ELEVATEX have shared a statement on their forums regarding recent issues with importing flight history from another flight tracking software, Volanta, into ELEVATEX. The issue was addressed a few days before this post on their forums.
ELEVATEX Import Issues With Volanta
ELEVATEX is a flight tracking software that allows users to track their flights from their chosen simulator. It tracks the route, stats like speed and altitude and allows you to track other users. It’s an alternative to another popular software, Volanta. If you change software, however, your history does not move over automatically.
Using Volanta, you are able to transfer your flight history across by exporting your data and importing it via ELEVATEX. On the 17th, the developers released an update to address an issue with this import feature relating to a file layout change on Volanta’s end. Another update was released on the same day to once again address the changing file extensions and layout from Volanta. Ultimately, this feature was disabled by ELEVATEX later in the day as the file properties continued to change.
Statement From ELEVATEX
As issues continued with Volanta and the file properties used when you exported your data, ELEVATEX reached out to them via a support ticket, hoping to get some clarification. The response from Volanta, however, was not what they were hoping for, and the feature to import data into ELEVATEX remains disabled as of the 20th of October. According to the statement from Elevatex, Volanta is currently not willing to work with them on a solution to this issue.
They continued in their statement, explaining the numerous support tickets received by the team from users experiencing issues with importing their data. Each change by ELEVATEX to add support for these changing file formats and properties takes roughly 45 minutes. They shared four separate exports from Volanta, all taken on the 19th of October. Each export shown includes a “position report” that is used to render your flight paths.
The first export shows the same export format that has been present for the past two years. However, as you look at the other three exports, you can see the different variations in the formatting by Volanta. Each of the variations present are relatively small changes, like “latitude” and “longitude” changed to “north_south” and “east_west”. They also changed the format from decimal to DMS (degrees-minutes-seconds). The last two variations in the exports are how the property names are split from “:” to “.”.
With continued changes in the format and properties of the data in the file, ELEVATEX can’t keep updating their software to support the imports, as the variations could be limitless. They only shared a portion of the inconsistencies they have found with Volanta data exports, and many more exist in other reports from users.
Volanta’s Response and GDPR Concerns
In response to ELEVATEX’s ticket to Orbx support, they stated that the “specific file structure, properties, and format of this export are internal implementation details of the Volanta service”. This essentially means that as Volanta continues to develop its software, these formats can change at any time. They also clarified that the data export feature is there to provide users with their data when needed. There is no official support for third-party developers.
Orbx closed the ticket after giving them this response, and it has raised more questions for ELEVATEX. In their analysis of Volanta’s export data, the file types, property names, and data values can vary quite a lot. Even exports just minutes apart can have very different variations from previous exports. According to ELEVATEX, this may suggest an export generator is being used rather than a consistent dump of data into one file type.
ELEVATEX have also highlighted their concern regarding GDPR Article 20 (Right to Data Portability). Over the course of these issues with Volanta, they have seen the widely varying changes in file structures, properties and more across data exports. Article 20 of GDPR states:
The data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided
Due to the frequent changes, importing data from Volanta into third-party software like ELEVATEX is challenging and not as smooth as intended. According to ELEVATEX, they wish to encourage collaboration with Volanta and ensure that the export feature supports the aim of data portability, which is outlined in Article 20.
Current Standing
As of the 20th of October, the Volanta data import feature remains disabled due to these ongoing issues. When a solution does become available in the future, ELEVATEX will be sure to support it as soon as possible. They mentioned that they have done their part to find a solution to this issue; however, they will continue to move forward with their own development until a permanent solution can be found. You can read the post here on their forums, and any developments will be reported here on FSNews.
Feel free to join our Discord server to share your feedback on the article, screenshots from your flights or just chat with the rest of the team and the community. Click here to join the server.
