Overview
DX Atlas Pro can be driven by other programs - loggers, DX cluster clients, contest software, propagation tools - which move and zoom its maps, switch its layers, and draw their own data on them: spots, paths, areas, labels, icons and colour-coded fields. It offers two interfaces for this:
- the WebSocket API - JSON-RPC 2.0 messages over a WebSocket on your own computer, usable from any language on Windows and Linux;
- the COM bridge - a COM server, on Windows only, that offers the automation interface of DX Atlas 2, so that programs written for DX Atlas work with DX Atlas Pro unchanged.
Which One to Choose
| WebSocket API | COM bridge | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Windows and Linux | Windows |
| Languages | any language with a WebSocket client: Python, JavaScript, C#, Java, Go, Delphi, ... | any COM client: Delphi, VB6, VBScript, C++, C#, ... |
| Interface | JSON objects, GeoJSON for the drawing | DX Atlas 2's DxAtlas.Atlas object and its properties |
| Drawing | per-feature styles, shapes, icons, long paths, features that expire, fields | DX Atlas 2's five layer kinds |
| Use it for | new programs | existing programs written for DX Atlas 2 |
Write a new program against the WebSocket API. The COM bridge exists for software that already drives DX Atlas 2: it translates each of DX Atlas's calls into the WebSocket API, so it offers nothing the API does not, and everything it draws is limited to what DX Atlas could draw.
In This Guide
- Enabling the API - the port, the allowed web pages, and starting DX Atlas Pro from your program;
- The WebSocket API - the message format, the errors, the methods that read and set the state of the window, the maps, the clock and the settings, and the events;
- Drawing on the Map - custom layers of GeoJSON features, their styles, icons, fields and z-order;
- The COM Bridge - its registration as a COM server, and what it covers of DX Atlas 2's interface;
- Examples - complete programs in C, Python, JavaScript and VBScript.