Realtime Dublin Bus App

smackyB

Hey folks, I made a quick little app over the weekend which uses the new Dublin Bus realtime system. It's a little bit rough to look at but it's seems to function fairly well. You can get the app at http://market.android.com/details?id=com.nextbus.dublin

Any feedback/suggestions welcome

allen175

force closes, desire on coolrom HDv8.

been waiting ages for a dublin bus app! keep up the good work!

ongarite

Super,
I love your Irish Rail app.

coylemj

How do you save a stop?

Ben D Bus

Doesn't seem to work for the 2 stops I've tried so far. 2718 and 2637.

My shortcuts to these stops on rtpi.ie work fine.

smackyB

allen175 wrote: »

force closes, desire on coolrom HDv8.

been waiting ages for a dublin bus app! keep up the good work!

Strange, what SDK level is that? Desire HD or just Desire?

ongarite wrote: »

Super,
I love your Irish Rail app.

Thanks!

coylemj wrote: »

How do you save a stop?

Hit the green plus button in the top right corner on the results page

smackyB

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Doesn't seem to work for the 2 stops I've tried so far. 2718 and 2637.

My shortcuts to these stops on rtpi.ie work fine.

It seems the rtpi system needs an extra 0 in front to be able to work out what stop it is. Stupid design... I'm guessing that all stops are 5 digits so I'll add the extra zeros in myself when I push out an update.

coylemj

Can't find any info on the stops near me - is the 46A live yet?

smackyB

coylemj wrote: »

Can't find any info on the stops near me - is the 46A live yet?

Bits of the route are live - D'Olier Street for example. Unfortunately I have no idea when all stops will go live.

coylemj

smackyB wrote: »

Bits of the route are live - D'Olier Street for example. Unfortunately I have no idea when all stops will go live.

Thanks, well done on the app, been waiting for a tool like this for years. I guess if you live near the terminus you can rely on the timetable (sort of!) but this app will make for way less queuing at stops, especially for sh1tty routes like the 45.

Ben D Bus

smackyB wrote: »

It seems the rtpi system needs an extra 0 in front to be able to work out what stop it is. Stupid design... I'm guessing that all stops are 5 digits so I'll add the extra zeros in myself when I push out an update.

Thanks. That worked.

allen175

smackyB wrote: »

Strange, what SDK level is that? Desire HD or just Desire?

Its the Desire S rom.

smackyB

allen175 wrote: »

Its the Desire S rom.

Hmm, can you report the app when it crashes and I'll take a look at the stack trace. Thanks.

wba88

FC on DHD stock 2.2, report sent

...this could be a great app!

smackyB

wba88 wrote: »

FC on DHD stock 2.2, report sent

...this could be a great app!

Thanks, I think I know what's going on. Had similar issues with The Journal app.

allen175

Report sent.

smackyB

Just pushed an update there which should solve the FC issues and also the missing zeroes for bus stop ids. Those seeing FCs be sure to do an uninstall before installing again from market. Thanks!

Ben D Bus

I've downloaded the update.

My favourites don't seem to store correctly. I can save a stop to my favourites but when I try to select it I get the 'system on trial, this stop may not have been activated yet' message. I'd found this issue before the update btw.

allen175

still crashing for me after update, i sent a report.

smackyB

allen175 wrote: »

still crashing for me after update, i sent a report.

Strange. And you definitely did a full uninstall and reinstall? All the stacktraces I've received so far pointed to the same issue. Perhaps try disabling any custom stuff you've got going on and see if it makes any difference.

JOCookie

Thanks for this, it works perfect on the Samsung Ace.

thomasj

Great job on the app! Something we needed

would it be possible to expand the search facility to text alongside route numbers? Make it easier to breakdown the busstops without the need to go through the entire route by searching by placenames. The rtpi has this on its text site.

Also would it be possible to shop the routes and their destinations? Maybe by clicking on the busstop. Would that be possible. Its something the rtpi site has in table form.

Irrespective of these suggestions i love the app and intend on using it! Very useful!

rockal

Ben D Bus wrote: »

I've downloaded the update.

My favourites don't seem to store correctly. I can save a stop to my favourites but when I try to select it I get the 'system on trial, this stop may not have been activated yet' message. I'd found this issue before the update btw.

Exactly the same for me on Galaxy S

smackyB

I suspect it's again a problem with missing leading zeros. Try saving a stop having gone through the route selection process rather than the direct stop input - it should work. I'll push out an update tonight for it.

rockal

smackyB wrote: »

I suspect it's again a problem with missing leading zeros. Try saving a stop having gone through the route selection process rather than the direct stop input - it should work. I'll push out an update tonight for it.

OK that works fine, thanks.
On the Direct Stop selection I've tried with and without leading zeros and whilst all show real time results - saving them produces the 'no results found' problem.

Squeeonline

Works but my route doesnt have it activated yet. (67)

CiaranC

This is awesome, well done

*edit*, just saw the favourites doesnt work, used your workaround - htc hero

k123456

Thanks for developing the app
More a dublin Bus question ; but how do I know what routes have real time reporting

podgeandrodge

Thanks for the app!

