Jump to content

Querying Caches


TheBeast

Recommended Posts

I an working on a mobile application that will sit on top of Google maps and display caches in the immediate area. How can I go about querying the GC database? I've seen how the queries that return html are formatted, but parsing that would be tough. Are there queries that return xml, gpx or loc?

Link to comment

I an working on a mobile application that will sit on top of Google maps and display caches in the immediate area. How can I go about querying the GC database? I've seen how the queries that return html are formatted, but parsing that would be tough. Are there queries that return xml, gpx or loc?

 

Do you realize how hard the area would be to do? You would have to make a xml of everywere. I think at least. Work on central ohio first. We will have it it first ;)B)

Link to comment

I an working on a mobile application that will sit on top of Google maps and display caches in the immediate area. How can I go about querying the GC database? I've seen how the queries that return html are formatted, but parsing that would be tough. Are there queries that return xml, gpx or loc?

 

Do you realize how hard the area would be to do? You would have to make a xml of everywere. I think at least. Work on central ohio first. We will have it it first ;)B)

 

My idea is to use positional data from the device's GPS and then request an area around that position. The query that gets executed when you search from GC.com looks like this.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?lat_ns=1&lat_h=40&lat_mmss=05.879&long_ew=-1&long_h=83&long_mmss=04.775&dist=5&submit8=Search

 

lat_ns=1 tells us that it's North

lat_h=40 is 40 degrees

lat_mmss=05.879 is the decimal minutes.

 

these are the same for the Longitude

 

dist=5 says that we want to search a 5 mile radius.

 

This returns an html file that the browser displays. I want to make a similar query that returns an xml file that I can parse right away to show that caches on the map. I wouldn't be keeping the xml files around and I would only have caches on the map in the area around where you are looking at that time.

Link to comment

I am pretty sure that app would violate the TOU agreement. Better check before proceeding.

 

Also sounds a lot like the trimble navigator Software - have you looked into that?

TOU agreement? I've heard of TOS, what's TOU and do you have a link to it?

Link to comment

I am pretty sure that app would violate the TOU agreement. Better check before proceeding.

 

Also sounds a lot like the trimble navigator Software - have you looked into that?

 

Good call, I sent an email requesting permission and information. Thank you.

 

I am writing this app for the Android platform, so the Trimble software won't work for me. ;)

Link to comment

I am pretty sure that app would violate the TOU agreement. Better check before proceeding.

 

Also sounds a lot like the trimble navigator Software - have you looked into that?

 

Good call, I sent an email requesting permission and information. Thank you.

 

I am writing this app for the Android platform, so the Trimble software won't work for me. :(

While waiting for Groundspeak to get back to me I started off with loading in gpx and loc files so I could have something loaded. I now have it load in the file and display the caches on a map. You can pan / zoom the map and when you click on the cache it gives you the option to see the cache page or to navigate to it. Both of these seem to be working though I can't be 100% on the navigation screen until I get real hardware to test it on. Anyway, here are some screen shots of what I have so far. The accuracy is so bad because I am using a built in GPS simulator that has the accuracy hard coded to 100m.

 

1.png2.png4.png5.png6.png7.png8.png9.png

Link to comment

I am pretty sure that app would violate the TOU agreement. Better check before proceeding.

 

Also sounds a lot like the trimble navigator Software - have you looked into that?

 

Good call, I sent an email requesting permission and information. Thank you.

 

I am writing this app for the Android platform, so the Trimble software won't work for me. :)

While waiting for Groundspeak to get back to me I started off with loading in gpx and loc files so I could have something loaded. I now have it load in the file and display the caches on a map. You can pan / zoom the map and when you click on the cache it gives you the option to see the cache page or to navigate to it. Both of these seem to be working though I can't be 100% on the navigation screen until I get real hardware to test it on. Anyway, here are some screen shots of what I have so far. The accuracy is so bad because I am using a built in GPS simulator that has the accuracy hard coded to 100m.

 

1.png2.png4.png5.png6.png7.png8.png9.png

 

 

Looks like you may get it to work. Good luck.

Link to comment

That looks awesome. Could it work with Pocket Queries? That should get around any TOU issues.

It already is working with pocket queries! That's how I'm loading the data you see in there now. :)

 

I still have an email out to Groudspeak, because I think it would be awesome if it could update the display dynamically, but this is a good intermediate step!

Link to comment

But will it filter out Premium member only caches!? Keep that in mind. I hope it gets famous, then I could say that I have the creator on my friends list! :D:D

You would need to log in to create the pocket query or to (eventually) do the automatic querying so GC.com should do the filtering automatically.

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...