MetraTime
=========

About
-----

The MetraTime project started as a way to build a better interface to the train
schedules for Metra (http://metrarail.com), a commuter train serving Northeast Illinois. The application lives at 
http://metratime.com

Currently there is only an iPhone interface that allows one to find upcoming trains based on the date and time (Chicago 
time) the site is accessed.

Get Involved
------------
Although comments and suggestions are welcome consider sending a patch instead.
See THANKS for a list of people that have contributed to this project.

The google group for this project is at http://metratime.googlegroups.com
The source code is available in the Git repository at git://github.com/metratime.git

The code is based on the Google AppEngine SDK. To start the application use

  dev_appserver.py /path/to/checkout

By default the application will be available on http://localhost:8080
The necessary data can be found in the ./data/data.csv file which can
be imported using the bulkload_client.py from the AppEngine SDK. To load the
data use

  bulkload_client.py --url="http://localhost:8080/bulk/import/csv/" --batch_size=5 --filename=data/data.csv --kind=ANY

kind can be one of SCHEDULE, LINE, STATION, RUN, STOP. Setting kind to ANY will import all the entities in the file. The 
kind is case sensitive. The imported csv can contain a leading + or - which the import tools will strip. This is to 
allow files created by diff to be easily imported.

In addition to import the data it is also possible to delete data. For this the same tool (bulkload_client.py) can be 
used but the url needs to be changed to /bulk/delete/csv/. Here's an example 

  bulkload_client.py --url="http://localhost:8080/bulk/delete/csv/" --batch_size=5 --filename=data/data.csv --kind=ANY

The CSV file (data/data.csv) is generated dynamicaly from the data/schedule.json (which is just a json representation of 
the metra.pickle file provided by Masssimo Di Pierro). The data extracted from the Metra site contains several 
inconsitencies which need to be cleaned out before importing it (for example to prevent having multiple names for the 
same station). A tool to generate the CSV file can be found in ./util/jsonextractor.py.

  PYTHONPATH=`pwd` util/jsonextractor.py data/schedule.json > data/data.csv

If you import a CSV file and later find you need to make modifications you can use the bulkload_client to delete the 
changes and the import the additions.

  diff data1.csv data2.csv | grep "$-" > remove.csv
  diff data1.csv data2.csv | grep "$+" > add.csv

The tool to remove data from a CSV needs to receive the rows in reverse order from the tool to import them (in order to 
properly handle dependencies between the various entities). You can either reverse the entire file or just repeatedly 
call the bulk delete setting kind each time to (in order): STOP, RUN, STATION, LINE, SCHEDULE

Once you have loaded data from the CSV you need to set the station order (for each line you want to use). The correct 
station ordering can be found on the Metra website (feel free to create a tool to automatically import the ordering). To 
do so go to http://localhost:8080/edit/line/ to get a list of lines you can edit. Click on a line and you will be taken 
to the screen to set the ordering of stations. Drag and drop the station names in the correct order and press Save. It 
might take a while but you should get a Javascript alert with the message Saved! if everything completed successfuly. 
You can use the Cancel button to go back to the list of lines.

Enjoy!