jri
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Posts posted by jri
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... I don't know whether the following counts as an (un)interesting feature, a possible enhancement, or something that we just have to live with. Whenever I do a periodic spring clean of Chrome (deleting cache, cookies, history, etc) - often at the behest of some "help desk" trying to get something else to work - I find I lose my custom map sources. <snip> ... if there's some way to protect the map sources from inadvertent deletion that'd be really helpful.
Unfortunately, the only way to really protect settings would be to have them stored on a server somewhere, which would mean you needed a log-in to GME, as well as your log-in to GC.com. My web hosting service doesn't have the facilities for this. Another alternative would be to store settings in a local file, but for security reasons it's not a good idea to let scripts access your files! Instead GME stores its settings in something called "browser localStorage". This is permanent in the sense that it isn't deleted when you close your browser, but it does get deleted if you wipe your browser profile or clear out cookies. I think this is actually desirable - you need some way of cleaning things out if the settings get corrupted, or for privacy.
GME does have a feature to export map settings, so that you can back them up or share them. Before deleting cookies, go to the "Manage Maps" tab in GME's configuration screen, and click the "Export custom maps" button. A pop-up window will appear containing the JSON code for all your custom maps. Copy and paste this into Notepad or similar. Once you've finished your profile cleaning, go back to the "Manage Maps" tab, paste all the JSON code into the "Mapsource" field, and click "Add" then "Save". This should add back all the maps at once.
If you're proficient with Javascript, you can also use your browser's console to copy GME's settings directly using the variable localStorage.GME_parameters - but don't try this if you don't know what you're doing: it's easy to foul it up if you don't escape the quote marks properly!
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I have to apologise that it's been a little while since I posted here, but these days it is hard to find the time to work on GME. I am neither a professional programmer, nor your average skript kiddy. I have a young family, full time job and several voluntary commitments competing for my time, and in the last year I've started studying for a part time Masters degree. Occasionally I like to find time for the odd geocache too!
That said, I do intend to keep GME alive, and hopefully by now you should have seen the v0.7.3.1 update. If it hasn't automatically updated in your browser, you get install it from openuserjs.org/scripts/JRI/Geocaching_Map_Enhancements
The new version is supposed to fix the following:
- GME not working on cache pages.
- Search by GC-code not working on the main map
- Sidebar hiding GME icons.
The first two bugs were caused by Groundspeak changing their page structure in a way that stopped GME detecting if a user was logged in. Groundspeak also switched to using secure https connections for cache pages around the same time, but that was actually helpful - it means that you will now see the same selection of custom maps in most areas of the site, without having to enter their configuration twice.
I have also been updating some of the documentation for GME. This is still a work in progress, but in particular, I have refreshed the list of custom map sources and overlays at geo.inge.org.uk/gme_maps.htm This now includes the details for getting OS maps from Bing. There are also updated details for various map sources which had broken, including MapQuest aerial photos, the NBN Nature Reserve and National Trust site overlays, Hill Shading, and the US TIGER transportation overlay.
In the long term, I want to get free OS maps working, supplied by the Ordnance Survey rather than Bing. However, the OS maps come in a different projection than the other maps used on the site, which means that they can't be directly overlayed. Although the Leaflet mapping engine used by GME can handle different projections, it can't cope with more than one at the same time. To get around this, I need to come up with a way of displaying the OS maps under the other maps; panning, zooming and rotating them so they align; and then keeping everything synchronised. This would also allow GME to show maps from the Swedish Lantmäteriet and other national mapping agencies who use their own projections. At the moment though, I just haven't got the time.
If you do think of new features for GME, do let me know - but bear in mind that I'm only likely to implement ones that are either very quick, or very interesting! Similarly, if you find bugs, please tell me about them, but try to give me enough detail to track down the issue. "It doesn't work" doesn't help. You can assume that unless it's something that Groundspeak have just changed, for the vast majority of the time the script will be working for me. I need to know more about what setup you are using, and what you think is going wrong, so I have a chance of figuring out a solution. There are some hints for troubleshooting and reporting bugs are here: geo.inge.org.uk/gme_trouble.htm
Behind the scenes, I am also working on making automated tests for GME, to help me figure out what's happening quicker when the script breaks. This work and any other changes that aren't yet ready for release will be in a github development branch.
