Geocache Points On A Google Map, Visualize Them

[+crackhead]

I am working on creating a custom google map with all my found and hidden caches. I have started it already, with about half of the caches added so far. Still have some more to add, but I was thinking it would be neat for people to have their own custom google map on their profile. I already added it to mine.(Warning: it has been known to be a little buggy in IE 6.0 on ANY operating system, and AOL's browser. it is best to close the window using the taskmanager instead of the browsers X or File,Close.)

 

The basics of the map will require you to own or have access to a sitewhere you can upload a file for the map. I have created a program that makes creating the map a bit easier for those who dont know HTML, Javascript and XML programming.

 

If anyone is interested in this, you can see a working copy the map at: My Cache Map

 

Once I get the program a little more tweaked I am going to post it in my profile for people to tool around with. There are a few other tools I have created in there, but this is probably one of the coolest ones so far.

 

If anyone wants a copy, contact me from the geocache site.

 

You can also try to make a Custom Google Map on your own by going here:Google Maps Documentation

 

You will have to get a google map key to make this work and it must be registered using the website address where the file will be located.(make sure to end the address with a slash ex: http://www.site.com/ not http://www.site.com without the slash)

 

Edited July 8, 2005 by crackhead

[+Joe Smith]

Seems like an intersting idea, but my mom told me once: never use software from a crackhead

[+crackhead]

Ahem... [Public Service Announcement]

The Crack comes from trying to figure out things, like programming, and the Head comes from me scratching it while programming.

 

It pertains to puzzles and the fun of a good(clean and not for vandal or profit) hack and has NOTHING and I mean absoulutely NOTHING to do with DRUGS! So anyone reading this, please understand it is a name based on learning, and not smoking crack!

 

Thank you, we now return you to your daily lives.[End PSA]

 

[+Rattlebars]

WOW! This seems right up my ally.... but when would I find the time to find the caches to ......

 

that's really cool tho...... will look over the head scratchy program when time permits... thanks for doing the work and posting here...

 

Anyway, JEEP.COM... Ok, shoot me if I'm showing my greeness (I'm kinda new to global navigation) but could your 100 yards be the difference between NAD27 and NAD83 on the decimal stuff???? JEEP.COM confuses the crap out of my Magellan unless I fiddle with its NADs a bit.... then it's happy as can be... (interpret how you will)

[+crackhead]

I use jeeep.com to get the coordinates for google map, but NOT for my GPS because they always seem to be off the mark. Dont know why.

 

The coordinates from Geocaching.com always work well with my GPS, and since I have it set to the same format, this would be true, but when converting from Min/Dec to Deg/Dec, the coordinates seem to move from the location anywhere from a few feet to many yards away. Dont know how this works, but the format used to hide the cache is the one that should be used to find it, and vice versa.

 

So if it was hidden using Mid/Dec, then you should set your GPS so Min/Dec. If hidden using Deg/Dec, set it to Deg/Dec.

 

As far as Google Maps, I am not sure which Map Datum they use, and this is probably why the markers always seem to be off when I look at there map. It is probably close enough in the real world and ther emap software is probably just off by a few...

[+crackhead]

Ok, I am using this program I created to create the maps now, and it works great! Check out my profile for a quick look at what you can do with it!

 

Also, it allows you to save them to your desktop so you can view them without having the need for a site to host the file.

 

Anyone who wants a copy can download it from my site:

 

http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/googlemapcreator.zip

 

[+Gaddiel]

I'm getting an error when I try to save the html file. It says "Run-time error '76': Path not found."

 

Any ideas?

[+crackhead]

What OS are you using?

 

I tested it on Win98, but it should work across all windows platforms unless you have some custom install or renamed the desktop folder.

 

If you dont have the path c:\windows\desktop\ then just copy the html source and save it in notepad as YourFile.html and then click it to launch your browser.

 

Sorry if you were having a problem saving the html file, but you can save the text seperatly from from within the box that it creates the source in. I just added a quick save feature to save it to the desktop (For people using windows, obviously).

