this to the path where you put ACARS, if you did a local install
  • ACARS_SCRIPTS_PATH - Uses the ACARS_PROFILE_NAME to build the path to where the scripts should be sent after a build
  • ACARS_DIST_ZIP - The distribution filename

Commands​

Then there are multiple commands you can use:

Build​

This creates a dist directory, with all the JS files in it

npm run build

This doesn't copy it anywhere, just runs a compile and build

Automatically build and copy to ACARS​

This will set up a watch, and then automatically transpile and then copy the contents of the dist folder into the ACARS_PROFILE_PATH directory that's defined in the .env file.

npm run dev

Packaging a distribution file​

Running:

npm run dist

Creates a dist.zip (you can rename it in the .env file) after running a build. You can modify the gulpfile.mjs to include other files - by default, anything in the dist directory gets packaged. You can then configure GitHub Actions to then upload this zip somewhere for ACARS to download.

Disable Downloading Latest Defaults​

Sometimes, it's just useful to disable downloading of the latest defaults, and just edit the scripts that are included to see how they work. To do that, create a file in your Documents/vmsacars directory, called appsettings.local.json, and place the following:

{
  "Config": {
    "App": {
      "DownloadConfig": false
    }
  },
  "Serilog": {
    "MinimumLevel": {
      "Default": "Verbose"
    }
  }
}

You can also adjust the log level to "Information", "Debug" or "Verbose" ("Debug" is recommended)