sbb2prowl.pl

This Perl script pushes updates on delays of Swiss trains directly to your iPhone. The delays are grabbed from http://prosurf.sbb.ch. sbb2prowl.pl uses Apple's push notification framework taking advantage of the marvelous Prowl service and its iPhone client.

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Author

Stephan

E-Mail: mail@ping13.net
Twitter: ping13

Feel free to contact me, if you have any questions or feedback.

Disclaimer

I'm not affiliated with the SBB nor does the SBB endorse this script. It may stop functioning anytime or the SBB might block this.
Please use this script carefully as it may incur heavy traffic on SBB's system which is currently free to use.

Dependencies

• You need an iPhone with Prowl installed, Link to Appstore
• You need an API key connected to your iPhone, see Settings of the Prowl Homepage
• You need a Perl installation with WebService::Prowl, YAML and WWW::Shorten. All modules can be installed using CPAN.
• Your machine needs to be running and connected to the internet. You don't have to have a Mac in order to run this script: A Linux machine at shared hosting service will do, too (assuming. you do have rights to use your own Perl modules)
• You want to have access to your local crontab (or similar) in order to let this script run unattended.

Usage

1. Satisfy all the above dependencies and create a YAML file for configuration.

2. Go to http://prosurf.sbb.ch and identify the URLs of those stations you are interested in (like your primary stations for commuting).

Example:
I usually commute from Zürich HB. From http://prosurf.sbb.ch/ I figure, that this station has the URL http://prosurf.sbb.ch/pros/inter/prosurfservlet?TRANSACTION=004&LANGUAGE=d&PBP=ZUE&DIRECTION=2. You may choose any language (German, French, Italian, English).

1. For each station, identify the final destination of the train you are interested in. You might specify several destinations per station.

Example:
I'm looking for trains going to "Basel SBB" and "Bern".

1. Enter the collected information in the YAML file (see sample file). If you have more than one final destinations, seperate them with a vertical bar "|".

Example:

stations:
  Zuerich HB:
    terminus: Basel SBB|Bern
    station_url: http://prosurf.sbb.ch/pros/inter/prosurfservlet?TRANSACTION=004&LANGUAGE=d&PBP=ZUE&DIRECTION=2

1. With a valid in API key in the YAML file and test the script

   perl sbb2prowl.pl sample.yml
   

Sample YAML file

1. If you are satisfied with how everything works, you may put it in your crontab (on Linux machines):

   */10 * * * * /path/to/sbb2prowl.pl mycfg.yml >>/path/to/crontab.log 2>>/path/to/crontab-error.log
   

Todo

• Notify only in certain time periods.

Changes

none since V0.1

License

Copyright (C) 2009, mail@ping13.net

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

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