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Illinois Terminal shows up weirdly in GetStops
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Benjamin  
#1 Posted : Wednesday, December 21, 2011 8:12:28 PM(UTC)
Benjamin

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So I’m trying to use GetStops to assemble a list of all of the stops. I’m still confused by how the Illinois Terminal stop points are laid out, though:

Code:
        {
            "code": "MTD3121", 
            "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal", 
            "points": [
                {
                    "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal (Platform A)", 
                    "stop_lat": 40.115935, 
                    "code": "MTD7534", 
                    "stop_lon": -88.240947, 
                    "stop_id": "IT:1"
                }, 
                {
                    "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal (Platform B)", 
                    "stop_lat": 40.115972, 
                    "code": "MTD6462", 
                    "stop_lon": -88.24092, 
                    "stop_id": "IT:2"
                }, 
                {
                    "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal (Platform A)", 
                    "stop_lat": 40.115991, 
                    "code": "MTD3121", 
                    "stop_lon": -88.240913, 
                    "stop_id": "IT:3"
                }, 
                {
                    "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal (Platform B)", 
                    "stop_lat": 40.115666, 
                    "code": "MTD3121", 
                    "stop_lon": -88.241052, 
                    "stop_id": "IT:4"
                }, 
                {
                    "stop_name": "Illinois Terminal (Platform C)", 
                    "stop_lat": 40.115363, 
                    "code": "MTD4217", 
                    "stop_lon": -88.241442, 
                    "stop_id": "IT:5"
                }
            ], 
            "stop_id": "IT"
        },

Is there any semantic difference between, say, IT:2 and IT:4? If not, why are they listed as separate points here? If so, which one is the id I should pass to e.g. GetDeparturesByStop? And how are there four text message codes for what (naively) appear to be three distinct stop points? I feel like all of my questions are related to the darn Illinois Terminal ;-)
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Sean  
#2 Posted : Thursday, December 22, 2011 8:16:01 AM(UTC)
Sean

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That's actually an old legacy thing we're actually going to be getting rid of hopefully in the near future. I think it was a system limitation related to the 7:40am universal transfer at Illinois Terminal. IT:3 and IT:4 will be the ones we eliminate FYI.

Ben, I have to say, you have a knack for finding the weird anomalies and issues with our data, which is a good thing for us. The API is only as good as the data you get from it right?

Edited by user Thursday, December 22, 2011 8:38:56 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified
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Benjamin  
#3 Posted : Thursday, December 22, 2011 10:20:53 AM(UTC)
Benjamin

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So... speaking of weird anomalies and issues... I have a script that looks through the GetStops data and I saw a couple of little discrepancies. (I'm not pointing these out to be a jerk, it'll just make my development easier if everything's consistent!)

Some stop points are misspelled (I assume):

- in CFDCAMP:4, "Country" is misspelled as "Countyr"
- in CLTNCRVCR:1, "Coeur" is misspelled (I think) as "Coer"
- in MLKNCRSGT, "Mulliken" is spelled differently in the two stop points (I don't know which is right)
- in PSPCTINTER:2, "Prospect" is misspelled as "Propsect"
- in PSPCTVIN:1, "Prospect" is misspelled as "Prosepct"
- in WDSRCLSL:1, there's an extra capital letter in "WIndsor"

Some stops have slightly different names for the different stop points:

- PLASTIPAK:1 uses "Plastic Container Corp" but :2 uses "Plastipak"
- MDCC:1 uses "Ct." but :4 uses "Ct"
- MKTPLCCD:1 uses "Convenience Dr." but :3 just uses "Convenience"
- all of the stop points for CFW are "Country Fair West Entrance" except for CFW:6, which is "Country Fair West"
- CLTNCLW:2 is "Clayton and Bellerieve" but :4 is "Clayton and Clearwater"
- RMNBRD:2 says "Beardsley" but :4 says "Bradley"
- all of the stop points for WDSRMYRA are "Windsor & Myra Ridge" except for WDSRMYRA:9, which is "Windsor & Myra"

There are also a couple of stops that have different text-message codes for different stop points, but the stop points have the same names. (The stops are JOHNDNCN, KBYDNCN, LAR, MKTLGN, MYFRBDMR, SPFLDMATS, and WSFLDWLM.) I know that the Transit Plaza and Illinois Terminal have different names for the different stop points, because a user is probably only interested in the departures at one of these points. Is it safe to assume, though, that if the stop points all have the same name (as they do with these seven stops) then I can safely show the user e.g. the departures for all of the JOHNDNCN stop points at once? In other words, showing the user all departures for IT would be too much information, but showing the user all departures for JOHNDNCN would be okay. (I hope what I'm asking is clear enough...)
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Sean  
#4 Posted : Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:27:28 AM(UTC)
Sean

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Ben, you're honestly doing us a valuable service by pointing these issues out. We've resolved the issues of those extra text message codes. Not sure how those got in there, but Illinois Terminal and Transit Plaza are really the only stop points with separate codes. As for the spellings and inconsistencies with stop names, I've passed your list along to our planners that maintain all that so they can get these fixed. Hopefully we'll have that updated soon.

Edited by moderator Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:28:53 AM(UTC)  | Reason: missed word
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Benjamin  
#5 Posted : Saturday, December 24, 2011 1:01:32 PM(UTC)
Benjamin

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My pleasure!
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Ryan  
#6 Posted : Tuesday, January 3, 2012 8:33:12 AM(UTC)
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The spelling errors and stop name inconsistencies should now be fixed. Thanks again for catching these for us!
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