Jump to content

Geocaching WAP site - easier searching

d-dixon

By d-dixon
in GPS technology and devices

Followers 9

Recommended Posts

d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
Posted

Having recently acquired a PDA phone with GPS, I've been playing around with Groundspeak's WAP pages (http://wap.geocaching.com/) to find nearby caches online. However, neither of the two search options work well for what I want. Searching by postcode is a non-starter in many places while searching by coordinates requires switching back-and-forth to your favourite GPS software to get the required lat and long values, and manually plugging them in.

To automate this, I've written a tiny Windows Mobile program to get your coordinates from the GPS receiver and send these to the wap site, so that the 10 nearest caches are returned. That's all it does, so if a cache looks interesting you still have to manually transfer the coordinates to your navigation software.

If this sounds useful to you, please feel free to use it - download from:

 

http://www.dna-software.co.uk/geo/NearbyCaches.CAB

 

I hope it's useful - let me know how you get on!

 

Notes:

You'll be installing unknown software from an unknown source - only proceed if you're happy with that.

You need a PDA running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, with an automatically managed GPSr (internal or external).

You also need an internet connection - the amount of data downloaded is minimal, but it may cost.

There's no fancy messages or error detection, so if you're starting from cold nothing will appear to happen until a valid location is obtained - be patient!

 

I can't see that this infringes either the letter or the spirit of Groundspeak's terms of use (after all, it's only automating the acquisition of coordinates), but please let me know if you think I'm wrong.

 

I thought I'd try it out on fellow UK geocachers first before opening it up to a wider audience, so please let this run in the UK forum at least for the time being.

 

David

Link to comment
JPatton

+JPatton

Posted
Posted

I've tried it on my HTC Touch in several locations and it works well. Like you said it's pretty basic, but it's much better than getting coordinates from your gps and typing them into the WAP site. It would be nice to have some indication the program has started when you tap the icon. It took about 15-20 seconds for the WAP site to open in the browser after starting. As is, I think I'll be pretty happy with it.

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Link to comment
Icarus.

Icarus.

Posted
Posted

Downloaded this and tried it on my MDA Vario 3. It works a treat - thanks for creating this useful bit of software.

 

Does it time-out and exit if it cannot get a GPS signal after a certain length of time? I tried it indoors straight after I installed it and it kept the GPS on permanently - I had to reset it to turn the GPS off. The program does not show in the running programs list, so I couldn't stop it from there.

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Does it time-out and exit if it cannot get a GPS signal after a certain length of time?

No - I did say it was basic :D

Not having a way to stop it is a bit of an omission though - I'll add a dialog box/timer to allow the program to be killed, when I get a chance.

 

any chance we can get a version that will pull up the full website instead of the wap version?

 

It took me a while to work out how to formulate an URL for the WAP site that would work, and the full website uses a completely different search form. If someone can give me an URL containing lat and long that brings up the nearest caches then I could easily build a second small app, otherwise I'll have to have a dig and see what I can come up with.

 

Thank you all for your feedback - much appreciated.

Link to comment
F.orT.heP.lanet

F.orT.heP.lanet

Posted
Posted

hello all and many many thanks to ddixon for the wonderful program. works great on the htc diamond, one small problem though. im not sure what i did but i was changing fonts and stuff around on the pda and now i cant seem to have the nearest caches pop up. The program runs fine, gets my coords, puts them in online on the wap site but now it only stops on the main wap page. if i cut and paste the url into my opera mobile browser it works fine, just not on p.i.e... anybody have any ideas what i could do to fix it.. ive uninstalled all programs with no luck.. or if anybody knows how i can make the program open thru my opera browser id owe ya one big time...anyone please i love this program and it was super useful...anything i can do to help or troubleshoot please let me know. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! :D

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I've exchanged a few emails with F.orT.heP.lanet and I can't explain why internet explorer fails while Opera works. A cold reset would probably cure it, but that really is a last resort!

Anyway, no need now as there may be a solution. The previous version of my program was hard-coded for Internet Explorer. After far too long working out how, the new version will use the default browser:

http://www.dna-software.co.uk/geo/NearbyCaches12.CAB

So if Opera is your default browser, that's what should open.

Let me know if it works!

