GPX file download problem

April 4, 2008

I'm using Windows Mobile 6 with the default Pocket Internet Explorer. On GC.com, when I click "GPX exchange file" to dowload the gpx file it saves cache_details.aspx. I assume that PIE doesn't know how to handle aspx files and this is the problem. A google query on this problem returned no answers for me so any help would be appreciated.

I found myself eating out and getting an email on my GPS enabled Sprint Mogul that showed a newly publishing cache within .6 miles so I thought I'd fire up PIE and DL the GPX, import to BeelineGps and make a quick FTF. After visiting GC.com and trying to DL the Gpx I found that I couldn't. Very disappointing as it was getting dark and I didn't have time to manually enter the Coordinates. :laughing:

Note: Pease move this thread to the correct forum if I placed it in the wrong one as I tried my best to pick the most appropriate forum.

-ifloydian

1.2k · April 4, 2008

I'm using Windows Mobile 6 with the default Pocket Internet Explorer. On GC.com, when I click "GPX exchange file" to dowload the gpx file it saves cache_details.aspx. I assume that PIE doesn't know how to handle aspx files and this is the problem. A google query on this problem returned no answers for me so any help would be appreciated.

This is a known bug on the GC site. Many will argue that its a bug on the ppc version of IE, but its not.

Its some crude attempt to keep people from downloading the gpx files in an automated way so they make the way the gpx files download semi-nonstandard. IE and firefox can deal with it, but some of the simpler browsers can't. The funny thing is it doesn't work. I know of several automated gpx download utilities out there.

April 4, 2008

Disappointing!!!

When I joined and paid my yearly subscription I expected to get what I paid for as the Member Features states:

Download individual listings to GPX

You have the ability to click on a link to download a cache page directly to GPX format. GPX files contain all the information on the cache page which can be read by applications that support this file format.

July 4, 2008

I have this problem too on my PocketPC .

Must use a PC to download GPX .

But I'm mobile online without a PC.

How many user affected?

What Groundspeak says?

A solution in appear?

Schnappi

Edited July 4, 2008 by rschnappi

July 4, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

July 5, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

It doesn't because it's not actually a gpx formatted file. It's a .aspx file that is used to redirect the download.

July 7, 2008

It doesn't because it's not actually a gpx formatted file. It's a .aspx file that is used to redirect the download.

Correct!

Schnappi

July 8, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

What really needs to happen is that the Groundspeak developers need to rewrite the page so that it functions properly in PIE(Pocket Internet Explorer) so users that pay for Groundspeak services can use them.

Remember, member services included:

Download individual listings to GPX

You have the ability to click on a link to download a cache page directly to GPX format. GPX files contain all the information on the cache page which can be read by applications that support this file format.

5.2k · July 8, 2008

How about if the authors of PIE rewrite their app to properly deal with the headers in the response packet, instead of blindly assuming the filetype of the returned file.

1.2k · July 8, 2008

How about if the authors of PIE rewrite their app to properly deal with the headers in the response packet, instead of blindly assuming the filetype of the returned file.

Because PIE responds correctly, its not a bug in PIE, its an attempt by GC to prevent scraping by doing things non-standard.

July 8, 2008

How about if the authors of PIE rewrite their app to properly deal with the headers in the response packet, instead of blindly assuming the filetype of the returned file.

Because PIE responds correctly, its not a bug in PIE, its an attempt by GC to prevent scraping by doing things non-standard.

PIE = Pocket Internet Explorer by Micro$oft and still the most used pocket browser.

Other mainstream browsers can't deal with it either like netfront and opera mobile. Don't know about Safari mobile.

Fix the form and input button so we can download the GPX file using a standard method is the only solution I see.

Lil Devil, What pocket browser are you using? I need a solution, maybe you can suggest one. My OS platforms are Pocket PC 2003 and Windows Mobile 5 & 6.

July 8, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

It doesn't because it's not actually a gpx formatted file. It's a .aspx file that is used to redirect the download.

