London Underground App

[jruston]

Hi guys,

Not trying to spam or anything, but I've just created an app for the London Underground (for iPhone only right now) and it'd be great if I could get any feedback from you

The app is free, and it gives you the usual stuff (official map, live departures, journey planner, line statuses) as well as some other features (tube exits, first/last tube times, walking directions to station).

If anyone wants to try it out, the link is https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/london-tube-live-underground/id891369112?ls=1&mt=8

Again, any feedback would be useful I just released it earlier today, so it'd be nice to hear if there's anything I could improve in it.

Thanks!

 

[Kristofferson]

Very slick and easy to use, good use of the TFL API.

I'm assuming this is a native app? I've only ever made PhoneGap apps before (front end dev by trade).

On an unrelated note, I don't suppose you have access to the RealTimeTrains API? They haven't responded to my request yet.

 

[jruston]

Very slick and easy to use, good use of the TFL API.

I'm assuming this is a native app? I've only ever made PhoneGap apps before (front end dev by trade).

On an unrelated note, I don't suppose you have access to the RealTimeTrains API? They haven't responded to my request yet.

Thanks nice to see another developer on here, too

It is a native app, yeah. I write all of my apps natively. If people like the app then I'll probably start work on an Android version.

Regarding the RTT API, I do have access to it actually - it was a while ago that I signed up though, it was for a university project so it was on an educational license (so I didn't have to pay anything).

 

[Mojo]

How do you get the Tube exits up? I can't quite work it out.

A few slight issues (e.g. it says that Green Park has no toilets when it does). Also, the 'Weekend' on the 'Line status' screen is a bit confusing, because it has the planned track closures and the current service status all there as one. For instance the Hammersmith & City line has no closures planned for this weekend but as there are currently delays it has the exclamation mark. Similarly the Circle line is closed but the 'Weekend' page also mentions the current delays in addition to the planned track closure.

 

[jruston]

How do you get the Tube exits up? I can't quite work it out.

A few slight issues (e.g. it says that Green Park has no toilets when it does). Also, the 'Weekend' on the 'Line status' screen is a bit confusing, because it has the planned track closures and the current service status all there as one. For instance the Hammersmith & City line has no closures planned for this weekend but as there are currently delays it has the exclamation mark. Similarly the Circle line is closed but the 'Weekend' page also mentions the current delays in addition to the planned track closure.

At the moment it shows the tube exits whenever you plan a journey, so if you went into the journey planner and entered Liverpool Street to Leicester Square (for example), it should show the correct carriage for the Central + Northern lines below the directions (the carriage number is displayed in a small black box, carriage 1 being the front of the train). It doesn't have the tube exits for absolutely everything just yet, working on sorting that out if I can. I could probably add another section to the app which just shows tube exits.

Regarding the app saying it doesn't have toilets, yeah there's a couple of things like that (the data comes from TfL, and for some reason it's inaccurate on their end). I'll go in and fix that manually though.

Then the planned closures and current status in one issue, I'm also aware of this and it's a pain to fix. The message it displays comes directly from TfL, so they're the ones adding the current status to it. You'll see the same happens in other apps which uses TfL for their data. Frustrating really.

Great feedback though, thanks.

 

[Kristofferson]

Is it the pull or push RTT API you have access to? I believe the pull API is free anyway?

Edit: I don't know how I pressed the "thumbs down" icon by the way - sorry about that!

 

[jruston]

Is it the pull or push RTT API you have access to? I believe the pull API is free anyway?

Edit: I don't know how I pressed the "thumbs down" icon by the way - sorry about that!

Pull API. I think it is free for personal or educational usage, if you wanted to release something commercial then there's a fee (says more about it at http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/api)

So yeah, depends on how you're going to be using it

 

[Mojo]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm just wondering how you get the service status to update (on many Apps there is a refresh button or you pull the list down and let go), because it is still showing delays on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and District lines from when I opened it earlier, but there is now a good service on all lines?

 

[jruston]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm just wondering how you get the service status to update (on many Apps there is a refresh button or you pull the list down and let go), because it is still showing delays on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and District lines from when I opened it earlier, but there is now a good service on all lines?

The app should update automatically in the background assuming you have an internet connection. If I remember, it does this every couple of minutes (when the app is actually open). It also forces an update when you tap on the "line status" option in the slide-out menu, so it usually means it stays up to date. It's changed to "Good Service" on all lines on my phone now, for example.

I can certainly look into how this part is done again to see if I can improve it

 

[jruston]

As a further update to this, if anyone's interested then I've just released an Android version:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrustonapps.londontubelive