usage

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Table of Contents

General idea

This tool helps managing different instances of the Valhalla and OpenTripPlanner routing engines.

The usual workflow is:

  1. Gather OSM and/or GTFS data
  2. Create a new project folder in the server's router directory via FileZilla
  3. Change the project folder's "File permissions" (right-click on folder) to "Public Permissions > Write" via FileZilla
  4. Upload the data to the project folder and also change their "File Permissions" to "Public Permissions > Write" via FileZilla
  5. Sync the available projects in the QGIS plugin and create a new graph
  6. Monitor the graph status in the QGIS plugin
  7. Calculate isochrones in the QGIS plugin on the new graph(s)

Dialogs

The QGIS plugin offers 2 dialogs:

  • Graph Manager: a dialog to add graphs and monitor their status
  • Isochrones: calculate isochrones on the managed graphs

Usage

This plugin lets you manage graphs for different areas and routing engines (Valhalla & OpenTripPlanner) and visualize isochrones from the comfort of a QGIS environment.

The plugin is the interface to a server-side software which does the heavy lifting of calculating and serving the graphs. To be able to work with the plugin the following requirements have to be met:

  • access to a running server with the custom software installed
  • user account for the server
  • some OSM and/or GTFS data

Note, you can submit multiple graphs to be calculated, but only one graph will be processed at once while others wait in a queue. When a graph is finished processing, the next one will be started in a FIFO fashion.

1. Create Project

First the project needs to be created on the server and appropriate files uploaded.

Open FileZilla, connect to a server with your assigned user & .pem key file and find the directory for the routing engines. Within the valhalla or opentripplanner directory, create a new folder and name it as you want.

Next, edit the folder permissions (right-click the folder ► File Permissions) and check Write in Group permissions such that the numeric value is 777 and the textual permissions are drwxrwxrwx:

folder permissions

Now you can upload OSM and/or GTFS data to the new project folder. Don't forget to change the permissions for the data files in the same way.

2. Add Server To QGIS Plugin

You'll need access to a server which can host the graphs and has the custom software installed:

Open the Graph Manager dialog, click on the Tool button in the New Graph panel and add a server with your appropriate "Basic Authentication" (username & password for the server):

add server

Now this server will show up in the dropdown elements.

3. Create New Graph

In the Graph Manager dialog and the New Graph panel, choose your newly added server and the routing engine you want to use.

Clicking the syncing button will populate the dropdown with all available projects for that routing engine. Note, you'll only see projects which are newly created. Below the Project Folder a list of the registered data is shown.

Enter a meaningful description of the project and hit Create Router.

4. Monitor Graph Status

Once a graph is going to be created, the server has started and reports updates on the status of all registered graphs.

Go to the Graph Status panel, choose your server and routing engine and sync its registered graphs. Once a graph is finished processing and available for usage, Status will show SUCCESS.

The Queued Graphs table will show all graphs which are in the queue and next in processing.

Additionally, an email will be sent to http://18.189.186.126:1080, offering more information in case of failures.

5. Graph removal

Registered graphs can be deleted in the Graph Status panel, which removes the graphs on the server (and with it some RAM). However, this won't remove the project folder and files.