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Another Improved MobiPocket Replacement


fizzymagic

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I've posted this here before, but the application is now mature enough that I thought I would give this a more meaningful title.

 

I've developed an application, called gpx2html, that generates compact HTML files from GPX files on your local computer. That means, using Plucker for PalmOS, or just copying the files to a PocketPC and using Pocket Internet Explorer, you can carry all the cache pages you need with you. The application and instructions are located here.

 

This differs from GPX Spinner (which is a wonderful solution, by the way!) in several ways, but the most significant is that it runs on your computer, not on a server on the internet. That means it's a lot faster, especially for people with dialup connections.

 

gpx2html has several very cool capabilities:

  • It can process multiple GPX files and combine the results.

  • It generates compact, space-saving files. I can get more than 1100 cache pages into 2 MB for my Palm.

  • On each cache page, it has distances,bearings, and links to the 5 nearest caches, so you can easily navigate on the road.

  • It allows you to make a list of caches to ignore.

  • It generates index pages sorted by ID, reverse ID (newest first), and name. Cache types are shown on the index pages.

  • It also can generate index pages of the caches sorted by distance from as many places as you want.

  • It allows you to automatically insert corrected coordinates for caches that aren't at the coordinates listed on geocaching.com (e.g. multis, puzzle caches, etc.)

  • Encoded hints are on the cache page; decoded hints are linked, too.

  • The last 5 logs are included, along with a quick-view summary string (modeled after Watcher) at the top of each page. Last found date is also shown.

There's a lot more. I wrote this to satisfy my needs while out caching, and I thought other people might find it useful. I have made an EXE file for Windows users; Linux and Macintosh users can get the Perl script, which will run on both systems.

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Thanks fizzymagic. I`ve been using your program for the last week or so and love it. I have a slow modem speed and spinner took a very long time to use. Now I can do it offline. icon_smile.gif

The only difference I`ve notice is the graphics which I can live without and the hyperlinks aren`t colored like spinners, which I also can live without.

 

MnGCA-button.gif

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You should be able to color the hyperlinks however you want using the Plucker configuration. Mine show up blue.

 

Glad you like it.

 

*** Correction: You can't change the color of the links in Plucker. Sorry. ***

 

[This message was edited by fizzymagic on January 22, 2003 at 04:32 PM.]

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Fizzymagic I just setup gpx2html and using with Plucker. It works great and is certainly a vast improvement over Mobipocket. One little problem I can't seem to overcome is decoding the encryted hints. When I tap on the link I get a message that states: "Sorry the link that you selected was not downloaded by Plucker". Where am I going wrong? The Hints file is in the HTML file ok and I can link to it on the desktop.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

Olar

 

"You are only young once but you can stay immature forever"

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quote:
Originally posted by IBcrashen:

What is your maximum depth set at on the limit page? mine is 4.


 

I set mine at 4 as well. I've tried various settings to no avail.

 

Thanks, Olar

 

"You are only young once but you can stay immature forever"

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quote:
Originally posted by Olar:

One little problem I can't seem to overcome is decoding the encryted hints. When I tap on the link I get a message that states: "Sorry the link that you selected was not downloaded by Plucker".


 

Wow. I don't know what would cause that. I set my link depth to 3 and limit to the exact server. Breadth first, zlib compression. My only experience with it not including files was when had accidentally erased the files.

 

Sorry I can't be of more use. If you figure it out, let me know!

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

 

Wow. I don't know what would cause that. I set my link depth to 3 and limit to the exact server. Breadth first, zlib compression. My only experience with it not including files was when had accidentally erased the files.

 

Sorry I can't be of more use. If you figure it out, let me know!


 

I'm just using gpx2html for the first time tonight and have the same problem. It says that there are no links downloaded by Plucker for the hints???

 

Frank

 

Frank

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I've posted this here before, but the application is now mature enough that I thought I would give this a more meaningful title.

 


 

Well this is certainly not a "Fizzer"! ;-)

 

Very nice. Recently said goodbye to Mobipocket, now must say goodbye to Spinner as well, although I actually liked spinner.

 

Thanks for doing this Amigo!