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I'm having the same issue as MartyBartfast .... OS Maps are no longer viewing correctly. The tiles don't load up properly, and as you zoom down they are reverting to a different map type. It started last night for me at around 10pm UK time.
Me too with no OS maps - using Opera 12.
I imagine there's a change that Bing has made somewhere which makes the links created to them not work. Jri is usually pretty good about sniffing this sort of thing out.
It looks like Bing have changed their system such that it now requires an API key in order to access the OS maps. While the problem may fix itself (it happened once before!), it looks like I may have to change the way that GME uses Bing as a map source, or switch to getting the maps directly from the OS themselves.
This will take me a while to research, and due to personal reasons, I'm not going to be able to do it in the next few weeks. Because of the way that GME and the rest of Geocaching.com work, neither option is especially easy technically. On the one hand I would have to build in a fair bit of access control code, on the other, figure out how to deal with the fact that the National Grid is skewed and stretched compared to most other web mapping.
In the meantime, I'm going to update the script to disable the OS map source. Until I've figured out a workaround, OpenStreetMaps is probably the best map source in a lot of the UK now - and you can always help them improve the coverage!
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If we implemented a robust system for interacting with your friends on web or mobile, what features would you like or expect to see?
Don't try to emulate Facebook, LinkedIn, or the other big social networks. You will fail. I volunteer for a large organisation (150,000+ paying members in 127 countries) that has tried to turn their website into a social networking platform, and it has been a waste of money, a turn-off for members, and an embarrassment for the volunteers. The established social networks have the resources to do it much better than anyone else, and everyone who Geocaches and is interested in this type of interaction will already have accounts with them. Many geocachers will either not be interested in social networks, or will want to keep their Geocaching activities separate.
Ability to follow a cache placer and be alerted of new caches they hide
I'd like this feature, but wouldn't necessarily want these cachers to be my "friends". They wouldn't necessarily be the same set of people I would interact with regularly.
Ability to detect and add friends from other social media accounts
No. I don't want this. I prefer to keep my circles of friends separate.
See nearby friends on the map
No. I don't want to be tracked, and my friends won't want to be spied on.
Get alerts or newsfeed content when your friends find caches or Trackables
I can see the merit in this, but wouldn't use it much. It would be OK if it was an on-demand feature where I could visit a page to see my friend's recent logs, but would be intensely annoying if the content was forced onto my profile page, or if I got an email alert every time my friends moved.
See which of your friends have found a cache or Trackable
It would be nice if logs on a cache/trackable page could be filtered to show just Friends' logs, or if Friends' logs could be shown at the top of the list or highlighted in some way. As above, I'm not interested in any alerts beyond the current Watchlist feature.
Friends leaderboards
No. I'm not competing with anyone.
Collaborate on lists with friends
I wouldn't use this myself, but can see it might appeal to many.
Compete against friends for an achievement
No interest.
Compare your stats with friends
I can already do as much as this as I like via profiles.
In general, I'm against competition on Geocaching.com. I've nothing against people setting up side-games amongst their mates, but I wouldn't want it to be part of the platform. One reason is that people's ability to find caches varies enormously depending on where they live, their ability to travel, and the amount of time they have free. I wouldn't want to restrict my geocaching friends to "people like me", but a competition over a cross-section of my friends wouldn't be fair. If your stats pages always show that you're being beaten by someone who has more time to go caching than you, it's going to be a fairly disheartening experience.
One social feature that might be interesting would be a "Like" or "Vote up" button for log entries, with an accompanying statistic that would indicate how well received a cacher's logs were (whether humerous, helpful, etc.). This might help improve the quality of the site's content, by getting more people to take pride in their logs. You could take it further and add a "vote down" button. That seems to work well on StackOverflow and its sister sites, but they do have a complicated privilege system to avoid misuse.
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Is it possible to import a GPX file route to overlay over the GME map enhancement OS map
Sorry for very the delayed response - only just noticed your post!
Yes, it should be possible. Drag and drop the GPX file from your desktop onto the map. This should work with the maps on the cache listings and trackables pages, as well as the main Geocaching Map.
