REST API Plugin Changelog

This document tracks all notable changes made to the REST API plugin.

[Unreleased] - 2025-12-26

🆕 Added

Weather Integration in /servers Endpoint

  • Comprehensive weather data: Temperature, wind speed/direction, pressure, visibility, cloud coverage
  • Real-time DCS integration: Weather extracted from active mission weather system
  • Configurable: Control via include_weather setting (default: true)

New /server_attendance Endpoint

  • Multi-period analytics: 24h, 7d, 30d player statistics with Discord member engagement
  • Enhanced server insights: Top theatres, missions, and modules by playtime and usage
  • Combat statistics: Total sorties, kills, deaths, PvP metrics from mv_serverstats
  • Daily trends: 7-day player activity trends for graphing
  • Inspired by Discord /serverstats: Comprehensive data matching monitoring plugin functionality

Configuration Options

  • include_weather: true/false - Toggle weather in server responses
  • server_attendance.enabled: true/false - Enable attendance analytics endpoint

🔄 Changed

Centralized Server Name Resolution

  • Unified server handling: All endpoints now use centralized get_resolved_server() method
  • Alias support: Endpoints support both instance aliases (nodes.yaml) and full DCS server names (servers.yaml)
  • Affected endpoints: /serverstats, /leaderboard, /topkills, /topkdr, /trueskill, /highscore, /weaponpk, /stats, /modulestats, /traps, /server_attendance

Code Architecture Improvements

  • Simplified SQL construction: Removed overly complex get_server_where_clause_and_params() helper
  • Readable patterns: Straightforward conditional SQL with direct parameter passing
  • Better maintainability: Clear, transparent code structure while preserving functionality

🐛 Fixed

Endpoint Corrections

  • /modulestats endpoint: Fixed incorrect method mapping (self.stats → self.modulestats) and response model (ModuleStats → list[ModuleStats])
  • SQL syntax errors: Resolved parameter binding issues in database queries
  • Weather data extraction: Corrected data structure parsing from DCS mission weather

Data Model Validation

  • Response validation: Fixed Pydantic model validation errors
  • Type consistency: Proper typing for all new data structures

📊 Enhanced Data Models

New Pydantic Models 

# Weather information
class WeatherInfo(BaseModel):
    temperature: float | None
    wind_speed: float | None  
    wind_direction: int | None
    pressure: float | None
    visibility: float | None
    cloud_coverage: str | None

# Top statistics for server attendance
class TopTheatre(BaseModel):
    theatre: str
    playtime_hours: int

class TopMission(BaseModel):
    mission_name: str
    playtime_hours: int
    
class TopModule(BaseModel):
    module: str
    playtime_hours: int
    unique_players: int
    total_uses: int

# Enhanced server attendance with comprehensive analytics
class ServerAttendanceStats(BaseModel):
    current_players: int
    unique_players_24h: int
    total_playtime_hours_24h: float
    discord_members_24h: int
    unique_players_7d: int  
    total_playtime_hours_7d: float
    discord_members_7d: int
    unique_players_30d: int
    total_playtime_hours_30d: float
    discord_members_30d: int
    daily_trend: list[dict]
    top_theatres: list[TopTheatre]
    top_missions: list[TopMission]  
    top_modules: list[TopModule]
    total_sorties: int | None
    total_kills: int | None
    total_deaths: int | None
    total_pvp_kills: int | None
    total_pvp_deaths: int | None

🚀 Performance & Technical Details

Database Integration

  • Monitoring plugin patterns: Leverages existing monitoring infrastructure SQL queries
  • Materialized views: Efficient use of mv_serverstats for performance
  • Optimized queries: Following established DCS server integration patterns

Backward Compatibility

  • Zero breaking changes: All existing API consumers continue working unchanged
  • Opt-in features: New functionality enabled by default but configurable
  • Migration-free: No configuration changes required for existing setups

📈 Impact

For API Consumers

  • Richer server data: Weather and comprehensive attendance analytics
  • Better server identification: Flexible server name resolution (aliases + full names)
  • Enhanced dashboards: More detailed metrics for monitoring and visualization

For Developers

  • Cleaner codebase: Simplified, maintainable SQL construction patterns
  • Consistent patterns: Unified server resolution across all endpoints
  • Better documentation: Complete API models with examples and validation

Summary: This release significantly enhances the REST API plugin with comprehensive server analytics, weather integration, and improved code architecture while maintaining full backward compatibility.