 

Mike

 

Gsdvr

Huntsville

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

quote:
Originally posted by Olar:

One little problem I can't seem to overcome is decoding the encryted hints. When I tap on the link I get a message that states: "Sorry the link that you selected was not downloaded by Plucker".


 

Wow. I don't know what would cause that. I set my link depth to 3 and limit to the exact server. Breadth first, zlib compression. My only experience with it not including files was when had accidentally erased the files.

 

Sorry I can't be of more use. If you figure it out, let me know!


 

OK got it working OK but can't figure out why. I downloaded a second gpx query but limited it to a radius of 25 miles (problem file was 100 mi) and chose only traditional, multi and virtual caches. This worked fine.

So I tried exact same query only back out to 100 mile radius and got the same problem, no hint file on Palm.

I'm going to fool around some more tomorrow since I used up my query quota for the day.

This is an excellent app. Thank you.

 

Cheers, Olar

 

"You are only young once but you can stay immature forever"

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The mystery of the disappearing hints has been solved. It turns out that the problem is that some people embed HTML into their hints. People don't always terminate all their HTML well, and for some reason this causes Plucker to not be able to load the links properly. I am working on various possible solutions.

 

But I thought it would be good to tell you that it's not all in your heads, and it's not the file size that matters.

 

For now, you can go into the GPX and hand-edit the caches that have HTML in the hints, and everything will work fine. But I will have a better solution out soon, I hope.

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The issue with some Pocket Queries that won't load the hints file is fixed. The problem is pretty obscure; it turns out that Plucker is rather picky about what HTML it will accept, and instead of just skipping bad HTML, it refuses to load the entire page. So there might be a few caches with bad HTML that it refuses to load; that's not a huge deal. However, if any of those pages also inserts bad HTML into its hint, Plucker will refuse to load the entire hints page!

 

A new version of gpx2html that strips most HTML from hints is now available at the gpx2html page.

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Have you considered dumping the requirement to use the Plucker desktop and just generating a Plucker database directly? The file format for Plucker is documented on the Plucker website, and Perl has a great HTML parser already. If you write your own HTML::FormatText derivative, you could easily generate any output you want from arbitrary HTML.¹ Alternatively, you could hack up the Perl code that the Plucker project already supplies, but unless it uses HTML::Parser I think I wouldn't touch it with a 3.048 meter pole.

 

¹ Including HTML that has "bad" tags in it. By the way, the HTML spec recommends that an HTML parser skip unrecognized tags while rendering their contents. That's why the ROT13ed HTML "works" in hints.

 

warm.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

The issue with some Pocket Queries that won't load the hints file is fixed. The problem is pretty obscure; it turns out that Plucker is rather picky about what HTML it will accept, and instead of just skipping bad HTML, it refuses to load the entire page. So there might be a few caches with bad HTML that it refuses to load; that's not a huge deal. However, if any of those pages also inserts bad HTML into its hint, Plucker will refuse to load the entire hints page!

 

A new version of gpx2html that strips most HTML from hints is now available at the http://home.attbi.com/~fizzymagic/gpx2html.html page.


It certainly is fixed! It works great! Even did a RefLocations file tonight. Amazing!!

I found the few caches that contain "bad HTML" and get deleted/ignored by Plucker. They all belong to one cacher and I'm debating whether or not to contact him and make him aware of the problem created. As more and more cachers utilize PDA's instead of paper copies he may not want his caches to go unlisted.

Thanks again FizzyMagic.

 

Olar

 

"You are only young once but you can stay immature forever"

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I finally downloaded the Twig.pm file and I noticed that Twig now works with perl version 5.8

 

icon_frown.gificon_frown.gificon_frown.gificon_frown.gificon_frown.gif

 

OOPS I am editting my original post because I forgot about a small change I made to get it to work. I will e-mail the changes to the developer for verification.

 

Sorry about that.

 

[This message was edited by John E Cache on January 29, 2003 at 11:16 PM.]

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quote:
Originally posted by Dave&Michelle:

I've downloaded the perl version and activeperl v5.6.1.633 and it crashes every time with the message "Undefined subroutine &main::read_file called at gpx2html.pl line 111." What am I doing wrong???


