Dash v2

Status
In Progress
Approximate Date
Work Context
Personal Project
Contribution Level
Completely Independent
Technologies Used
Angular, HTML, CSS, JSON, JavaScript
License
All Rights Reserved

After several people expressed interest in using Commuter Dash themselves, I decided to completely rewrite it in Angular to enable others to use it.

The rewrite involved developing an API service with PHP which aggregates, caches and serves the data in a JSON format. (See DashServer v1.) An Angular service on Dash consumes this API by regularly sending a post request containing a small JSON object which includes an API key and a command argument. As data is updated by the service, the values on the front-end are updated by the data binding.

The front-end functionality of Dash v2 is virtually identical to that of Commuter Dash, except for the added ability to customize and configure the application. The configuration options include:

  • API Key: Used to authenticate to DashServer v1 which returns a customized data feed for that user.
  • Temperature Units: Users can select between Celsius and Fahrenheit for temperature units.
  • 24 Hour Clock: Users can change the display of the clock from 12 hour to 24 hours.
  • Show Seconds: Users can opt to display seconds on the clock.

Other minor changes include:

  • Smoother scrolling animations.
  • The "time until departure" section now displays the units of time.
  • The "time until departure" section now shows seconds when departures are going to occur in less than a minute.
  • Display of the transit stop number.
  • Dynamic display of the vehicle types that service a given stop.
  • Wheelchair accessibility information for a given stop.
  • Weather forecast now shows 6 days instead of 4.
  • Text that indicates when the data was last updated from the API service.
  • Current temperature also displays humidex and windchill values if they are available.