README.md

Subway Info

##Preview

 

Description

Subway Info is a Dashing widget which displays information on trains in New York City. Information includes train line, direction, station and arrival time. You can customize it to include any combination of lines and stations. This may also be used in other cities as well if you have the appropriate GTFS files.

##Dependencies

• gtfs

Add the following gem to the Gemfile:

gem 'gtfs'

and run bundle install.

##Usage

To use the widget, copy mta.rb to the /jobs folder. Create a folder called mta under /widgets. Copy mta.coffee, mta.html and mta.scss into /widgets/mta.

Add the following code snippet to your dashboard .erb file under /dashboards:

<li data-row="1" data-col="1" data-sizex="1" data-sizey="1">
   <div data-id="mta" data-view="Mta"></div>
</li>

##Settings

This widget allows you to specify the stops and lines of interest to you. Specify these as strings in the arrays target_stops and target_lines. Please limit the number of stops and lines. For example, this widget was tested with 2 stations with 2 lines each.

You can also specify the refresh time for the display, the interval between data updates and how far in the future to look for incoming trains.

Look at the comments at the beginning of the job mta.rb to learn more about customizing the widget.

Note: The widget may be used with other GTFS files too. This is not restricted to New York City. Keep in mind that this has only been tested with GTFS data from the MTA.

To use your own GTFS file, replace the URL to the zip file in the following line:

  $source = GTFS::Source.build('http://www.mta.info/developers/data/nyct/subway/google_transit.zip')

Add your desired URL instead.

####Note: If you would like to use the train line images instead of numbers, use the following mta.coffee and mta.html. Also download the images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, C, E, N, Q, R) from here into the folder /public.

##Warnings

This widget takes around one minute to load on startup. Be patient. Once it starts, the widget is quick and responsive. The job must download and parse a GTFS file from the MTA. The file can be found at the MTA Developer downloads page. To access, click New York City Transit Subway under static data feeds. The GTFS files are updated by the MTA every so often. This widget checks for an update every 24 hours or every time the dashboard's host server starts Dashing.

mta.coffee

class Dashing.Mta extends Dashing.Widget

mta.html

<p class="line" data-bind="line"></p>

<p class="name" data-bind="name"></p>

<p class="time" data-bind="time"></p>

<p class="direction" data-bind="direction"></p>

mta.rb

require 'gtfs'
require 'time'

# Add the stations and lines you want to get updates on
# Example:
# target_stops = ['116 St - Columbia University', '8 St - NYU']
# target_lines = ['1','2','N']
# This will give you info on the trains on the 1, 2 and N at 116th St - Columbia University and 8 St - NYU
# You can get these names by downloading http://www.mta.info/developers/data/nyct/subway/google_transit.zip and
# checking for valid stop names under the file called 'stops'

target_stops = [INSERT STOPS HERE]
target_lines = [INSERT LINES HERE]

# Change the refresh times if needed
# Updates list of trains arriving in the next 5 minutes (TIME) every 1 minute (UPDATE).
# Displays a particular train/stop combination data for 3 seconds (DISPLAY) before cycling to another
UPDATE = '1m'
TIME = 5 # Note that this is an integer, not a string (represents minutes)
DISPLAY = '3s'

request_flag = false
send_flag = false
source = nil
final_hash = Array.new

my_stop_ids = Array.new
stop_hash = Array.new

index = 0

stop_times = Array.new

# Retrieves GTFS data and builds primary data with lines of interest
SCHEDULER.every '24h', :first_in => 0 do |job|
  # Defaults to strict checking of required columns
  source = GTFS::Source.build('http://www.mta.info/developers/data/nyct/subway/google_transit.zip')

  # Get stop_ids of our stops of interest (these are listed in the array target_stops)
  source.stops.each do |stop|
    if target_stops.include? stop.name

      target_stop = Hash.new

      target_stop['name'] = stop.name
      target_stop['id'] = stop.id

      stop_hash.push(target_stop)
      my_stop_ids.push(stop.id)
    end
  end

  # Get stop_times at stops with our stop_ids
  stop_times = source.stop_times.select { |stop_time| my_stop_ids.include? stop_time.stop_id }

  # Set request_flag to true so that we can start calculating schedules 
  request_flag = true
end


# Calculates trains leaving in the next few minutes which stop at the target_stations
SCHEDULER.every UPDATE, :first_in => '5s' do |job|
  if request_flag == true

    send_flag = false
    final_hash = Array.new

    # Get stop_times from our stops with trains departing in the next 10 minutes
    stop_times.each do |stop_time|

      split_dept_time = stop_time.departure_time.split(':')
      dept_time = (3600*split_dept_time[0].to_i) + (60*split_dept_time[1].to_i) + (split_dept_time[2].to_i)

      time = Time.now.to_a
      now = 3600*time[2] + 60*time[1] + time[0]

      # Time difference in seconds
      diff = dept_time - now

      # If train leaves in next 5 minutes
      if 0 < diff && diff < TIME*60

        # Get line and direction based on trip_id
        # Then form objects containing final data to display
        selected_trip = source.trips.select { |trip| trip.id == stop_time.trip_id }

        # If line is one of our target lines, create data object
        if target_lines.include? selected_trip[0].route_id

          final_object = Hash.new

          stop = stop_hash.select { |hashed_stop| hashed_stop['id'] == stop_time.stop_id }

          final_object['name'] = stop[0]['name']

          # There are numbers 1 and 0 before the time strings
          # becausse we need to sort objects by time later.
          # This is a hack, and needs to be refined.
          mins = diff/60
          if mins == 0
            final_object['time'] = '0Leaving now'
          elsif mins == 1
            final_object['time'] = "1Arrives in #{mins} min"
          else
            final_object['time'] = "1Arrives in #{mins} mins"
          end

          final_object['line'] = selected_trip[0].route_id
          final_object['direction'] = selected_trip[0].headsign

          final_hash.push(final_object)
        end
      end

      send_flag = true
      final_hash.sort! { |obj1, obj2| obj1['time'] <=> obj2['time'] }

    end
  end
end

# Displays train/stop info, and cycles through the different data 
SCHEDULER.every DISPLAY, :first_in => '5s' do |job|
  line = ''
  name = 'Loading'
  direction = ''
  time = ''

  if send_flag == true

    if index >= final_hash.size
      index = 0
    end

    if final_hash.size > 0
      line = final_hash[index]['line']
      name = final_hash[index]['name']
      direction = final_hash[index]['direction']

      size = final_hash[index]['time'].size
      time = final_hash[index]['time'][1..size]
    end
    index = index + 1
  end

  send_event('mta', {line: line, name: name, direction: direction, time: time})

end

mta.scss

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Sass declarations
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$background-color:  #FF9D00;
$text-color: #FFFDA3;
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Widget-text styles
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.widget-mta {

  background-color: $background-color;

  .line {
    font-size: 270%;
    color: $text-color;
  }

  .name {
    font-size: 140%;
    color: $text-color;
  }

  .direction {
    font-size: 100%;
    color: $text-color;
  }

  .time {
    font-size: 200%;
    color: $text-color;
  }
}