jri

GME version 0.5.10 is now available at http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145 It took me longer than I had hoped to finish this version, thanks to various subtle changes to Geocaching.com since Groundspeak brought the Google Maps option back. Hopefully most of the bugs are now fixed, and the new version also makes the following improvements: The info tool has been rearranged to make it easier to measure a route. The info tool also now includes a link for the MAGIC map of the location, to show sensitive areas where special permission is needed for placing geocaches. It should automatically show the point you click, at roughly the current zoom level. The placename search has been improved to give you a list of matching places, biased to the country you're currently looking at. If you put in "Hawes" you can now go to the Cumbrian lake, the Yorkshire village, or various foreign alternatives! Corrected coordinate display is clearer. Corrected coordinates appear with a tick and a line back to their original location. There is now support for adding more than one extra map source at a time, using JSON arrays or JSONP URLs (not yet documented - email me for details!) One thing to remember: if you are a Premium Member, you will need to make sure that you select Leaflet Maps rather than Google Maps in order for the GME to work. You do this using the 'Set Map Preference' button at the bottom of the pop-out panel of the left edge of the map. Troubleshooting tips: http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme_trouble.htm Extra map sources: http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme_maps.htm

If you use the Geocaching Map Enhancements userscript, you can get My Topo maps back by clicking the script's configuration (gear) icon, choosing "Add more maps", pasting the code below into the box, and hitting "Add mapsource". {"alt":"My Topo", "tileUrl":"http://maps.mytopo.com/Groundspeak/tilecache.py/1.0.0/topoG/{z}/{x}/{y}", "attribution":"USGS map from <a href='http://www.mytopo.com/index.cfm'>MyTopo.com</a>", "minZoom":9, "maxZoom":16} Sorry - the changes to the website broke GME in various complicated ways, including the configuration screens not working in Firefox. v0.5.10, uploaded today, should fix that and make the instructions above work again for adding back My Topo. Also, follow these links if you're interested in better quality topo maps of Canada or New Zealand. Userscripts are add-ons for your web browser that can change the way websites look or behave. They can work in most web browsers, apart from Internet Explorer. There are full installation instructions for GME at this address: http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145 You need to use GME's gear icon (at the bottom-left of the map screen), rather than the one in the FF add-on manager. If you don't see any new icons at the bottom-left of the map, then GME probably isn't installed properly. Make sure you've got the latest version and check these troubleshooting tips.

A while ago I wrote a userscript called Geocaching Map Enhancements so that I could use British Ordnance Survey maps with the Geocaching Maps site, but the script is user-configurable and can also add in other maps from different sources. It also adds a load of other helpful features to the site. I recently discovered the free topo maps from Natural Resources Canada, and here's the result: GME is tested with Firefox, Opera, Chrome and the Android versions of Firefox Mobile and Opera Mobile. Here's how to get it working: Install GME from userscripts.org (full description and installation instructions on that page). Go to Geocaching Maps. If you are a Premium Member, make sure that you are using Leaflet Maps (use the 'Set Map Preferences' button at the bottom of pop-out panel on the left of the map). You should see the icons added by GME at the bottom of the screen. Click on the configuration icon (the gear). Click on 'Add more maps' and paste one of the codes below into the 'Mapsource' box. Click on 'Add mapsource'. The Canadian topo maps should now show up in the pick list on the geocaching website. The Canadian topo maps are available with English or French labels, using one of the codes below: English: {"alt":"Canadian Topo (EN)", "tileUrl":"http://wms.ess-ws.nrcan.gc.ca/wms/toporama_en", "layers":"limits,vegetation,builtup_areas,designated_areas,hydrography,hypsography,water_saturated_soils,landforms,constructions,water_features,road_network,railway,populated_places,structures,power_network,feature_names", "format":"image/png", "attribution":"Topo map © <a href='http://www.geogratis.ca/'>Department of Natural Resources Canada</a>. All rights reserved."} French {"alt":"Topo Canadien (FR)", "tileUrl":"http://wms.ess-ws.nrcan.gc.ca/wms/toporama_fr", "layers":"limites,vegetation,agglomeration,aires_designees,hydrographie,hypsographie,sols_satures_eau,relief_formes,constructions,elements_hydro,reseau_routier,reseau_ferroviaire,regions_peuplees,structures,reseau_energetique,toponymie", "format":"image/png", "attribution":"Carte Topo © <a href='http://www.geogratis.ca/'>Le ministère des Ressources naturelles Canada</a>. Tous droits réservés."} More information about the free NRC map service is available at geogratis.ca Suggestions for other sources of maps to use with the Geocaching Map Enhancements script are available here and troubleshooting tips here. Hope someone finds this helpful!