 

I hope it hasn't casued you any trouble. Let me know if you get it to work once you save the Source to an HTML file.

[+Gaddiel]

Yep, it works great if I just copy and paste. I'm using XP (SP2) with the default Windows directories. I double-checked c:\windows\desktop\, and it's there.

 

No trouble at all. Just wanted to let you know... Thanks for providing this to the geocaching community. It's a nice tool to have!

[+crackhead]

I am glad that it works for you! Hope you like what I have put together. Also, if you downloaded it today, it now is updated to convert addresses to lat/long as well. Dont know what version you had. See the recent screen shot for wha tit should look like.

[Jeremy]

I'm not sure where you're doing your geocoding, but just so you know, Google's licensing agreement doesn't allow using their site for this function. I haven't downloaded your software so I don't know exactly how you're using it though.

[+crackhead]

http://www.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#faq11

 

It says their map api doesn't provide it at this time, which isnt how I access the data anyway.

 

However, their site itself does offer this, and after reading the in the google maps documentation and I have been active on their google groups, amny people have gotten around the app by querying google maps directly.

 

I get it through their site the same way as if you were to visit it and type in the address or if you were sent a "Link To This Page" link from the maps.google.com page. They even give documentation on how to get directions using google maps, without using the api script for a hosted site.

 

12 - How do I provide driving directions with the Maps API?

 

At this time, the Google Maps API doesn’t include a routing/driving directions service. However, you can easily link to Google Maps for driving directions. The URL format for driving directions is:

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr={start_a...nation_address}

 

This is similar to how I query the address and get the lat long, because they provide it in the page when you follow their example of the URL format for Driving Directions.

 

To look up an address you would use their query URL: "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=" and feed the address to the end of the url. EX: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=MyStreet+MyC...TE_INITIALS+ZIP

 

Then within the page it gives you the Lat/Long of the address.

[Jeremy]

http://www.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#faq11

 

It says their map api doesn't provide it at this time, which isnt how I access the data anyway.

 

However, their site itself does offer this, and after reading the in the google maps documentation and I have been active on their google groups, amny people have gotten around the app by querying google maps directly.

You're splitting hairs. Let me link to a post by Bret Taylor, the Product Manager for Google maps:

 

This is not allowed by the API terms of use.  You should not scrape

Google Maps to generate geocodes.  We will block services that do

automated queries of our servers.

 

Bret Taylor

Product Manager, Google Maps

[+M-T-P]

Let me split some more. Unless I'm misunderstanding, Google doesn't want you to use their site to scrape geocodes. However, they provide methods to display your own POIs on Google maps with coordinates (geocodes) you provide. Crackhead wrote an app to automate the display of POIs on Google maps.

 

How is this scraping a site for geocodes? You've provided the geocodes to Google by submitting POIs for display, not by picking random POIs on the maps and extracting the coordinates. This program gives geocodes, not scrapes them.

 

Just my 2cents....

[Jeremy]

How is this scraping a site for geocodes?

Ok. From my previous post I haven't used this particular app. However, if you enter in an address in an application, and behind the scenes the application is requesting a google web page and grabbing coordinates for that application, you are scraping the data from Google.com. This is not allowed by the API terms of use.

 

But you already admitted to splitting hairs, so I guess it is a pointless clarification on my part.

[+crackhead]

For XP Users, I guess the save function is not working for some of you. Here is a work around:

 

Save the HTML source in notepad as YourPage.html and then open the file. I will work on getting thesave feature fixed.

 

Also, people having trouble getting the markers to show properly.

 

Each Marker and PopUp name needs to be unique each time you add one. Otherwise they overlap and confuse the map and wont show up. For example, first cache marker use marker1 popup1, next one use marker2 popup2, or any name combinations you want, but there cant be two with the same name.

 

Also, make sure you center the map relative to where the markers are going to be and zoom out far enoiugh to see them. Also, any markers close together will need to be zoomed in to see each of them or they will look like one marker if zoomed out too far.

