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TB Status on my own website


majahack

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My daughter has just launched 4 different TB's, each heading to a different family member scattered across the US. We have a family website and would like to have a page or block that gives the status of these TB's for the family to see. I could manually update our site with that information but was hoping there was a way to scrape the info from geocaching.com. Has anyone done anything similar?

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I am not sure what scrapping is but I was wondering about something similar like the Profile box that I can add to pages. You know the one that shows my finds and hides. Is there something like that for bugs? I remember seeing it on some site before, I think it was for a race.

 

Anyone help me?

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If I release 4 TBs as a race, how can I put the information from the other 3 bugs on each one's log. I'm new to this, but with a little trial and error I can put together some decent HTML.

 

A tad off-topic, but luckily for you your question is precisely on-topic in this thread.

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Might be easiest to just provide link on the family website for each travel bug. You don't violate any "scraping" rules this way.

 

If you can manage basic HTML then you can always use iframes for displaying a page withing a page.

 

I don't think that would count as scraping, it isn't like your using PHP to yank it and change it.

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Contributing to the post:

 

Scraping is using an automated program to pull information off of a website for use somewhere else.

 

Not Contributing to the post:

 

For days now I've been seeing the headlines about the guy with TB traveling to Greece and all the trouble that has caused. For days... everytime I saw a headline my first thought was Travel Bug.

 

Now... when I just saw this post... my first thought was why someone would want their Teberculosis status on a website about geocaching.

 

Really people... we need to get them to rename the disease... it's causing all kinds of problems here!!

 

:ph34r:

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Surely the best way to stop anyone scraping then would be to make information available to others to use as they wish.

 

The new look to the site and the My Friends feature all seems to suggest a move towards a more community based site, and with so many people having their own site, why not let people access basic information such as location(or holder) and distance travelled.

 

Other sites seem to be opening up whereas here they seem to be locked tight and not about to budge. Allowing people to feature info on their own site will actually encourage people to visit. If as the OP says you have 4 TBs and want a distance comparison i'd not click through 4 links, make a note of them all and work out whos winning a race. I'd like to see a tidy list.

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Surely the best way to stop anyone scraping then would be to make information available to others to use as they wish.

 

I suppose making all music available for free download would stop piracy too. :blink:

 

Doubtless when Groundspeak's business model allows it, this will happen. For the moment, their "secret ingredient" is that people are prepared to pay $30/year for the info, and if it was readily available for less, it would put a big dent in it.

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You could do something like this: link

 

That's a list of all of the Travel Bugs that I own and it shows their current position. Admittedly, it doesn't show a subset, but if you sort by name you can readily see that Challenge of the Superfriends: Aquaman, Challenge of the Superfriends: Batman, Challenge of the Superfriends: Superman and Challenge of the Superfriends: Wonder Woman are similar bugs - as are Ninja Force Black, Ninja Force Yellow, Ninja Force White and Ninja Force Red.

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You could do something like this: link

 

That's a list of all of the Travel Bugs that I own and it shows their current position. Admittedly, it doesn't show a subset, but if you sort by name you can readily see that Challenge of the Superfriends: Aquaman, Challenge of the Superfriends: Batman, Challenge of the Superfriends: Superman and Challenge of the Superfriends: Wonder Woman are similar bugs - as are Ninja Force Black, Ninja Force Yellow, Ninja Force White and Ninja Force Red.

A fair point however in my case it is actually a race between several owners although I guess a seach on name would work only if we named them together in some way.

 

I'd actually pay for 'Platinum' membership if there were an option for getting bonus data such as this. I think that currently this is the best $36 (I pay monthly) I spend! Bargin I say! :blink:

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Try this out:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.htm

 

It works like this:

 

 

for example:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...5d-9e2a63df15a5

 

These don't work in this forum since images can't be dynamic. But you can include them on your own page.

 

Tagging a good post for later. Nevermind me.

MrW.

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Try this out:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.htm

 

It works like this:

 

 

for example:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...5d-9e2a63df15a5

 

These don't work in this forum since images can't be dynamic. But you can include them on your own page.

Very cool. Now if i could just figure out how to duplicate... I cant seem to get bugs to work that have no picture on the main page.

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Try this out:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.htm

 

It works like this:

 

 

for example:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...5d-9e2a63df15a5

 

These don't work in this forum since images can't be dynamic. But you can include them on your own page.

Very cool. Now if i could just figure out how to duplicate... I cant seem to get bugs to work that have no picture on the main page.

 

Where do I find the GUID?

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You can find the GUID by clicking on the "Edit This Bug" link as an owner. The GUID will be in the URL.

 

Just as an example, I've got a page here. Only problem I see is that most of the images seem to be shots of the bug characters' ---umm--- naughty bits.

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One more thing that...

 

While editing this geocoin: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=580007

 

I select any of the available images on the gallery and get this message.

 

Server Error in '/' Application.
This image does not exist in the system.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: Groundspeak.Web.Exceptions.ImageNotFoundException: This image does not exist in the system.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[ImageNotFoundException: This image does not exist in the system.]
  Groundspeak.Web.Gallery.GalleryImage..ctor(Int64 ID, ImageDataSources DataSource) +292
  Groundspeak.Web.CustomWpt.TravelBug.set_ImageID(Int64 Value) +77
  Geocaching.UI.BugEditControl.btnEdit_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) +386
  System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e) +108
  System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +57
  System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +18
  System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +33
  System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +1330

 

Strange. :|

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I see 2 things. Smiley faces and Boxes. Boxes are caches i assume. What is the difference between a green smiley and a grey smiley?

