.loc format

[kg4wxw]

hello to all and thank you for giving me such a great time playing around!

 

first of all i just got the new magellan 500 and im thrilled about it for upgrading to a newer model with color! I also went on ahead and paid the 10 bucks for the upgraded mapping software. so here comes the question about the .loc files

 

if i open it up via notepad i can see its some pretty simple html format and i can see that in the map software there are 4 buttons hint web page description and log. I would think this can be used via the html in the .loc file? Al tho i don't know what the format is for it such as i would like to just upload the extra info such as what i am looking for and the info about the location into my gps which i feel i can do if i can figure out the .loc format for adding this extra info to the file.

 

any help or ?'s will be appreciated

 

thnx

 

kg4wxw

david klimkowski

[+Renegade Knight]

I use EasyGPS to load waypoints into my GPS from a LOC file. It loads a note about the cache name and I've always been happy with that.

 

if GSAK worked with LOC files (It's more of a GPX file program) it does let you tweak the information to a much greater degree than EasyGPS. If you are willing to use some elbow grease and work with GPSBabel it can do a heck of a lot as well.

Edited January 13, 2007 by Renegade Knight

[kg4wxw]

ill check into those two apps im a bit old school so its actualy easer for me to learn the code and edit it that way. But all in all ill look into it.

 

and by the way im using the MapSend Topo 3D software that you can open a .loc file with thats why i was trying to edit the .loc file instead of converting it to another format.

[robertlipe]

ill check into those two apps im a bit old school so its actualy easer for me to learn the code and edit it

Lucky for you, GPSBabel is probably the most popular geocaching program that is open source, so you have full access to all 130,000-ish lines of source code that you're free to study, modify, and redistribute (within the terms of the license, of course.)

[kg4wxw]

LOL i don't know what i was thinking i did download the GSAK program and a wounder full program it is but.... it cant do any thing if it doesn't have the info to import from the geocaching .loc file you download does not have the extra info encoded into the file. only concordances name and creator name thats it so if i want to add this extra info i still need to figure out the format for these .loc files.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<loc version="1.0" src="Groundspeak">

<waypoint>

<name id="GCN9PG"><![CDATA[Pipe Line by rippietoe]]></name>

<coord lat="36.2180666666667" lon="-86.3033666666667"/>

<type>Geocache</type>

<link text="Cache Details">http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCN9PG</link>

</waypoint></loc>

 

that is the normal .loc file as seen in the raw as you can see i can change a few things like the name or web page but i still want to add the "hint" info since i feel i can access this via my gps via the "Hint" screen located under the info for the cache

 

so all in all ive tried a few commands such as <hint> bla bla bla </hint> but i still didnt get any where with that

[kg4wxw]

google and wiki have let me down i haven't been able to locate any field for the "Hint" section in a general .loc file. I will sleep on it for a while and see if any one else can figure this out or has done it

 

just to add to the info i did use the pprogram gsak to attempt to edit a cache and did so via the program but using the program to export it to a .loc file yielded no change to the original file except for adding there tag. i did use there special characters to add the %hint to the output and placed it in many different positions with in that field but it still yielded no change.

 

if i am a premium member do i gain the extra info such as a hint field? that i can edit on my own free will?

 

i know a lot of this and many of my other posts around the net border line on the hacking line but why not ask these ?'s it keeps us sharp and thinking

 

heck if this works all users of the magellan 500 and 600 have no need to print out info any more they can simply add the desired text to the hint page on there gps thats my idea and i am sticking to it

[robertlipe]

.loc never contains cache-specific info like hint. If you want _real_ caching information , you should see pocker queries which contain an extended form of GPX that is readily digested by tools like http://www.gpsbabel.org, http://www.gsak.net, and http://www.geobuddy.org

 

http:/www.geocaching.com/pocket to get started building PQ's.

[kg4wxw]

simple enough loc files are simple thank you for the info but as you know i had to ask

[kg4wxw]

ok using the gsak software to edit the "hint" field and save it as a gpx you have 50 characters you can fill. that will do for most caches but not for long winded ones i was hopeing to be able to add more text to the "Hint" field in the gps but i will have to live with this and print out the virtual ones and others that require more reading

Edited January 13, 2007 by kg4wxw

[+NightPilot]

The GPS will only take that many characters, no matter how many you try to put there. It's a physical memory limitation, small as it is. And it will only hold those for the first 200 waypoints - the rest will be blank, no matter what you try to put in the hints.