jri
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Posts posted by jri
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I'm looking for a decent Geocaching App that'll connect to the Pebble watch. Apparently it's really easy to do. Hopefully the official Geocaching iOS app includes this ASAP.
But ANY app would be better than no app.
In case you've been in a cave for 8 months... www.getpebble.com
My Pebble arrived last week, so I'm pondering the possibilities of geocaching apps. It was one of the applications the Pebble folk mentioned early on, but I've not spotted anything since. However, I'm vaguely thinking about writing my own app. What would you see a Pebble geocaching app actually doing?
My first thought would be a really simple app that ran on the phone and sent out a notification to the Pebble when you went within a certain distance of a waypoint. You'd then get out your GPSr/Smartphone for the business of reading the cache description and doing the actual navigation. A more complicated version would send extra details to the Pebble (name, hint, range, bearing, etc), and might keep it updated as you got closer.
But what information is actually useful to have on your wrist? How would you navigate it? Remember that the Pebble has a small display and only a few buttons, and you're already carrying a GPSr/Smartphone with you. From what I gather (I haven't read the specs yet), I think that you would also have to actually be running the app on the Pebble (rather than a watch face) in order to do anything other than receive alerts.
PS the possibility of me actually writing this app is distinctly hypothetical. I've not got much time to put towards it and I've never written an Android app before. And don't even get any ideas about iOS!
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Right. I think I have cracked it.
I've uploaded Geocaching Map Enhancements v0.6.5 to userscripts.org
The new version should fix the problems that were caused when Groundspeak made the 17th April update to Geocaching.com. OS maps should work again, and the configuration system has been totally re-vamped. It should now look better, and can also be accessed via a link on the Profile menu from most pages on the site.
The upside of Groundspeak's upgrade to a more recent version Leaflet Maps is that I've been able to make various other under-the-hood improvements to the script code, and remove some of the bug-fixes and workarounds that were there before. That said, I've not done too much testing (none on Internet Explorer), so do let me know if you come across bugs.
With this update, there should be no need for any awkward manual editing of scripts. I've also disabled the link to the work-in-progress version - just go for the new official version on userscripts.org. As always, the full feature list, installation instructions, change log, etc. is available at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm
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Had the same problem myself a couple of days ago. Solution here
Er, no, sorry, don't think that's it. That allows you to install the version published on the Userscripts page, which seems to be 0.6.4, and requires manual editting to get the OS maps back. I've already done that. What I'm after is jri's work-in-progress version, which ought to be accessible via his link, but in Chrome that link just produces the "Can't install scripts from here" warning.
Nope, he's right! Those instructions should work. You just need to follow them using the link in my post in place of the install link on userscripts.org
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Just updated the work-in-progress version at http://geo.inge.org.uk/GeocachingMapEnhancements.user.js
The configuration functions should now (mostly) be working, but still don't quite look right...
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I have edited the script on GME and have saved it on my lap top. How do i install the edited file please?
In most browsers you need to save the new script over the old one (wherever that is). That depends on what browser you are using, and possibly also what operating system and plugins you have got. In Chrome, you need to re-install the script file, if you had previously installed it as an extension rather than using a script manager.
It's much easier just to install my work-in-progress version of GME using the link and instructions in my post from the 22nd. Plus more of the script will be working!
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I have a minor problem that I hope someone can help me with.
I like to save my track and then use the facility in GME to drag it onto the map and see where I've been.
However it seems that all GPX tracks aren't created equal. The track from EasyGPS or Gartrip (my old favourite) don't work when dragged to the map. Nothing happens.
If I open and re-save in another program (a track editor) it works fine. I tried using GPSBabel to convert GPX to GPX but no joy there either.
Can anybody explain please?
If you send me a copy of one of your (short!) tracks, I can have a look to see what the problem is. You can message me through my geocaching profile - open the GPX file in Notepad or a similar text editor, and cut'n'paste the contents into the message. If it's a fairly simple problem, I might be able to fix it in the next version of GME.
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I've had a chance to get a better look at the changes Groundspeak made to the site on Tuesday night, and started fixing GME to work around them. I've come across three main changes so far:
- Updating the Leaflet API version. This broke display of certain types of map, including the OS maps, but will hopefully be better once I've got the script working with it properly.
- Changing the UTFGrid handling code. This is the bit that tells the browser when the mouse is hovering over a geocache icon. Changing it broke cache labelling.
- Removing the JQuery MobileUI library. This library handles the user interface for the config screens. I'm not sure why it was there in the first place (it didn't seem to be used by the website), but taking it away has caused lots of formatting problems for GME.
I think I've fixed the first two problems, and if you want to test my code, you can install a temporary version from this link: http://geo.inge.org....cements.user.js
NB. I've not done much testing on this, so it may be full of hideous bugs. In particular, the configuration screen won't be working, and there will be various other formatting issues.