Are you sure? I'm not sure how this works, otherwise

Don't know about Safari mobile.

Safari mobile can't download files anyway (there's no file browser in the first place)...

July 8, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

It doesn't because it's not actually a gpx formatted file. It's a .aspx file that is used to redirect the download.

Are you sure? I'm not sure how this works, otherwise

Don't know about Safari mobile.

Safari mobile can't download files anyway (there's no file browser in the first place)...

Yep, I examined the code....

9.2k · July 8, 2008

It should work if you rename the file with .GPX

It doesn't because it's not actually a gpx formatted file. It's a .aspx file that is used to redirect the download.

I downloaded a GPX file from a cache page, using the Blazer browser on my Palm Centro. Although it had a .aspx extension, it was an actual GPX file (it took a few seconds to rename it). I then BT'ed to my laptop, and was able to open it with a GPX app with no problem.

1.2k · July 9, 2008

I downloaded a GPX file from a cache page, using the Blazer browser on my Palm Centro. Although it had a .aspx extension, it was an actual GPX file (it took a few seconds to rename it). I then BT'ed to my laptop, and was able to open it with a GPX app with no problem.

Then it sounds like blazer is half way working around this bug. I've looked at several attempted downloads and they are clearly not gpx files.

1.2k · July 9, 2008

Here is the contents of the file I get when I attempt a gpx download, clearly not a gpx file. For reference, this is GC1DQD2.


<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd xhtml 1.0 transitional//en" "http://www.w3.org/tr/xhtml1/dtd/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
<head>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" />
<link rel="icon" href="../favicon.ico" />

<title>
	GC1DQD2 - A Traditional Cache in Missouri, United States called Peabody Ladder To Success created by Kyle_freemason
</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="Peabody Ladder To Success(GC1DQD2)  was created by Kyle_freemason on 6/30/2008. It's a Small size geocache, with difficulty of 1.5, terrain of 1.5. It's located in Missouri, United States. Peabody Conservation Area. You are now in a historical area. Long ago when coal mines were thriving the Peabody Coal company dug these pits." />
<link href="../css/geo.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="../includes/siteutils.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="../includes/prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="../includes/scriptaculous.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="../includes/rollovers.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../includes/siteutils.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../js/lightbox.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../includes/rot13.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

</head>

<body bgcolor="#74914f"  leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" id="geocaching">
<br />
<table width="95%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tr>
		<td colspan="2" height="19" bgcolor="#666666">
			<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
				<tr>
					<td width="50%" height="19" bgcolor="#666666" align="left">
						 <a href="../" id="Header1_unk1" class="miniwhite">Home</a> <span class="miniwhite">
							> <a href="./nearest.aspx" class=miniwhite>Seek</A> > View Cache Details</span>
					</td>
					<td bgcolor="#666666" align="right" nowrap="nowrap">
						<span id="Header1_lblLogin" class="miniwhite">you are logged  in as</span> <a id="Header1_lnkLoginName" class="miniwhite" href="../my"><span class='userLoggedIn'>Potato Finder</span></a> <span
								class='miniwhite'>[</span><a id="Header1_urlLogin" class="miniwhite" href="http://www.geocaching.com/login/default.aspx?RESET=Y&redir=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geocaching.com%2fseek%2fcache_details.aspx%3fguid%3d4500b03e-17f7-42fe-be93-27667caf919f" target="_self"><span class='userLoggedIn'>log out</span></a><span
										class='miniwhite'>]</span> 
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</td>
	</tr>

[remainder of file cut to keep post short]

</html>

9.2k · July 9, 2008

Here is the contents of the file I get when I attempt a gpx download, clearly not a gpx file. For reference, this is GC1DQD2.