 

Nothing. The subroutine in question is a part of a Perl package called File::Slurp, which I thought was loaded as part of the ActivePerl installation. Apparently it wasn't. I'll make a version without it available later today, or else you can use PPM to install File::Slurp yourself if you know how to do that...

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Fizzy,

 

There's a cache near Atlanta called "Ice on 285" ... for some reason, after running gpx2html and plucker, the link to that cache goes nowhere. I get a page saying that Plucker didn't download it. It's the only one I know of that doesn't make it through the process ... there could be others, but this is the only one I've found.

 

The placer of that cache seems to have used fairly extensive HTML. He even has a sound on the page. I wonder if this could be similar to the problem reported (and fixed) earlier, where hints with HTML were causing problems.

 

I would love to help troubleshoot this, but I don't even know at this stage whether it's gpx2html or plucker that's getting confused. Let me know if you need me to send you my GPX, or a ZIP of my HTML folder, or anything else that would be of help.

 

--ScottJ

 

--

Scott Johnson (ScottJ)

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Send me your GPX file, and I'll help you fix it. Plucker is notoriously strict about HTML, and instead of just skipping elements it doesn't like, it just refuses to load the page altogether.

 

I'm working on a partial solution for this problem; I am putting in fancy substitutions for many of the most common HTML problems that Plucker doesn't like. It will slow gpx2html down a little bit, but I think it is probably worth it.

 

But that is still a while away. For now, the problem with this page is the tag. Get rid of it (and the matching closing tag) and I'll bet Plucker likes it just fine.

 

[This message was edited by fizzymagic on February 08, 2003 at 08:14 PM.]

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I live in Texas, and I'm going to visit my Mom in Atlanta next weekend. Is there a way to have two separate gpx2html->Plucker folders? I don't want to just load them both... the Texas one takes forever as it is.

 

_____________________________________________________

> Martin (Magellan 330)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo!

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Making multiple folders is easy. Just make a new folder for your out-of-town query, and place the GPX file in it. Make a new shortcut to gpx2html, set it to start in the new folder, and it will run just fine. The program will generate a subfolder named HTML in the new folder, and you can give it another name in Plucker.

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quote:
Originally posted by RobAGD:

fizzymagic - a small suggestion, why not have gpx2html generate a subfolder with the name of the gpx file its processing ?


 

Because gpx2html can process multiple GPX files into a single Plucker file, which is how I use it. And since it automatically sorts the multiple files so that it processes the newest one first, the name would change every time.

 

There's actually little reason, for most people, to have multiple Plucker files unless they are processing queries that are very separated geographically. If there is any chance of overlap, I would recommend processing them together.

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Ok... my wife tells me I am cheap however I really am just conservative!!

 

Does anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive PDA to load GPX files into? This is the only thing that I would use it for. After looking at the reems of paper we burn up printing cache info, we need a better solution. Would a bargain basement Palm device work for this?

 

thanx, jeff'

 

Camping Hoosiers

Memphis, Indiana. USA

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Palm's new Zire should fit the bill... only $99 I think. Black and white screen, probly AA or AAA batteries, I think 8MB of memory, which should hold all you need.

 

Go play with one at your local CompUSA/etc and see how you like it.

 

Fizzy: thanks, that's just what I needed. I'm not stupid, but I'll be damned if I could come up with that on my own... I was close, but no tequila.

 

_____________________________________________________

> Martin (Magellan 330)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo!

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quote:
Originally posted by Camping Hoosiers:

Does anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive PDA to load GPX files into?


 

Martin gave you good advice about the Palm Zire, but I saw that Outpost is selling refurbished Palm IIIxe's for $60. I've been using a IIIx with half the memory of the IIIxe and have had plenty of elbow room so far, so it should serve your purpose well.

 

Max

Often wrong but seldom in doubt

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I've used both GPX2HTML and spinner. I like features in both. I like GPX2HTML for being able to process the file locally.

 

Any chance GPX2HTML will be able to generate a modified GPX (or LOC) file in the future? Thus eliminating the "IGNORES" and updating the coords on the "CORRECTED" caches.

 

fyi: the ability to tweak the waypoint ID is the feature I like most about spinner.

 

~bspeng

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

I've posted this here before, but the application is now mature enough that I thought I would give this a more meaningful title.


