History

Navitia: traveler information since 1998 !

Yep, but in 1998, there were no REST web-services. So when we made Obiti (navitia's grandfather) we designed it like a service which could provide HTML response. Straight. Without css (didn't know what it was). And of course, without js. In fact, it has been designed by a self-made-student, a musichanical engineer and a foody biologist. Written in Pascal/Delphi, the only technology provided during French studies in the 1990's ;-)

So Obiti's algorithm (multi-modal, but only for a medium city perimeter) was a little crappy, and the source was not so beautiful. But we were so proud that we managed to convince Keolis to use it on web-sites. It was kind a revolution in 1998 \o/

Until we had to put some more data in it.

Well, public transport data around Paris are big. With 1500 bus lines, trains and metro networks, 50 000 stop points, 500 000 connections and 15 millions of stop times on thousand of calendars. OK, we needed an algorithm.

So in 2004, we released NAViTiA 1 (note the ugly camel case, proud of it in 2004, less in 2020) with a great algorithm, based on stop_times only. And a stateless XML web-service, with a 187 pages documentation only to learn how to request a journey... Not really devX.

Then came open data, then came c++11, then came Hateoas, then came some great developpers at Kisio Digital and then came the consciousness that traveler information is really helpful and expected.

And 2012, from a blank page, the upgraded developper's team started to put some really great ideas to write this current project, in order to open it. Thus you can now take it and make it better.

With some more really cool stuff in it.