Cache descriptions truncated on CO,

[+BiT]

I noticed that some of the longer cache descriptions are being truncated. This is especially harmful on earthcaches and virtual cache where you have to answer questions and they are often posted at the end of the cache description.

 

I noticed this happening in both loading situations-PQ and "Send to GPS". I opened the .gpx file on the CO in a text editor application and it is all there, so it looks like the CO is truncating the descriptions.

 

Example: With When the Glacier Kame the description is truncated just before the questions.

 

[+g-o-cashers]

I noticed that some of the longer cache descriptions are being truncated. This is especially harmful on earthcaches and virtual cache where you have to answer questions and they are often posted at the end of the cache description.

 

I noticed this happening in both loading situations-PQ and "Send to GPS". I opened the .gpx file on the CO in a text editor application and it is all there, so it looks like the CO is truncating the descriptions.

 

Example: With When the Glacier Kame the description is truncated just before the questions.

 

 

I've seen similar and have this on the Issues list. Thanks for the pointer to another example - I'll add this.

 

I sent this to Garmin earlier in the week but haven't heard anything yet.

 

GO$Rs

Edited March 7, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[+embra]

Do you have any idea of how many characters are allowed before truncation? Is it consistent?

 

I just noticed you went to the trouble of providing an example cache, so I pasted the text into Word and got a word count of 742 for what I understand to be the cutoff. Multiplying by 5 gives a rough estimate of 3700 characters. The 800 character limit in my PN-20 is dwarfed by that.

[+g-o-cashers]

Do you have any idea of how many characters are allowed before truncation? Is it consistent?

 

I just noticed you went to the trouble of providing an example cache, so I pasted the text into Word and got a word count of 742 for what I understand to be the cutoff. Multiplying by 5 gives a rough estimate of 3700 characters. The 800 character limit in my PN-20 is dwarfed by that.

 

You should be able to get a character count directly from Word on the properties page.

 

GO$Rs

[+embra]

Ah, Properties! Turns out I had a good guess, but I forgot about spaces. 3712 characters without spaces, 4460 with.

[SiliconFiend]

Ah, Properties! Turns out I had a good guess, but I forgot about spaces. 3712 characters without spaces, 4460 with.

There may also be HTML markup in the description text that is "invisible" but adds to the character count. You'd have to look at the raw XML, but I wouldn't be surprised if the limit is 5000 characters. Nice, round number.

[+apersson850]

That cache description is a whole geological textbook, so not too surprising it's truncated. They have to put a limit somewhere, I'd assume.

[+RRLover]

That cache description is a whole geological textbook, so not too surprising it's truncated. They have to put a limit somewhere, I'd assume.

I agree, it seems there now needs to be some reasonable constraint amongst ourselves to not overtax some

of the newfound abilities. Perhaps a separate location on the page for a l-o-n-g description that won't necessarily

need to "go along for the ride".

 

Norm

Edited March 9, 2008 by RRLover

[+g-o-cashers]

No problem with limits but if the unit is truncating descriptions or deleting caches I want to know about it. Cachemate does this very effectively -- after a download you get a nice summary saying which cache descriptions were truncated.

 

I really wish Garmin would add a geocache stats page to list the number of caches and other key attributes about the current set of caches loaded.

 

GO$Rs

[+RRLover]

I really wish Garmin would add a geocache stats page to list the number of caches and other key attributes about the current set of caches loaded.

GO$Rs

Good point!

That would be good info to have for those who don't necessarily "message" all the data prior to trans-loading to the handheld.

[+RRLover]

<snip>ooops!<snip>

Norm

Edited March 9, 2008 by RRLover