 

Editing the HTML source is a bit harder for people who dont know the HTML and Java Script side of programming, but here is some documentation if you want to add some features to your maps: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/

 

Also check out the google-groups for MAPS:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API

and

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google-Maps

 

I will try to answer any questions any of you may have. You can email me if you want.

[+crackhead]

You're splitting hairs. Let me link to a post by Bret Taylor, the Product Manager for Google maps:

 

I can easily change this to use geocoder.us (whic is a free geocoder) if you feel it will cause any issues for geocahcing.com and any geocachers.

[+crackhead]

Quick question to thoes who were having problems saving files.

 

Were you typing in "c:\some path" or anything like that?

 

It is set to default to c:\windows\desktop\ and if you have any funky characters in there, like / \ : .html , ; etc, it will give you that run time error.

 

I was trying to recreate the error and by chance realized that if you type in the path manually it will errror out. I have since fixed it to not allow you to specify any slashes, etc. I looked up the run time error and it was for "Path not found" which would make sense if you used any slashes, because it would try to create it in a directory that doesnt exist.

 

If it still doesnt work on XP I will need to do somemore research into why it doesnt work. For the lif eof me, I cant see why it doesnt work, but hopefully it was just because you typed in an invalid character.

 

Uninstall your copy and Re-Download the updated one. If you still get that error, please let me know.

 

[+cachew nut]

I've been playing with http://earth.google.com/

It was nice just "flying around". You can even turn on lat and long lines as you explore, tilt the angle of the screen, plus lots of other things like crime stats and stuff.

 

Just when I thought this was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time, for free mind you, someone tells me you can drag and drop a gpx file onto the display. I tried it with some pq's I had saved, and it works great.

[+crackhead]

Google Earth would be great, but I am using Windows 98 and they dont support that for their api. If they did, I would probably try it.

[+Gaddiel]

Quick question to thoes who were having problems saving files.

 

Were you typing in "c:\some path" or anything like that?

 

No, I wasn't doing that. Didn't type anything other than the file name. Just clicked the button on the bottom right.

[+crackhead]

This seems to only happen on XP. I am going to make the files save to the apps path where it is installed, so you will have to open the files from there. I will post when I have updated it and will need to have someone try it when I am finished.

[+crackhead]

Ok, all you XP users, uninstall your copy of the program and please download this newer version. Let me know if it still doesnt work:

http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/googlemapcreator.zip

 

If this doesnt work, then I think it is some security setting in XP.

[+M-T-P]

Got any plans for a quick build from a GPX file? I'd sure love to load my GPX file and have the code generated instead of trying to do these all on my own one at a time. Otherwise, nice little program.

 

On a side note, I manually created a folder called "desktop" in the C:\Windows directory on XP SP2, and everything worked like a champ even before this latest build.

[+crackhead]

The latest will let you choose the directory to save in. I just didnt realise on XP desktop was a different path.

[+crackhead]

Got any plans for a quick build from a GPX file? I'd sure love to load my GPX file and have the code generated instead of trying to do these all on my own one at a time. Otherwise, nice little program.

 

On a side note, I manually created a folder called "desktop" in the C:\Windows directory on XP SP2, and everything worked like a champ even before this latest build.

I will take a look at the gpx file format and see what I can come up with. It will probably be a stand along app, but If there is room I will add it directly to the other one to combine them.

[Jeremy]

Moving this to GPS Units & Software.

[+crackhead]

Ok people. Huge update. Now the map creation coul dnot be easier!! Go to any cache page and download the GPX file. Drag and Drop it onto the new "GPX to Google Map Creator" program I just created and it will do the rest for you.

 

http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/gpx_to_googlemap.zip

 

It makes the maps based on the GPX file. All you need to do is supply it with the gpx fiels, and it creates the markers. Also, you can set the zoom level and width/height of the map to you desire, and you can set teh starting center lat and long on load.

 

Here is a screen shot of the NEW program. Much easier than the last one, although my other one lets you creat custom files on the fly.

