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https://github.com/danchoi/openmbta

An iPhone app and data API for Boston MBTA schedules and other information
https://github.com/danchoi/openmbta

Last synced: 16 days ago
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An iPhone app and data API for Boston MBTA schedules and other information

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README 

        
# OpenMBTA 



## Notice



I've rewritten the backend of OpenMBTA to use PostgreSQL instead of MySQL. The 

code for the new backend is at .



## Old README



[OpenMBTA](http://openmbta.org) gives users current schedule information for

MBTA buses, commuter rail lines, subway, and ferries.  MBTA is the public transit

system of the Boston metropolitan area.



This project has two components: an XCode project for the iPhone app and a Rails

application for the data backend and the mobile web version of OpenMBTA. The

iPhone app relies on the backend to feed it schedule data and stop coordinates

to display on its maps and schedule tables. 



The backend, in turn, uses the MBTA's Google Transit Feed Specification data to

populate its database. The database must be reloaded with new GTFS schedule data

about once every 3 months to keep the schedule information current.



Note that this project is in an early stage. There is a lot of room for adding

features and improving the UI. 



## How to set up a development environment



Follow these instruction to set up a local version the Rails backend. The Rails

code is located in the `rails` directory of the project.  Set up the

`config/database.yml` file as usual to suit your development environment and

then run `rake db:migrate`.



Next, create a folder inside the `rails` directory named `data`. 



Now you need to get the MBTA GTFS data from the [EOT Developers

Page](http://www.eot.state.ma.us/developers/). Download the full MBTA GTFS zip

file containing all the services. This file is currently linked from the middle

of the page.



Unzip the file. You should see a bunch of *.txt files. These are the GTFS files.

Transfer these files to the `rails/data` directory.



Now we're ready to populate the MySQL database with the GFTS data. There is a

rake task for this. Run 



    rake mbta:populate



Be warned that the GFTS dataset is huge, with over 3 million rows. On my

Macbook Pro this task takes more than 2 or 3 hours to finish.



After the `mbta:populate` task is finished, you should be able to start the

Rails app with `script/server`. 



Now we can to run a local copy of the OpenMBTA iPhone app as a client to the

local copy of the Rails data server.



Go to the `OpenMBTA` directory of the project, which contains the XCode project

for the iPhone app. Open the project in XCode, and then just Build and Run. The

development version of the iPhone code is set to use `http://localhost:3000` as

the URL of the data backend. If you want to run the iPhone client against some

other URL, change macro definition for `ServerURL` `Classes/ServerUrl.h`. 



## Figuring out your way around the code



The best way to dive in is to watch the development log of the Rails app while

you play around around with the iPhone client. By doing the this you'll see when

the iPhone app is making a request to the backend, what URL is being called, and

what SQL statements are being executed to generate the response. You won't be

able to see the response returned by the backend in the log, but you can get the

response by copying the request URL noted in the log and making the same request

with `curl` (or something similar) from the command line. When you do this, make

sure you append `:3000` to `localhost` as the Rails logger doesn't seem to

record the port number of incoming requests. The responses returned to the

iPhone all are all formatted in JSON.



From this point on, I would suggest looking at `config/routes.rb` to trace the

URL requests to the controllers that handle them. The controllers, in turn, point 

to the model classes that construct the appropriate SQL calls and assemble the

data for each response.



As for the iPhone end, if you have experience in Objective-C development for the

iPhone, you should be able to figure things out. If you have any questions, just

ask them in the [OpenMBTA Google

Group](http://groups.google.com/group/openmbta).



Currently, there are no unit or integration tests for this codebase. This is

definitely one area where volunteers can contribute. The first version of

OpenMBTA was written quickly and not with the best code hygiene.  We plan on improving this in 

the near future.



## On collaborating and pushing out the next version



Join the [OpenMBTA Google Group](http://groups.google.com/group/openmbta) to

communicate with everyone else who will be working on this project. 



I'll also start adding stuff to the

[wiki](http://wiki.github.com/danchoi/openmbta) as things move along.



Another thing we'll need to do is to set up a collective entity through which to publish

future versions of this application on the iTunes App Store and to set up a

project team in the iPhone Dev Center. 



## Open Source License



The source code for OpenMBTA is governed by the MIT License, which reads as

follows:



    Copyright (c) 2009 Daniel Choi



    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy

    of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to

    deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the

    rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or

    sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is

    furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:



    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in

    all copies or substantial portions of the Software.



    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

    IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE

    AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER

    LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING

    FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS

    IN THE SOFTWARE.