I've updated the test version at the link above. The config menu still doesn't work, but it looks better than last night's effort!
Unfortunately I've not got much time for programming at the moment, so I'm concentrating on fixing the script rather than replying to the messages here. It's great to see all the votes of thanks for the though, and the effort people are putting it in to helping each other get it working. We'll make programmers of you yet! However, now that I've got a partially working version, if you can't wait for a full update, my advice is not to edit the script yourself, but to install the latest temporary script from the link above. You should follow the installation instructions at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm but use the link above instead of the install button on the userscripts.org page.
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I've had a chance to get a better look at the changes Groundspeak made to the site on Tuesday night, and started fixing GME to work around them. I've come across three main changes so far:
- Updating the Leaflet API version. This broke display of certain types of map, including the OS maps, but will hopefully be better once I've got the script working with it properly.
- Changing the UTFGrid handling code. This is the bit that tells the browser when the mouse is hovering over a geocache icon. Changing it broke cache labelling.
- Removing the JQuery MobileUI library. This library handles the user interface for the config screens. I'm not sure why it was there in the first place (it didn't seem to be used by the website), but taking it away has caused lots of formatting problems for GME.
I think I've fixed the first two problems, and if you want to test my code, you can install a temporary version from this link: http://geo.inge.org....cements.user.js
NB. I've not done much testing on this, so it may be full of hideous bugs. In particular, the configuration screen won't be working, and there will be various other formatting issues.
I'm also pondering whether there's an easy way for GME to give you access to all the new map types that are now available. That said, they're mainly just re-renderings of OpenStreetMap data, and not all of them work in the UK anyway...
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its been a while since i have used the script so forgive me if im going over old groundbut didnt there used to be a button on a previous version that allowed your to compile a cache list from what is currently on view on the full map screen?
It's now on the i menu so that you can aim the search a bit better. Click the i icon, then click the point to centre your search on. Choose 'List caches' from the menu that pops up, and you'll get a list of the closest caches.
The script should also have a way to label and list the caches on the map, but it's currently broken.
You can see the full feature list at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm
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Yup, Groundspeaks update to the website last night broke GME again.
On the main maps page, they have upgraded from v4 to v5.1 of the Leaflet Maps API, which has stopped OS maps (and other maps that use quadkeys) from working. They still work on cache listing pages (as those pages already use Leaflet v5.0). The fact that Groundspeak use different software versions on different parts of the site is one of the things that make writing scripts such a joy (and one reason the website is slower than it could be).
Updating the script for the new API will be easy. In fact, if you know how to edit scripts yourself, search for the function
extendLeaflet()
then change the line
if( L.version >= 0.5 ) {\to
if( true ) {\and the maps should start working again.
Unfortunately, it looks like there are also some changes to the layout or page structure which are breaking the sidebar menus and config screen. I'm away from home at the moment and can't do any debugging on the computer I have with me, so I'm not going to be able to post an updated script until sometime next week.
In the meantime, if you spot any more problems that haven't already been mentioned here, let me know and I'll try to include them in the fix.
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when u drop a marker maybe have a small dot in the middle to show the center
That's a good idea. I'll keep it in mind for the next version.
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downloaded and installed nice add on
has it got or can u do a add on like on c:geo where u can show circles around each cache i only ask as looking to place some new caches and wanted to see how close i can get to ones close by ?Click the i icon, then click on the map where you want to centre the circle, and choose 'Drop marker' from the menu. The default radius is 0.1 miles, the minimum cache separation distance.
There isn't an option to put a circle around every cache at the same time as I would prefer it if people found a good location for a cache, then checked that they could place something there, rather than placing caches in mediocre locations because they fill gaps in the saturation map. Also, you still have the problem of avoiding the physical stages of multicaches and final locations of puzzles. These don't show up on the map, but will get flagged up during cache submission.
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I have installed the map enhancements successfully on my laptop and on friend's computers. However I have also installed it on my netbook with Windows 7 starter edition using Chrome. I followed the procedure exactly as on the others but the leaflets icon only appears for a split second then disappears so I cannot select Ordnance Survey.
Any ideas please?
Do you mean that when you hover the mouse over the map selector icon, the list of maps appears briefly then disappears before you can click on the one you want? That sometimes happens if there are cache icons in the area under the popup menu. There's not too much you can do, other than moving the mouse carefully, or panning the map to a less crowded area. However, you might work around it by using the GME config screen to set OS maps as your default, so it loads automatically. Click on the GME gear icon, then click 'Choose Maps to List' from the config dialog.