[PercyKittenz]

This is excellent! I haven't tried out your software yet, but it's automating almost exactly what I've been doing manually with Google Earth. ( http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/per...GoogleCache.jpg ) Now that you've got GPX files loading, do you know if LOC files work as well? If you're using the GPSBabel engine, you should be able to convert either over extremely easily.

 

It's too bad you don't have an opportunity to use Google Earth yet. If you can find Keyhole LT, you should be able to run that on Windows 98, though. That'll have many of the same abilities as your program. I did a write-up in this thread about how to use Google Earth to import geocaches from GSAK or the Geocaching website. ( http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=102362 )

 

Keep up the good work. I'll be playing with your program for a while, I expect.

[+crackhead]

Update: Added the ability to drag and drop ALL the GPX files at the same time, instead of one at a time. COMPLETELY automated! Redownload the program if you have the one that only lets you drop one file at a time.

[+hoovman]

Crackhead,

I haven't looked at your app yet (I will after this post), but it sounds great!

What are you writing it in?

[+crackhead]

Visual Basic 6.0

[+crackhead]

This is excellent! I haven't tried out your software yet, but it's automating almost exactly what I've been doing manually with Google Earth. ( http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/per...GoogleCache.jpg ) Now that you've got GPX files loading, do you know if LOC files work as well? If you're using the GPSBabel engine, you should be able to convert either over extremely easily.

 

It's too bad you don't have an opportunity to use Google Earth yet. If you can find Keyhole LT, you should be able to run that on Windows 98, though. That'll have many of the same abilities as your program. I did a write-up in this thread about how to use Google Earth to import geocaches from GSAK or the Geocaching website. ( http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=102362 )

 

Keep up the good work. I'll be playing with your program for a while, I expect.

I would have to look at a LOC file and see how they work. I would have to make something for this as well, but parseing the GPX file was simple. If LOC uses similar mean, I may combine it to do both.

[+crackhead]

Ok, LOC files added to the program, so now you can use both GPX and LOC files downloaded from cache pages. Please only use files downloaded from the cache page, Files that contain multiple locations will not parse correctly, so just download the files from geocaching.com to some folder on your pc, then drag all the LOC and GPX files onto the black box in the program and it will format the markers for you!

 

Redownload the latest version if yours wont do the LOC files.

[+hoovman]

Cool!

But I've had some problems with <Marker and <MSG. (I think they come when the GC waypoint name is too short.) For some reason if I replace the < with _, it works. It doesn't matter if it's Mozilla or IE.

 

For example, this cache:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCFFA

 

made into this page

http://users.ameritech.net/jeffhoover/test.html

 

Gives:

 

Error: missing ; before statement

Source File: http://users.ameritech.net/jeffhoover/test.html

Line: 29, Column: 13

Source Code:

var GCFFA<Marker = new GMarker(new GPoint(-83.9788,42.4240));

 

This page is the same, except for the </_ change:

 

http://users.ameritech.net/jeffhoover/test2.html

 

Crackhead, could you change the < to _ ?

 

Thanks,

Jeff

[+crackhead]

Glad you pointed that out. I have it set to parse for 6 places, but obviously older caches will not work. I can change it to add something in its place. This is important to know, and thank you for pointing it out.

 

Any other issues please let me know!

 

I love to here people are using this program, because it was both a challenge and fun at the same time.

This issue has with the LOC files has now been fixed and you can redownload the program.

 

I am working on changing the Markers to "Signal" icons. So look back soon for an updated version.

[+crackhead]

Update: Added Signal markers instead of the Red standard markers.

 

Also, you can change this by editing the file manually.

 

You will want to look for the following:

// Create our "tiny" marker icon

var icon = new GIcon();

icon.image = "http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/test.png";

icon.shadow ="http://www.google.com/mapfiles/dithshadow.gif";

icon.iconSize = new GSize(12, 20);

icon.shadowSize = new GSize(33, 33);

icon.iconAnchor = new GPoint(6, 20);

icon.infoWindowAnchor = new GPoint(5, 1);

 

Var icon is the icon referenced

icon.image is the URL of the image you want to use. (256 color indexed, png files with white backgrounds will render the background transparent)

 

If you want multiple icons, simply copy the icon creation section but change the var icon to var MyCustomIconName = new GIcon();

and for icon.image

icon.image = "http://MyCustomIcon.com/MyIconName.png" <--The URL of thr image you want to use.

