Elite Dangerous Data Network is a tool that facilitates players of the game Elite Dangerous, including its expansions, sharing data about the game galaxy with others. By pooling data in a common format, tools and analyses can be produced that add an even greater depth and vibrancy to the in-game universe.
EDDN is not run by or affiliated with the developer of the game - Frontier Developments.
The live EDDN service itself does not store any data, and thus makes no archive or "current state" available to anyone. What it provides is a stream of live data to any interested parties. Some of those then make aggregated data available for general use.
If you want an archive of messages, or a dump of the current known state of the game galaxy, check "Archives and data dumps" below.
It might be useful to consult the EDCD Cmdr's Guide for a general overview of how players can contribute and use game data.
There are a variety of tools available to players in order for them to help out by contributing data, and to then utilise that data to enhance their gameplay experience.
For the most part any player who wishes to share data will need to be playing the game on a PC, as that gives direct access to "Journal" files written by the game client. These are the best source of game data. There are, however, some tools that utilise an API provided by the game developer that can supply some data if you are playing on a console.
So, on PC, look into installing one of the following tools:
This list is not exhaustive, or intended to particular endorse any of these projects over another, listed here or not.
If you are playing on console some options are:
- The 'console updater', available in a user's 'dashboard' on EDSM.
- Journal Limpet.
If you're looking for tools that utilise EDDN data to enhance your experience then you're probably looking for one of the sites listed below. NB: These are listed in name-alphabetical order and no particular ranking or endorsement is intended.
- EDSM - originally focused on being a 'Star Map', but has since expanded its functionality. Of particular interest to in-game explorers.
- Inara - a popular alternative to the now defunct EDDB, with a lot of its own unique functionality.
- Spansh - originally this had one tool, a 'Neutron Star' route plotter, but has since expanded into offering many other route plotting tools and general data searching.
Alternatively if you want an archive of past EDDN messages, or a data dump to use:
-
edgalaxydata has various data captures, including 'all' (some listener downtime is inevitable) EDDN messages for many years.
-
spansh dumps are a "whole galaxy" data set, of systems, bodies and stations. The full
galaxy.json.gzis very large, but is currently the only source of an "all known bodies" dump. Pay attention to the 'Generated' "time ago" column. -
EDSM nightly dumps represent a snapshot of the data EDSM uses. NB: there's only a "last 7 days" bodies dump as the full data proved too large to dump in a timely manner.
There are many other third-party tools for Elite Dangerous, both for contributing data and utilising it, listed on Elite: Dangerous Codex. Some of them interact with EDDN - check the EDDN tag.
If you are a developer of a third-party tool that could be enhanced by
uploading data to EDDN then please consult
the live branch Developers' documentation
.
DO NOT assume that any code or documentation in the master (or
any other) branch on GitHub truly reflects the current live service!
Anyone planning to send data too EDDN MUST comply with all the advice in that document, and the individual schema README files as applicable. It's also the best resource for those listening to the EDDN data stream.
There are up to three separate services which might be running.
| Service | Upload | Listeners | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live | https://eddn.edcd.io:4430/upload/ |
tcp://eddn.edcd.io:9500/ |
The actual live service, which should always be running. It is automatically restarted every Thursday at 07:06:00 UTC |
| Beta | https://beta.eddn.edcd.io:4431/upload/ |
tcp://beta.eddn.edcd.io:9510/ |
The beta service, which should be running the current state of the beta branch. Usually only active when either new schemas or forthcoming code changes are being actively tested. |
| Dev | https://dev.eddn.edcd.io:4432/upload/ |
tcp://dev.eddn.edcd.io:9520/ |
The dev service, which could be running any public branch of the code or a private branch. |
In general the Beta and Dev services will only be running so as to aid the core development team in testing changes. Don't expect them to be generally available.
You MUST use the correct hostname in the Upload URLs as these are TLS/HTTPS connections terminated on a Reverse Proxy.
The Listener URLs are ZeroMQ endpoints, no TLS. But whilst this means you don't strictly need to use the correct hostname there is no guarantee that the beta and dev hostnames won't be pointing at, or hosted on, a different IP.
If you need to test some of your own changes then please read Running this software for how to instantiate your own test service. It is hoped that in the future the code will allow for easily running in a "local only" mode, not requiring any reverse proxy or internet-valid TLS certificates.
All new Schema proposals MUST be started by opening an issue on GitHub. Please consult docs/Contributing 'Adding a New Schema' for further guidelines.
Consult EDDN Status for some information about, and statistics for, the live service.
Hosting is currently provided by the Elite: Dangerous Community Developers.