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Laravel Dashboard Belgian Trains Tile Laravel Package
spatie/laravel-dashboard-belgian-trains-tile
A tile for the Spatie Laravel Dashboard that displays the status of Belgian train connections. Add it to your dashboard to see live train information at a glance. Install via Composer, publish the tile's config, and render it alongside your other dashboard tiles.
A tile for Laravel Dashboard that display Belgian train connections
Frequently asked questions about Laravel Dashboard Belgian Trains Tile
- How do I install spatie/laravel-dashboard-belgian-trains-tile?
- Install the package with Composer into an application that already runs spatie/laravel-dashboard v4, Livewire 3, Tailwind, and PHP 8 or newer. Register the tile in your dashboard configuration and instantiate it with the station pair and refresh interval you want. Pin at least ^4.0.2 because earlier versions rendered train times in UTC rather than your application timezone.
- What Laravel and Livewire versions does this Belgian trains tile support?
- The tile is built for Laravel Dashboard v4 and Livewire 3, with PHP 8 or newer supported. Its history shows prompt tracking of Livewire 2 to 3 and Laravel Dashboard v4, but exact Laravel framework constraints should be confirmed in the package Composer requirements. If your app is not already on that stack, the real cost is the stack change needed to host the tile.
- How do I configure the stations and refresh interval for the tile?
- You add the tile to your Laravel Dashboard config and instantiate it with a configured Belgian station pair and refresh interval. The package is deliberately narrow: it shows NMBS/SNCB departures and status for that one configured connection. It does not provide multi-leg journeys, other operators, or a multi-provider transit abstraction.
- Why are train times showing in UTC instead of my app timezone?
- Versions before 4.0.2 rendered train times as UTC instead of using the application timezone, which made the tile unusable for user-facing Belgian schedules. Treat ^4.0.2 as a hard minimum rather than a soft preference. After upgrading, also confirm your Laravel app timezone is set correctly.
- Does this tile cache Belgian rail API requests?
- No caching layer ships by default, so request volume scales linearly with viewers and refresh frequency. A wallboard left open on a 30-second refresh can generate about 2,880 upstream calls per day per screen. For production use, add a server-side cache or choose a slower refresh cadence.
- Can I use this package in production or is it demo-grade?
- The adoption signal is weak, with 1 star and 0 dependents, and there is no evidence of production usage to borrow confidence from. Upstream Belgian rail API volatility and the lack of a community around this specific repo are the main risks. Treat it as demo-grade or personal-use unless you can accept ownership, feature-flag it, and fork if needed.
- What should I check about the Belgian rail data source terms and rate limits?
- The tile depends on a public Belgian rail data source whose availability, rate limits, and terms are outside both your control and Spatie's. Confirm whether your use is an internal wallboard or commercial/customer-facing, and whether attribution or rate-limit obligations apply. Also account for the missing default cache, because request volume grows with viewers.
- How do I test the tile after installation?
- The package repository includes a Composer test command, so run composer test when validating the package itself. In your application, render the dashboard with the tile registered and verify the configured stations, refresh interval, timezone output, and upstream data response. No schema changes, migrations, or queue workers are introduced by the tile.
- Can I customize the tile's look to match my brand?
- The tile renders a Tailwind-styled wallboard card, so brand alignment usually means overriding the Blade view rather than only changing config. If you need your palette instead of the NMBS styling, budget a design pass alongside the install. Keep the override isolated so package updates remain manageable.
- What are alternatives if I need multi-leg journeys or disruption notifications?
- This tile's scope is one Belgian train data source and one visual form, with no historical, predictive, alerting, or multi-operator layer. Any requirement beyond showing upcoming departures and status effectively becomes a fork or a custom Livewire tile. If you need broader transit features, evaluate a purpose-built integration rather than stretching this package.
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