ratp-api

A modern API to get information from the RATP

Requirements

• Node.js (at least 0.10)
• The RATP database extracted from the Android app

Setup

Clone the repo and then install the npm modules (as well as bunyan, used for logs):

git clone [email protected]:leoetlino/ratp-api
cd ratp-api
sudo npm -g install bunyan
npm install

Copy the sqlite3 database extracted from the RATP official Android app into the application root dir. The database is not bundled to prevent legal issues. **ratp-api requires the new (circa Jan 2020) database format.

As of Jan 2020, in newer versions of the app, the database can be found at assets/databases/jenkins_ref.151.db in the APK. This name is likely automatically generated and the number is probably a version number that will change in newer app versions.

Finally, start the app:

node bootstrap.js | bunyan -o short -L

API documentation

The API is documented in the wiki.

Why a RATP API?

While the RATP has released some of their data, the official API is pretty complex for basic, most useful endpoints, such as getting a list of all stations, network-wide or on a specific line.

And then there's the refusal to make the real-time next stops API and data from the SIEL available publicly. It even goes as far as threatening developers with legal action…

This is for data that is supposed to be public, and that is already available to the public. Why?

Given that web scraping is forbidden, ratp-api does not rely on the website, but instead directly uses the API that powers the Android app. No reverse engineering was performed on the APK file. Only traffic sniffing was done on my own device and my own network.

Since I wanted a modern JSON API and there was none, I decided to make my own and release it under an open-source license.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. When contributing code, make sure to follow the existing code style and write clear commit messages.

Disclaimer

This software is only provided to make using the API and the database easier; as such, it is your responsability to make sure you are authorised to legally use the RATP API and the database. I cannot be held liable if you use this software improperly, violate any terms of service, or infringe copyright laws.

This project is not affiliated with and/or endorsed by the RATP.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.