If you mean that the map selector icon at the top-right of the map and/or the GME icons at the bottom-left just vanish, then it sounds like the script isn't loading properly. That could be caused by over-enthusiastic security software, or a clash with a different extension. If you are using Tampermonkey, you should be able to change the order in which your userscripts load.
If that doesn't give you an obvious solution, it might be a bug in the script or a problem caused by something changing on the website. Try reloading the Maps page, then open the Chrome console (press Ctrl-Shift-J) and see if there are any error messages. You should normally see 5 errors and warnings about viewport arguments, and four messages about scripts being inserted.
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The download link does not work it only shows the script.
Which web browser do you use?
You could get that problem if you are using Firefox but haven't got Greasemonkey installed (or accidentally disabled it), or if you are using a browser like Opera that needs the script to be saved somewhere specific.
The installation section of the documentation may well help - see http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm
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Thank you very much for all your hard work! It certainly makes it easier for me as I now rarely bother to export caches to Memory Map, especially since the cache names are now displayed. I have managed to set my preferences but I cannot find how to draw a route on the map. Where is Measure Route please?
On the main map page, click on the GME 'i' icon, then click on the map where you want to start your route. Choose 'Measure Route' from the pop-up menu, and a marker will appear. Click again and choose 'Extend' to add more waypoints.
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Just in time for Easter, GME v0.6.4 is out! v0.6.4- Labels can be configured to show names or codes on the main Geocaching Map.
- GPX route export.
- Scale bar added to the maps on cache listing pages.
- Faster start-up with less chance of errors.
- Improved freeform coordinate parsing on cache page.
By popular request, you can set whether you want cache labels to show GC codes or cache names. The default is GC codes, because cache names tend to look very untidy and cover up far too much of the map, especially in areas that are saturated with geocaches.
If you use the route measurement function, you can now export your route as a GPX file. You can also drag the GPX link onto another map page, or (in the Chrome browser only) directly to your desktop.
I've also removed the broken Google Terrain maps from the default selection, and added in Colin Marquardt's Hillshading layer. NB this change shouldn't have any effect for existing users unless you reset the GME configuration back to defaults. If you are using custom map sources, you might want to export these before resetting.
Another minor change: I've moved most of the documentation onto my own website, at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm
As I learn more javascript, GME is getting better under the hood too, with various minor bugs fixed. It's now grown to over 100kB in size, more than 2000 lines of code and over 35,000 downloads!
Hope you enjoy the latest version.
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Geocaching is a game based on geographic locations, not political boundaries.
The island of Ireland is organized into regions based on the island's geography and without taking political sides. This was done many years ago in consultation with geocachers living in that part of the world.
Understood.
It would have been inconsistent to organize the souvenirs different from the website's geographic classification.
Agreed. So why does the description of the UK Souvenir say "The United Kingdom consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland", if NI is excluded? It may be true of the political UK, but not the geocaching region.
The same inconsistency is present in the maps on the statistics page, which highlight Northern Ireland as part of the UK when you log a cache in Great Britain.
This would all be much clearer if the name Great Britain were used throughout the site.
PS I've always felt that there was a similar issue with Alaska. Surely that's geographically part of Canada?
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I see this problem too. It seems to happen once I've been logged in for some while. Reloading the page doesn't help, but logging off then logging back on normally cures it. Like Potato Finder says, it's definitely not due to not having set my home coordinates.
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Hello,
Lately when I select the Google Terrain map I get white roads on a black background. I have tried this on FF 19.x and Chrome 25.x and the problem persists on both browsers. Did something change on Google's end that is causing this ?
FWIW I'm getting the same on FireFox.
Yup, Google have changed the URL scheme for terrain maps in some complicated way. As a quick workaround, you can use the standard Google map with Colin Marquardt's Hill Shading overlay. If you've not already added this to GME, click on the GME gear icon to go to the configuration screen, choose 'Manage additional maps', and paste the following into the 'Mapsource' box:
{"alt":"Hillshading", "tileUrl":"http://toolserver.org/~cmarqu/hill/{z}/{x}/{y}.png", "attribution":"Hillshading by <a href='http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Colin_Marquardt/Hike_%26_Bike_Map'>Colin Marquardt</a> from NASA SRTM data", "overlay":true}Hit OK and you then should be able to turn on and off the Hillshading overlay from the map selector control. You might also want to remove Google Terrain from the list of available maps (via 'Choose maps to list' on the configuration screen).
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I agree, the popup that appears when you click "Select Map Preferences" is a bit misleading and needs updating. MyTopo used to be an option if you select Leaflet Maps, but it was removed some while ago.
I think that the "User Contributed Maps" bullet could also be misleading. It presumably refers to the fact that when you've selected Leaflet Maps, all of the map options are based on user-contributed data from the OpenStreetMap project. However, it implies that there is some way for Geocaching.com users to supply their own maps to use on the website.
