Spacex-api: CRS-17 Launch date update

[jeroenboumans]

Launchdate has been set to 4th of May 2:48 a.m. EDT, 6:48 UTC. Can this be updated please?

@jakewmeyer any possibility for contributors to update existing launchdates whenever the schedule changes (POST request to an API endpoint for example)?

[jesusrp98]

I think selecting a small group of people to maintain some of the data that can't be retrieve using script would be a good idea.

[jeroenboumans]

@jesusrp98 I'd say, expand the API with some small basic application key/secrets logic so that authorized users can POST requests to update records like these.

Looking at @jakewmeyer if he embraces this idea as well

[jakewmeyer]

Agree this is a good idea, I'll make it my new big priority.

Biggest consideration is how close to launch we should cut off the updating script, and switch it over to user updates only.

[jeroenboumans]

Awesome @jakewmeyer!

For the consideration part: shouldn't user updates always override the update script?

[jakewmeyer]

In theory yes, but once the wiki updates are disabled by a user input, we depend on the user for updates for the rest of the way, which could be good or bad. Worst case, someone updates and stops the automatic updates, and if the launch keeps getting scrubbed, the updates might not be as quick.

[jeroenboumans]

@jakewmeyer Okay, I understand. So what if we compare wikipedia timestamps vs user input timestamps for that: (_"This page was last edited on 7 May 2019, at 01:28 (UTC)."_).

So in general the wiki should only be used if no user has updated the launchdate, or if the timestamp of the wiki page is newer than the user updated timestamp. Should that work or am I overlooking something here?

[jeroenboumans]

Will link this issue to #226. Btw, would love to help but my Reddit karma is only 310 ;)

[jakewmeyer]

Might work, but there's one scenario where it might not.

Ideally it goes like this:

1. Allow user updates at any time
2. Update script checks the wiki timestamp for changes, and updates if a change was made.

Problem is the wiki update would overwrite any changes made by users but not made to the wiki yet.

[jakewmeyer]

Going to address this in #226