Version 0.5.10 of GME should now fix the bugs introduced by the recent updates to Geocaching.com!

Hi Luke - glad you liked the script. As far as I know, it should still work OK, but you need to select Leaflet Maps first. It doesn't work with Google Maps. There's a "Set Map Preference" button to do this at the bottom of the pop-out panel on the left of the map (click the thin grey bar at the left edge of the screen if it's not visible). Thanks to the changes there's currently a slight glitch in GME (the script's configuration screen appears in the map selection popup...) but I will update the script to avoid that later this weekend. Hope that helps!

If you use the Geocaching Map Enhancements userscript, you can get My Topo maps back by clicking the script's configuration (gear) icon, choosing "Add more maps", pasting the code below into the box, and hitting "Add mapsource". {"alt":"My Topo", "tileUrl":"http://maps.mytopo.com/Groundspeak/tilecache.py/1.0.0/topoG/{z}/{x}/{y}", "attribution":"USGS map from <a href='http://www.mytopo.com/index.cfm'>MyTopo.com</a>", "minZoom":9, "maxZoom":16}

A new test version of Geocaching Map Enhancements is available for testing at http://geo.inge.org....cements.user.js New in this version: Improved layout of the location info popup menu, to make it easier to measure a route. The info tool now includes a link for the MAGIC map of the location, to show sensitive areas where special permission is needed for placing geocaches. It should automatically show the point you click, at roughly the current zoom level. Placename search improved to give you a list of matching places, biased to the country you're currently looking at. If you put in "Hawes" you can now go to the Cumbrian lake, the Yorkshire village, or various foreign alternatives! Improved display of corrected coordinates on the main map. Corrected coordinates appear with a tick and a line to their original location. Support for adding more than one extra map source at a time, using JSON arrays or JSONP URLs (not yet documented - email me for details!) On Tuesday, Groundspeak rolled out an update to the website that added Google Maps back for Premium Members, but then rolled it back again after finding too many bugs. From what I gather, GME worked while the update was active, but only if you selected to use the Leaflet Maps API. Apparently there was a button to select it at the bottom of the pop-out panel on the left of the maps. I guess that GME will continue to work if the update comes back, but who knows! If I don't find any bugs in the meantime, I will upload this version to the main GME page on userscripts.org at the weekend.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I've tried to take up the following: mike142sl's suggestion to use a line. Simply Paul and metal-bijou's reminders not just to use colour (to cater for the colour-blind and black & white printing). All the suggestions that involved using a tick for the corrected coordinates. I've put up a a test version of GME at http://geo.inge.org....cements.user.js - this is how it works at the moment: On a geocache listing, you will see a small blue circle marking the original coordinates, with a line leading to the corrected coordinates. The corrected coordinates icon is the normal cache type icon, but with a tick overlaid. The maps page will behave in a similar way, but you don't get the circle at the original coords, just the line. This is because the map will have put an icon there already - either the standard icon for the cache type, or a smiley. I know I won't be able to please everyone all the time, but hopefully that will be an improvement over the previous version. Have a look at the demo and see what you think.

The National Trust datasets I'm using come from the National Biodiversity Network. I couldn't see any download option, but you can import theminto a GIS system from the NBN Gateway (effectively, my script turns the Geocaching Maps into a simple GIS). There are three datasets: the NT provide NI and England & Wales, and the NTS cover Scotland. Metadata for the datasets is linked from http://data.nbn.org....ype=A&grpType=2 I did look at Natural England, English Heritage and various others. Although many sites make data available for download (lots catalogued at data.gov.uk), not so much is available in the online form I need (WMS or TMS servers), and of what is available, not everything uses the right map projection to make it suitable to use as an overlay.

