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Hi, this question is the most asked one and with the SimBrief improvements we have in v7 this matter become critical ... Here you can find the basics about the logic and how to setup your fares/subfleets/flights properly. 1. Main Fares You can define your fares in admin/fares. These will be your main fare types, which will then be used in your subfleets or flights. The main idea here is to define only the basics, so you can change them later when needed. Think fares like the seats in your plane (or cargo space), which can be sold as tickets. They are not in flight services or extended service types like WiFi, Hot Meals, Extra Snacks, Economy Premium or Economy Basic, they are just Economy seats you have. So lets start; Economy (Y) Business (J) First Class (F) Cargo (CGO) These are the main fare groups commonly found in airliners, so start with Economy. When you are at admin/fares click Add New, and enter the info as described below Code : Y Name : Economy Type : Passenger ( for Cargo Fares type must be Cargo as expected ) Price : 100 Cost : 25 Capacity : EMPTY / NULL ( Leave it empty, do NOT try writing EMPTY to that field ) Notes : Fill as you wish Active : Checked and click save ... In simple terms we will gain 75 Usd/Eur/Pound (currency comes from your settings) from each passenger 'cause there is an operating cost of a seat. Repeat the steps for rest if you wish. Why we left Capacity empty ? I will explain it later but for now we are just defining our base fares, so no need to have capacities here. 2. SubFleet Fares Assuming you already have at least one subfleet, which is mandatory in v7. We can explain their logic later if necessary. Head up to admin/fleets and click edit one of your subfleets, or just create one and save (so you will be able to see the details). Scroll down a little bit and you will see Fares section there and it is probably empty. This is the area where we "assign" and "adjust" our main fares which will be used for this subfleet. Click on Select Fare, you will see your defined main fares there. Select Economy and click Add. Now the fare is assigned to this subfleet and you will see it above values like below; Name : Economy Code : Y Type : Passenger Capacity : inherited () Price : inherited (100) Cost : inherited (25) This is where v7 magic begins ... I will use an Airbus A320 with only economy class seats as my basic aircraft type. Click on the inherited text under capacity column and enter 180 there. Right now, when you use any member of this subfleet, you will have 180 seats ready for being sold with a price tag of 100 currency and it will cost you 25 currency to operate that seat. If you want to change the price of your tickets or adjust the operating costs of your seats for this subfleet you can follow the same steps for price and cost. If you do so, your ticket prices and/or costs will be changed ONLY for this subfleet. While adjusting prices you can just use pure values like 150 or percentages like 125%. It is up to you how you change the value. Just do not use percentages on capacities, it really does not make any sense Ok, passenger capacity and price/cost was easy ... How about having some cargo space/fare for a passenger plane. They are not designed to carry bigger loads like freighters but they do have some space under their belly, which is mainly used for carrying out passenger baggages, why not use the remaining space to earn some more money ? Normally passenger planes are mostly limited by the cargo hold's (the name of the cargo area) volume but since we do not have any volume checking capability in simulator and phpvms, we will stick only on the weights here. Just add your pre-defined cargo fare to your subfleet like you added the passenger fares. So, the logic is simple; Your Cargo fare should be big enough to hold all your passenger baggages. Then calculation is simple too 180 (our pax capacity) * 35 lbs (our non-charter baggage weight : check admin/setting simbrief for default values) = 6300 lbs should be your minimum Cargo Fare capacity. If you want to carry some paid cargo, then you need to increase this amount up to a point where it does not passes your aircrafts Maximum Zero Fuel Weight when you have full pax on board. I know this may sound a little bit strange but this is how real thing works too If you know your aircraft specification, then you can calculate your possible max cargo capacity by below formula; Maximum Cargo Fare Capacity = MZFW - DOW - ( max pax seat capacity * pax weight ) DOW is Dry Operating Weight (Operating Empty Weight), it is the weight of your aircraft without fuel, passengers and cargo but with crew, catering and airline stuff loaded already. Anyway, if you do not know your DOW and MZFW then just add some space more to the above calculated value, make it like 8000 