API for querying system information & submitting distances

This is subject to change. Documentation & API written August 18th, 2015.

Getting information about a specific system - URL: http://the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php

Getting information about several systems at once - URL: http://the-temple.de/public/systems.php

Retrieving distances - URL: http://the-temple.de/public/distances.php

Get systems in a sphere - URL://the-temple.de/public/spheresys.php

List all systems which are located around a position or another system. Submit a system with known coordinates via sysname=... to have this system as the center of the sphere or submit coordinates in the form x=12.34&y=5.6&z=7.89 to have a sphere around this point. Submit the desired radius of the sphere with radius=n.nn Please note that the distance calculation is done by the database server and may differ slightly from the Elite: Dangerous Client ingame calculation.

Output is in JSON format. Parameters:
  • sysname
    • Name of the system(s) you want information about. This is case-insensitive as ingame. Spaces and other special characters in the system's name must be URL encoded. If you call the API from within a browser, it should be encoded automatically. If you are writing some 3rd party app, you probably know what to do. In PHP use urlencode. Use the percent sign "%" for a wildcard.
  • coords
    • Set to 1 if you want to get the coordinates (if known).
  • distances
    • Set to 1 if you want to receive the submitted distances.
  • submitted
    • Set to 1 if you want to receive information who and when submitted the names and distances.
  • include_hidden
    • Set to 1 if you want to get systems and distances marked as "hidden" - usually these are wrong system names or wrong distances submitted.
  • startdatetime
    • If you only want to receive data for systems that were updated after a specific date & time, use this parameter.
  • problems
    • Set to 1 if you want to see the known errors. One possible error is a submitted distance to another system where both coordinates are known, and the submitted distance is not the same as the calculated distance. This is probably a CMDR's typo when submitting distances. Another error is when more than one distance was submitted to the same reference system. Both are problematic because they may prevent coordinate calculation, show former wrong calculations or other bad things like moved systems.
  • reqdists
    • If you want to help finding new and verifying already known coordinates, set this to the number of systems you want to see where distances are needed. You get an array "reqconfirmdists" with calculated distances to verify and "reqlocatedists" with unknown systems.

    Parameters are given in the URL. Add a question mark and the parameters you want, separated by an ampersand "&".

    Note: Some parameters may be ignored when not useful, f.ex. distances=1 is always assumed for distances.php. Most parameters are optional, but some may be required, f.ex. sysname must be set when calling sysinfo.php.

    Submitting distances - URLs http://the-temple.de/public/edscpostdists.php & http://the-temple.de/public/edscgetdists.php

    The parameters needed for submitting distances should be the same as EDSC/TGC uses, to make it as easy as possible for others to use this API as a TGC replacement. TornSoul's documentation can be found here. The parameters ver and test are ignored. You may use method GET or POST, whatever is easier for you.