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I've been geocaching since 2005 and cache in a variety of urban and rural locations. I am based in the UK, but also enjoy caching in other countries when I travel. I find that I am interested in different features from the map when I am in different locations. For rural caching, I want a map that shows terrain type and gradient, and satellite photos that show trails and natural landmarks. For urban features, I want to know about street names, transport links, and traffic. Wherever I am, I want to see maps that show a good level of detail in my locality, not just in the USA.
I developed the Geocaching Map Enhancements greasemonkey script, so obviously I think that all its features are sufficiently worthwhile to spend the effort coding. However, I understand that there are various reasons why they are not all for everyone, or not suitable for rollout on the main website. That said, I see there are a number of requests for similar features in this thread.
I use the Maps page as my main landing page for Geocaching.com. In fact, other than my Profile page and the cache listings themselves, I don't often view much of the rest of the website. However, I tend only to use the Maps page on a laptop computer, or at least a tablet. On smaller mobile devices, apps do a far better job.
Basic Features
- Map layer selection - absolutely essential.
- Search box - I use this a lot. I think there is a lot of potential to make it much more useful, e.g. by allowing you to pan to the location of a cache by GC code. In GME I use the box as a command line interface, e.g. to allow markers to be dropped at precise, typed coordinates. It would also be handy to return multiple results, not just the first one out of the geocoder. The sidebar would be a convenient place to display these.
- Share link - While I'm aware of this, I've never used it to share a link. It duplicates what you can do by cutting and pasting the browser URL. Although having a shortened URL is nice, I think some people may get confused that it gives a different URL to the browser. At the moment, this is a waste of space in the sidebar. If you keep it, I would turn it into a small link icon, with a popup to let you cut and paste the short link.
- Cache details - Most of this is useful. However, I never use the Send to GPS function, as I use a smartphone for caching. I would have more use for a GPX link, or a QR code that would let me open the cache in my preferred mobile app.
Premium Features
Although I'm currently a Premium Member, I don't use PM features much. I do use PQs from time to time, but (apart from My Finds) never normally download them. I do find previewing them on the map more helpful though. The cache type filters are useful, but there's probably a way of displaying them that takes up less space.
The "Set Map Preferences" button takes up far too much space for something that most people will only ever use once or twice.
Google Maps used to be my preferred streetmap, but OpenStreetMaps are now generally much better, at least where I have used them in the UK and Europe. The Google Satellite view is useful and far preferable to the MapQuest Aerial photos, which have no detailed coverage in my part of the world.
Community requests
+1 for showing DNFs. I think that this would encourage more people to log DNFs, giving more feedback to COs and helping improve the quality of the game.
+1 for showing corrected coordinates. Planning a trip to visit some puzzle caches is very hard without this feature unless you have an app or addon script.
Selecting caches in a polygon would be neat, even if it was just a rectangle. However, you would have to decide how to deal with corrected coordinates. In a similar vein, being able to draw a route on the main map and use if for the Caches along a Route feature would be handy. GME goes some way towards doing this, but much more could be made of a route planning feature built into the main website.
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It looks like there have been a few changes to Geocaching.com recently. A couple that have affected GME are the removal of the old Hide & Seek a Cache page, and the disappearance of the My Profile menu.
I'm going to put the link to GME's configuration screen into the top-right "V" pulldown menu, but I've not yet decided whether to replace and of GME's search functions from the Hide & Seek page, and if so, how to build them in to the new website. The main GME additions were to let you search by OS grid reference, by keyword (via Google) or near your current location. The new search page gives you similar functions to the last two anyway. Did anyone search by grid ref from that page? (It will still work from the search box on the Maps page).
Please let me know if you've got any thoughts about these features, or if you spot anything else that's been broken by the changes.
For anyone really keen, my latest development efforts can be seen on Github. Otherwise, once I've tested a proper update, it will come out on OpenUserJS.org at https://openuserjs.org/scripts/JRI/Geocaching_Map_Enhancements
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I've never used the website with an iPad, but I do use it with an Android tablet occasionally, and have played around with the coding behind it to get my Geocaching Map Enhancements script working.
One thing I've learnt is that displaying the cache information on the map is a two-stage process. When you view the map on a desktop browser, to start with the website doesn't send any information to your browser about where the caches are or what they're called. As you move your mouse over each tile of the map, you get sent information about the caches in that map tile. This is why if you've got a slow network or the server is overloaded, there is often a delay between you moving the mouse over a cache icon and your cursor changing shape to show that there's something you can click on.