 

Hats off to you, this is exactly what I have been ranting about for months nowicon_smile.gif-

 

Easy to use, produces great looking NON PROPRIETRY output, is useable, and is able to be shared with folks at will.

 

Making the exe from perl was a very very nice touch. This allows MORE users to get the benifits of your creation.

 

Where do I send the whuffie?

 

-tomwsmf

 

----------------------------

 

 

TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

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quote:
Originally posted by embra:
Martin gave you good advice about the Palm Zire, but I saw that http://www.outpost.com/entry?site=op:mfe2&sku=3538894 is selling refurbished Palm IIIxe's for $60. I've been using a IIIx with half the memory of the IIIxe and have had plenty of elbow room so far, so it should serve your purpose well.

Well, I kinda fibbed. I checked, and the Zire is *2*MB of memory, which is what I had in my olde IIIe. The only reason I would take a Zire over a IIIe is that the Zire is "current" technology, and you can get accessories for it. If a IIIxe is 8MB, I would go with it, since Space Is Good. My current Dallas/Fort Worth 50 mi radius file is almost 5MB, since I allow outside links. icon_smile.gif

 

_____________________________________________________

> Martin (Magellan 330)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo!

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GPX2HTML is phenomenal. I'd never gotten to even try MobiPocket, but I just installed GPX2HTML, integrated into my existing Plucker setup and it looks perfect.

 

No more sitting for two hours while Plucker reads and devours the website pages - using this on my pocketquery results is much, much, much faster.

 

Anyway - just wanted to post a (public) thank you. I especially like the option to include an index w/ distance from any point specified (in the advanced options). With this and Plucker - I'll never print cache pages again! Two brilliant innovations....

 

While I was happy to support the site before, I'm thrilled now that I see the benefit of the pocketqueries!

 

I just load the nearest 500 caches into my Palm - and I'm off and running....Thanks again!!!!

 

- HartClimbs icon_biggrin.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by Camping Hoosiers:

Ok... my wife tells me I am cheap however I really am just conservative!!

 

Does anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive PDA to load GPX files into? This is the only thing that I would use it for. ...thanx, jeff'

 

Camping Hoosiers

Memphis, Indiana. USA


 

We use a IIIxe that I bought almost two years ago and then sat gathering dust on the desk. It would still be if not for geocaching. The 8Mb is more than enough for us.

 

don

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I fixed the problem that some people were having with the missing module in gpx2html. The application now also includes travel bug information on the cache pages and generates a list of caches containing travel bugs, sorted by date last found, so that you can easily identify those caches in your query most likely to have travel bugs.

 

As for the clipboard problem: this is a well-known issue with Plucker. The semi-good news: it's also an issue with AvantGo. icon_rolleyes.gif

 

There is an add-on out there that will allow copying text from Plucker to the clipboard. It's called clipstringhack, and it's here:

 

ClipStringHack

 

I have never used it, so I can't comment on its quality, but there are people who swear by it.

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quote:
Originally posted by fizzymagic:

As for the clipboard problem: this is a well-known issue with Plucker. The semi-good news: it's also an issue with AvantGo. icon_rolleyes.gif

 

There is an add-on out there that will allow copying text from Plucker to the clipboard. It's called clipstringhack, and it's here:

 

http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=11709

 

I have never used it, so I can't comment on its quality, but there are people who swear by it.


 

I bought a Tungsten T Palm and was forced to use the HIRES version of Plucker. hires.plkr.org uses the latest source from the Plucker CVS that hasn't been released by the "loRES" team. The latest version of HIRES has a command that copies the current screen or paragraphs to a note. When the "loRES" Plucker goes from rev 1.2 to rev 1.3 this feature will be added. The HIRES version is supposed to backwards compatible with the older lo-res palms, but I haven't tried it on my old Palm IIIc.

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quote:
Originally posted by Cachetrotters:

We use a IIIxe that I bought almost two years ago and then sat gathering dust on the desk. It would still be if not for geocaching. The 8Mb is more than enough for us.


 

That sounds familiar icon_smile.gif Just trying to get Linux PC, Palm and Garmin GPS all playing nicely together myself...

 

Adi

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