MMM-MBTA

2021-05-31: Looking for maintainers! File an issue if you'd like to maintain this crate.

This MagicMirror² Module is designed to pull information from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's API and to show and filter data.

For this to work, you need to create your own MBTA API key. You can get one by following this link and signing up. Note that it may take up to a day to approve your api key, according to their website.

DISCLAIMER

The times provided are from MBTA's API. As a result, the predicted values may be off. Please only use this as an estimation. I am not responsible for missed transportation and any consequences as a result of it. This is not a precise tool, nor have I claimed it to be. By using this module, you agree to never assume that this is a precise tool, and that I take no fault in any missed appointments, finals, etc.

Installation

In your terminal, go to your MagicMirror's Module folder:

cd ~/MagicMirror/modules

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/edward-shen/MMM-MBTA.git

Configure the module in your config.js file.

Using the module

To use this module, add it to the modules array in the config/config.js file:

modules: [
    {
        module: 'MMM-MBTA',
        position: 'top_right', // This can be any of the regions.
        header: "MBTA:",
        config: {
            apikey: 'your_api_key',
        }
    }
]

Configuration options

Option	Description
apikey	Api key given by the MBTA. Expected Value type: String.
updateInterval	Time between updates, in seconds. To protect API abuse, this module automatically limits this value to a minimum of 10. Expected Value type: int.
baseUrl	The base url of the MBTA api. You shouldn't change this unless the MBTA moved the api to the new location, and the update hasn't been reflected in this module. Expected Value type: String.
stations	This is an array of stations that you wish to display. Currently, only one max station is allowed. For a list of station names, please refer to stations-formatted.json. Make sure to use the common name! Example: stations: [ "Airport" ]. Expected Value type: [String, String, ...].
predictedTimes	Use MBTA predicted times or scheduled times. Default is predicted times (true). Expected Value type: boolean.
doAnimation	Whether or not to do an animation when updating. Expected Value type: boolean.
animationSpeed	How long the update animation lasts. Expected Value type: int.
formatETA	Show ETA time in MM:SS instead of just seconds. Expected Value type: boolean.
showMinutesOnly	Show ETA time in minutes only. This overrides formatETA. Expected Value type: boolean.
showOnly	Filter out various modes of transportation. Example: showOnly: ["Subway"] would only show subways, while showOnly: ["Subway", "Bus"] would show both subways and buses. Default is to show all modes of transportation. Expected Value type: [String, String, ...]. The various options are Subway, Train, Bus, Ferry, Cable car.
maxEntries	The maximum entries allowed. Default is 8. Expected Value type: int.
maxTime	The maximum ETA time the modules should list, in minutes. Default is to show all. Expected Value type: int.
showArrivalTime	Show MBTA's predicted arrival time of the transportation vehicle. Expected Value type: boolean.
showDepartTime	Show MBTA's predicted departure time of the transportation vehicle. Expected Value type: boolean.
showETATime	Show MBTA's predicted ETA for the vehicle. Expected Value type: boolean.
fade	Whether or not to fade the module. Expected Value type: boolean.
fadePoint	At what point to start fading. Expected Value type: float. Value range is from 0 to 1.
showFullName	Display the full name instead of the short name. Due to the length the text, it is strongly recommended that the postition of this module is set to top_bar, bottom_bar, or any location where it can expand to the entire width when this is set to true. Expected Value type: boolean.
colorIcons	Display the vehicle icons in their respective color. Expected Value type: boolean.
showAlerts	Shows alerts near the specified station. Expected Value type: boolean. WARNING: Alerts are only properly shown when in a full-width position, such as top_bar, middle_center or lower_third.
hideEmptyAlerts	Automatically hide the alerts section when there are no alerts. Expected Value type: boolean.
direction	Sets the default direction you care about. Example: direction: "Inbound" . Expected Value type: String.
flipDirection	When set to true, MMM-MBTA will the flip the direction filter for incoming vehicles at the station, i.e. Inbound in the AM and Outbound in PM Expected Value type: boolean.
flipHour	Specifies the hour to flip the direction, if flipDirection is equal to true. Default value is 12. Expected Value type: int.
noETAToBack	Favor entries with an ETA, hiding entries without ETAs if possible. Expected Value type: boolean.
showDirection	Show "In" or "Out". Expected Value type: false.

More options will be added as this module becomes feature-rich.

If your station name does not appear in stations-formatted.json, you can search for your station here. Then you can simply add the last part of the URL to the stations-formatted.json in the same manner as the remainder of links. For example, if you wanted to add a new stop, say, HelloWorld, you could do the following:

• Search https://www.mbta.com/stops/subway for HelloWorld.
• Click on your desired station.
• See that the URL reads https://www.mbta.com/stops/place-helloworld
• Add a line "hello world": "place-helloworld", to stations-formatted.json.
• Then edit stations in your config file to be "stations": ["place-helloworld"],

Thanks to @nakulbende for the tip!

Planned Features

• Alert tickers Partial support
• Filter displayed trips by direction (i.e. Northbound, Eastbound)
• ETA countdown when vehicle is close to arriving
• Time filter to display certain trips during specified times of the day

This list was last updated on 2018-01-29.

Known Bugs

• Gondola and funicular icons are unsupported!

  This is intentional. Unless there's a Font Awesome icon, or one that resembles one, I'm not adding it in, because there shouldn't be gondolas and funiculars in Boston anyways.

• The header disappears when you fade the rest out! What gives?

  Unfortunately, that's due to an issue with MagicMirror² core. I may do a pull request in the future, but as of right now, this is (unfortunate) intented behavior.

• Using Scheduled times instead of predicted times.

This list was last updated on 2018-11-26.

Thanks

Special thanks to Andy Waplinger for adding lots of new functionality, and updating MMM-MBTA for APIv3 changes!