xPad EFB

A modern, standalone Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) built for flight simulation enthusiasts. xPad combines real-time flight simulation telemetry, VATSIM network integration, online flight planning, and flight calculations in a unified, professional dark-themed cockpit interface.

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Technical Architecture & Design

xPad is designed around a lightweight, dual-process model:

• Frontend: A React 19 web application built with TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS v4, and Zustand. The styling follows the professional xPad Design Language (MSFS 2024 dark theme with solid deep navy/slate colors, Outfit typography, and responsive visual transitions).
• Backend: A local Node.js service utilizing Express, WebSockets, and node-simconnect. It exposes local API endpoints and broadcasts real-time telemetry to the frontend via WebSockets.
• Desktop Client: An Electron container wrapping the frontend and backend processes, enabling packaging as a native desktop application with .exe installers.

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Core Features

1. Live Simulator Telemetry (SimConnect)

• Natively connects to Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) using the SimConnect SDK.
• Streams real-time flight parameters (altitude, latitude, longitude, heading, indicated airspeed, COM1/COM2 active frequencies) via WebSockets.
• Supports active COM1 radio tuning directly from the EFB user interface.

2. VATSIM & vPilot Integration

• Includes an automated installer service that detects local vPilot client paths and installs the custom xPadPlugin.dll plugin.
• Monitors VATSIM network connection status, current callsign, and active controller frequencies.
• Displays nearby controllers and lists frequency lists in a unified communication panel.

3. SimBrief & Flight Planning

• Fetches detailed Operational Flight Plans (OFP) using your SimBrief Pilot ID.
• Displays routing, alternates, weight profiles, weather information, waypoints, dispatch remarks, and log logs.
• Features a quick navigation side-menu to instantly snap to sections within large flight documents.

4. Interactive Notepad & Scratchpad

• Includes a specialized notepad optimized for copying clearances with pre-formatted templates (e.g. CRAFT).
• Supports one-click auto-fill to populate notepad fields using data parsed from the active SimBrief OFP.

5. Aviation Flight Calculators

• Top of Descent (TOD): Calculates target vertical profile descent starts based on target alt, current alt, groundspeed, and descent rate/angle.
• Unit Converter: Perform instant aviation conversions (Weights: KG ⟷ LB, Temperature: °C ⟷ °F, Pressures: hPa ⟷ InHg).

6. Dynamic Web Integrations Registry

An extensible backend-driven modules registry loads web views and local iframes dynamically (modules-settings.json) to integrate:

• Flight Charts: Support for Navigraph Charts, Chartfox, and MSFS Planner.
• Flightsim.to & Dispatch: Built-in web frames to browse sceneries or access SimBrief Dispatch and VATSIM NatTrak.
• Cockpit Companion Apps: Connects directly to local aircraft EFB screens (Fenix EFB, FSLabs EFB) and GSX Pro Remote control.

7. Interactive PDF Manuals

• Browse, view, and store flight checklists, aircraft manuals (SOPs/FCOMs), and airport terminal plates in an integrated PDF module.

8. App Launcher & Automation

• Automatically scans, registers, and starts local applications (MSFS, vPilot, BeyondATC, Volanta, etc.) directly from the launcher panel within the EFB.

9. Custom App Reordering

• Features an interactive HTML5 drag-and-drop interface in Settings to customize the vertical sequence of apps on the left navigation sidebar. Re-ordered configurations are saved instantly on release.

10. Persistent Storage

• All settings (SimBrief Pilot ID, preferred charts provider, simulator IP address, and custom app orders) are persisted on disk in %APPDATA%/xPad/ to support persistent configurations.

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Installation & Setup

Running as a Standalone Desktop App (Recommended)

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies at all levels:

   npm install
   cd frontend && npm install
   cd ../backend && npm install
   cd ..

2. Start the local server and Electron container:

   npm start

3. To package the application as a standalone .exe installer:

   npm run dist

Running in Development Mode (Browser-based)

To run the frontend Vite dev server and the backend Node service independently:

1. Start the Backend Service:

   cd backend
   npm run dev

   Runs by default on HTTP port 3001 & WebSocket port 8080.

2. Start the Frontend App:

   cd frontend
   npm run dev

   The client interface will be available at http://localhost:5173.

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Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and features are welcome! Feel free to open issues or check out the CONTRIBUTING.md guide.

License

xPad is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.