With this application the user is able to get information about the nearby bus / tram stops in Tampere (Finland) city area. It is also possible to get next bus / tram departures for the chosen bus / tram stop.
There are two different voice intents in this skill
1) intent to get nearby bus / tram stops (needs permission to access full address details) 2) intent to get a list of next departures for the chosen bus / tram stop (no permission is required)
Nearby bus / trams stops
You can ask for nearby bus / trams stops by saying: "Alexa, ask blue white for nearby stops". It will search for (max) 7 stops from your address within 5km radius and reads out the name, id, zone of the stops and distance from your address. As you will notice, it is quite challenging for Alexa to pronounce Finnish addresses.
This intent needs permission to read your full address details. In case you have not granted this permission nor inserted your address details or your address is not within 5km from a nearest Tampere area bus stop, this intent does not work or it returns no data. Your address information is required to get coordinates for you home and the coordinates are needed to get the nearby bus stops. Your address or the coordinates are not stored and are not used for any other purpose.
next departures
You can ask for next departures by saying: "Alexa, ask blue white for next departures for 35" or "Alexa, ask blue white for next busses for 1761". The number refers to bus / tram stop id. It will search for next (max) 7 departures within next 12 hours for the chosen stop and reads out a list of departure information, bus line and departure time. You can also store your favorite bus stop by creating a list named Nysse and then storing there default item with bus stop id, e.g. "default 35". Then you simply request departures for that stop by saying "Alexa, ask blue white for departures". Using the favourite bus top feature, you need to grant permission for List Read Access in the application.
If you do not have bus stop id for your bus stop, you can either use the "nearby bus stops" - intent or find the bus stop from here: https://aikataulut.tampere.fi/?lang=en
The bus stop and bus data is based on public and open API: api.digitransit.fi (https://digitransit.fi/)
Google geocoding API is used for geocoding
you can stop Alexa reading out list of stops or departure information by simply saying "Alexa, thank you". You can also ask help by saying "Alexa, ask blue white for help".
In case Alexa starts supporting Finnish, it is possible to improve this skill by providing e.g. searches based on spoken addresses and even routing between your home and the destination (spoken addresses).
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