OpenPlans is pleased to announce the launch of OTP Deployer, the first fully automated deployment and hosting platform for OpenTripPlanner. It is available for public use at deployer.opentripplanner.org.
The purpose of the OTP Deployer project is to make launching an OpenTripPlanner deployment as simple as possible, particularly for transport providers who want to quickly see what OTP would look like for their system. In doing so, we seek to address what is currently one of the significant barriers to widespread adoption of the platform: the relatively complex and technically demanding process of assembling the necessary data and setting up a live, usable OTP deployment.
To set up a hosted OTP instance using the deployer, all agencies must do is provide one or more GTFS feed(s) that represent their transit network. The application will automatically extract street network data from OpenStreetMap, and deployments within the United States will also include elevation data from the National Elevation Dataset. OTP Deployer then leverages the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform to both automate the OTP graph building process and the actual hosting of a built OTP instance.
There are currently two ways to use the service:
- Remote Graph Building — OTP Deployer can be used as a remote graph-building service by users that have their own means for deploying and hosting a built OTP instance. GTFS files are submitted using the web-based interface, and once complete, the user will be provided a link to download the graph file. OpenPlans is providing this feature as a free service to the OTP community.
- Hosted OTP Deployment — In addition, the platform supports ongoing hosting of OTP instances. OpenPlans will provide “preview” hosting at no charge for up to one week. Please contact us if you are interested in longer-term hosting.
The workflow logic for OTP Deployer is written primarily in Python, with the web interface built using the Django framework. All original code for OTP Deployer is open source and is available online via Github. The repository also includes an issue tracker for bug reports and feature requests.
As the OTP Deployer project moves forward from preliminary development and beta testing, a number of additional enhancements are planned, including automated integration with companion OTP projects such as the OTP Analyst extension, potential native support for elevation data for non-U.S. deployments, and redundant hosting of deployed OTP instances for production applications.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me at demory@openplans.org.