Here's what I got via my Palm Centro, using the same cache:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<gpx xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" version="1.0" creator="Groundspeak, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [url="http://www.Groundspeak.com""]http://www.Groundspeak.com"[/url] xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 [url="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd"]http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd[/url] [url="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0"]http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0[/url] [url="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/cache.xsd""]http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/cache.xsd"[/url] xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0">
 <name>Cache Listing Generated from Geocaching.com</name>
 <desc>This is an individual cache generated from Geocaching.com</desc>
 <author>Account "Kyle_freemason" From Geocaching.com</author>
 <email>contact@geocaching.com</email>
 <url>http://www.geocaching.com</url>
 <urlname>Geocaching - High Tech Treasure Hunting</urlname>
 <time>2008-07-09T19:04:29.1548808Z</time>
 <keywords>cache, geocache</keywords>
 <bounds minlat="38.096617" minlon="-94.449833" maxlat="38.098517" maxlon="-94.448417" />
 <wpt lat="38.096617" lon="-94.448417">
   <time>2008-06-30T00:00:00</time>
   <name>GC1DQD2</name>
   <desc>Peabody Ladder To Success by Kyle_freemason, Traditional Cache (1.5/1.5)</desc>
   <url>http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4500b03e-17f7-42fe-be93-27667caf919f</url>
   <urlname>Peabody Ladder To Success</urlname>
   <sym>Geocache</sym>
   <type>Geocache|Traditional Cache</type>
   <Groundspeak:cache id="922192" available="True" archived="False" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0">
     <Groundspeak:name>Peabody Ladder To Success</Groundspeak:name>
     <Groundspeak:placed_by>Kyle_freemason</Groundspeak:placed_by>
     <Groundspeak:owner id="1598395">Kyle_freemason</Groundspeak:owner>
     <Groundspeak:type>Traditional Cache</Groundspeak:type>
     <Groundspeak:container>Small</Groundspeak:container>
     <Groundspeak:difficulty>1.5</Groundspeak:difficulty>
     <Groundspeak:terrain>1.5</Groundspeak:terrain>
     <Groundspeak:country>United States</Groundspeak:country>
     <Groundspeak:state>Missouri</Groundspeak:state>
     <Groundspeak:short_description html="False">Peabody Conservation Area.</Groundspeak:short_description>
     <Groundspeak:long_description html="False">You are now in a historical area. Long ago when coal mines were thriving the Peabody Coal company dug these pits. Now that coal mining has all but died and taken many small towns with it, these pits are a lasting reminder of the men who worked and dug the coal from the veins below. The cache is about 50 feet from the road in a tupperware container inside of a ziplock bag. Inside you will find a logbook, pencil, travel bug and your fortune. Good Luck and happy hunting!
Additional Hidden Waypoints
PA1DQD2 - Peabody Camping Lot
N 38Â° 05.911 W 094Â° 26.990
Please use this parking lot/camping area to begin the trek to the cache. Parking anywhere else will disrupt the flow of traffic of those driving through the wildlife area.

</Groundspeak:long_description>
     <Groundspeak:encoded_hints>The name of the cache is where below lies the cache.</Groundspeak:encoded_hints>
     <Groundspeak:logs>
       <Groundspeak:log id="47529953">
         <Groundspeak:date>2008-06-30T19:00:00</Groundspeak:date>
         <Groundspeak:type>Post Reviewer Note</Groundspeak:type>
         <Groundspeak:finder id="1575954">Reviewer of the Cache</Groundspeak:finder>
         <Groundspeak:text encoded="False">Congratulations Kyle_freemason on this addition to geocaching in your area. All future finders and I appreciate you getting the required permission.

Thanks for your continued contributions to Geocaching from your friendly Missouri Geocache Review team,
Glenn (*gln) & Reviewer of the Cache (RotC)

Dave's Handy Hiding Hints [url="http://www.ratisher.com/geocache_hiding.htm"]http://www.ratisher.com/geocache_hiding.htm[/url]
Add yourself to the Geocachers map at [url="http://www.frappr.com/missourigeocachers"]http://www.frappr.com/missourigeocachers[/url]