What that can mean for a tablet can be that you need to tap on a cache to get the information loading, wait a second, then tap again to get the popup to display. It does vary a bit between browsers though, as it depends how they translate between touchscreen and mouse events.
The other typical problem with using the website on a tablet is the "big finger, small map" syndrome. Sometimes you have to be pretty accurate in your poking to make it work.
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It should still be working, or at least it is for me.
OK, just me then.
Nope - looks like I see the same as you when I'm using Chrome too.
if you hover the mouse over the tab while you're dragging, the tab will open and you can move the mouse over the map.
That's the bit that isn't working. I drag the "?" onto the map tab, and nothing happens, the tab doesn't open, so all I can do is drop the "?" onto the tab - which of course doesn't work.
It looks like it's an issue with Chrome (but not one that anyone's taking much interest in). As a workaround, open the map page and cache pages as separate Chrome windows (rather than tabs). Or if they're already open as tabs, you can move a tab into a new window by dragging it down a little way and letting it go. Then you can drag the cache icon from the listing in one window to the map in the other. In Windows at least, you can still do this even if the window with the map is covered over: drag the icon over the task bar / ribbon and hover it over the icon for Chrome (don't drop yet). The other window should then surface and you can drop the icon onto the map. I'm not sure if that also works in Chrome on the Mac or Linux.
PS This feature doesn't just work for puzzles. It should work for corrected coordinates on multis, and for any cache that has waypoints listed.
[Edited for wine-induced typos]
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I'm pretty sure that when you have the maps page (with GME enabled) open in one tab, and a cache page containing corrected coords open in another tab, you used to be able to show the corrected location on the main map by dragging the "?" symbol next to the cache name onto the maps tab. Doesn't seem to work now, you just end up downloading a file. Is something broken, or am I mis-remembering how it used to work ?
It should still be working, or at least it is for me. Just to check, you have to drag the cache icon onto the actual map itself, not just the browser tab. In most browsers, if you hover the mouse over the tab while you're dragging, the tab will open and you can move the mouse over the map. Some browsers also ask if you want to "upload the file to geocaching.com" before displaying what you've dragged across (say yes - nothing actually gets uploaded).
If that doesn't work, let me know the GC code of the cache that's causing problems, and the version numbers of your web browser and Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey.
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I love GME , it and GSAK are perfect examples of knowledgeable people using their skills and interacting efficiently with their community of users , thank you jri. The frog would do well to take lessons from you ...
Gee thanks!Shmooze over
, this is not a moan, but a heads up in case other folk have the same issue as me : I use(d) Mozilla , and GME failed for me after an update to v 2.33 yesterday : I traced the problem to the mysterious disappearance of the greasemonkey script which it seems is not compatible with the update.So I'm now a firefox user ... at least until (and if) greasemonkey catches up.
Thanks for reporting this, but I'm not sure that I understand the problem. Am I right in thinking that you were using the Mozilla Seamonkey browser, and upgrading it to v2.33 broke Greasemonkey? Or does Greasemonkey still work OK, but GME no longer works for you? Can you check which Greasemonkey version you've got?
I am currently using Firefox v36.0.1 with Greasemonkey v3.0, and GME is working for me. I know Seamonkey 2.33 is built on the same version of the Gecko engine as my Firefox, but I don't have Seamonkey installed for testing and I'm not sure how similar the two browsers really are. I know Firefox is going through some pretty major under-the-hood changes and Greasemonkey has been updated to match (hence the v3 release last week) - this may have inadvertently broken it for Seamonkey.
If you're still on Greasemonkey v2.3 and it's not working, try upgrading to v3. If you've already got it,you might be able to downgrade to v2.3, or upgrade to the beta of v3.1. The different versions are all at https://addons.mozil...onkey/versions/
If the problem does seem to be a compatibility issue between Greasemonkey and Seamonkey, it might be worth reporting it on the Greasemonkey support site: http://www.greasespot.net/
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The route tool is great but I'm not sure of the best way to use it with Basecamp.
I am saving it as a GPX file but it won't import into Basecamp I get an "unknow error opening import file"
I have found that I can use gpsvisualizer.com to convert the file which will then import into basecamp. However, there is no altitude data so I can't see a profile graph of the route.