 

green smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for less than 14 days

grey smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for more than 14 days

 

Same thing applies to the boxes

 

green box = tb in the cache for less than 14 days

grey box = tb in the cache for more than 14 days

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green smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for less than 14 days

grey smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for more than 14 days

 

Same thing applies to the boxes

 

green box = tb in the cache for less than 14 days

grey box = tb in the cache for more than 14 days

Cool. How did you know?

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Great feature. Thanks! [:D]

 

Hmm... It seems to be working only on some TB. For example:

 

Works on this: http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...de-a74ac6387d86

 

But not on this one: http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...17-0c372de159b1

 

It's also working on some geocoins.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

I think that it only shows if there is a deafult image for the TB. Upload one to the gallery then select it to be the default image. It should then show up.

I've got one thats not appearing and its the only one without an image so just putting 2 + 2 together.

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Also just to add that these images are a great start!! In the future once all the main site is settled down maybe adding TB races / target caches etc would be a great extension to the system.

I realise that geocaching.com is about hiding the caches, but TBs have become such a feature, and with so many cachers having races/competitions it would be a lovely addition.

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Try this out:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.htm

 

It works like this:

 

 

for example:

 

http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...5d-9e2a63df15a5

 

These don't work in this forum since images can't be dynamic. But you can include them on your own page.

 

Thanks for your post! I was able to put something together! Now I just need to get pictures for my other TBs and coins!

 

Here's what I have so far:

 

My Travel Bugs

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I think that it only shows if there is a deafult image for the TB. Upload one to the gallery then select it to be the default image. It should then show up.

I've got one thats not appearing and its the only one without an image so just putting 2 + 2 together.

 

I tried that, too. Still, there are some that work, and others, don't. Still waiting for help. :rolleyes:

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I think that it only shows if there is a deafult image for the TB. Upload one to the gallery then select it to be the default image. It should then show up.

I've got one thats not appearing and its the only one without an image so just putting 2 + 2 together.

 

I tried that, too. Still, there are some that work, and others, don't. Still waiting for help. :rolleyes:

 

The first time I tried it, I had one that the picture would show up, and the disappear on the next refresh. It was very random.

 

I dumped that page and tried again, and it works fine. Very odd.

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I see 2 things. Smiley faces and Boxes. Boxes are caches i assume. What is the difference between a green smiley and a grey smiley?

 

green smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for less than 14 days

grey smiley = geocacher is holding the tb for more than 14 days

 

Same thing applies to the boxes

 

green box = tb in the cache for less than 14 days

grey box = tb in the cache for more than 14 days

 

I actually think the green threshold is 7 days.

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Contributing to the post:

 

Scraping is using an automated program to pull information off of a website for use somewhere else.

 

Not Contributing to the post:

 

For days now I've been seeing the headlines about the guy with TB traveling to Greece and all the trouble that has caused. For days... everytime I saw a headline my first thought was Travel Bug.

 

Now... when I just saw this post... my first thought was why someone would want their Teberculosis status on a website about geocaching.

 

Really people... we need to get them to rename the disease... it's causing all kinds of problems here!!

 

:rolleyes:

 

I about spit my water all over my keyboard when I read that one. :blink: Thanks!

Link to comment

Contributing to the post:

 

Scraping is using an automated program to pull information off of a website for use somewhere else.

 

Not Contributing to the post:

 

For days now I've been seeing the headlines about the guy with TB traveling to Greece and all the trouble that has caused. For days... everytime I saw a headline my first thought was Travel Bug.

 

Now... when I just saw this post... my first thought was why someone would want their Teberculosis status on a website about geocaching.

 

Really people... we need to get them to rename the disease... it's causing all kinds of problems here!!

 

:blink:

 

I about spit my water all over my keyboard when I read that one. :D Thanks!

 

My pleasure :rolleyes:

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I was looking for something like this but with the icon of a TB or a coin. A box the shape of the profile box but with the icon in it.

 

Is that a possibility?

 

Like this shape, with coin icon or TB icon and the desription of the item, location and milage.

 

07725843-2df2-4f12-a33a-0b663ad8fda4.jpg

Edited by Atwell Family
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I have added a page to my site (trackables)and still fixing it but had a few questions:

 

I have found this doesn't work if there is no picture but I have uploaded a number of pictures and some as still not working. All the released coins have pictures. All the TB's have pictures. Some load sometimes but not all the time and pthers are not loading at all.

 

Can anyone help?

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It is a long time since anyone posted to this thread but I came across it whilst releasing 5 Geocions simultaneously and wanting to include details of each coin on all the other coins pages.

 

One of coins in question is

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1959155

 

You can see the others via my proifile.

 

If I go to edit the details I have put the following in the description field

 

There are 5 coins in the series - each with the same mission, check out how they are doing below :

<img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...39-31125293e7ba">

<img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...2f-99d8972f8d41">

<img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...b1-125b83a08fb5">

<img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...d87-7e881663b39">

<img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/tb.aspx?gu...62e-77791534d02">

 

Why does only one of these work, all 5 coins have been activated in exactly the same way, all have pictures etc. Very frustrating as I can see absolutely no difference between the 5 listings.

 

Can anyone throw any light on this ?

Edited by Paul & Ros
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