 

Then when you edit the marker you will see something like this:

new GMarker(new GPoint(-74.9402,39.7899),icon); <--icon refers to "var icon"

replace "icon" with "MyCustomIconName" that you used in your VAR statment.

For example:

// Create our "tiny" marker icon

var icon = new GIcon();

icon.image = "http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/test.png";

icon.shadow ="http://www.google.com/mapfiles/dithshadow.gif";

icon.iconSize = new GSize(12, 20);

icon.shadowSize = new GSize(33, 33);

icon.iconAnchor = new GPoint(6, 20);

icon.infoWindowAnchor = new GPoint(5, 1);

//Add a new marker icon reference on the next line after the first icon reference BEFORE the map creation statment!

// Create our CUSTOM marker icon

var MyNewIcon1 = new GIcon();

icon.image = "http://home.carolina.rr.com/rodneyg/markers/yellow_1.png";

icon.shadow ="http://www.google.com/mapfiles/dithshadow.gif";

icon.iconSize = new GSize(12, 20);

icon.shadowSize = new GSize(33, 33);

icon.iconAnchor = new GPoint(6, 20);

icon.infoWindowAnchor = new GPoint(5, 1);

 

then for the marker you want the custom icon for, change "icon" -->(new GMarker(new GPoint(-74.9402,39.7899),icon);) to "MyNewIcon1" -->new GMarker(new GPoint(-74.9402,39.7899),MyNewIcon1); <--MyNewIcon1 refers to "var MyNewIcon1"

 

There is really no easy way to do this at the moment. It would take me some time to make this a custom icon for each marker, but at least now you can chane all of them to one of your choosing by editing the "var icon=" statment and pointing to an icon of your choice. I just used the signal one an example.

 

Hope you all are getting your maps to work and enjoy using the program.

 

Also, make sure all reference to icons come BEFORE the map statment, otherwise the map gets created first, and ti doesnt see the new icon you want to use, it will use the default icon from google.

 

(Disclaimer: The maps, NOT MY PROGRAM, has been know to lock up the pc on IE6.0. Using NEtscape, Mozilla or FireFox is an alternative. I hope no one has had any issues, as this is a problem with google maps service, and not my program. It has been documented by many users on google groups and still no fix from google as of yet. http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google...72cced87fb74d6)

Edited July 17, 2005 by crackhead

[+crackhead]

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Google...9beb5938b61f2f6

 

Google is adding some new components to the map api. I will implementing a few of them for the program as soon as they become available.

[+crackhead]

One thing to point out, pocket queries do not pars properly. You need to use the single entry files from the cache page itself. I am working on fixing this so you can use pocket queries to plot all of them listed in the pocket query. For now, please just use the individual GPX and LOC files from each cache page.

 

Also, GPX files that were not generated from Geocaching.com will not parse because it looks for coding by "Groundspeak", and is not yet set up for files from other sites.

[+Hynr]

I wonder if I am missing something. Are you developing new software that places a set of pushpins, flags or other markers (with or without some sort of label at each) on a map?

 

Is there a reason why you don't filter your desired set with GSAK (i.e. GPSBabel) and then export the result to a file format used by existing mapping software (Microsoft S&T, DeLorme Street Atlas, Garmin Mapsource, Google Earth, etc) for exactly this purpose? If everything must be free, then you could use GSAK to export to a gpx file for use with Google Earth (each in the unpaid mode). If it MUST be Google Maps, then the GSAK macro language has all the functionality to create the needed html file and you would not have to worry about multi-platform or data parsing issues.

[+hoovman]

I wonder if I am missing something. Are you developing new software that places a set of pushpins, flags or other markers (with or without some sort of label at each) on a map?

