Source code for the website bustimes.org.
It's a magnificent monolithic Django app that's evolved over time (since 2015). The structure doesn't make complete sense:
| app | concern |
|---|---|
| accounts | user accounts |
| api | the Django Rest Framework–powered API |
| buses | contains the site settings.py |
| busstops | bus stops - but also operating companies, places, and routes 🤯 and the site's static file assets |
| bustimes | getting timetable data out of various formats (GTFS, TransXChange, ATCO-CIF) and into a database and doing stuff therewith |
| config | Kamal and Supervisor configuration |
| departures | listing the "next departures" at a bus stop – from a timetable and/or predicted by an API |
| disruptions | information about like roadworks, diversions and stuff |
| fares | fares |
| fixtures | some YAML files containing overrides/corrections to the operator (NOC) and bus stop (NaPTAN) datasets. Also recorded HTTP responses used in tests |
| frontend | TypeScript and Sass bits |
| transxchange | code for parsing TransXChange XML files. Could be published as a separate package |
| vehicles | tracking buses' locations and showing them on a map, and pointless details about vehicles' colours and features |
| vosa | the Great Britain Traffic Commissioners' bus service registration data. VOSA is the name of a defunct UK government agency. |
This documentation is incomplete and out of date. And that's OK (?) because I don't expect anyone to need to follow it. I will try to document some things for my own reference.
docker compose up
Then head to http://localhost:8000
npm run watch
These need to be available:
- Python 3.10+
- Poetry to install necessary Python packages (Django, etc)
- PostgreSQL with PostGIS
- On my Macintosh computer I use Postgres.app
npmto install some front end JavaScript things- Redis 6.2+
- GDAL
Some environment variables need to be set. Many of them control settings in buses/settings.py.
DEBUG=1
SECRET_KEY=blablabla
DATABASE_URL=postgis://user:password@host/database-name
Then run these commands:
npm install
poetry install
poetry run ./manage.py migrate
poetry run ./manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
.github/workflows/pythonapp.yml sort of documents the process of installing dependencies and running tests.
poetry run ./import.sh
will download some data from various sources and run the necessary Django management commands to import it, in a sensible order (place names, then stops, then timetables). When run repeatedly, it will only download and import the stuff that's changed. It needs a username and password for the Traveline National Dataset step.
But then there are further management commands for getting further data from further places like the Bus Open Data Service.
Some "live" data – departure times at stops, and vehicle locations – is/are fetched as and when a user accesses a page.
For the rest, there are some Django management commands that need to be run indefinitely in the background. These update the big map of bus locations, etc.