[App] MobileTFL - London Tube Service Status for Windows Mobile - Windows Mobile Apps and Games

New application release: Mobile TFL - London Underground tube status application for Windows Mobile
"annoyed that the G1 and iPhone have an app that does this". I coded this application this evening that reports real time service status data for the London tube network.
It uses the publicly available data from the "Transport for London" website.
Regardless, it allows you to see service updates and station closures / delays in real-time from a tiny Windows Mobile app.
Requires CF 2.0+ (though I've compiled it with 3.5 installed and not bothered to check for backwards compatibility).
Feedback is more than welcome. I've only really tested it in the terrible low res VMs and on a Touch Diamond so as far as the display and scaling goes, your milage may vary. Looks lovely on the Diamond though.
Cab installer and screenshots on very low-fi http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/software/ holding page.
Latest Version 1.2.0.0
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+Updated to support TFL feed change on June 2010.
1.1.0.0
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+Updated to support TFL feed change on 17th April 2010.
1.0.0.9
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+Fixed critical bug due to data format changes.
+Reworked parsing of source data so it's less sensitive to format changes in the future.
Apologies for the rapid releases, but hopefully the app should be good "long term" as of this release.
There will be one further release in the near future consisting solely of cosmetic changes.
1.0.0.8
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+Improved load speeds
+Fixed critical bug related to a change in source data format
+Skipped two build revisions, these were internal testing versions.
1.0.0.6
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+Fixed a bug that happened on the odd occasion the DLR is actually working.
1.0.0.5
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+Weekend Timetables are now selectable
+The title bar now displays the time period you're currently viewing
+DLR listings / status
1.0.0.4
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+Improved support for devices of different resolutions
+Font and UI Element scaling
+Tube line colours
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

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Made a subtle update to 1.0.0.1 to remove a crashing bug because my test cases sucked (I developed the app when there were tube errors, the absence of which caused some rookie Xml parsing bugs.)
Same url.
There's also a known issue with station statuses (i.e. they only partially work, don't bet your travel plans on them) but I'll fix that up later today.

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Final update for the foreseeable future (unless any crippling bugs are found).
Full tube status, full station notifications, both in real time and planned.
Very much inspired by http://mbarclay.net/?p=64 so credit where due.
Version 1.0.0.3 can be downloaded from
http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/software/
My lunch hour was lovingly sacrificed to finish this code.

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[Reserved]

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Great app, thanks!
Just a minor issue on my X1 - despite this having longer vertical real estate, scroll bars are required to see all the tube lines.
The bottom quarter of the screen is not used, and I need to scroll to see beyond the Piccadilly Line - despite the 640 pixels of the Diamond being enough for all the lines in your screenshots. I think the spacing between the lines looks wider on the X1 - not sure why?
Also, could you add colours to the tube lines so it looks more like the widget on the TFL website?
Still, even in its current form this is great and very usable. Cheers.

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I think I know why there might be scaling issues.
Due to the lack of any decent tabular layout in the CF at first glance I'm calculating heights manually.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I use the device height to calculate the height of each item, and I suspect I'm then sticking the items in a box the size of the diamond resolution
I'll see if I can squeeze in a fix in the next day or two, work permitting.
Thanks for the kind comments + constructive criticism!

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Thanks David - look forward to the update.
I think this is the sort of webapp / widget that there seems to be plenty of on the iphone but are lacking on Windows Mobile......for absolutely no reason. Much better to fire up your app than wait for Opera to start and then go the TFL website and download all the unnecessary info as well as the tube status.
Even if one prefers the visuals on a website, these are far better included on device in a webapp, with the internet connection just downloading the raw information. I vote for more simple apps of this nature.

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I found a few minutes to try and patch up the application.
1.0.0.4 contains improved rendering that should (at least in theory) support devices of varying dimensions (font / UI element scaling). Hopefully this doesn't entirely trash the interface on other devices, but I've tested it both in varying VMs, on a Diamond and in Windows at different (and often hilarious) resolutions.
Also added coloured glyphs representing the TfL colours for the various tube lines.
Updates posted on http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/software/ and images above updated.
- D

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David, thanks a lot for sharing this app with us. Cheers!

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Works and looks great on a Touch HD. Nice UI, simple and effective. Unfortunately at £6.30 a ride I only use the tube when I am absolutely desperate these days. Do you think you may extend to Overground and Bus information as well? May widen the audience a bit?
Thank you for sharing.

