proposal: agency_ticket_url for page that allows riders to buy tickets online
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Joe Hughes
Sep 10, 2008, 12:59:25 AM9/10/08
to Google Transit Feed Spec Changes
Summary:
Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
fare instruments online.
Motivation:
An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
based applications knew which page to link to.
Proposal:
The following field would be added to agency.txt:
--------------------------------
agency_ticket_url (optional):
The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
escaped. See http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_URI_Recommentations.html
for a description of how to create fully qualified URL values.
--------------------------------
Testing:
Google Maps has an implementation of this proposal that shows ticket
links in the expanded version of the clickable stop/station bubble.
You can see this for train stations in Switzerland, for example:
http://tinyurl.com/agency-ticket
As always, the more testers, the merrier.
Comments?
Joe Hughes
Google
Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
fare instruments online.
Motivation:
An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
based applications knew which page to link to.
Proposal:
The following field would be added to agency.txt:
--------------------------------
agency_ticket_url (optional):
The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
escaped. See http://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_URI_Recommentations.html
for a description of how to create fully qualified URL values.
--------------------------------
Testing:
Google Maps has an implementation of this proposal that shows ticket
links in the expanded version of the clickable stop/station bubble.
You can see this for train stations in Switzerland, for example:
http://tinyurl.com/agency-ticket
As always, the more testers, the merrier.
Comments?
Joe Hughes
Nicholas Albion
Sep 10, 2008, 1:58:38 AM9/10/08
to Google Transit Feed Spec Changes
If a user has gone to the effort of planning a journey on
GoogleTransit, should they not be given a URL which includes as much
information as possible (and relevant/useful to agency form/web app)?
agency_ticket_url = http://www.agency.org/tickets?origin=${origin}&dest=${dest}&depart=${depart_time}
ie, GTFS could specify a few key words/properties that they could
provide, and it's up to the agencies to make their forms/apps accept
URL params.
All parameters would be optional, so low-tech agencies could just
provide "http://www.agency.org/tickets", and if GT or the consuming
web app is unable to provide the parameter values (user may not have
selected/defined them) the request would contain empty params:
http://www.agency.org/tickets?origin=&dest=&depart= which should not
be anymore dangerous than if they were not provided in the url
definition.
A similar url scheme could be used to send an ajax query to the agency
website to estimate ticket costs.
On Sep 10, 2:59 pm, Joe Hughes <joe.hughes.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Summary:
> Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
> fare instruments online.
>
> Motivation:
> An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
> tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
> based applications knew which page to link to.
>
> Proposal:
> The following field would be added to agency.txt:
> --------------------------------
> agency_ticket_url (optional):
> The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
> rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
> online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
> or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
> escaped. Seehttp://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_URI_Recommentations.html
GoogleTransit, should they not be given a URL which includes as much
information as possible (and relevant/useful to agency form/web app)?
agency_ticket_url = http://www.agency.org/tickets?origin=${origin}&dest=${dest}&depart=${depart_time}
ie, GTFS could specify a few key words/properties that they could
provide, and it's up to the agencies to make their forms/apps accept
URL params.
All parameters would be optional, so low-tech agencies could just
provide "http://www.agency.org/tickets", and if GT or the consuming
web app is unable to provide the parameter values (user may not have
selected/defined them) the request would contain empty params:
http://www.agency.org/tickets?origin=&dest=&depart= which should not
be anymore dangerous than if they were not provided in the url
definition.
A similar url scheme could be used to send an ajax query to the agency
website to estimate ticket costs.
On Sep 10, 2:59 pm, Joe Hughes <joe.hughes.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Summary:
> Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
> fare instruments online.
>
> Motivation:
> An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
> tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
> based applications knew which page to link to.
