The Colombo Bus Route Finder (Version 2.0)

Created over one fine weekend in July by Janith Leanage
Contains code written by Thimal Jayasooriya

API and Client for Bus Route Finder

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Changes

• System uses distance instead of number of halts to measure distance now

• The ability to use coordinates as inputs

• An API that returns JSON! :D

• Cleaner code

• Refactoring

Instructions

• Create a database and run bus.sql

• Upload files into server, create a cache folder on the same directory as index.php for caching.

• Edit database details and other settings in config.inc.php in the inc folder.

Using the API

You have to hit the API with two query strings, from and to. These can either be strings (we will try to match them with a list of locations in the database) or latitude,longitude pairs seperated by commas.

http://host.com/?from=56.3,4.3&to=8.3,4.2

http://host.com/?from=kollupitiya&to=glass+house

The API will return a JSON response string. Here's an example:

{
   "from":"Borella",
   "to":"Lotus Road",
   "permalink":"100_3",
   "links":[
	  {
	     "nobuses":2,
	     "totaldist":5450,
	     "inst":[
	        {
	           "route":"103",
	           "busfrom":"Narahenpita",
	           "busto":"Fort",
	           "geton":"Borella",
	           "getoff":"Fort Railway Station",
	           "distance":5.095
	        },
	        {
	           "route":"100",
	           "busfrom":"Pettah",
	           "busto":"Panadura",
	           "geton":"Borella",
	           "getoff":"Lotus Road",
	           "distance":0.355
	        }
	     ]
	  },
	  {
	     "nobuses":3,
	     "totaldist":6222,
	     "inst":[
	        {
	           "route":"154",
	           "busfrom":"Kiribathgoda",
	           "busto":"Angulana",
	           "geton":"Borella",
	           "getoff":"Horton Place - Baseline Junc.",
	           "distance":0.386
	        },
	        {
	           "route":"103",
	           "busfrom":"Narahenpita",
	           "busto":"Fort",
	           "geton":"Borella",
	           "getoff":"Horton Place - Baseline Junc.",
	           "distance":5.481
	        },
	        {
	           "route":"103",
	           "busfrom":"Narahenpita",
	           "busto":"Fort",
	           "geton":"Borella",
	           "getoff":"Lotus Road",
	           "distance":0.355
	        }
	     ]
	  }
   ]
}

Variables

• ['from'] and ['to'] contains the source and destination

• ['permalink'] is the parmalink id. You can hit the API with ?id=the_permalink for JSON output, and ?client&id=the_permalink for HTML output

• ['links'] is an array that contains all the suggested routes

• ['links'][<element number>]['nobuses'] gives you the number of buses, and ['links'][<element number>]['totaldist'] gives you the total distance in metres.

• ['links'][<element number>]['inst'] is an array with all the buses that you need to take.

• Each element there contains the following attributes:

  • ['route'] is the route number,
  • ['busfrom'] is the bus start point
  • ['busto'] is the bus ending point
  • ['geton'] is where you need to get on to the bus
  • ['getoff'] is where to get off, and
  • ['distance'] is the distance travelled in km

More Information

Do not hesitate to contact me on Twitter: @chav_ :)