I didn't want to download the datasets - just to be able to access them dynamically as overlays on the Geocaching Map, in a similar way to the way MAGIC works. After a bit of research, I have now figured out how to do this using my Geocaching Map Enhancements userscript, with instructions for adding on overlays described here. I've been able to find overlays showing RSPB, local and national nature reserves and National Trust and Woodland Trust properties. These work (in various combinations) for the whole of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, while MAGIC seems to be mainly England and Wales. I've not been able to overlay Forestry Commission boundaries or scheduled ancient monuments. While the data is publicly available, it's in a different map projection that can't be overlaid on the Geocaching map. To make it even easier to find this information in MAGIC, I will include a link in the next version of GME, that will let you click the Geocaching map, then go straight to MAGIC at the same location and zoom level, without having to enter any coordinates. Also worth a look is the National Biodiversity Network's interactive map. It has a huge range of overlays available showing habitat and species information, as well as boundary areas that are useful for showing sensitive sites where geocaches might not be appropriate.

I'm not adding any more maps to the scripts - add too many and the selection menu would get unmanageable. However, it's easy to add the OSM Transport map yourself. You just have to paste a string of code into the configuration screen. The instructions are online at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme_maps.htm The same page has lots of examples of other maps and overlays you can add. My personal favourite is Colin Marquardt's hill shading overlay, which gives an impression of terrain when you're using one of the street maps.

Try manually resetting the GME configuration. Instructions here.

QRCodes have about a 30% fault tonerance built into them, so all I did was overlay the GC logo ontop of the QR code JPEG inside MSPaint. You can also turn the QR code into a picture by changing the colour of the pixels. As long as you keep a decent degree of contrast between the dark and light ones, it should still scan OK.

Bear in mind that not everyone uses GSAK or Memory Map (I don't), and from I gather looking at HH's link, those icons are different to the ones used on Geocaching.com anyway. I need a new way of showing new information on the map (corrected/original coords), and I want it to be consistent with what people are used to too. I'm quite happy to use existing icons, if that's sensible (and their creators are happy), but I need some examples for what people think looks right. That's why I started the thread!

I should probably explain a bit more detail of which markers are shown when, with and without GME being installed. I'd like the final result to be as consistent as possible between the map and the cache pages. Also, when GME is installed, I don't want the markers to look too alien compared to what people were previously used to. On the cache page, you always get a marker with the cache type icon (multi, puzzle, etc.) If the cache has corrected coordinates, this will be at the corrected location, but currently it doesn't change icon - either to a smiley, or to show it's been corrected. If GME is installed, you get an extra marker at the original location, but otherwise there is nothing to show where the original location was. There is scope to change all of this. On the map page, you always get an icon at the cache's original location. This can't be modified by GME, but it changes to a smiley when you've found the cache, and shrinks when you zoom out. With GME installed, you currently get additional markers at both the original and corrected coordinates, but only if you've clicked-through from a cache that actually had corrected coordinates. The GME markers don't currently change size or reflect finds. The thinking behind the corrected coords behaviour was to make the it look the same on the cache page with or without GME, then to make the map page look similar to that. Even though the map page will always have an icon at the original coords (with or without GME), it seemed useful to add an original coords marker, since the main map may be cluttered with other caches. This behaviour can also be changed.

As of version version 0.5.8, my Geocaching Map Enhancements userscript lets you show additional waypoints and corrected coordinates on the main geocaching map. To do this, you go to the listing page for the cache you are interested in, then click on the "View Larger Map" link. Here's how the result looks now: At the moment, waypoints show up with their normal icons (signpost, puzzle piece, car, etc.). The corrected coordinates get a marker with the cache type icon (multi, in this example). The default cache icon from the map (a smiley if you've found it, otherwise the normal icon for the cache) will always appear - this can't be changed, as it is part of the map. However, there is also a marker for the original coordinates (the circle icon), which appears sat on top of the icon from the map. I decided to include this so you can tell which cache you were originally looking at - useful if the map is cluttered with lots of other nearby caches. So - on to the competition: What should the marker icons for the original and corrected coordinates look like? I'm not entirely happy with using the circle icons for the original coords, and the corrected coords could look more distinct from the other cache icons. Whoever can come up with the best icons (or alternative suggestion) wins the prize of having their idea incorporated in the script. Icons need to be intuitive to understand and distinct from the clutter of other icons on the map. To fit in with the rest of the site, they should be 20x23 pixels - you can use this template: Other suggestions need to be simple to understand, and simple for me to code into the script!

