Commuter help: Android widget for departure times

[bonstio]

Hello. I built this app for myself because I couldn't find anything else which worked. I wanted a customizable widget for my home screen which shows me commute times and automatically reverses the route for the way home.

It's entirely free and open source. I've been using it for a couple of months and am happy with it hence sharing it here in case it's useful for others. It does require a (free) National Rail API key, link in the app.

Train Times - Apps on Google Play

A simple yet configurable widget which is perfect for your commute.

play.google.com

Other features include:

• Configurable railway station from which departures will be shown (mandatory)
• Optional destination station to filter departures for
• Ability to specify times at which source and destination stations will be swapped (useful for commuting!)
• Customizable widget title
• Configurable layout (font size, information density, title icons etc.)
• Ability to customize colors (inc. transparency and ability to follow system theme)
• Configurable refresh frequency inc. fully manual refresh only to save battery
• Scrollable widget contents
• Expandable rows to show all destination stations

 

[[.n]]

ta - will have a look

 

[robbeale]

Great app thanks.

 

[bonstio]

Someone reported an issue with train times not loading. I'm happy to help resolve this. I've not had other similar reports... I use it myself daily so I will continue to maintain this!

 

[mmh]

This is a great idea - thank you! I've just installed it. Seems there's a daily limit on how many API keys they issue, so I'll need to try tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Looks like API keys have already hit their limit for today too.

 

[gazthomas]

@bonstio do you have any plans to provide a web service that links your app to the the Network Rail API obviating the need for the end user to do this themselves?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Managed to get my API key just now
Looks like it's not as busy this morning as yesterday

 

[mmh]

I'll need to remember to try again as soon as I wake up tomorrow!

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Would it be possible for it to show cancelled if the train will leave the selected start station as planned, but not arrived at the destination station (e.g. see the Atherton line right now, trains are diverging via Bolton, but show as on time on the widget if start station is outside of the diversion (even though arrival station is)

 

[bonstio]

@bonstio do you have any plans to provide a web service that links your app to the the Network Rail API obviating the need for the end user to do this themselves?

Nope. It takes two minutes to do this and is a one time operation for the end user.

Even if it weren't against the API terms of service, it would not make practical sense for me to make this. Sorry!

 

[MrJeeves]

Even if it weren't against the API terms of service

Why would it be against the LDBWS terms of service? The whole point of the service is to allow people to create things to then be used be others, after all.

For what it's worth, the Rail Data Marketplace version of LDBWS has no rate limits, and uses JSON which is a bit more convenient than SOAP!

 

[bonstio]

Thanks for the nudge. I'll check the ToC. Agree it would reduce friction if users didn't have to jump through these hoops on first use.

 

[JaAnTr]

This is super useful thank you! I think there might be a bug (and gave your repo to ChatGPT which agrees) where the filtering out of journeys isn't working. I think it when the journey is slow service that is not the direct route and the duration isn't being correctly calculated. If you do Wandsworth Town to Waterloo and set the
filter to show journeys less than 5 minutes it should be empty but is showing services to Kingston.

Think fix might be something like:
services = allServices.filter {
it.duration == null || it.duration <= config!!.maxJourneyDuration
}

becomes:

services = allServices.filter {
it.duration != null && it.duration <= config!!.maxJourneyDuration
}

 

[robbeale]

My app stopped working today. It needs a new API but I can't seem to get one.
Is it a case or just keep trying or has the App undergone some changes.
I use it daily. It's super. Thanks