lbs. So you will have 1700 lbs free space to carry some cargo after taking all the passenger baggages for a fully loaded flight. Please note; If your PhpVms weight settings are KG, just convert the amount you found to kilograms before adjusting the cargo fare capacity. Just another note for SimBrief Form; The cargo fares of passenger planes will show you the Maximum Available capacity, though we named it max in short terms but this may lead confusions. So when you have passengers and their baggage, your cargo fare capacity will be reduced by the weight of the total passenger baggage weight. Therefore it is not the capacity you defined anymore, it is just what is left behind for you to load additional cargo. If you see negative values there, this is a clear indication that your cargo fare capacity is not enough to hold the passenger baggages . And please keep in mind that SimBrief form uses your aircraft, meaning it reads your subfleet fares. It is a flight plan, do not expect it to read the fares of a flight, it is directly related to the aircrafy you want to generate a flight plan. 3. Flight Fares Technically you really do not need to add fares to flights, but the logic is same as adding fares to subfleets. If you want to change the ticket price/cost of a fare for a specific flight you can do it here. Imagine having a special flight with doubled ticket prices, then just add the fare you want to adjust, click on the price or cost columns inherited text and enter 200%. Now you will have doubled price/cost for this flight only I higly suggest you to not to define capacities at main fares and not adjust capacities at flight fares. This really makes life easier, in real world operations we do not define the capacity in fares and for flights (unless there is a special need). Capacity always comes from the aircraft (here in phpvms it comes from the subfleet) and when we (as OCC or Dispatchers) do change the aircraft of a flight or decide to do it with another aircraft other than planned by commercial planning or schedule planning departments of the airline, ticket sale systems just get the new aircraft info and use its capacity to stop the ticket sales automatically if it reaches the max seats. Things do NOT work like the real world here, so if you have a 180 seat aircraft but define a main fare with 219 seat capacity or edit a flight's fare and set capacity to 239 there, results will not be nice And always remember, fare logic follows below order; Flight (has highest priority, when you change thigns here, they will be used) Subfleet / Aircraft (medium priority over fare) Fare (lowest priority and gets overwritten by the ones above) I think this is enough for basic setup and understanding the logic how fares work in PhpVms v7. Safe flights for now, will post some more info about different topics later.1 point
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https://docs.phpvms.net/ https://docs.phpvms.net/installation/uploading If you can not do the install yourself, there are some paid services offered just for that 5 minutes... Check "Paid Services" section of the forum. https://forum.phpvms.net/forum/39-paid-services/1 point
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I do get lots of personal messages/questions about this, "ok I installed v7 what next ?" Here you may find your answer, if not do not hesitate to ask (not personally but via forum so everyone can benefit from the answer) 0. Which version should I download and install ? Definitely NOT beta4 or beta5 ! Please download and install LATEST DEVELOPMENT ( in short terms dev or latest dev) build, it is much more stable compared to any beta builds and have many improvements. If you install beta4 and have some errors (you will have them for sure), the first reply to your support question will be "install latest dev". 1. How do I install v7 ? Please do check docs.phpvms.net , it is pretty well documented. And make sure you are meeting all the requirements, then apply the instructions there for uploading. 2. Where to install v7 ? This is up to you, considering that Laravel does not like being installed under folders it is still possible with some tricks to htaccess file. But I think best location is a new subdomain, it will cost you nothing (if you are not using a strange host) and will save you from further troubles for sure. yourdomain.com ops.yourdomain.com crew.yourdomain.com opscenter.yourdomain.com 3. What next ? Define at least two airports I do prefer defining my hubs first. Hubs are your main bases of operation. Do this manually , admin -> airports , add new airport . Write the ICAO code and click lookup, phpVMS v7 will get the correct data in correct format for you. Click save. No need to enter Ground Handling Costs or Fuel Prices at this moment, you can do that later (or can use default / fixed prices for all your