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Release Notes 4/29/10

OpinioNate

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OpinioNate

OpinioNate

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Posted (edited)

10 Years! Events

 

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the retirement of Selective Availability, which was followed very shortly by the advent of the game we all know and love called Geocaching. To celebrate this milestone, cachers from all over the world are gathering at events created especially for the occasion. There is more information about these events on the Lost and Found teaser page.

 

In this code update we have introduced a new event cache type called a "Lost and Found Event". For events which meet the criteria found on the Lost and Found teaser page, your local volunteer reviewer will update the cache type to this new icon, and the public profile of any cacher who attends one of these events will display the new cache type. This is your only chance to acquire a Lost and Found event icon, so find one near you and get your party on. :D

 

Technically speaking: The Lost and Found event cache type is treated like any other Event cache type in the XML contained within a GPX file downloaded from Geocaching.com.

 

PQ1K

 

Our fearless leader made a promise some weeks ago, and by extension issued a challenge to the web team: Make PQ generation stable enough to increase the per-PQ cache limit. The challenge was accepted with not a little apprehension at first -- after all, the PQ generator had already been under an extremely heavy load, and "now you want us to deliver more!?" -- but in the end it came together and PQ generation time was cut in half. With the PQ generator now stable, we can comfortably increase the per-PQ cache limit to 1000.

 

Some specifics:

  • If you change nothing about the way you use PQs you will not be affected by this change
  • PQs requesting between 501-1000 caches will be available as a file download only, although we will still notify you by email when it is ready
  • PQs with less than 501 caches will be emailed as attachments and available as a file download
  • PQs will remain available for download a maximum of 7 days from the date it was generated
  • My Finds PQs are no longer sent as email attachments, but will be available as a file download

Coming soon:

Our designer Jen is working on some impressive updates to the PQ list and creation page(s). Irksome issues such as mutually exclusive selections (Have found, Haven't found anyone?) and unneeded options (does anyone really choose .LOC over .GPX?) are being addressed. I think you'll be pleased with the result.

 

Bug fixes

 

16072: Add Checkbox to manage refreshing of map on map pan

Added checkbox to Geocaching.com Google Maps to turn off auto-refreshing for slower connections

 

15968: Trackable Map hops reversed

Fixed order of map results

 

15468: Premium Trial Testimonials Page

Added user-submitted testimonials to membership comparison page

 

16329: Creation of www.geocaching.com/lowrance/

Added Lowrance free trial page

 

15485: New usernames should only allow alpha numerics, -,_, and a period (.)

I changed the username regex to only allow usernames that were 2-20 characters in length and only contained alphanumeric characters, hyphens, underscores, and periods

 

15509: Membership form fails on two letter last names

No longer fails on names such as "Ng"

 

14746: When registering a new membership using IE6, password and email validation immediately declares mismatch

Fixed

 

10170: Profile widget in upper right corner of home page does not update with new renewal date

Fixed widget to display correct account expiration after free trial upgrade

 

15839: Inaccurate error received attempting to redeem free trial

Error message now directs users to upgrade on free trial page when mistakenly using gift certificate redemption

 

15697: Name search wrong on Gift Card Purchase

Username search on gift membership purchase page no longer fails on usernames with extended characters

 

15945: OkMap link change

Updated URL to okmap.org on geocaching software page

 

3267: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

HOTFIX: Changed the incorrect "St Vince Grenadines" in country dropown

Edited by OpinioNate
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OpinioNate

OpinioNate

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Posted (edited)

Someone forgot the Red Banner site outage notification this time?

 

But much will be forgiven just for the 1k :D

I agree!

+1

 

Yes, I'm sorry guys. :D

 

I posted about that here. If you want to tongue lash us please do it there because this thread is gonna get busy.

Edited by OpinioNate
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AndrewRJ

+AndrewRJ

Posted
Posted (edited)

Someone forgot the Red Banner site outage notification this time?

 

But much will be forgiven just for the 1k :D

I agree!

+1

 

Yes, I'm sorry guys. :D

 

I posted about that here. If you want to tongue lash us please do it there because this thread is gonna get busy.

Actually I mostly ment, forgiven due to the 1K. Thanks for everything you are doing Nate.

Edited by AndrewRJ
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deercreekth

+deercreekth

Posted
Posted

How will PQ1K affect DeLorme's Cache Register? If I run a PQ that returns 1000 caches, is CR going to have access to all 1000 when it pulls the query directly from Groundspeak? The PN-40 has a hard limit of 1000 caches/waypoints. If just one of the 1000 caches in a PQ has child waypoints, CR won't be able to transfer any caches in that PQ to the device.