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I know that you've mentioned about getting GME to work with IE8, but that version of IE is rather ancient (in fact, some sites don't support it any more). As many people use IE9 (which is itself getting rather old) and IE10 is starting to become widespread; I wonder whether you've looked into adapting GME to work with these popular browsers? Personally, I do use Firefox and Chrome but have a preference for IE as the others have some annoying problems.
The good news is, from JimJinks' feedback, it looks like GME already works in IE9, using the Trixie add-in.
I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome.
The fixes I've made in v0.6.3 should mean that the script largely works under both IE8 and IE9. It might work under IE10 too, but I haven't had any feedback.
The bad news is, it doesn't look like Trixie is available any more.
I was going to ask you to install it in IE10 and let me know if it works, but as their website has gone down and I can't see anywhere else to download it from, if you haven't already got it, you're stuck. Worse yet, I've not had any other feedback on other cunning ways of getting userscripts to run under IE, and can't see anything too helpful on Google. 
I might be able to do something a bit Heath-Robinson with bookmarklets, but otherwise, without any decent Greasemonkey clone for IE, it looks like GME support on Internet Explorer could be a bit of a no-hoper... -
I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome. But my main caching computer is the one it doesn't quite work on (and can't be upgraded to IE9). The "larger map" option does show the map tiles correctly however. IE is my preferred browser, so hopefully a little tweak will get it working again?
I've fired up IE8 and confirmed I have the same problem too.
It seems to be caused by the same thing as a known bug in the new v5.0 of the Leaflet Maps API, to do with TileLayer Opacity and IE8's shockingly poor support for Cascading Stylesheets. The main map page still uses Leaflet v4, which is why it hasn't broken. Unfortunately the Leaflet folk haven't yet released a fixed version (and Groundspeak may not update to it for a while anyway). Worse yet, the official Leaflet fix may not fix GME. I'll see if I can figure out a workaround, but I'm afraid supporting IE isn't a top priority for me at the moment 
Well, the workaround was easier than I thought. I've uploaded a bugfix version to http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145
v0.6.3
- Fixed: workaround for Groundspeak / JQuery Mobile bug that stopped the map sidebar working on Android browsers.
- Fixed: workaround for Leaflet 0.5 opacity bug that stopped cache page maps working in IE8.
- Fixed: better layout for the Cache List sidebar buttons in Chrome and IE.
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I've been using OpenAndroMaps vector maps, which are also based on OSM data, but with custom render styles to make them better for hiking and biking. As it's OSM data, they're free to download (although the developer is looking for donations for a new rendering machine!) Maps are available for GB and many other locations worldwide.
The maps work with Locus, Orux Maps, and other map software that uses the Mapsforge vector library. I've used the GB and Italy versions, and not had any problems with missing detail.
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I've still got this bug, although I've now upgraded to the latest versions of Firefox Mobile, Chrome Mobile and Opera Mobile. However, I think I've figured out what is causing it.
What is supposed to happen is this. The sidebar tabs have an <A> link embedded in them. When you click on it, an event listener is supposed to pick up the href attribute from the link, clear all the <DIV> elements in the sidebar scroller (by setting "display:none;" in CSS), then make the <DIV> visible whose id matches the href from the link (by setting "display:block;").
On Android, what seems to happen is that JQuery Mobile intercepts the click, and sets the href attribute on the link to "#" (JQuery Mobile uses hashes for its own inter-page navigation). That means that all of the tabs in the sidebar get cleared, but the event listener can't find the correct one to show.
A workaround is possible, which could either be implemented by Groundspeak or inserted using a script on browsers with userscript support. You need to copy the href attribute in each of the tab links into a new attribute, then add a modified event listener that looks for the new attribute. Here's some code that works for me (tested in Opera only):
(function() { var i, t; for (t = $("#searchtabs a"),i = t.length-1;i>=0;i--) { t[i].setAttribute("data-gme-href",t[i].getAttribute("href")); }; $("#searchtabs").on("click", function (e) { $("#scroller>div").css("display", "none"); $(document.getElementById(e.target.id || e.target.parentNode.id || e.target.parentNode.parentNode.id || "searchlink" ).getAttribute("data-gme-href")).css("display", "block"); }); }());
has it got or can u do a add on like on c:geo where u can show circles around each cache i only ask as looking to place some new caches and wanted to see how close i can get to ones close by ?
Just in time for Easter, GME v0.6.4 is out!
Geocaching Map Enhancements
in United Kingdom and Ireland
Posted
In Chrome, you need to right-click on the Install button and choose the Save Link As option, or whatever it is that Chrome calls it (the Install button is just a link in disguise). That should let you save it, then you can use the instructions above.