[b]Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived[/b] [url="http://tinyurl.com/87cqw"]http://tinyurl.com/87cqw[/url]
[b]Caches placed on MDC WITH permission![/b] [url="http://tinyurl.com/9udko"]http://tinyurl.com/9udko[/url]
</Groundspeak:text>
       </Groundspeak:log>
       <Groundspeak:log id="47529936">
         <Groundspeak:date>2008-07-01T00:48:59</Groundspeak:date>
         <Groundspeak:type>Publish Listing</Groundspeak:type>
         <Groundspeak:finder id="1575954">Reviewer of the Cache</Groundspeak:finder>
         <Groundspeak:text encoded="False">Published</Groundspeak:text>
       </Groundspeak:log>
       <Groundspeak:log id="47528524">
         <Groundspeak:date>2008-06-30T19:00:00</Groundspeak:date>
         <Groundspeak:type>Write note</Groundspeak:type>
         <Groundspeak:finder id="1598395">Kyle_freemason</Groundspeak:finder>
         <Groundspeak:text encoded="False">Inside you will find a travel bug, please help it along the way to find a home in a new cache!</Groundspeak:text>
       </Groundspeak:log>
     </Groundspeak:logs>
     <Groundspeak:travelbugs>
       <Groundspeak:travelbug id="1239265" ref="TB1RCB7">
         <Groundspeak:name>COKE CAN</Groundspeak:name>
       </Groundspeak:travelbug>
     </Groundspeak:travelbugs>
   </Groundspeak:cache>
 </wpt>
 <wpt lat="38.098517" lon="-94.449833">
   <time>2008-06-30T17:44:25.187</time>
   <name>PA1DQD2</name>
   <cmt>Please use this parking lot/camping area to begin the trek to the cache. Parking anywhere else will disrupt the flow of traffic of those driving through the wildlife area.</cmt>
   <desc>Peabody Camping Lot</desc>
   <url>http://www.geocaching.com/seek/wpt.aspx?WID=1512d645-9d7b-4d08-a9fd-ee4998af915c</url>
   <urlname>Peabody Camping Lot</urlname>
   <sym>Parking Area</sym>
   <type>Waypoint|Parking Area</type>
 </wpt>
</gpx>

Other than the file extension, it seems to work fine.

July 9, 2008

Here is the contents of the file I get when I attempt a gpx download, clearly not a gpx file. For reference, this is GC1DQD2.

Here is the contents of the file I get when I attempt a gpx download, clearly not a gpx file. For reference, this is GC1DQD2.

Here's what I got via my Palm Centro, using the same cache:

[...]

Other than the file extension, it seems to work fine.

From that same cache page:

<form name="Form1" method="post" action="cache_details.aspx?guid=4500b03e-17f7-42fe-be93-27667caf919f" id="Form1">

<input type="submit" name="btnGPXDL" value="GPX eXchange File" id="btnGPXDL" />

So it seems like one mobile browser is submitting the POST request correctly, and the other isn't? All the button appears to do is submit "btnGPXDL" to the cache page.

1.2k · July 9, 2008

From that same cache page:
<form name="Form1" method="post" action="cache_details.aspx?guid=4500b03e-17f7-42fe-be93-27667caf919f" id="Form1">
<input type="submit" name="btnGPXDL" value="GPX eXchange File" id="btnGPXDL" />
So it seems like one mobile browser is submitting the POST request correctly, and the other isn't? All the button appears to do is submit "btnGPXDL" to the cache page.

The problem isn't what the browser is submitting, its what the site is returning after the browser submits the post request.

July 9, 2008

From that same cache page:
<form name="Form1" method="post" action="cache_details.aspx?guid=4500b03e-17f7-42fe-be93-27667caf919f" id="Form1">
<input type="submit" name="btnGPXDL" value="GPX eXchange File" id="btnGPXDL" />
So it seems like one mobile browser is submitting the POST request correctly, and the other isn't? All the button appears to do is submit "btnGPXDL" to the cache page.
The problem isn't what the browser is submitting, its what the site is returning after the browser submits the post request.

What does the site return? A redirect or GPX code? Would it return something different for different browsers??

