Minimal Introduction to OTP

Here's how to get a standalone instance of OTP running.

Some things you'll need:

• A Linux or Mac machine with over 1GB memory.
• A number of supporting software packages, including:
• git
• maven2

Get OTP

$ cd /path/to/projects
$ git clone [email protected]:opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner.git

Build OTP

$ cd OpenTripPlanner
$ mvn clean package

This stage takes a while. If it completes with a message like BUILD FAILED, then the rest of this tutorial won't work.

Build a graph

A graph is a file that combines and links transportation information from a number of sources into a form that's easy for OTP use. Basic graphs use OpenStreetMap road data, and public transport data in GTFS format.

First, download a GTFS from your favorite city. Here's the GTFS for Portland's Trimet system.

$ cd /path/to/downloads
$ mkdir pdx
$ wget "http://developer.trimet.org/schedule/gtfs.zip" -O trimet.gtfs.zip

Then, get a subset of OpenStreetMap data corresponding to the same area. There are many ways to get OSM data. One convenient way is a collection of metro extracts compiled by Michal Migurski.

$ wget http://osm-extracted-metros.s3.amazonaws.com/portland.osm.pbf

Build the graph

$ cd /path/to/projects/OpenTripPlanner
$ java -Xmx2G -jar otp-core/target/otp.jar --build /path/to/downloads/pdx

Run the server

Make a /var/otp/graphs directory if necessary, and copy the graph there

$ sudo mkdir /var/otp/graphs
$ mv /path/to/downloads/pdx/Graph.obj /var/otp/graphs

Then head over to the OTP directory and run the server:

$ cd /path/to/projects/OpenTripPlanner
$ java -Xmx2G -jar otp-core/target/otp.jar --server

This will take a minute. Once you see Grizzly server running. check out http://localhost:8080/

Once the server starts up, you can also try some REST API URLs to verify that it's working:

• http://localhost:8080/otp-rest-servlet/ws/metadata
• http://localhost:8080/otp-rest-servlet/ws/routers

You could also do:

java -jar otp-core/target/otp.jar -p 9090 -r mexico --server

in order to run on port 9090 and load the graph for routerId 'mexico'. You can also specify the base directory for graphs with -g. As we continue to work on standalone mode, it should continue to function in the same way but just be enriched with more command line options. Try the --help option for a full list of command line parameters.

Advanced graph building

See the 5 minute detailed dive-in for instructions on advanced graph-building techniques (carshare, bikeshare, elevation &c)...