@jamesevans
The JP Datastore files have not been updated this week and it is now Thursday! Bank Holiday blues?
This compounds some issues in last week’s upload, where the gaps included some changes which came in last weekend (42 119 264 for example) and some of the Carnival specials, though I appreciate that the LU strike kiboshed many of them.
The gaps can’t be filled from the Working Timetables either. For example the new 42 Sa and Su WTTs are present but not the MF one. This situation is much more common now than under the old system, though maybe it is because the times at which things are done have changed, rather than because of the change of system itself.
It has now been updated. At first glance it appears to have gained a zip file relating to NR/TfL Rail etc services and lost the one replacing to rail replacement services. But that is at first glance only.
Apologies - there was a delay in publishing to this due to a shortage of team members available as well as the bank holiday. This should return to normal from this week.
@jamesevans
At least it’s not me that needed to expire. Just to clarify, do you mean a cache at your end? I appreciate that individual pages get cached on my computer and need refreshing but I wouldn’t have thought that applied to a link calling a 130Mb download.
@jamesevans
Is there a similar issue with /Line/Route? I’m still seeing a 1/2/2023 date. This is pretty normal for me - nearly everything else seems to get updated days earlier.
@jamesevans@nickp
I think I have commented before that it would be useful to have an idiot’s diagram showing interdependencies between the various outputs and the main sources they are drawn from. Also when each output is supposed to be updated.
Having said that, my experience of complex systems is that at some point a question gets asked and, rather like on QI, the answer is “nobody knows”!
I don’t really have time to do a diagram for you at the current time. We do have internal documentation but not at a high enough level I can share publicly. The data build process is rather monolithic and we’re working on making it more modular so we’re able to do frequent releases and respond to bugs or data corrections.
The Journey Planner Timetables zip (TransXChange) file is normally uploaded weekly on a Tuesday by my colleagues in the JP team. We use a version of this to build our API’s reference data (including Line/Route) and the build/test cycle means this is usually released to production on Wednesday or Thursdays (also weekly).
Sometimes this release can be delayed with technical issues building or getting the build to pass tests. This week, we’re a bit behind due to the file not being available until late Wednesday as well as a fares revision that we had to incorporate.
We are aiming to release this data today and try to get back to our usual timings this week.
If I could ask one more question, does that mean the version used to build the API reference data must always be consistent with what is in the TransXChange file or is there scope for differences to arise?
which makes me wonder whether the update has hit a problem. Full disclosure - I’ve moved fromn Windows 10 to 11 since last week but I doubt that has anything to do with it.