    System, distance & coordinate return messages and message numbers

  • 100 - base system added
    • The base system's name from where the distances were submitted was not known to the database and has been added.
  • 101 - base system probably non existant
    • The system from where the distances were submitted probably does not exist. Most likely it was submitted before and the name is a typo or it has been removed by FD. This system can't be used for any distance submission or coordinate calculation. If you are very sure this system really exists in game, contact CMDR Inhumierer for further investigation. We all make errors.
  • 102 - base system added with coordinates
    • The base system's coordinates were found, and it has been added to the database.
  • 104 - base system coordinates found
    • Coordinates for the base system could be calculated, they have been saved.
  • 105 - found alternative positions
    • Coordinates for the base system could be calculated, but there are additional grid positions close to this position. More reference distances to other systems are needed.
  • 106 - no match found
    • No position could be calculated, we need more referencing distances. This may happen if there were wrong distances submitted. In the near future the code for calculating the coordinates will probably be able to handle a few wrong distances, and hilight or even automatically hide them.
  • 107 - too many references
    • The code to calculate coordinates is currently limited to use 32 referencing distances.
  • 108 - need 4 refs minimum
    • The code to calculate coordinates needs 4 (or more) referencing distances, and there are less. An additional return value "refnum" gives the number of references in the database. Please note that only distances to systems with known coordinates do count.
  • 109 - coordinates not found
    • There was another reason which prevented coordinate calculation. Please contact CMDR Inhumierer to investigate.
  • 110 - base system name not found in submission - please check your API call
    • To be mostly compatible to EDSC the request for submitting distances needs to have a base system name, contained in a JSON array indexed "name", and this needs to be in an array called "p0". Please see the EDSC/TGC API doc.
  • 199 - unknown error processing base-system
    • If you ever happen to see this one, something is FUBAR. Please contact CMDR Inhumierer to try to find out what. And please include your CMDR name, the systems' names and distances you submitted, and possibly the date and time when you submitted them.
  • 200 - distance saved
    • The submitted distance was saved.
  • 201 - not a number
    • The submitted distance is not a number and can't be processed.
  • 202 - distance exists, CR saved
    • The submitted distance already exists in the database, the additional confidence vor verifying was saved.
  • 203 - distance exists, CR increased
    • The submitted distance already exists in the database, and it was submitted by the same CMDR. The confidence vor verifying was increased.
  • 300 - coordinates found
    • The coordinates for the system could be calculated and saved.
  • 305 - 308
    • Same codes for reference system coordinate calculation, please see codes 105 - 108 for details.

    When combining parameters to ask for system names, coordinates and required things, think about useful combinations. If you require a complete list of systems and distances, this will get quite huge. The server compresses the answer if you accept GZIP encoding, so the transfer won't take too long, but it will still be a list of approx. 44.000 systems and 170.000 distances, as of end May 2015. If you set "reqdists" to 10, you'll get 880.000 system names and 440.000 distances additionally. Besides that the computing of required references takes some time, so you'll probably have to wait some time to get the answer.

    Retrieving "hidden" systems and distances

    Experience and time have shown that it is better to keep wrong distances, system typos etc. in the database but mark them for not being used for any normal display, distance calculatioon and similar. If you want to receive JSON arrays containing the hidden distances and systems, call the-temple.de/public/hiddensys.php and the-temple.de/public/hiddendists.php. The system names and distances found here are most probably wrong and do not match the ingame galaxy map. If you find any which are OK in game here, please let me know.

    Examples

    • If you arrive in system Pand, and you want to help removing possible errors, verify 4 known and find 4 new coordinates, call the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php?sysname=pand&problems=1&reqdists=4
    • If you want to know the location of system LHS 3447, call the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php?sysname=LHS+3447&coords=1
    • If you want to know all systems which names contain "sol", call the-temple.de/public/systems.php?sysname=sol
    • If you want to know all system names belonging to the Coalsack Sector and having a "D" in their name, call the-temple.de/public/systems.php?sysname=coalsack%d
    • See all known systems within a jump range of 14 Ly around Sol and see where are problematic distances submitted, call http://the-temple.de/public/spheresys.php?sysname=Sol&radius=14&problems=1
    • If you want to know the coordinates and all submitted distances (including wrong ones) to Col 359 Sector CP-Y c1-18, call the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php?sysname=Col+359+Sector+CP-Y+c1-18&coords=1&include_hidden=1&distances=1&submitted=1
    • Probably wrong distance from Rhiannon to V388 Cassiopeiae: the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php?sysname=Rhiannon&problems=1
    • Multiple distances submitted for Greae Dryoae JB-X d1-1: the-temple.de/public/sysinfo.php?sysname=Greae+Dryoae+JB-X+d1-1&problems=1&coords=1
    • If you want to get all distances submitted or updated within the last four hours, call the-temple.de/public/distances.php?startdatetime=2024-11-21+21%3A24%3A00+%2B00%3A00 (Note: 2024-11-21 21:24:00 +00:00 URL encoded is 2024-11-21+21%3A24%3A00+%2B00%3A00)