 

If all 1000 caches are going to be available to CR when doing a direct connection to Groundspeak, was DeLorme informed that this change was coming? At least the workaround for this one is fairly simple... just set the number of results returned by the PQ to something enough under 1000 to account for child waypoints.

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FancoverFive

+FancoverFive

Posted
Posted

Any chance of having dates the right way round?

 

You mean like April 29, 2010 or 4-29-10? :D

I'd go for that!

:D

 

 

We are fine over here once the one of the digits gets to 13 or more its when both are 12 or lower that we struggle. The April or even Apr would suit.

 

Yes, if the dates are close to each other in real time, eg 7 June and 6 July.

 

If something is 07/06/2010, and all you know is it's in the summer, you have to work out whether it's American (6th July) or normal (7 June). If it was displayed as "Jul 06 2010", there wouldn't be any problems.

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Cache O'Plenty

+Cache O'Plenty

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Yes, if the dates are close to each other in real time, eg 7 June and 6 July.

 

If something is 07/06/2010, and all you know is it's in the summer, you have to work out whether it's American (6th July) or normal (7 June). If it was displayed as "Jul 06 2010", there wouldn't be any problems.

 

err... the definition of "normal" is relative to which side of the "pond" you are on......LOL. Personally, I like May 07 2010 as that's the way we "say it". So, 05/07/2010 is in the same order. Although, YYMMDD would be "normal" if you wanted to sort by date in a non-date field - but that's the geek talking.

Edited by Cache O'Plenty
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Cache O'Plenty

+Cache O'Plenty

Posted
Posted

Great news! I've been looking forward to the 1K PQ change. And it's a bit early too! Even better news! Now I get to redo my PQs before the weekend.

 

Thanks to all the programmers that worked this issue.

 

I see you are going to a "pull" system, rather than "push". That should reduce the e-mail burden (and stop the automatic pushes that never get used because the cacher retired from the game or for other reasons).

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teamhillside

+teamhillside

Posted
Posted

Ref PQ1K - am I the only person that is disappointed about this? I *love* the way that I can have my PQs delivered by email and then a couple of clicks with GSAK and they are all downloaded.

 

I personally don't need 1000 caches in a PQ, so I'll live with the 500 limit on email-able caches (very grateful that you've not changed that!), but I would have thought that a lot of people would be in a similar boat to me, and be disappointed that they can't have 1000 caches in their inboxes.

 

I might be out of step, and I'm only just over 1 year in here, so I don't think I should be taken too seriously (!), but thought I would at least log the point!

 

Cheers!

 

Matt

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Gushoneybun

+Gushoneybun

Posted
Posted
Ref PQ1K - am I the only person that is disappointed about this? I *love* the way that I can have my PQs delivered by email and then a couple of clicks with GSAK and they are all downloaded.

 

I personally don't need 1000 caches in a PQ, so I'll live with the 500 limit on email-able caches (very grateful that you've not changed that!), but I would have thought that a lot of people would be in a similar boat to me, and be disappointed that they can't have 1000 caches in their inboxes.

 

I might be out of step, and I'm only just over 1 year in here, so I don't think I should be taken too seriously (!), but thought I would at least log the point!

 

Cheers!

 

Matt

 

 

So stay as you are. If the PQ has less than 501 caches in it, it can still be emailed to you and loaded into GSAK.

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Markwell

+Markwell

Posted
Posted (edited)
Ref PQ1K - am I the only person that is disappointed about this? I *love* the way that I can have my PQs delivered by email and then a couple of clicks with GSAK and they are all downloaded. I personally don't need 1000 caches in a PQ, so I'll live with the 500 limit on email-able caches (very grateful that you've not changed that!), but I would have thought that a lot of people would be in a similar boat to me, and be disappointed that they can't have 1000 caches in their inboxes.

No you're not. See the direction this thread took on this post.

Edited by Markwell
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OpinioNate

OpinioNate

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  • Author
Posted
Ref PQ1K - am I the only person that is disappointed about this? I *love* the way that I can have my PQs delivered by email and then a couple of clicks with GSAK and they are all downloaded. I personally don't need 1000 caches in a PQ, so I'll live with the 500 limit on email-able caches (very grateful that you've not changed that!), but I would have thought that a lot of people would be in a similar boat to me, and be disappointed that they can't have 1000 caches in their inboxes.

No you're not. See the direction this thread took on this post.

 

It's not out of the question that we would work with GSAK or find some other way to serve PMs like yourself that prefer to automate your PQ consumption. This is a first step.

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CoyoteRed

CoyoteRed

Posted
Posted
It's not out of the question that we would work with GSAK or find some other way to serve PMs like yourself that prefer to automate your PQ consumption. This is a first step.

