When I was living in Barcelona I saw that there is a OpenData service to get the information of the Bicing (bike public service). They provide the data in several formats such as CSV, XML and JSON. I wanted to write an app for Windows and Linux that retrieves the information from the stations and shows their current status. And for that, I chose JSON since I think the format is easier to read than XML.
After thinking a while I realised that it could be useful not just have every Bicing station data on demand but also a historic. To achieve that I split the app in two separated parts: “backend” that works as a deamon or service, and “frontend” that is the actual GUI app.
(more…)