Does anyone have any tips on the best way to use the Route Tool / GPX file with Garmin Basecamp.
I'll try to put a fix for this bug in the next version of GME. As a workaround, you should be able to make the exported route work in Basecamp if you open it in a text editor and delete the <name>, <desc>, <author>, and <time> lines from near the top of the file.
However, this won't necessarily help you see an altitude profile of the route, as the file exported from GME doesn't have any altitude information in it in the first place. You will need to import the GPX into an application that can look up the height data online. GME can look up spot heights, but it isn't practical to extend it to try to get elevation along a route.
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Just noticed that the hillshading is no longer ... well shading the hills. Not sure how long this has been the case.
Firefox user, fully up to date.
Running 0.7.1 version.
Happy New Year, and sorry for the slow response - it's been a busy holiday. The Hillshading overlay stopped working because the server it was hosted on shut down. Luckily, it's moved to a new one (more details at https://wiki.openstr...ke_%26_Bike_Map).
GME v0.7.2, which was released on 30 Dec, included the new tileUrl to make Hillshading work again. However, the new details don't take effect unless you reset GME to its default settings (this is to stop it automatically overwriting people's settings when they're not expecting). If you are using any custom map sources, you might want to take a copy of their details. You can do this from the GME configuration screen. Go to the Geocaching Maps page, click the GME gear icon, then click the 'Manage maps' tab. Clicking the 'Export custom maps' button will give you the JSON codes for all your maps - copy and paste this into Notepad to save it for later use. You can then use the 'Defaults' button at the bottom of the configuration screen to reset GME.
Alternatively, if you don't want to reset everything, you can use the 'Manage maps' tab to delete your current Hillshading settings (click the checkbox against Hillshading in the 'Remove map sources' section, then click 'Save'), then paste the code below in as a new map source:
{"alt":"Hillshading","tileUrl":"http://{s}.tiles.wmflabs.org/hillshading/{z}/{x}/{y}.png","subdomains":"abc","attribution":"Hillshading by <a\t href='https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Hike_%26_Bike_Map'>Colin Marquardt</a> from NASA SRTM data","overlay":true} -
Another potential source of errors is the difference between Ordnance Survey (OSGB 36 or National Grid) and GPS (WGS84) coordinates. MAGIC uses Ordnance Survey, while Geocaching.com uses WGS84, and same lat/lon coordinates can refer to points over 100m away from each other, depending on which system you are using. To get an accurate distance between two points, you need to make sure that the measurements from each location have used the same datum. See http://en.wikipedia....B_36_and_WGS_84 for more details.
The Geocaching Map Enhancements userscript has a feature that lets you measure distances between points on the Geocaching.com map page, which you may find helpful (it can also be used to measure out routes). There is more information about GME at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm
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I use the OS NPE maps quite regularly, but for some reason the maps won't load anymore? I'm using this code:
{"alt":"OS NPE","tileUrl":"http://ooc.openstreetmap.org/npe/{z}/{x}/{y}.png", "minZoom":6, "maxZoom": 15, "attribution": "OpenStreetMap NPE" }but it just comes back with grey tiles - Does anyone know why?
I'm afraid I don't know why. The OpenStreetMap.org NPE wiki page is still up, but the OSM out-of-copyright server seems to be giving "Access forbidden" messages for everything. This doesn't seem to be a GME-specific problem, as their "view online" page isn't working either for NPE.If you just want to browse the old maps though, rather than use them in GME, you can see them at http://www.npemap.org.uk/
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Good prep helps before painting. I lightly sand my plastic containers, dust off well and the paint sticks.
+1 for prepping. Also matching the paint type to the container material really helps.
I've personally not had much luck with finding paint that sticks directly to plastic for any length of time outdoors, but have had more success covering containers with a fabric-based camo tape, and then painting that a different colour. The (woodland coloured) camo tape sticks well (sorry, I got it at an event and don't know the original supplier), but isn't always the colouring I want. Also it tends to rot away after a while. Painting it seems to be a happy compromise to get the colour I want, give the paint something it can stick to, and protect the tape from rotting.