This is probably the best way of putting geocache information into a QR code. The coords.info codes are short, so they make for small barcodes that print clearly and scan easily. They are quite flexible too: as well as codes for geocache listings, you can use them for waymarks, trackables, log entries, map coordinates and maybe more. The best bit is that if you don't have a geocaching app installed (or the app doesn't understand them), then you still get to a web page that tells you something helpful - useful for muggles who come across the code in the wild. The folks at zxing have already proposed a format to encode a location (see http://code.google.c...hic_information), but the basic format just encodes the coordinates: geo:55.96185,-5.70193 Since zxing's QR scanner library powers many of the Android barcode scanners, this should be fairly well supported in terms of scanning, but at the moment not many apps know how to do anything with the coordinates. On my Android phone, Barcode Scanner gives me options to view a map or get directions. Viewing a map gives me the option of Google Maps or a GPS app I have installed (GPS Status). Geocaching Apps could easily hook in to the same mechanism. If you use GMaps, you can also add a Google search query in to the QR code, letting you pass a label along with the coordinates, so a marker shows up: geo:55.96185,-5.70193?q=GCT7FW@55.96185,-5.70193 It works nicely in GMaps, but it would be great if there was a more standard way of passing details, less tied to Google. Other possibilities might be to encode cut-down versions of .LOC, .GPX or .LMX files into the QR code.

Thanks for the pointers. Rather than shapefile downloads, I was going to have a look to see if I could find WMS versions of any of the datasets. There are lots of things listed at places like data.gov.uk, but I wasn't sure how much was actually useful. Always assuming there are no problems with things like projections, WMS overlays have the potential to plug directly into the geocaching maps. I'll see what I can come up with...

A question for the reviewers: which MAGIC datasets do you use when you review a new cache? I think that some of the datasets are made public by the original sources. If they were usable as overlays for the geocaching map, they might be a useful tool for planning where to hide caches, and a bit easier to use than the MAGIC site.

It's unlikely that Groundspeak will bring back Streetview, either on the big map or the cache pages, for the same reasons that they abandoned Google Maps. Using Streetview properly requires use of the Google Maps API, which would cost them money if lots of people used it. They could put a link to Streetview on Google Maps amongst the list of other map links on the cache pages. That wouldn't incur any costs, but it wouldn't work very well either: Streetview isn't available in all countries, and where it is available, it only works at coordinates that are near streets with images. The only easy way to work out if there will be images available is to use the API. That said, if one-click Streetview is a must-have for you, you can set up a bookmarklet that will take you to Google Maps and open Streetview. Create a new bookmark/favourite in your browser, rename it to something like "GC Streetview", and cut'n'paste the code below as the destination of the link. javascript:document.location="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&layer=c&cbll="+(/map/.test(location.pathname)?MapSettings.Map.getCenter().toUrl():(lat+","+lng))+"&cbp=12,0,0,0,0"; When you click on the bookmarklet from a cache page, it should give you a Streetview of the cache coordinates. When you use it on the main map it will use the coordinates of the map centre. It won't go precisely to the coordinates, just to the nearest spot where Google had images. And if the coordinates are too far from a street that Google has surveyed, you just get a map of North America instead. I've only tested it in Firefox, but the bookmarklet should work in most other browsers too. If that's not good enough, and you are using a browser that supports userscripts, one of the features of Geocaching Map Enhancements is to let you click somewhere on the big map, and see the Streetview for that location. However, it works the same way as the bookmarklet, so has the same problems, and it doesn't have a Streetview link on cache pages (yet...).

