re: inDesign & Combo Route configuration

[Purcell, Frank]

Hey Raj,

 

OK, for the combo route…not sure why you aren’t seeing your configured combo render properly in the HTML output (especially if it’s rendering as PDF …seems very strange to me).   I’d keep working to get the system to output something (and I’d be much less inclined to create a jacked up GTFS just to combine routes on a single timetable).  BTW, http://maps5.trimet.org/ttpub/timetable.config?route=111 is an example of a combo of three routes…note that for the combo to work, you need to redefine the stops on this new (combo) route.

 

Anyway, about showing the route for a given trip on a combo route…I can think of a no-code option that might work for you.  Find something unique about the trips on lines 532 vs 535 (eg: maybe the terminating stop, which do appear different on the url you forwarded), and use a Pattern Note.  http://maps5.trimet.org/ttpub/timetable.config?route=Amtrak+Cascades---4  is a good example of what I’m talking about; see how the Pattern Note marks trips terminating at the Fairhaven TC (and a second PatternNote marks Oregon City trips).  As to a code change, that might get a bit involved.  Your you might get lucky and just have to edit the Freemarker templates (eg: see the .ftl and .web files in the templates directory).  If you look in macros.ftl for [#macro simpleTimesTable], you will see a list iterator over the ‘rows’ of the table [#list rows as rw]. ‘rows’ maps to a list of org.timetablepublisher.table.Row objects (which have a getRoute() method). I’m thinking that the route returned from Row.getRoute() will be the original route id from where the data originally came from (as opposed to the combo route id).  If not, you might be looking to create new getter/setters on Row to store the ‘original route id’ prior to the Combo config code changing the id.

 

Finally, here’s a link to the inDesign template & data example:  http://timetablepublisher.googlecode.com/files/inDesignExample.zip

 

Take care,

Frank

 

 

Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:12 PM
Subject: inDesign & Combo Route configuration

 

Hi Frank,

 

This is Raj. We are currently testing the Time Table Publishing Software and are facing some challenges in customizing the software.  I am hoping that you would give us some directions in fixing this.  Though I am an open source software developer, I am not that expert in Java. But I was able to get this software up and running on our test box (Windows). We are generating the tables from GTFS feed and are planning to use both html (web) and xml ( for indesign) formatted files.

 

Here are some issues:

 

Combining the routes in one table:

 

Our 532 and 535 buses share similar stops and we display the bus schedule for these routes in one table.

 

 

Option A:

 

1.532 and 535 schedules are separated in GTFS.

 

2. We have defined additional route called 532_535 in routes.txt file.

 

3. We have tried using the ComboRoutes configuration for 532_535 for combing two routes( 532 and 535).

 

Though we were able to download the PDF files, we were not able to download html and  XML files.

 

 

Option B:

 

1. Both 532 and 535 schedules are combined in GTFS itself.
2. We were able to download all the files. But the challenge is displaying rote number on every row.

 

I am sure that I need to modify the software in order to display the route number on every row. I thought I could ask you before and I am wondering if there is an easy of doing this.

 

And also, our graphic designers are in need of help. As they never did any XML based templates, we are wondering if Trimet could share the inDesign template files so we can create our templates based on this.

 

I am very positive that we will be integrating this software for our next schedule change (June 2010)

 

Thank You, Sincerely

 

Raj