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Add a university

Gapwise has one web application in gapwise. The manifest selects an institution by hostname. Timetable adapters return the shared meeting model; Today, Timetable, Gap Plan, Campus Map, and Day Route consume that model and the selected campus catalog. University facts and routing evidence belong in data.

Gapwise currently supports 7 universities across Canada: University of Toronto (gapwise.ca), Carleton University (carleton.gapwise.ca), Toronto Metropolitan University (tmu.gapwise.ca), Queen’s University (queens.gapwise.ca), Wilfrid Laurier University (laurier.gapwise.ca), York University (york.gapwise.ca), and McMaster University (mcmaster.gapwise.ca). All editions are built from the unified gapwise and data codebase.

Create a scaffold

Section titled “Create a scaffold”

Check out gapwise, data, and cli as sibling repositories. From cli:

Terminal window
node bin/gapwise.mjs university create example-university --dry-run
node bin/gapwise.mjs university create tmu \
  --name "Toronto Metropolitan University" --short-name TMU

The command adds one entry to gapwise/universities.json, a timetable adapter and failing fixture test, and empty campus/academic snapshots. It creates no product screen or style copy. The new entry has status: scaffold, routing disabled, and no invented buildings, entrances, or paths.

Add evidence and ingestion

Section titled “Add evidence and ingestion”
  1. Confirm the timetable export format and implement gapwise/src/universities/<id>/adapter.ts. Return canonical ParsedTimetable meetings with stable identifiers, weekdays, times, campus, location, and date ranges. Keep source-specific interpretation inside the adapter.
  2. Add source-backed buildings, aliases, footprints, entrances, and pedestrian edges to data/universities/<id>/campus.json. Preserve source IDs, attribution, rights, and unknown access values. Follow the shared schemas in data/schemas/universities/.
  3. Optionally run gapwise data osm <id> --bbox=west,south,east,north. This creates unreviewed OpenStreetMap candidates only. Inspect their provenance and geometry; do not promote candidate entrances or routes without review.
  4. Run the campus sync in gapwise: bun scripts/sync-campus-data.ts --write. This mirrors validated snapshots and generates the compact map catalog. The routing graph is loaded separately when needed.
  5. Add a real timetable fixture test and review the manifest’s host, campus list, feature flags, and status. Enable routing only where path connectivity and access evidence justify it.

Verify and deploy

Section titled “Verify and deploy”
Terminal window
node cli/bin/gapwise.mjs data validate tmu
node cli/bin/gapwise.mjs university validate tmu
node cli/bin/gapwise.mjs university test tmu
node cli/bin/gapwise.mjs university dev tmu

Run the gapwise typecheck, lint, unit tests, production build, and browser tests. Check desktop and mobile map selection, timetable import, Today, gap calculations, and route states. The local development URL uses ?university=tmu; production host resolution uses the manifest. Configure DNS and the hosting provider for tmu.gapwise.ca, then verify the preview and live host before announcing support.

Changes to Today, TimetableGrid, GapPlan, CampusMap, DayRoute, shared navigation, or global CSS should be justified as product-wide changes. Adding another institution ordinarily changes the manifest, adapter, data, fixtures, and deployment configuration only.