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GPX File per state

GeoBlank

By GeoBlank
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GeoBlank

+GeoBlank

Posted
Posted

How many people run PQs to get the entire state downloaded? If 2 do, then that is twice the server traffic that is needed.

 

Recomendation, GC.com to post an "all active" GPX File that only premium members can download.

 

GC.com could mail it to subscribers similar to the My Found GPX File or they could let the members go and get it. ( a url that streams the data down )

 

If you want to know how to stream a file down to end users and add security around it here is a related article...

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2006/01/17/514154.aspx

 

Having 50 gpx files for the US built once a day or once a week even would have to lighten the load and make life much better for GSAK users...

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tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted

I don't need, or want, all the caches in San Diego County. :rolleyes: I can't imagine wanting a database of this entire State. Now, if I lived in Rhode Island . . . :laughing:

If I lived in Rhode Island, I would probably want to get Connecticut and at least a part of Massachusetts as well. The OP's claim is that even if only two people got a whole state, by creating a GPX file for each state once a week or even once a day you would reduce the server load. The way it stands now each PQ has to be generated on the PQ server so if there are common PQs that several people get the same files are generated multiple times. I'm not sure if you could prove that overall you would save resources however since people who currently don't get the whole state would probably subscribe to this if it was available and still get their regular PQs on other days.

 

Ideally we should all use PQ the way Miragee does. She has PQs set up for all the areas she normally caches in. Just before going out she can get the latest information for up to 5 of these areas. If she wants to go someplace different she can create custom PQs that day. Trying to keep an offline database of the whole state actually gives you less flexibility since you take up your daily allotment by having regularly scheduled PQs to keep your offline database up to date. The only arguments I see for an offline database is to have more than the last five logs or if you are traveling and won't have an internet connection to get your 5 daily PQs.

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StarBrand

+StarBrand

Posted
Posted

Just not going to happen.

 

Why would you "need" to have a whole state? Just download the area you will be in or use the caches along a route features to get the data for areas you will be in. You can do that up to 5 times per day and always have fresh data for geocaching.

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trainlove

+trainlove

Posted
Posted

Being anal, I have all of all New England states. That's about 25 PQ's. I've only done it twice, and not all of those PQ's. My GSAK database for Mass has quite a few archived caches. I like to see what caches have been planted by cachers I know, and not the hard way by looking at their profile. would that it could be done, have a PQ mode for all caches planted by a cacher as one of my forum posts is all about. Perfect for someone like >>>>>>>>> or <<<<<<<<<< who each have over 250 active planted caches. Names obscurred to protect the innocent.

I like to plot all active caches on various maps, the maps that one can view on geocaching.com are only so good while offline maps like National Geographocs Topo, or Delorme Topo or Magellan Topo or Garmin Topo (see the similarity here) are just plain great.

 

I'm planning to do the Delorme challenge for each of those states. I'm one of the 5 people who completed Massachusetts with 56 or so map squares. Rhode Island is next but I will only do hard puzzle or multi's for those 12 map squares. The other New England States, except for perhaps Maine, will be done whenever.

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Husker

+Husker

Posted
Posted

How many people run PQs to get the entire state downloaded? If 2 do, then that is twice the server traffic that is needed.

 

Speaking of server traffic, when you're drilling down the date ranges for each one of those PQs, how many tries does it take until you get a range you like? 3? 5? 7? Multiply that by 15 PQs (the number it take to get all of my state) and you've effectively generated anywhere from 50 to 100 PQs. Sure they don't get mailed but the server sorted the data to generate the preview list.

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GeoBlank

+GeoBlank

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Ok then... How about real time secure web services :laughing:

 

Of course only off of the reporting servers... You have a lot of extra servers at the Lilly Pad right? :D

 

POI files in my 76csx love to have all of Washington loaded at once. Anytime I head out to a corner of the state or a city I am ready.

 

One of these days it will happen... one of these days :(

 

I will conclude though by saying the send to GPS icon is so awesome for those time I am planning on going out of state and want to kind of pick and choose my own route. This site always rocks!

 

This site of course meaning gc.com (asp.net you know, not php like the forums... )

Edited by GeoBlank
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Stunod

+Stunod

Posted
Posted

 

Speaking of server traffic, when you're drilling down the date ranges for each one of those PQs, how many tries does it take until you get a range you like? 3? 5? 7?

 

One, and only one.

 

GSAK has a macro that will set the date ranges for you based on the caches in your database.

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GeoBlank

+GeoBlank

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Violating TOU? Can I get details on this? I try to play by the rules.

 

Actually just read it and I get it...

 

I will talk to GC.com offline to make sure what I am doing is fine... I have the ability to duplicate all the querries, just did not seem like an efficient use of server cycles...

 

Thanks

Edited by GeoBlank
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TheAprilFools

+TheAprilFools

Posted
Posted

 

Speaking of server traffic, when you're drilling down the date ranges for each one of those PQs, how many tries does it take until you get a range you like? 3? 5? 7?

 

One, and only one.

 

GSAK has a macro that will set the date ranges for you based on the caches in your database.

I am a heavy user of this technique and it takes many attempts to get it setup the first time, since you do not yet have the caches in your GSAK database.

 

There are over 40000 caches in california, and getting then all in a single PQ would be a bit much. I would rather they let you combine the results of mulitple PQ's into one data set, so you could run 1 x 2500 cache PQ rather than 5 x 500 cache PQ's, or even 1 x 10000 cache PQ instead of 20 x 500 cache PQ's over four days.

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K and J

+K and J

Posted
Posted

I currently run a few PQ's that take care of all the active Utah caches. I ended up writing a program that can read in all of the gpx files and output a google earth kml file that has the icons to depict each cache type. This way its very easy to pull up the kml and we can quickly look around the area for a cache, if we decide to take a trip down south a little bit we already have a list of caches to use. Very nice to have.

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Markwell

+Markwell

Posted
Posted

I currently run a few PQ's that take care of all the active Utah caches. I ended up writing a program that can read in all of the gpx files and output a google earth kml file that has the icons to depict each cache type. This way its very easy to pull up the kml and we can quickly look around the area for a cache, if we decide to take a trip down south a little bit we already have a list of caches to use. Very nice to have.

 

Why not just use the Geocaching.com kml?

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tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted

I currently run a few PQ's that take care of all the active Utah caches. I ended up writing a program that can read in all of the gpx files and output a google earth kml file that has the icons to depict each cache type. This way its very easy to pull up the kml and we can quickly look around the area for a cache, if we decide to take a trip down south a little bit we already have a list of caches to use. Very nice to have.

 

Why not just use the Geocaching.com kml?

The Geocaching.com network kml has a random error added to each cache location. It's fine for browsing a general area to get an idea of what caches are there but if you want to use Google Earth to plan a cache route or to check if two caches are really on the same side of the river it won't work. Of course you could just load the gpx files into Google Earth - there is no need to write a program to convert them to kml first. (Unless this feature is still broken on the Mac and Linux versions of Google Earth).

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