 

David

Link to comment
F.orT.heP.lanet

F.orT.heP.lanet

Posted
Posted

OMG IT WORKS! Thank you so so much!! This is great. I just used it while grabbing a few caches.. SO much better than my cache run yesterday. And a hard reset for me woulda been a bummer as i dont have a computer, and id have to use a relatives but i planning that as my next move.. Fyi i got the stock font files for my phone and replaced the "iffy" ones before i downloaded the new version and that didnt work so im thinking it wasent my font that messed things up.. ALL programs were uninstalled so idk, i did sync music but i dont think that could do it. Do you? It dosent really matter now but im intrigued on what caused conflict w/ p.i.e. for future referance. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ..Im in debt to you thank you again!

Link to comment
julianh

+julianh

Posted
Posted

David,

 

I got NearbyCaches12 loaded on my Samsung i617 with no trouble (a.k.a. BlackJack II - Windows Mobile 6.1 smart-phone, built in GPS, no touch-screen). It loaded up fine, connected to the GPS, got a fix, and then connected me to the Groundspeak wap site - but it didn't seem to pass through my current location coordinates.

 

Instead, it just took me to the default wap.geocaching.com site, with the following options:

 

1 - View Cache

2 - Find Caches

3 - Log a Cache

4 - Travel Bug Lookup

Log In

 

I tried "2 - Find Caches", but this gave me the usual options of "Coordinates" or "Zip Code", and if I selected "Coordinates", the data entry fields were blank.

 

So near, and yet so far!

 

Am I missing something, or does it just not work on this model of smart-phone?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
David,

I got NearbyCaches12 loaded on my Samsung i617 with no trouble (a.k.a. BlackJack II - Windows Mobile 6.1 smart-phone, built in GPS, no touch-screen). It loaded up fine, connected to the GPS, got a fix, and then connected me to the Groundspeak wap site - but it didn't seem to pass through my current location coordinates.

Instead, it just took me to the default wap.geocaching.com site.

 

The program's built for WM5/WM6 touchscreen devices, but that's not to say it won't work on non-touchscreen ones - it's not as if there's anything to touch! It sounds as if you're having similar problems to F.orT.heP.lanet - the Groundspeak page you're seeing is the one you get if there's something even slightly wrong with the URL. Perhaps something to do with cookies/sessions/internet settings might be to blame? I'm afraid I'm only able to test the program on exactly one PDA connected to one network running version 6.0 of Windows Mobile and I've not been able to replicate the problem, so please let me know if you work anything out. An alternative browser worked for F.orT.heP.lanet (which suggests it's software/settings related), so perhaps give that a try?

David

Link to comment
julianh

+julianh

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm afraid I'm only able to test the program on exactly one PDA connected to one network running version 6.0 of Windows Mobile and I've not been able to replicate the problem, so please let me know if you work anything out. An alternative browser worked for F.orT.heP.lanet (which suggests it's software/settings related), so perhaps give that a try?

David

David,

 

Thanks for the info - when I check the "Address Bar", the app seems to be passing the correct URL to Internet Explorer, so I can only assume that it is something to do with my settings for Windows Mobile 6.1 and / or the bundled version of Internet Explorer.

 

I'll have a bit of a play with my phone's internet settings, and I will report back here if I manage to resolve the issue. If not, I'll just have to resort to the old method of manually entering my coordinates to find local caches.

 

Thanks anyway for the good effort - and I'm glad that it works for some people.

 

Cheers!

Edited by julianh
Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
OK, so I'm not that savy. I have a Motorola Q Smartphone that I can hook up to the computer via ActiveSync. Any additional instructions for getting the program to the smartphone?? :rolleyes:

 

OK, download the .cab file to your PC. To get it to your phone, either place the file in the directory that ActiveSync uses to synchronise with your phone, or manually copy it across using the "Explore" option in ActiveSync. Then browse on your phone to wherever the file went ("My Documents"?) using File Explorer. Click on the .cab file and it should install after asking you to confirm. When you now go to Start --> Programs there should be a new icon labelled "Nearby Caches" - done!