How do you know what the browser is submitting? :sad: It looks to me like yours isn't submitting anything and is just getting the cache page returned.

Or... could it somehow be a "multipart" page returned (HTML + GPX)?

July 10, 2008

What does the site return? A redirect or GPX code? Would it return something different for different browsers??
How do you know what the browser is submitting? It looks to me like yours isn't submitting anything and is just getting the cache page returned.

I fired up Wireshark (a packet sniffer), got my browser to impersonate the OP's version of Internet Explorer and hit the GPX download button. I saw nothing unusual - there was a 200 response code (so no redirection), the right Content-Type header (application/xml-gpx) and the GPX file itself in the response body. There was nothing funny going on.

I'd guess the OP's Internet Explorer version is doing something weird. <speculation> Perhaps it doesn't know how to handle forms that have more than one submit button? </speculation> If it isn't sending the details of which button was clicked properly then you will get the cache page back rather than the GPX file. Is there another browser available for that platform?

(edit for clarity)

Edited July 10, 2008 by JeremyR

July 23, 2008

Good to see that the problem is in discussion.

I'm waiting for a solutions.

I cache paperless with CacheWolf.

Therefor I need mobile GPX download on PocketPC.

Will see...

Schnappi

July 27, 2008

The new opera mobile 9.5 beta browser don't download the GPX too.

A file with the right name will be saved, but the text inside is e.g.:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<head>

<title>

GC15X39 1+1=1 (Unknown Cache) in Sachsen, Germany created by Karrataka

</title>

July 28, 2008

On my WM5 PPC the file downloaded is named "cache_details.aspx", but when I rename it to "somthing.gpx" using the file properties, it loads up just fine into CacheMate and MobileXT.

It would be a lot better if teh filename was correct in the first placem but the work around allows the file to be used.

September 17, 2008

NetFront browser for PPC v3.3 on my new device with WM6 can download GPX files fine.

Please test this and replay

Schnappi

October 15, 2008

NetFront browser for PPC v3.3 on my new device with WM6 can download GPX files fine.

Please test this and replay

Schnappi

The fact that the site admins are not fixing this is why I have not purchased a premium membership for the past 3 months. In fact, the entire effort of obfuscating this site is exactly the kind of thing I do not want to fund. This is something that is VERY easy to fix. But the admin's appear to have 'preventing access for a few' a greater priority than fixing access for the paying subscribers. Why subscribe?

October 15, 2008

How about if the authors of PIE rewrite their app to properly deal with the headers in the response packet, instead of blindly assuming the filetype of the returned file.

This is clearly the reply of someone who has no idea what they are talking about. The site tools use ASPX, it and PIE are both written by microsoft! Unfortunately ASPX technology makes it very easy to create websites that work in IE6,7 and maybe Firefox, but nowhere else. ASPX frequently breaks when not being accessed from IE on Windows due to the use of postbacks and viewstates. Postbacks and viewstates are basically hacky ways to get around good site/design back-end architecture and code sloppy since the ASPX just dumps all the back-end variables/state info into a ugly blob on the front end.

October 15, 2008

NetFront browser for PPC v3.3 on my new device with WM6 can download GPX files fine.

Please test this and replay

Schnappi

Yeah, it might work with NF 3.3 but it was released at the end of 2005 and I tested a later version. I just didn't want to have to load many different browsers on my WM5/6 devices to use a paid for feature that should be modified to work properly with PIE. GS has geared their site towards IE and and use Microsoft backend technologies (e.g. ASP). I would have expected them to develop the GPX download with Pocket Internet Explorer in mind. I perceive one of the reasons they programmed the d/l in aspx is to stop bot activity, etc. But, I've already found a way around this on my home PC running XP, so it was probably in vain.

The big problem for me is that it probably doesn't take but a few minutes to a few hours to resolve this issue.

Oh well, I wish I had the ability to test this download before paying the subscription to GS. If I did I wouldn't have been so disappointed in wasting my money. Live and learn.

Thanks All

GPX file download problem

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