Summary: list all the artifacts needed by the end user of OTP; specify what interfaces the end user will then use to adapt the system for his data and his look & feel.

Scenario: Lowly DBA at transit agency X is tasked with getting OTP up and running (with his agency's data...eventually). Lowly has zero java/tomcat/mvn experience. How do you instruct Lowly what to download, where to install, what to run, where to load/edit, etc... ? (BTW, I've seen many people like Lowly, with zero java experience, install tomcat, deploy a .war file and load their own data into a system without much problem, so it's a manageable scenario ... see TimeTablePublisher.org [TTPUB]).

Current situation (November 2009): OTP code is broken into 3 modules. Packaging this up, we get one jar file (routing) and two war files (web service and Map UI).

Issues & Questions:

1. Having multiple .war files is great for separation, but our current .war naming scheme changes based on version number; thus, for the UI from A.0.1-SNAPSHOT.war to talk to the web service over in B.0.2-SNAPSHOT.war, we might need to change our .war naming to a constant name of say otp-ws.war and otp-map.war. Sound like a good thing?
   Voting: Frank (Author) +1
2. Where does Lowly hook into the code / data?
3. Map UI will need a properties file (or .js file) to personalize things like the initial extent (eg: currently hard coded to Portland).
4. WS API needs an API docs (and demo apps TODO???).
5. Data loader hooks are ???
6. What documentation to write?
7. TOPIC - Getting Java/Tomcat/OTP Running: This README for TTPUB has been about 90% successful, so it could be a starting point at least getting java/tomcat/.war files up & running: timetablepublisher.googlecode.com/files/Developer%20Notes%20v1.1.doc
   NOTE: one question not answered by this document is what are the hardware requirement for the system (an issue that only one person that I know of had...but this system is much larger / hungrier, so...)

• TOPIC - Customizing the map UI: TODO docs & examples ????
• TOPIC - Loading Data into OTP:
  • what data: GTFS/Centerline/Bike Paths/NED/etc... data will look like X and gets loaded into OTP by doing Y - TODO???
• TOPIC - Open Source License:
  • The (LGPL) license will be found (in every source file/here/?) TODO ????