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Pocket query & archived cache


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Is there a way to have a pocket query report recently archived caches?

 

I have a pocket query that, every week, returns the 250 caches closest to my home. I load it into GSAK. From GSAK I load all the caches with a 12 mile radius into my PDA and GPSr. Today I spent over an hour looking for this cache Holly's Micro and DNF. When I got home, I found that it had been archived back in August. :D

 

Starting in July. I had been loading this pocket query into GSAK evey week, but it never showed that the cache was unavailable or had been archived. And even though I add the pocket query to GSAK every week, it is showing that the last gpx for this cache was on 7/18/06 and does not have any of the current logs (obviously).

 

Thanks,

 

cliff_hanger

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I have a filter in GSAK that I run after loading the recent queries. I set the last gpx update to the day before the date on the query. This leaves a list of caches that likely have been archived. I review each one and change the status to archived if appropriate.

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Pocket Queries do not return archived caches. Your request has been asked for many times as you are not the first person who has gone looking for a cache using stale data in GSAK. TPTB don't want you to use GSAK to keep a local copy of their data. Therefore they are not going to return archived caches in order to allow you to do this. What you can do is to set a GSAK filter to eliminate all caches whose Last Update GPX was prior to the date of your latest GPX that you have loaded into GSAK. If a cache is no longer between returned it is either because it has been archived or because there are more than 250 caches within 12 miles of you home.

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Add the column last gpx update to the visible fields in gsak.

Load your normal pq into gsak.

Sort the list order by last gpx update date.

Select the split screen option (press F2)

Selct online view (drop down box just above the cache listings)

 

When the cache page is visible in the lower box find the GPX dowload button and dowload it

or

when you see the cache has been archived just edit the properties in GSAK to let GSAK know its been archived.

or

filter by last GPX update excluding the date of the PQ you just imported and delete the contents of the filter.

or

delete your GSAK database before you import the PQ so its always fresh data only.

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You need to use a filter in GSAK. PQ's return everything from logs, to if its active, etc. In order to download only "active" geocaches you need to set a filter with GSAK.

 

Thanks. I understand how to use GSAK filters. But, I do not believe that a PQ returns caches that have been archived. Thus, this particular cache was never updated in GSAK and continued to have "old" status information.

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What about checking the box marked "That (and) is active". Shouldn't that return only the active caches. Likewise you could return only those that were not active. PQ are about as powerful a tool as you can get.

 

True, but I was talking about caches that have now been 'archived', not just temporarily disabled. Temporarily disabled caches are returned by PQs, archived caches are not. The problem is that since archived caches do not show up in the PQ GPX they would never be changed to archived in GSAK (unless manually)- there would just not be any additional data added to those caches after a certain date.

 

And I understand the reasoning: imagine the size of the useless information if a PQ returned ALL the archived caches in a certain area everytime you ran it. I do not think that TPTB have any prejudice against GSAK. If I had thought this through earlier, I could have reasoned out why PQ's do not return archived caches, filtered accordingly and saved myself some time and a DNF.

 

There has to be another way to do this and I think Mb3, tozainamboku and markandlynn all have good suggestions so I'll use this opportunity to thank them and everyone else for responses.

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TPTB don't want you to use GSAK to keep a local copy of their data. Therefore they are not going to return archived caches in order to allow you to do this.

 

I seriously doubt that this is the case. TPTB provide data on active caches in one of the most universal formats (XML), which very specifically allows it to be easily imported into other databases. Data on archived caches is far less useful, so excluding it as a matter of policy makes little sense - especially since GSAK filters or eyeball searches make it fairly easy to eliminate archived caches from the local database.

 

Surely there's a technical reason for this limit, and it isn't merely arbitrary!

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