airports) Define at least one Fare ( details can be found at other guides ) Define at least one Subfleet ( details can be found at other guides ) Define at least one Aircraft Define at least one Flight Optionally you may Assign your subfleet(s) to your flight(s) Go to settings, disable below checks during initial setup (you may alter them later according to your wishes) Disable Pireps : Restrict Aircraft to Ranks ( enabled by default ) Disable Pilots : Auto Accept New Pilot ( enabled by default ) Disable Pireps : Restrict Aircraft At Departure Disable Pilots : Flights from Current Disable Pilots : Restrict the flights to company While you are at settings, check below items are enabled/active , if not enable them Check General : Automatic airport lookup ( should be enabled by default ) Check Pilots : Hubs as home airport You are basically ready now ... Rest is admin work and needs time, having and managing a virtual airline is not an easy task. phpVMS v7 is only here to help you, it can not do things for you 4. How can I block bots being registered to my VA ? Well, you can not block them totally but using hCaptcha reduces their amount. And phpVMS v7 is ready for this, just check hCaptcha docs and obtain your site keys, then enter them to your phpVMS v7 settings. Also disabling Auto Accept New Pilot option is a good way to block them reaching content of your VA. 5. Where the hell are airports ? ( "Why I am forced to enter them, this software is crap !" etc.) PhpVMS v7 is capable of looking up airport details when requested, so calm down. There are more than 40k airports around the world and populating your database with them just slows things down. MySQL is capable of handling them, but it will make your phpVMS slower for sure. You can import airports, there is a feature for that BUT before importing make sure that file is containing valid data without any errors and is fully compatible with v7. Importing a file with incorrect data make things worse and let you have unexpected errors during usage. For example, importing airports directly from sources like OurAirports is not a solution. It does not provide time zones for airports, locations (cities) are not compatible with v7 location logic and have errors in it (i do checked some countries I know, found really strange errors and wrong ICAO codes being used for airports). Simply it is not a good source to start with. "What about i do get an export of some other v7 user's airports and insert them to mine ?" If you know that the other user's database is populated with correct data and you intend to use the same airports this may be a starting solution. Best way to add airports to v7 is importing flights (or some call them schedules or routes). With the `Automatic airport lookup` option enabled, missing airports from the flights you imported will be added to your database, and with correct/reliable information in the correct format. By using this method, you will get what you need and when you need. To import flights, just do an export of your current flight(s), you will have a proper csv file. Then you can edit it, "I am insisting on having lots of airports even when they are not needed, I do want to populate my database with useless entries. What should i do ?" You can use flight import trick to get there. Just add fake flights to all of the world airports in a csv file, then import it. After importing the flights you can safely delete them (not the airports but the flights). And to do a mass delete operation you need to use a database workbench tool like phpMyAdmin. 6. Which ACARS software should I use, which is the best one ? Currently, you have only one choice ... it is called vmsACARS and developed by the same person developing phpVMS v7. There are no demo versions for it, there are no other (free/paid) solutions either. So if you are not a developer yourself, you need vmsACARS. "What about kAcars, smartCARS v2, cACARS ?" etc. Nope, they are not compatible with v7, only smartCARS v3 can work with phpVMS v7 with some custom plugins. 7. Where are the skins or addons for v7 ? "I do want to spend some cash on them" You can find some at Downloads section of the forum, be sure that the addon (be it a skin or a widget or a module) is fully compatible with the version you installed. Do not try to install older version files to v7. This logic applies to both v7 addons developed for beta4 and addons developed or phpVMS v5/v2 etc. As far as I know, the only paid addon for v7 was a tour module, which is not working properly (and people bought it had problems, tried refunding their money back). And there is only one paid skin (as of the date this is written), you can find its topic at this forum too. ---------- We may add more questions and answers in time, for now above items should be enough for start I think. Happy installs and safe flights1 point