 

I hope this all makes sense,

David

Link to comment
rambrush

+rambrush

Posted
Posted (edited)

David,

 

I got NearbyCaches12 loaded on my Samsung i617 with no trouble (a.k.a. BlackJack II - Windows Mobile 6.1 smart-phone, built in GPS, no touch-screen). It loaded up fine, connected to the GPS, got a fix, and then connected me to the Groundspeak wap site - but it didn't seem to pass through my current location coordinates.

 

Instead, it just took me to the default wap.geocaching.com site, with the following options:

 

1 - View Cache

2 - Find Caches

3 - Log a Cache

4 - Travel Bug Lookup

Log In

 

I tried "2 - Find Caches", but this gave me the usual options of "Coordinates" or "Zip Code", and if I selected "Coordinates", the data entry fields were blank.

 

So near, and yet so far!

 

Am I missing something, or does it just not work on this model of smart-phone?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

Ok that is all the wap link will provide short and sweet and works as you said on my Mogul 6800. Now what I also use is the HTML file off of GSAK bring up the cache and you can log it and find nearby caches. I also have google maps/gps but don't use them and rely on pn-20 for the hard core stuff. I am running wm 6.1 on my unit.

Edited by rambrush
Link to comment
JBnW

+JBnW

Posted
Posted

 

OK, download the .cab file to your PC. To get it to your phone, either place the file in the directory that ActiveSync uses to synchronise with your phone, or manually copy it across using the "Explore" option in ActiveSync. Then browse on your phone to wherever the file went ("My Documents"?) using File Explorer. Click on the .cab file and it should install after asking you to confirm. When you now go to Start --> Programs there should be a new icon labelled "Nearby Caches" - done!

 

I hope this all makes sense,

David

 

Excellent!! Thanks you! Sometimes the simplest things....

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm keen to work out why the generated URL works for some people but not for others, with no obvious rhyme nor reason between the 2 groups.

To do this I need to collate info from as many users as possible from both groups and I'd be very grateful if you all could help by:

 

1. Sending me the generated URL - Let Nearby Caches open Internet Explorer Mobile then select Menu --> Tools --> Send Link... and send it to me at geo<AT>ddixon.force9.co.uk

 

2. For more detailed info about what your browser is passing to the WAP site, it would also be great if you would then:

-Copy the URL from the address bar in Internet Explorer Mobile

-Navigate to http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html

-Paste the geocaching URL into the "URL" text box, press "Submit"

-Copy the resulting output and email it to me at geo<AT>ddixon.force9.co.uk (for example by pasting into "notes" and then using Menu --> send...)

 

Hopefully there will be some clue in there as to what the problem is.

 

In the meantime, Opera mobile seems to work...

 

David

Link to comment
julianh

+julianh

Posted
Posted

I'm keen to work out why the generated URL works for some people but not for others, with no obvious rhyme nor reason between the 2 groups.

To do this I need to collate info from as many users as possible from both groups ...

Hopefully there will be some clue in there as to what the problem is.

 

In the meantime, Opera mobile seems to work...

 

David

David,

 

As requested, I have sent you a couple of e-mails documenting my results on my Samsung i617T (Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard, Internet Explorer, no touch-screen).

 

On my phone, your app takes me to the Geocaching "search for a cache" page, rather than to the actual nearest caches. However, when I tried the same link out from Internet Explorer on my desktop computer, it took me straight to the "closest caches" page, with the 10 nearest caches, so it looks like the generated URL is correct. I can only assume that for some reason, Internet Explorer on my phone is not processing the whole URL properly.

 

I have checked my Internet Explorer settings on my phone (as best I can), and as far as I can tell, all is as it should be. Cookies are definitely enabled, for example.

 

(Personally, I don't really want to load another web browser - Opera - just to get this app to work properly.)

 

Thanks again for your efforts with this!

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Got it!

Many thanks to those who helped out - I've tracked down the offending setting preventing NearbyCaches working with certain browser/PDA combinations.

Each time a web request is made, the browser sends an ID string along with the request. The contents of this "User-Agent" string determine whether NearbyCaches works.

The WAP site only sends the correct page if this string:

- Begins with "Mozilla/x.x"

- contains the word "compatible"

 

So, this works:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP

But this doesn't:

SAMSUNG-SGH-I617/1.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

The solution here would be to remove "SAMSUNG-SGH-I617/1.0" from the string. Unfortunately this involves editing the registry - see here if you are comfortable doing this. Otherwise, the only work-around is to use an alternative browser.

