lordelph

I've written a GreaseMonkey script which allows you to view the progress of a travel bug across the globe with Google Earth. To see it in action, view this image (70Kb) To install it, you must use the Firefox browser with the Greasemonkey extension. Once you've got that, right click this link http://files.dixo.net/geocachingtbtracker.user.js and choose "install user script...". A dialog will appear showing the script name and the pages it will modify - to confirm you want to install, click OK. Now go find a TB to track! I wrote this very quickly when the idea occurred to me this afternoon - if you notice a problem with it, do let me know!

It would be possible to make a script which provided you with a Google Earth file which displayed a line tracking a TB's progress, but the problem is that this would need make automated requests against the site to get the coords of each cache. This would be deemed "scraping" and is against the gc.com terms of use (sadly!) Edit - I spoke too soon! It seems the Travel Bug "View Map" page does contain a lat/long accurate to 3.6 seconds of arc. I feel a new feature coming on....

Most likely reason to see GM_setValue not defined is that your greasemonkey extension is out of date - install 0.3.3 from http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/

Final update for a while - the script now finds coords mentioned in the cache description (like parking etc) and adds a little [map] hyperlink next to them. Click the link to get a popup 1:25000 OS map with a red arrow pointing to the spot.

Oops, fixed. Re-install by following the install instructions at the top of this thread.

The OS marker icon currently only works in Firefox, it's not Turnabout compatible yet. I'll see what I can do though.

Done! Upgrade your script simply by re-installing it from the above link.

If you use Firefox, I've recently updated my "Geocaching Map Linker" GreaseMonkey script to support links to Google Earth. If you've not got GreaseMonkey, you'll need to grab it from http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/ Once GreaseMonkey is installed, right click the link below and choose "Install User Script..." http://files.dixo.net/GeocachingMapLinker.user.js A dialog will appear showing the script name and the pages it will modify - to confirm you want to install, click OK. Once installed, visit a cache page, click the "Google Earth" link and you'll probably be prompted what you want to do - allow it to open the file with Google Earth, and for ease of use, tick the box to say you always want to do that. Now, whenever you click those links, Google Earth will pop up and smoothly transport you to the cache site, planting a flag at the cache coordinates along with a short description and link to the main cache page. Links are added to Google Earths's "Temporary Places", if you want to keep them, just drag them into another folder in the Places pane. Try it, you'll love it! I've using it to place a caching trip to Washington DC!

If you use <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a> (it's rather good) then you'll like the latest version of the script. Right next to the "Google Maps" link is a new "Google Earth" link, which will download a waypoint into Google Earth and whizz over the right point on the globe. The points are added to your temporary places, but if you like, you can make them permanent to build up a map of caches you'll be visiting. I added this because I'm off to the US next week and wanted to see where a few caches were. While it does work in the UK too, the satellite imagery is much lower resolution, but a few places aren't too badly represented, like London. To upgrade, right click the link below and choose "Install User Script..." http://files.dixo.net/GeocachingMapLinker.user.js A dialog will appear showing the script name and the pages it will modify - to confirm you want to install, click OK. Once installed, visit a cache page, click the "Google Earth" link and you'll probably be prompted what you want to do - allow it to open the file with Google Earth, and for ease of use, tick the box to say you always want to do that.

Yes the Google Maps links appear for all caches. I've just added support for Google Earth placemarks too!

klaus closed his thread before I could add a reply, but I told him that I'll be holding a little "children in need" raffle at the next London bash on September 1st, so his coin will be a prize. I'll also donate a UK geocoin if I have mine by then (although I think virtually everyone present has probably ordered some anyway!). If anyone else wants to donate something caching related then get in touch!

If you use Firefox, you can install my Greasemonkey extension to add a link to Google Maps into the cache page itself! Southseakers posted details of a "GreaseMonkey for IE" called Turnabout - my script partially works with that at the moment, Firefox users can popup an OS 1:25000 scale map with a marker arrow for the cache, but I haven't got that working in IE yet.

I've adapted the conversion code used on Geograph.co.uk and Nearby.org.uk into javascript, which should open up a few more possibilities on the "GreaseMonkey" front. I haven't written any documentation yet, but if anyone wants to "beta test" it, drop me an email. It's accurate to approx 7m for 90% of the UK, I just need to document it and add some convenience methods to make "real world" applications a little easier.

Well done Boo! You've trained Peter and Jo very well!

Google Translate does a reasonable job for that cache description!

Right, it's on my list!

I was with Rutson for number 500 four weeks ago. Since then he's bagged another 100. I've done about 6 I don't how you guys do it! I'm hoping to hit my first century to coincide with the end of my first year of caching at end of August, with a celebratory pint at the "Bash in a Cache" on the 1st September. Like sparticus, if anyone has any suggestions for a suitably epic milestone, fire away!

Oh please, people are still eating breakfast!

8080 assembly? ZX80s? Hisoft Assembler? Luxury! I started out with a Jacquard loom and paid mill owner for t' privilege...

I should add my script only partially works with IE - the OS grid reference is turned into a hyperlink for a 1:25000 OS map, but the new feature for plotting an arrow pointing the cache location uses some Firefox-only cleverness. I'll see if I can fix that!

Yes, but if anyone can verify the presence of those TB's fair play to the guy, but some of those caches sounded tough, and the log entries I saw just said "nice place for a cache, left TB" Fake log entries shouldn't bother anyone, but fake TB entries would be annoying.

Anyone speak German? One of the TB's the picked up was collected on July 4th in Germany, prompting the cache owner to write something that doesn't sound good. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...01-6b7f10a33343 Google translate suggested "By user TravelBug1000 the inventory list was brought unnecessarily in disorder. If already statistikgeil, then one can make it also correct. The Cache first times deactivated to I to by-look can. TravelBug1000 wrote down and for an explanation asked. BTW: Much-saying name, then he has only 993 before itself. I reserve myself to delete that logs."

That should be "Thanks Southseakers" ! He wrote the rather good map replacement extension, I wrote its predecessor, which links the OS coordinates to a 1:25000 map from Get-a-Map (it now includes an arrow for the cache coordinates too)

"SouthSeakers" were inspired by this extension to create the rather marvellous map replacement for geocaching pages (see thread). He's inspired me to raise my game so I've tweaked the OS Get-a-Map linker. The new version modifies OS Get-a-Map to actually show a highly accurate marker of the reported cache position. You can zoom out, pan and the marker stays where it should be. Lovely stuff. To upgrade, right click the link below and choose "Install User Script..." http://files.dixo.net/GeocachingMapLinker.user.js A dialog will appear showing the script name and the pages it will modify - to confirm you want to install, click OK. Once installed, visit a cache page, click the OS grid coordinates, and you'll now get a little red arrow pointing out the cache position. Go on, zoom out! zoom in! pan the map! Smashing eh?

Anyone with a modicum of Javascript ability will find Dive Into GreaseMonkey a fantastic resource. yes - visit your preferred page and go to Tools -> Options and click General in the left hand bar, and you'll see the option for home page there - click the "use current pages" button. Alternatively ,visit your chosen page, and see the icon next to the web address in the address bar? Probably looks like a blank page icon but might be a site-specific one? Drag and drop that onto the Home Page toolbar button.