A staging environment is a copy of your production environment (your current live website or app) on a private server. This is a safe place that will allow you to test any changes – major or minor – that you plan on implementing in a secure environment preventing any unexpected errors on your live website or app. 

The standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. TLS is an industry standard and replaced SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in 1999. SSL (now considered insecure) is still in use as a general term.

In order to make real-time transport information compatible between different systems, several European countries joined efforts to create a standard protocol known as Service Interface for Real Time Information (SIRI). This protocol describes (at length!) how different systems can share real-time passenger information, allowing different suppliers, operators and local authorities to work together without costly development bills every time one of the party is swapped out.

The list of web pages served to users when they look for something online using a search engine, such as Google. The user enters their search query (using specific terms or phrases known as keywords), upon which the search engine presents them with a SERP.

Provides you with information about public transport services in ‘real time’. This allows you to see which services are due to arrive at stops and what time they are expected.

Offers retailers online services for accepting electronic payments by a variety of methods including credit card, bank-based payments such as direct debit, bank transfer, and real-time bank transfer based on online banking.

PCI is an industry standard designed to make it safer to use credit cards online by making sure that business collecting credit card data transmit and store it securely.

Open Graph is a technology first introduced by Facebook in 2010 that allows integration between Facebook and its user data, and a website. By integrating Open Graph meta tags into the content of your pages, you can identify which elements of your page you want to show when someone shares your page.

The UK’s national dataset of public transport access points (bus stops, rail stations, airports, ferry piers, tram/metro/underground stops) is known as the NaPTAN database.

It records approximately 400,000 bus stops across England, Scotland and Wales, as well as other transport terminals including rail stations and airports.

NaPTAN consists of:

• A standard for identifying and naming access points to public transport
• A database of all public transport access points in Great Britain
• The XML schema for exchanging data or an alternative CSV exchange format version.

NaPTAN database data is available in XML or CSV format with the most recent updates by local authorities being listed. The NaPTAN database is managed by the Department for Transport and updated by local authorities. NaPTAN is a core component of the national transport information infrastructure and is used by a number of other UK standards and information systems.

Serial number printed on the front of a smart card.