New update! v0.5.8 went onto userscripts.org this morning. This update gives you: A route measuring tool. Search by GC-code. Additional waypoints and corrected coordinates display on the main map (when you click through from a cache page). It's pretty much the same as the version I put up for testing a week ago, but both of the links from cache pages to the main Geocaching Maps page should now work with additional waypoints. As ever, it's at http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145 PS If there are any kiwis reading, check out this post too.

It's on the sidebar, where it says "Search For Geocaches". You just type something in, then press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon. Without the script, you can search by place names, post codes and coordinates (most things that would work in Google Maps). With GME, you can also search by UK grid reference or GC-code (e.g. GC1234), and when you use a place name, you're more likely to get one in the country you are looking at. You can also type things like 'zoom 5' to jump straight to a particular zoom level (good for zooming out quickly to move to a different region). PS. If you can't see the side bar, you need to click on the grey strip on the left hand side of the map...

A while ago I wrote a userscript called Geocaching Map Enhancements so that I could use British Ordnance Survey maps with the Geocaching Maps site, but the script is user-configurable, and can also add in other maps from different sources. It also adds a load of other helpful features to the site. Someone recently suggested the free topo maps from Land Information New Zealand, and here's the result: GME is tested with the Firefox, Opera, Chrome and the Android versions of Firefox Mobile and Opera Mobile. Here's how to get it working: Install GME from userscripts.org (full installation instructions on that page). Go to the LINZ Data Service and register for a free user account. Logged-in to LINZ, go to the Dashboard, then 'API & Web Services', and create a key for 'OGC Web Services'. Make a copy of your key (the 32-character string of numbers and letters). Go to Geocaching Maps and click on the GME configuration icon (the gear). Click on 'Add more maps' and paste one of the codes below into the 'Mapsource' box, replacing 'MY_PRIVATE_KEY' with the key you copied at step 4. Click on 'Add mapsource'. Repeat 6 and 7 if you want to add in the other maps, then hit 'OK'. The LINZ maps should now show up in the pick list on the geocaching website. You can use any of the following map sources: Topo50 1:50 000 scale map imagery {"alt":"NZ Topo50", "tileUrl":"http://wms.data.linz.govt.nz/MY_PRIVATE_KEY/r/wms", "layers":"x767", "maxZoom":18, "format":"image/png", "attribution":"Mapping by <a href=\"http://data.linz.govt.nz/\">LINZ</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/\">CC-BY</a>"} Topo250 1:250 000 scale map imagery {"alt":"NZ Topo250", "tileUrl":"http://wms.data.linz.govt.nz/MY_PRIVATE_KEY/r/wms", "layers":"x798", "maxZoom":16, "format":"image/png", "attribution":"Mapping by <a href=\"http://data.linz.govt.nz/\">LINZ</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/\">CC-BY</a>"} Aerial photos taken between 1994 and 2005. NB quality and coverage vary across the country. {"alt":"NZ Aerial", "tileUrl":"http://wms.data.linz.govt.nz/MY_PRIVATE_KEY/r/wms", "layers":"x1022,x1048,x1024,x1021,x1033,x1032,x1034,x1031,x1013", "maxZoom":25, "format":"image/jpeg", "attribution":"Orthophotos by <a href=\"http://data.linz.govt.nz/\">LINZ</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/\">CC-BY</a>"} Hope someone finds this helpful!

You might want to have a look at Handicaching.com. This is a site that tries to help make geocaching more accessible to disabled people. It allows you to give caches your own difficulty and terrain ratings, as well as rating them for distance, terrain, slope, obstructions and hide height. When several people have rated a cache, it will show average values. You can also leave general comments about the accessibility of each cache. If this is the sort of thing you were looking for, and you are using Firefox or another browser with userscript support, you might also find the Handicaching userscript I wrote helpful. It displays Handicaching ratings on caches' listing pages with a link to make it easier to rate them. I don't think that Groundspeak would be too keen to put this functionality on the main website as (as the previous posts show), different people can have very different perceptions of the difficulty of a cache, depending on their capabilities.

Try manually resetting the script's configuration. Instructions here: http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme_trouble.htm#resetconfig