NextCaltrain Widget 0.6 review

NextCaltrain Widget allows you to specify a northbound train station and a southbound train station and displays the next trains stopping at both stations.

License: Freeware OS: Mac OS X File size: 64K Developer: Darryl H. Thomas Price: $0.00 Updated: 18 Apr 2006

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NextCaltrain Widget allows you to specify a northbound train station and a southbound train station and displays the next trains stopping at both stations.

In addition to the departure time of the next train, NextCaltrain shows you the train number, service type (regular, limited, express, weekend) and the destination arrival time. The widget allows you to specify a time offset to allow for travel time to the train station.

Caltrain does not currently provide an API for access to its schedule information. NextCaltrain uses schedule information obtained via a script I wrote which parses the HTML time tables provided on the Caltrain website. The schedule information is converted into JavaScript objects and packaged with the widget. The widget does not perform live schedule look-ups.

What's New:
Widget redesigned. Increased spacing, modified background
Bug Fix: non-numeric offset value now results in error dialog
Added support for update notification, disabled by default
Train information is now refreshed every three minutes while the Dashboard remains visible
The widget now has the option of checking for new versions once every 24-hrs. This option is disabled by default. To enabled it, check the checkbox on the back panel. Whenever you change the update check option from disabled to enabled, an update check will occur immediately, regardless of whether a check has been performed in the last 24-hrs.
When an update is available, a message will be displayed at the bottom of the widget. The widget does not update automatically. To perform an update, click the message and follow the instructions on the resulting web page.
NO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION IS TRANSMITTED TO THE SERVER. Aside from the inherent information transmitted by HTTP requests (IP address, user-agent, etc.), the update mechanism transmits only the product name and version number. This information is stored in web server access logs. The “DO NO EVIL” standard applies here.