The other solution would be a slight tweak at Groundspeak's end - I might make enquiries...

 

David

Link to comment
julianh

+julianh

Posted
Posted

The solution here would be to remove "SAMSUNG-SGH-I617/1.0" from the string. Unfortunately this involves editing the registry - see here if you are comfortable doing this. Otherwise, the only work-around is to use an alternative browser.

The other solution would be a slight tweak at Groundspeak's end - I might make enquiries...

 

David

David,

 

Your efforts are very much appreciated. However, in my case, my Samsung is a phone first and foremost, a PDA / ultra-portable computer secondly, and a "techie toy" last and least. (Well, OK, I bought it because it is a great "techie toy" :o , and I am happy to try loading new apps etc, but I don't have the desire or skills to start hacking it's innards!)

 

I am not comfortable with performing registry tweaks or installing new internet browsers, because I fear what unintended harm I might do to the phone's functionality. (It works great now, so I am inclined to leave well alone.)

 

Looks like I will have to forego the pleasures of your excellent application - oh well ...... ;)

 

Thanks anyway!

Link to comment
rodz

+rodz

Posted
Posted

I have tried this and it works well on my MDA Vario III/Kaiser.

 

I too would love a version that gives the full GC website.

 

The following url gives the caches nearest me that I haven't found and don't own.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.asp...;submit8=Search

 

I found this from the Hide & Seek A Cache page, so if you need decimal format you can get it from there. Adding the &f=1 parameter removes found and owned caches. You will need to be logged in with cookies enable to have these types removed from the list. I hope this helps.

 

Thanks for all your hard work so far.

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I too would love a version that gives the full GC website.

The following url gives the caches nearest me that I haven't found and don't own.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.asp...;submit8=Search

 

Thank you Rodz - for some reason I thought it was going to be more complicated than that. I'll eventually add an option to switch to the full website but for the time being here's a version that will access the main website:

WebCache.CAB

I'd only recommend using this if you have an inclusive data plan - each page is ~ 250 kb so could get expensive!

This will co-exist on your PDA with the WAP version so you can switch between the 2. As per Rodz' suggestion, this will remove any found/owned caches so if you want to see these, log out first...

 

David

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I'd love to be using this, but unofortunately on my MDA Compact III it never gets a satellite fix and just waits.
Not working on my Asus P550(v15220),just hangs on Acquiring location.

The blue led for inbuilt GPS does not light up.

My best guess is that in both cases, your PDAs are not properly set to allow Windows to automatically manage the GPSr output. To check, go Start --> Settings. Under the "System" tab there should be an icon labelled "External GPS" (If not, it may have a different name, or alternatively may be hidden in which case tweaking the registry is required). Click on this to examine the settings - on the access tab, the check box "Manage GPS automatically" must be ticked. Also check on the hardware tab that the settings are correct for your GPS port, and on the Programs tab that the GPS program port is set to something sensible. See here for some screenshots. I hope this helps.

David

Link to comment
rodz

+rodz

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the GC web version which works like a dream. I have often found myself searching through a pile of found caches on GC for that one new one that I haven't found. This will make it a doddle and fills a gap in Cachemate's functionality.

 

Nice work.

Link to comment
d-dixon

+d-dixon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Hi d-dixon,

Sorry about the long gap replying.

 

I tried your suggestions today but I still can't get it to work. If I change any of my settings TomTom stops working.

 

Thanks again for your efforts,

Gareth

In my experience, TomTom is very fussy. It will work with the GPSr hardware port, but then nothing else can use the signal. If you use the software port which allows multiple applications to use the signal (and as required by my program), TomTom won't work unless another application has already opened the port. Fortunately for me, my PDA has a 2nd hardware port (don't know why!) which TomTom is free to hog.

Another program you might like to try, although again I think it requires an automatically managed GPS port, is Groundspeak's Geocaching Live beta site. It looks like it is limited to European cachers at the moment but automatically finds the 5 nearest caches, and has lots of other bells & whistles compared to my program - and a larger download bill too, probably...

 

David

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
Followers 9
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...