https://github.com/codeforboston/mbta-alerts-2
The bot that tweets from the MBTA Alerts API. Saving 9K @mbta_alerts Twitter followers from information blackout!
https://github.com/codeforboston/mbta-alerts-2
Last synced: 3 months ago
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The bot that tweets from the MBTA Alerts API. Saving 9K @mbta_alerts Twitter followers from information blackout!
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/codeforboston/mbta-alerts-2
- Owner: codeforboston
- Created: 2013-06-19T01:21:36.000Z (almost 13 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2013-07-06T17:02:13.000Z (almost 13 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-09-11T19:28:32.148Z (9 months ago)
- Language: JavaScript
- Size: 125 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 10
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 1
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
MBTA Alerts
===========
### The Bot That Tweets
The MBTA puts out an RSS feed that an enterprising developer (and frustrated MBTA commuter) started scraping and turning into tweets.
Similarly, this app queries the [MBTA's new realtime API](http://realtime.mbta.com/portal), and will tweet out the short descriptions, with the hashtag #[mbta](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mbta&src=typd).
### The Story
[FredHQ][fredhq], the creator of [@mbta_alerts][alerts], [almost suspended][almost] the account due to a number of obstacles, but Code for Boston offered to take it over. Fred provided [thorough documentation of his processes][prodoc], which led to the development of this app.
[fredhq]: https://twitter.com/fredhq
[alerts]: https://twitter.com/mbta_alerts
[almost]: https://gist.github.com/fredhq/34781ea7c60c1388e16e
[prodoc]: https://gist.github.com/fredhq/eaf7a6ebb1ac88c6cc69
The old RSS feed used short descriptions which were tweetable, but upgrades to the [current feed](http://realtime.mbta.com/alertsrss/rssfeed4) caused technical problems for the bot.
### Tech stack
MBTA Alerts version 2.0 uses:
+ [Node.js][node] v0.10.12
+ [NPM]
+ [Redis][red] as a database
[node]: http://www.nodejs.org/
[red]: http://redis.io/
### Getting Set Up for Development
Make sure you have `npm`, Node.js >= 0.10.0, and `git`. NPM should be included when you install node, but it isn't on some systems.
Install all required modules
```
$ npm install
```
To determine if you have Redis, run `redis-server -v`.
Install redis if you have not done so previously.
```
$ wget http://redis.googlecode.com/files/redis-2.6.13.tar.gz
$ tar xzf redis-2.6.13.tar.gz
$ cd redis-2.6.13
$ make
```
We use [Foreman](https://github.com/ddollar/foreman) to run the webserver and Redis at the same time, using the processes defined in `Procfile`. Run `foreman start` and use `^C` to end.