ATCF HTTP Server

A development RESTful Flask server that returns JSON data of ATCF storm data.

Note: The ATCF source occasaionally doesn't update on time, which can cause outdated information to be returned.

How it works

The server has 2 main threads. A Flask thread is initialized at startup as well as the ATCFServer thread.

Flask Thread

This thread starts a flask development server on the user selected IP and port (if none is supplied localhost and port 5000 are used.) Once a client sends a GET request to the server, a JSON response is delivered based on the parameters supplied. Most data is gathered from data.json and data.csv, and is processed in get_data.py and data_processing.py.

Each client IP is limited to a certain amount of requests based on which config is used. For more info, see Server Installation and Startup.

ATCFServer Thread

When ran, a request is sent to the ATCF Sector file, and data is formatted and written to both data.csv and data.json if the request was successful. If unsuccessful, based on the error code the thread will either attempt another request, or will wait until the next 15 minute interval to send a request.

This thread is ran at startup, as well as at 15 minute intervals (i.e. 0015, 0030, 0045, etc).

How to use

Server installation and startup

Python 3.9 is required for installation, as well as an up-to-date pip package installer.

Clone the repository via a zip download, or from a local git installation. Once cloned, the server can be run by running run.bat (Windows) or run.sh (Linux/MacOS). This will first check if a virtual environment exists in the directory, and will install all packages in requirements.txt to the virtual environment or - if no virtual environment is detected - the system environment. This will run the server on localhost (127.0.0.1) and port 5000 by default.

To change the IP address and/or port used, you can create an .env file containing the following values:

• For development: DEV_FLASK_IP and DEV_FLASK_PORT
• For production: PROD_FLASK_IP and PROD_FLASK_PORT

To use the development environment variables, the DevelopmentConfig must be loaded from config.py. The production variables can be loaded using the StagingConfig and ProductionConfig. By default, DevelopmentConfig is loaded in src/__init__.py

Depending on what config is used, the requests limit is changed, with DevlopmentConfig and TestingConfig having the least strict limits. Request limits are implemented with flask limiter.

Client

Clients will need to send a HTTP GET request in order to get data.

To see examples as well with parameters, check out the client documentation or the index file (only accessible if server is running on localhost)

Example Index

Contributing

Contributors are welcomed! To contribute:

• Follow (loosely) the guidelines set in CONTRIBUTING.md

The guidelines are not required to be followed strictly, however they are there to optimize your pull requests/issue reports to be constructive as possible.

If you have any questions/inquires related to the project, don't hesitate to contact me @chrisd149.

Contact

I can be contacted via the following methods:

• Email: christianmigueldiaz@gmail.com
• Discord: chrisd149#7640

I will try my best to respond to legitimate questions/inquires at soon as possible, however it may take me a few days at most.

Licensing

This project uses the MIT License.

Sources

• ATCF - Automated cyclone software that is maintained by the US Naval Research Laboratory. Every 6 hours (UTC-0), the ATCF Sector file is updated with all current cyclones' data, including name, depression ID, pressure, max 1-minute winds, and GPS coordinates.

• NOAA - Extraneous imagery used (i.e. Satelite image of Hurricane Epsilon at the top of the README)