By the way - where does the app get it's info from - is the real time information on Dublin bus website? thanks.


edit - ok, see it's from rtpi didn't know about that.

Fair play again for application - even if your own stop is not live you can at least find the nearest stop that is and make judgement calls on it.

smackyB

k123456 wrote: »

Thanks for developing the app
More a dublin Bus question ; but how do I know what routes have real time reporting

Unfortunately the RPTI system is very bare bones so there's no way of knowing which stops are active. The current pattern seems to be only stops which have already got a screen installed or will have one installed soon. (Very stupid I know - should be the other way around).

Just uploaded an update which cures the problem of favourites not saving correctly highlighted in posts above.

@podgeandrodge - all the info comes from rtpi.ie

podgeandrodge

I notice too that for some live stops they only give some of the buses e.g. No. 16 but not No.49 on certain stops where both numbers stop...this must be a fault on the rtpi side

lil5

@smackyB
Thanks a lot for this useful App.

The update has fixed the retrieval of the saved stops for me.


It would be great if you could display either the number of the selected stop and/or the saved name on the 'result'-page.
(The RTPI screen displays stop name, time and stop ref [= number])

Also, an auto-refresh (1 minute interval?) and the 'time last updated' would be useful.

podgeandrodge

Hi, again - fantastic app.

One thing - I've saved about 5 favourites and named them accordingly - but I'd like to be able to recheck what stop numbers they are - could this be made available in the results screen e.g. click on a favourite, get the results and also display the stop number? thanks.

Ste-

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Hi, again - fantastic app.

One thing - I've saved about 5 favourites and named them accordingly - but I'd like to be able to recheck what stop numbers they are - could this be made available in the results screen e.g. click on a favourite, get the results and also display the stop number? thanks.

I'd also agree with the above and also maybe the ability to rename your favorite stops. I know I could re-add them but this way is easier

smackyB

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll add them whenever I next get a chance to work on the app

coylemj

podgeandrodge wrote: »

I notice too that for some live stops they only give some of the buses e.g. No. 16 but not No.49 on certain stops where both numbers stop...this must be a fault on the rtpi side

It's not necessarily a 'fault', it's possible that not all of the No. 49 buses have the GPS tracker devices fitted yet. It's also possible that the data is being sent back to base by the No. 49 buses but that route isn't yet being monitored by RTPI.

killbillvol2

Nice app. Working perfectly for me. Well done and thanks

Ben D Bus

For some of the busy city centre stops serving lots of routes, it would be nice to be able to filter on a particular route (or routes) and save that as a favourite.

smackyB

A brand new update to the app just went live, v2.0! Using the new dublin bus website, all the stops are now live. There's a new map feature to work out where your stop is and the UI has been much improved. Let me know if you guys come across any issues. As has been already pointed out on the market, I forgot to include a refresh button. Anything else you'd like to see just let me know. I'm planning to release a paid version in the coming days which removes the ads.

Get it from the market here

Screenshots:

Nolimits

Just been playing around with it, very nice, well done

lil5

@smackyB
Currently you can only add stops to your favourites, but can't add additional info or a short name as you could before.

smackyB

lil5 wrote: »

@smackyB
Currently you can only add stops to your favourites, but can't add additional info or a short name as you could before.

Yep I'll look at adding that feature back in, thanks.

Nolimits

Only suggestion I have is when on this screen




Would be nice to have a refresh button, instead of going back, and then going back into that bus stop, maybe an idea for the pay version and you can stick it where the add currently is?

smackyB

Nolimits wrote: »

Only suggestion I have is when on this screen




Would be nice to have a refresh button, instead of going back, and then going back into that bus stop, maybe an idea for the pay version and you can stick it where the add currently is?

Yep as I mentioned in my previous post, there was a refresh button in the old version of the app that I completely forgot to include in this version. Will update it in the next few days again.

Nolimits

Sorry about that, when I first saw your post, I was quite happy to actually have it working right and never even bothered to read what you had to say.

rustydrog

Working great for me so far. Top work again, so few genuinely useful apps out there (for me anyway!) HTC Desire

jwabh

hey great app, only thing that would be handy would be if you could rearrange the order of your favorites without having to remove and resave them.

Ben D Bus

This app has been far and away the most useful thing I've downloaded. I use it several times each day.

The update makes it even more useful.

But just to echo earlier posts, it would be great if I could name my stops, arrange my favourites to suit me, and refresh the info.

Many thanks!

smackyB

Yep they're all things on my to-do list for the next update. Cheers for the feedback guys.

Nolimits

I've noticed a stop it's not working with, I dont know if it's your mistake or Dublin bus, but all the other stops around it work fine it's stop number 2959

smackyB

From looking at the timetable for that route and the Dublin Bus site it looks like it's not online yet. Unfortunately there's no clear indication in the data I get about whether a stop simply has no buses due to arrive in the next 60 mins or if the stop is offline