 

Is there a reason why you don't filter your desired set with GSAK (i.e. GPSBabel) and then export the result to a file format used by existing mapping software (Microsoft S&T, DeLorme Street Atlas, Garmin Mapsource, Google Earth, etc) for exactly this purpose? If everything must be free, then you could use GSAK to export to a gpx file for use with Google Earth (each in the unpaid mode).  If it MUST be Google Maps, then the GSAK macro language has all the functionality to create the needed html file and you would not have to worry about multi-platform or data parsing issues.

Well for one thing, his program helps make a web page, so users don't have to have *any* special software (besides a browser) to see it. As you mentioned, some mapping software isn't free. Google Earth is a huge download and:

Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it).

Windows-based desktop PCs older than 4 years old may not be able to run it.

Windows-based notebook PCs older than 2 years old may not be able to run it.

Edited July 17, 2005 by hoovman

[+crackhead]

I wonder if I am missing something. Are you developing new software that places a set of pushpins, flags or other markers (with or without some sort of label at each) on a map?

 

Is there a reason why you don't filter your desired set with GSAK (i.e. GPSBabel) and then export the result to a file format used by existing mapping software (Microsoft S&T, DeLorme Street Atlas, Garmin Mapsource, Google Earth, etc) for exactly this purpose? If everything must be free, then you could use GSAK to export to a gpx file for use with Google Earth (each in the unpaid mode). If it MUST be Google Maps, then the GSAK macro language has all the functionality to create the needed html file and you would not have to worry about multi-platform or data parsing issues.

Does GSAK allow you to drag multiple LOC and GPX files onto it and then create a map for anyone to see? Will it create the map file in HTML so that you can upload it to a site for others to see?

 

I have never used GSAK. Dont even know what it is. I was making this because I wanted to have my own google map of the caches the I either hid or found. I then wanted to share the program with others.

 

Google Earth does not run on Win98, and I wanted to have a web page that would display them for anyone to see and not to have to download some program and enter points manually one by one for my own viewing.

 

This way, people could add the maps to their website or profiles, and anyone with a browser (compatible one, any way) could see their cache map, not just people with Google Earth Software.

 

I am aware that Google Earth lets you use multiple formats, but who will be able to see your custommap? and I cant use Google Earth anyway, because I am on Win98.

 

But I would be interested in seeing how GSAk parses the files so I could get an idea of what I am doing wrong for my app. I am having a problem parsing GPX and LOC files that have more than one cache in them. It grabs the first cache, and then ignores the rest in the file.

 

But, when I have multiple files with one cache in each GPX or LOC file it works great. I just downloaded all of them to a folder, and drag ALL the icons onto my app and it creates the map for me. I canthen save it and upload it wherever I want or email it to others. And since its in HTML, 99% of the people can view it(unless their browser doesnt support it).

[+4PawZ4FeeT]

Awesome Program!!! Works great!!! Thanks Alot!!

[+hoovman]

I have never used GSAK. Dont even know what it is.

Here's the info on gsak. I haven't used it either, but I may try sometime. http://www.gsak.net/help/hs1000.htm

 

And there's a thread on the forums here.

Edited July 18, 2005 by hoovman

[+M-T-P]

I'm a HUGE fan of GSAK. This program totally rocks! I would really love to export my GSAK data as a GPX file and create the GoogleMaps that way using your program. I'll email you a GPX file that I generated from GSAK. *** testing and development only, not giving away my PQs ***

[+crackhead]

I'm a HUGE fan of GSAK. This program totally rocks! I would really love to export my GSAK data as a GPX file and create the GoogleMaps that way using your program. I'll email you a GPX file that I generated from GSAK. *** testing and development only, not giving away my PQs ***

Open a GPX file from a cache page in notepad, and then open one using GSAK. Are they formated the same, with things like <groundsppeak: in the file.