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Almost anything is more waterproof than a film canister. Others will comment on specifics, but there is another possibility. If the container is not perfect, it can still be okay if it is in a totally sheltered location.
It's worth pointing out that there are film cannisters and film cannisters. The type pictured below with a recessed lid that sits inside the top of the cannister tend to be a lot more waterproof than the type with a flat lid that wraps around the outside of the container.
I've also found that O-rings on containers generally seem to perish after a relatively short while, while the seals on lock'n'lock boxes seem to last longer. Small boxes seem less prone than large ones to sucking in water around their seals when the weather gets colder; larger boxes are also more prone to getting cracked when people pile rocks and logs on top of them.
Given how difficult it is to get truly waterproof containers, my advice is to try to choose a hiding place with the right combination of shelter and drainage to ensure that the cache doesn't get exposed to the damp for any long period of time.
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Nope, after 8 years, I still don't find the site intuitive to navigate. Being a geek, I don't even bookmark the pages, and just type "/my" or "/map" into the address bar of my browser. It's auto-suggest function knows I mean Geocaching.com and takes me to either my profile or the maps, as my two main landing pages.
Well then you're a stubborn geek who prefers lengthy typing over mouse clicks
Two clicks from the bookmark menu to any page - or click, typetypetypeypteenter. Being a geek who can use one hand with the keyboard and one on the mouse, I'll use bookmarks for efficiency! 
#geekpreferences
Hehe. As I touch-type with both hands, even relatively lengthy typing can be far faster than moving my hand to the mouse / mousepad and doing all that business of waving the pointer around to the right place. Just goes to show everyone has their own preferences, and one size does not fit all for user experience.
I generally cache using a mobile phone (I started out using a PDA with a bluetooth GPS "mouse", and have never owned a "proper" GPSr), so I would love the site to be more mobile-friendly. But I always type my logs on my laptop using a proper size keyboard, and I would hate to be forced to use a mobile-centric website on a full-sized computer.
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I'm having trouble with the route tool - I thought I'd be able to trace a route on the map to pass close to a selection of caches I want to visit, export it, rename it to something.gpx (Chrome automatically saves it as "download"), then import the route back into geocaching to allow me to do a PQ for caches within a couple of hundred metres of the route.
Works fine until the point where I try to upload the .gpx to the website, when I get a 500: Server Error.
Copy of the .gpx file available for inspection at www.zeusfaber.org.uk/toystoryroute.gpx. It has about 15 waypoints and is only a few miles long.
Am I doing something obviously wrong?
You're not doing anything wrong, just something I'd never tried before! It looks like the .GPX file produced by GME isn't formatted quite right for the website to accept. Try opening your exported GPX file in Notepad or another text editor, and changing the second line to the following:
<gpx creator="Geocaching Map Enhancements v0.7.1.1" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" version="1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1">
I will include a fix for this in the next update to GME.
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I've found a bug where the website tries to load the New Log page over a secure HTTPS connection, but the integrity of the page is compromised by loading an image over HTTP (the icon showing the cache type). Mixing HTTPS (secure) and HTTP (insecure) content on the same web page is generally regarded as a bad thing in security terms.
As a more general issue, it is inconsistent that some parts of the website (notably the Maps page) will only load via a secure HTTPS link, while some only load over insecure HTTP (cache listings), but others happily load using either. The New Log page loads via HTTP if you click the "Log your visit" link on a cache listing, but HTTPS if you go directly from a popup on the Maps page. It's debatable whether anything other than account or payment details really needs to be sent securely, since most other things on the site are posted publicly anyway (cache submission forms, which could contain "secret" information, don't seem to be sent securely at the moment).
Keeping the whole site (less account info) on HTTP would reduce the burden on servers (no need for processing encryption). Making the whole site HTTPS might please some of the privacy advocates. The way it is at the moment is just confusing, because you're never entirely sure whether a page is supposed to be secure or not, and whether your browser's mixed content warning or insecure connection icon is something you should worry about.
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Nope, after 8 years, I still don't find the site intuitive to navigate. Being a geek, I don't even bookmark the pages, and just type "/my" or "/map" into the address bar of my browser. It's auto-suggest function knows I mean Geocaching.com and takes me to either my profile or the maps, as my two main landing pages. I virtually never use the main geocaching.com/ landing page, and find it a slightly bewildering experience when I do occasionally arrive there. This approach does however mean that I can go months or years without noticing features, until I discover them in the forums!
