A Scriptable App widget that helps you knowing when the next public transport is passing by.
It allows you to define one departure station and keeps you updated on the next transports leaving that station. Be it a train, a bus, or other, you always know when to leave.
The intention is to use this script with specific stops that you use frequently. It can be the stop near your home, your work, or any other place where you go often.
It supports multiple widget sizes so you can perfectly adapt it to your screen and your personal usage of the phone.
This widget will create a time table with the next public transports that will depart a specified station. Public transport means bus, train, subway, etc..
It was built to work in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) but it will support any area covered by RMV.
In order to retrieve the departure information the script uses the official RMV data. This access needs to be allowed by using an specific key that needs to be configured by you.
To obtain an API key go to RMV's Open Data page and register. The page is in german but it's easy to follow and has english instructions between brakets.
After a few hours you will receive an email with the your key.
Use your email application to open the email sent to you by RMV. Select the API key and copy to the clipboard. Open the Scriptable App application and run the HessenWay script inside the application. A menu will be shown.
Select the first option: "Enter API key". Paste the key in the text box and click "OK".
In order to obtain the time table the widget needs to have the departure station of your preference. This is done in the widget configuration. Enter the widget's edit menu by long pressing the widget in your phone screen. Here you'll find the field "Parameter". Enter the id of your prefered location. By doing the location setup in this way it is possible to have multiple instances of the widget, each one showing the information of a different departure station.
The id needs to be retrieved from RMV. This task is done by using the following link: https://www.rmv.de/hapi/location.name?format=json&accessId=<API_KEY>&input=<LOCATION>
Replace the <API_KEY> with the key you received on 1. Request an API key and <LOCATION> with the place you are looking for. Place the result in your browser and you'll receive a list of stops that match your search.
NOTE: The visualization of the result in the browser is not very friendly. You can solve this by using the developer tools of your browser or other tools like JSONLint (web) or jayson (iPhone/iPad)
Once you have the result you can look for an object with the name matching the stop you want. Next to it you'll find another parameter called "extId". This is the value that needs to be put in the widget's configuration.
Here you can see an example when looking for Frankfurt's Hauptwache station:
The name is "Frankfurt (Main) Hauptwache" and the id is "3000001". This number is the right one to use.
Each instance of the widget can only display information for one stop. You can keep changing the id in the configuration but that is not very confortable.
The way to solve this is by having multiple instances, each one with a different parameter value. In order to not clutter the screen with many widgets, appearently similar, the widget stack functionality can be used. You can stack up to 10 pre-defined departure stations and checking the next train is as easy as scrolling up or down.
Due to the way how iPhone/iPad widgets work it's not possible to know when the widget information is updated. It is automatically decided based on how many times you use it, last reload time, location changes, etc. This means that, although unlikely, it might happen that when you need to use it, the information is out of date. To quickly have access to the data you need make sure your widget is configured to "Run Script" on the "When Interacting" option in the widget edit menu.
That way, when you click on the widget, it will open the Scriptable App and automatically run the widget options. Here click on the "Show widget" option and you'll be able to see the desired information. You can even select a different widget size if you want to.
Depending on public usage and requests, and my personal availability, this widget will continue to improve. Some of the ideas that are in the pipeline:
- Add an entry in the widget's menu to search for locations and retrieve the location id to be used in the widget configuration
- Sometimes the sort doesn't work properly and some later trains apear before others that will depart sooner.
- Automatic update the widget when there are new versions
- Improve the visualization
- Title display on the small widget
- Table alignment on the medium and larget widgets
- Incorporate other travel companies/areas
- Make the images as a constant array with pre-configured SFSymbol so that loading the table only requires a
image[transportType]
If this widget is helpful for you and you'd like to see one of these implemented, or if you have any other improvement idea, just reach out to me. You can contact me in multiple ways but if everything else fails you can send me an email.