It would be fantastical to be able to have one way to access the PQs. I see you mentioned that emailed PQ would also have a stored counterpart. What if we could select to not have any PQs emailed to us and use only the stored PQ? Branching adds complexity to any system. If I am forced to branch, I might as well stay the way I am and not be part of any gain for the system.

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Frank Broughton

+Frank Broughton

Posted
Posted
It's not out of the question that we would work with GSAK or find some other way to serve PMs like yourself that prefer to automate your PQ consumption. This is a first step.

It would be fantastical to be able to have one way to access the PQs. I see you mentioned that emailed PQ would also have a stored counterpart. What if we could select to not have any PQs emailed to us and use only the stored PQ? Branching adds complexity to any system. If I am forced to branch, I might as well stay the way I am and not be part of any gain for the system.

 

I will too, for it would be tough to automate my 900 PM accounts PQ emails I get to feed my geocache super secret alternative site. :D

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beejay&esskay

+beejay&esskay

Posted
Posted (edited)

I downloaded the results from an old PQ. I didn't end up with a zip file like I would from a PQ.

 

Is this because it was "pre-change" so not really ready? Or I didn't do the right thing with the download attempt?

 

Firefox 3.6.3

 

(It seems if I rename the download to have a .zip extension, it's fine. But did I "lose" that extension on the download or is it missing on the website?)

Edited by beejay&esskay
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leitko4

+leitko4

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think I found a bug. On my profile page, if I click on the Geocaches tab I get the two columns, Found, and Owned. The Found side works fine. Unfortunately, clicking any links on the "Owned" side show me my found caches, not my owned ones.

 

Edited to say the "All Hides" link works. But the individual links don't. So I am hosting one event, but if you click on Owned Events, you get all the events I have attended.

Edited by leitko4
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AndrewRJ

+AndrewRJ

Posted
Posted

Well that was interesting. A new PQ around my house now goes from a radius of 13 miles to a radius of 16 miles. Not as impressive as I was expecting.

 

Now the glitch. When I preview the PQ using google maps from the Pq page I get a random cache GC17 in north Oregon and that causes the blue box to become a very large rectangle.

 

This PQ is centered on my house in Duvall Wa and has 1000 unfound and unowned by me.

 

Odd

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Dr.MORO

+Dr.MORO

Posted
Posted (edited)

Domo!!!

 

Strangely, at the Lost and Found site & embedded Google map,

http://www.geocaching.com/lostandfound/

the 10 Year! event I plan to go to

GC23KGQ 10 Years! (Uxbridge, Massachusetts)

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...68-7981a6b7657f

does not show up in the map.

I guess there should be much much more of these planned throughout the globe.

 

Also, the 10 years! events shown in the map DO have the special 10 icon,

but the mentioned event DOESN'T and is still an event icon.

 

What's happening here?

 

Love to know, and have a quick fix.

 

Yet, many thanks for the hard working Lackeys, and Hampsters!

 

Dr.MORO

Edited by Dr.MORO
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Frank Broughton

+Frank Broughton

Posted
Posted

Bug that has been around awhile - checked to see if this update will fix it. Do a PQ search (anyone) and use February 31 (or 30), as the end date, the search will result in 1000 (or whatever your max amount set) caches in the search.

 

I did one for caches placed 2-1-2010 to 2-31-10 / 100 mile radius. The results show 1000 caches, click on preview the search and it does show 1000 caches which do not match the date places parameter of the search.

 

Obviously there are not 1000 caches placed in my area in that time frame.

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wandering4cache

+wandering4cache

Posted
Posted (edited)

Domo!!!

 

Strangely, at the Lost and Found site & embedded Google map,

http://www.geocaching.com/lostandfound/

the 10 Year! event I plan to go to

GC23KGQ 10 Years! (Uxbridge, Massachusetts)

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...68-7981a6b7657f

does not show up in the map.

I guess there should be much much more of there planned throughout the globe.

 

Also, the 10 years! events shown in the map DO have the special 10 icon,

but the mentioned event DOESN'T and is still an event icon.

 

What's happening here?

 

Love to know, and have a quick fix.

 

Yet, many thanks for the hard working Lackeys!

 

Dr.MORO

 

In the last hour or so, Brad_W changed the icons on the 2 events in RI from standard event icon to 10th icon, but hasn't changed the Uxbridge MA event icon yet. Wonder if that has something to do with it?

 

Same goes for all the CT events. Give it time. They were probably changing them when the site went down.

Edited by wandering4cache
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Dgwphotos

+Dgwphotos

Posted
Posted (edited)

When I try to swap days of the week for automated PQ's, it says that I've exceeded the five per day, but at the bottom, where it shows how many are scheduled for that day, it only shows two for that day, and only two are checked.

 

EDIT: Error isn't really an error. It's counting the ones that ran this morning.

Edited by Dwoodford
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