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It's taken a while, but I've finally got round to another update to the Geocaching Map Enhancements script. If your system doesn't update automatically, you can get GME v0.7.1 from OpenUserJS.org, with full documentation at geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm.
On the face of it, you shouldn't notice much difference. Here are the main changes:
- I've GME-enabled all the planning maps used during the cache-hiding process.
- The bug that stopped GME working in Chrome v38 on the Mac should now be fixed.
- Pages should be more secure. Where possible, GME now uses HTTPS to request images (including the default list of maps), to avoid mixed (insecure) content on secure pages and reduce the amount of warning messages you see. You will not notice an effect unless you restore GME to its default settings, but with the new map URLs, you should keep a secure connection for longer. That said, not all of Geocaching.com is served securely, and some GME functions rely on insecure (non-HTTPS) servers (e.g. Geograph and Panoramio). Other userscripts may also cause the connection to become insecure by fetching images or data from insecure servers.
- Tidying up and improving the code. This is ongoing work to make the script more robust, and hopefully avoid future bugs. If you're interested in the detail of what goes on under the hood, I am going to start using Github to keep track of the source code.
Still to do:
- Find a way of sharing configuration between the HTTP and HTTPS parts of Geocaching.com.
- Fix the issue of maps not scrolling (is this still a problem for anyone?)
As ever, I haven't had the time to do as much testing as I might like, and I don't have access to the full range of web browsers and computers that people use to run GME. If you find problems with the new version, first look at the Troubleshooting Tips, then please let me know as much detail as possible about your set-up, what you are trying to do, and what is going wrong. Just saying "it doesn't work" doesn't help!
Finally, it looks like GME is about to become the second most popular script on OpenUserJS.org, and the highest ranked without any rating!
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One thing I did notice (having installed the new add-on and removed the old html) is that now anyone else who looks at my profile page doesn't see my Church Micro stats as they would have done before - unless they've installed the add on too - which not very many people have. I suppose that feels like a bit of a step backwards.
I had to remove the old html as it would otherwise have meant having it on my profile twice when I looked at it - which looked odd. Is there anything you can do about this?
This should be addressed in CMS v0.0.6 onwards. Newer versions of the script should only add a page to users' profile pages if it wasn't there already. If it was there, it will stay in the position that the page owner put it in their HTML.
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The Church Micro stat image on the individual cache listing page isn't working correctly if the cache has been set by someone with a space in their geocaching name, the image shows the name with the space replaced with a plus sign, followed by the message "hasn't got any Church Micro finds in the database yet."
I've made a little tweak to the script and uploaded a new version (v0.0.7) to https://openuserjs.org/users/JRI/scripts
Hopefully this should fix the problem with names with spaces in them. It ought to work for geocaching names with other special symbols too, but I haven't managed to find too many to test on yet.
Gee thanks!
, this is not a moan, but a heads up in case other folk have the same issue as me : I use(d) Mozilla , and GME failed for me after an update to v 2.33 yesterday : I traced the problem to the mysterious disappearance of the greasemonkey script which it seems is not compatible with the update.
Two clicks from the bookmark menu to any page - or click, typetypetypeypteenter. Being a geek who can use one hand with the keyboard and one on the mouse, I'll use bookmarks for efficiency! 
Geocaching Map Enhancements
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
GME does this already! On the main map page, type a "p" in the search box, followed by a space and some lat/lon coordinates. Click the magnifying glass button and it should plot a small marker at that point. Various coordinate formats should work. I must get round to documenting this at some point...
Also, on the cache page for a puzzle or multi-cache, you'll notice a little pencil symbol next to the coordinates. You can click this to correct the coordinates to match the final location of the puzzle (this is a standard website feature). If you do this, then GME will show the the coordinates on the little map on the cache page, with a green tick mark next to the cache symbol and a blue line going back to the original location. If you click the "View larger map" link, then you should see the same (plus any waypoints) on the main map page.
If a cache has corrected coordinates or waypoints, you can also display them on other maps by dragging the cache icon from next to the title of a cache listing page, and dropping it onto a GME-enabled map. You can use this to show the correct locations of several completed puzzles on the same map at the same time.