An improved Python NextBuses API Parser

This is a fork of the GitLab project below:

https://gitlab.developers.cam.ac.uk/cscs/nextbuses-api-python-parser

Summary of changes from the original project:

• In bus.py, made it so the expected and scheduled departure times are shown in the local timezone, rather than in UTC
• In config.json, added the parameter "num_departures": 6, so that you can choose how many arrivals to show for each bus stop

NextBus API

To be able to use this parser, you will need to request a NextBus API account. As of writing this, they provide 180,000 free hits every 6 months. To request access to the API, please follow this link:

https://www.travelinedata.org.uk/traveline-open-data/nextbuses-api/

Once you are given access to the API, you will be given a set of username and password which will be used by the API parser, and stored in config.json file.

Usage:

• Install python3 and pip
• Install pip requirements in requirements.txt (Flask, flask-cors, requests)
• Optional: set up python environment with python -m venv /path/to/your/environment
• Search bus stop in google maps and copy bus stop ID
• Open file bus stop codes.xlsx, search for bus stop ID and copy matching ATCOcode
• Edit config.json with desired bus stop code, plus your NextBus API username and password
• Run the parser and HTML page builder with: ** python sync.py config.json && python generate.py config.json
• The resulting page will be in html/buses.html

Simple Python NextBuses API Parser and HTML Display

This project is a very simple implementation of the NextBuses API (https://www.travelinedata.org.uk/traveline-open-data/nextbuses-api/).

This allows you to easily get live bus timetable information from the UK's live bus data network.

TODO: Finish documentation beyond simple overview.

Setup

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

config.json

Copy config.json.template to config.json and update with your API credentials.

You can customize the data and html paths in here as well.

Static Page Generator - Installation

There are two calls needed to generate a HTML display page:

python3 sync.py /path/to/config.json
python3 generate.py /path/to/config.json

sync.py should be schedule to download an updated set of files on a regualar schedule. generate.py will operate from this cached data file.