 

Send me the GSAK GPX file and I will see what I can do. But remember, I am still having trouble parsing files that contain more than one CAche in them. As long as there is just one cachce (Use the cache page GPX and LOC files as an example) in it you will be fine, otherwise it will parse the first cache, ignore the rest and then move to the next file that was draged and droped on it.

 

Either way, send me a GSAK created GPX file and I will get back to you.

 

[+crackhead]

I'm a HUGE fan of GSAK. This program totally rocks! I would really love to export my GSAK data as a GPX file and create the GoogleMaps that way using your program. I'll email you a GPX file that I generated from GSAK. *** testing and development only, not giving away my PQs ***

You can RE-DOWNLOAD the program. It will parse you GSAK file, BUT, it only grabs the first cache in the file. IF you export each cache to its own GPX file, you can then drag and drop them all on the program, but Until I get the parse to work for multiple caches in one GPX file, it will only read the top file and ignore the rest of the caches listed in that GPX file.

 

I have been trying for over 24 hours to get it to loop the file and parse what I want, but I think I am going to have to make a custom DB grid for GPX files, and Since am no goog with DataBase files, it will be a huge learning curve for me, especially when VB is so simple, it makes it that much harder to figure out.

 

So re-download the program and give it a wirl. I tried it on the one you sent me and it works, but there wer emultiple caches listed in the file and it only grabbed the first one. Sorry its not fully operational yet, but like I said, make seperate GPX files for each cache and you can work around it for now.

[+crackhead]

I'm a HUGE fan of GSAK.  This program totally rocks!  I would really love to export my GSAK data as a GPX file and create the GoogleMaps that way using your program.  I'll email you a GPX file that I generated from GSAK.  *** testing and development only, not giving away my PQs *** 

Just realised ther ewa a bug when Launching the webpage for GPX with Custom Waypoint names. Fixed it so yoru waypoint name shows, but loads the correct cache page.

 

Make sure you download the latest updated file. When installed, right lcike the exe file and look for the build number. It should read "File Version: 1.00.0050" <--Not but Latest Build is now: "File Version: 1.00.0053"

 

Added more info grom GPX files, listing descriptions of cache. LOC files lack this data, so you will be able to see which markers were made with either one when you click on them. You will just have to give it a try and see what I mean.

 

This one will now accept exported GPX files from GSAK using Custom waypoint names, so long as the URL for the Cache is correct.

 

I am sorry for not picking up on this, but I tried to launch the cache page from your GSAK GPX file and noticed it wasnt working.

 

Any other bugs, please let me know!!

 

Still working on getting it to parse the entire file with multiple caches in one LOC or GPX file!! Its not as simple as it sounds, and since I have no DataBase knowledge, it will take me some time to figure it out. If it was an easy tabbed delimeted file, it would help, but because there is so many custom fields to sort through, plus custom tags from otehr sources, like GSAK, I need to work on it a but more....

Edited July 18, 2005 by crackhead

[+ClydeE]

For GSAK users you can quickly view Google Maps or Satelitie photos by adding the following custom URLs (Tools=>Options=>HTML)

 

Google Maps=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%lat+%lon+(%code-%name)&hl=en

Google Satellite View=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%lat+%lon+(%code-%name)&spn=0.020,0.020&t=k

 

Now just right click on a cache, select custom URL and pick the required link

[+crackhead]

For GSAK users you can quickly view Google Maps or Satelitie photos by adding the following custom URLs (Tools=>Options=>HTML)

 

Google Maps=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%lat+%lon+(%code-%name)&hl=en

Google Satellite View=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%lat+%lon+(%code-%name)&spn=0.020,0.020&t=k

 

Now just right click on a cache, select custom URL and pick the required link

not being a gsak user myself, does this method show ALL the caches you want on the map at the same time, and with the info for each cache in a popup when clicked on the marker?

 

See my cutsom map: http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/map/mycaches3.html

 

Give it about 45 seconds to load, and you will see the 80 or so caches I have found and hidden.(It will take a bit longer if you are on dial up)

 

Reccomended browsers are Netscape and Firefox, as there is something in Googles code that tends to be a problem for IE6.0.