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Excellent, I'm really glad the new scaling code works. Quite a relief.
As for further TFL services, to be honest I'm not sure yet. It all depends on how the data could be presented.
Historically laying out things like bus timetables in a usable and intuitive way is very difficult (just look at bus stops for an obvious example). In addition to that there's tonnes and tonnes of data. I guess it could be presented using a searchable interface or by putting in favorite routes or trains to monitor.
I'm very much open to suggestions and if it feels right I'll probably produce an "enhanced" version of the app with the additional timetable and route data. I'd probably maintain the two separately to keep the tube status app small and sweet.

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Nice work!

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Does not really work for me! I get 404's!

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There are a few reasons you'll get 404s.
The first is if the Transport for London website is down (which it isn't currently) as the data is parsed from there (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/default.html specifically- see if you can access it on your device using a browser).
The second is a badly configured or misconfigured proxy in windows mobile (in your connection settings. I always find it prudent to disable the mobile provider proxies as they tend to interfere with applications).
The third is that your data connection isn't opening when requested.
A theoretical fourth reason would be some kind of firewall.
Hope some of those pointers help.

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Yep, found out why... Phone was connected on Activesync over bluetooth (had left it on). It works now. I am a muppet :S

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Not a problem, glad it works for you

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davidwhitney said:
Excellent, I'm really glad the new scaling code works. Quite a relief.
As for further TFL services, to be honest I'm not sure yet. It all depends on how the data could be presented.
Historically laying out things like bus timetables in a usable and intuitive way is very difficult (just look at bus stops for an obvious example). In addition to that there's tonnes and tonnes of data. I guess it could be presented using a searchable interface or by putting in favorite routes or trains to monitor.
I'm very much open to suggestions and if it feels right I'll probably produce an "enhanced" version of the app with the additional timetable and route data. I'd probably maintain the two separately to keep the tube status app small and sweet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see what you mean having just looked at the bus information which is quite extensive and always will be I guess. Keeping things simple maybe colour codes minor, major, severe may be better than nothing. I imagine that would not be so easy to transform from the info being parsed though. Overground does not look so extensive, today anyway.

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Excellent idea and app.
Just a couple of points/questions:
1. Might be useful to have a 'last updated' line? maybe just as a page accessible via the menu if the screen estate is not available.
2. When I run it I get the spinning wheel for about 11 seconds whilst loading - should it take that long? Would cooking it in reduce this?
I am using this on a Raphael with a custom 21028 ROM.
Cheers

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1. Might be useful to have a 'last updated' line? maybe just as a page accessible via the menu if the screen estate is not available.
- I've been thinking this myself. It was just something that slipped my mind first time around. It'd also make it easier to distinguish whether you're looking at current or planned service statuses. I've just noticed that the TfL website also offers a list of planned incidents for "next weekend" so I'll incorporate that in the next release.
2. When I run it I get the spinning wheel for about 11 seconds whilst loading - should it take that long? Would cooking it in reduce this?
- This has plagued me somewhat. Part of it is the framework start-up time (which is subtle but measurable) and part of it is the fact that I do the first service update in the constructor of the application.
If you don't have an active data connection the app will have to establish a connection before it'll paint to the screen causing the unusually long load time.
This effectively means that the app doesn't perform it's first render until the first Http request has completed. It's a bit of a silly design decision but added the first fetch to the forms "Loaded" event seemed to perform identically. I guess I could try force a redraw first...
As some anecdotal evidence, with a data connection active on my Diamond it takes 4 seconds to load the app.
There are a few work-arounds I've investigated but none of them seem to offer significant speed advantages.
Offhand I don't remember the CPU speed of the Raphael, but perhaps that's a factor?
I'll continue to look into it as I add extra features, and hopefully I'll be able to shave off a few seconds for these edge cases.
[edit]
I've just noticed that my recent installers have accidently included a few of the compact framework assemblies. You might find that going into the install directory (ProgramFiles/MobileTFL ususally) and removing everything that isn't MobileTFL.exe and MobileTFL.ico will both save about 200k of space and improve performance if you have the compact framework cooked into your rom. As far as I'm aware I shouldn't have to include these framework assemblies so I'll produce a smaller installer later (~44k rather than ~250).

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I just noticed a problem with scaling when capitals are being used on Touch HD.
A nice touch would be if you touch the page with your thumb/stylus it takes you to the Line status page and vice versa.