>
> Proposal:
> The following field would be added to agency.txt:
> --------------------------------
> agency_ticket_url (optional):
> The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
> rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
> online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
> or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
Joe Hughes
Sep 10, 2008, 2:40:20 PM9/10/08
to Google Transit Feed Spec Changes
After a little more thinking about this, it seems like it might be
good to generalize this to cover general information about fares, not
just online ticket-buying pages. This way, it would effectively be a
version of Kevin O'Malley's fare_url proposal from April:
http://groups.google.com/group/gtfs-changes/browse_thread/thread/8633aa6cc371aa3f
The field name and description would then be something more like this:
--------------------------------
agency_fare_url (optional):
The agency_fare_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
rider to learn more about that agency's fare structure, and/or
purchase tickets or other fare instruments online.
Your thoughts?
Joe
On Sep 9, 9:59 pm, Joe Hughes <joe.hughes.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Summary:
> Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
> fare instruments online.
>
> Motivation:
> An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
> tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
> based applications knew which page to link to.
>
> Proposal:
> The following field would be added to agency.txt:
> --------------------------------
> agency_ticket_url (optional):
> The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
> rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
> online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
> or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
> escaped. Seehttp://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_URI_Recommentations.html
good to generalize this to cover general information about fares, not
just online ticket-buying pages. This way, it would effectively be a
version of Kevin O'Malley's fare_url proposal from April:
http://groups.google.com/group/gtfs-changes/browse_thread/thread/8633aa6cc371aa3f
The field name and description would then be something more like this:
--------------------------------
agency_fare_url (optional):
The agency_fare_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
rider to learn more about that agency's fare structure, and/or
purchase tickets or other fare instruments online.
The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
escaped. Seehttp://www.w3.org/Addressing/URL/4_URI_Recommentations.html
or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
for a description of how to create fully qualified URL values.
--------------------------------
I take it that this modified version would be more broadly useful.
--------------------------------
Your thoughts?
Joe
On Sep 9, 9:59 pm, Joe Hughes <joe.hughes.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Summary:
> Add a way to specify the URL of a page where the rider can purchase
> fare instruments online.
>
> Motivation:
> An increasing number of agencies and operators have a way to purchase
> tickets and passes online, and it would be useful to riders if GTFS-
> based applications knew which page to link to.
>
> Proposal:
> The following field would be added to agency.txt:
> --------------------------------
> agency_ticket_url (optional):
> The agency_ticket_url specifies the URL of a web page that allows a
> rider to purchase tickets or other fare instruments for that agency
> online. The value must be a fully qualified URL that includes http://
> or https://, and any special characters in the URL must be correctly
Aaron Antrim
Sep 11, 2008, 1:15:49 AM9/11/08
to gtfs-c...@googlegroups.com
I think linking to a "landing page" with fare information and purchasing options would be more useful.
Joe Hughes
Jan 19, 2009, 5:43:57 PM1/19/09
to Google Transit Feed Spec Changes
As a followup, have any of the feed publishers here added
agency_fare_url information to their feeds?
Thanks,
Joe
agency_fare_url information to their feeds?
Thanks,
Joe
Bagain, Roderico
Jan 20, 2009, 11:34:17 AM1/20/09
to gtfs-c...@googlegroups.com
Hi Joe,
We haven't incorporated this into our feed yet...
Thanks.
Scott Brookes
Jan 19, 2009, 7:43:36 PM1/19/09
to gtfs-c...@googlegroups.com
Im using it as it provides a way to list info about day/month passes
On 19-Jan-09, at 6:43 PM, Joe Hughes wrote:
As a followup, have any of the feed publishers here added
agency_fare_url information to their feeds?
Thanks,
Joe
Scott Brookes
____________________________
302-110 Farnham Gate Rd
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3M 4A2
Jehiah Czebotar
Jan 22, 2009, 1:15:54 AM1/22/09
to gtfs-c...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 7:43 PM, Scott Brookes <scottb...@mac.com> wrote:
> Im using it as it provides a way to list info about day/month passes
> Im using it as it provides a way to list info about day/month passes
can you say exactly which agency feed you are using it in, and point
to where we can see an example of it being used (or to where we can
see the gtfs feed)?
--
Jehiah
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