Pocket Query Generator

[+TresOkies]

I was in Oklahoma City with some time to kill yesterday so I tried out the combo of GPS and eBook. After a little working with it, I got used to Mobi and it's a workable solution. It's better than the mess of PHP scripts I ran on my own and I like the way I can keep different files for different locations. I would like to be able to schedule a new query but at the same time, I would like that query generated _right then_ so I can make sure it's right.

 

My objection to Mobi isn't in the features or it's usefulness versus iSilo, Plucker, etc., but in the way they implement their application for the Palm. It's something that's actually quite near and dear to my professional interests.

 

-E

 

--

N35°32.981 W98°34.631

[+My Blue Heaven]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

Team My Blue Heaven - Did you say you received more caches than you should have or less?

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

---

 

Less. I got caches returned that are 100 miles away from me, but it excluded some that are 5 or 10 miles away. I haven't tried it yet by putting my home coordinates in, just my zip code.

 

Scott

[+My Blue Heaven]

quote:

---

Originally posted by infosponge:

I loaded the .loc file into the latest version of ExpertGPS and noticed that there are quite a few missing caches. I just picked a zip code and "all caches", and some within a few miles of me are missing. It seems like many of them are multi caches or "?" caches, although one is a micro (but other micros are shown?).

---

 

That is the exact same problem that I am having. I can't find any pattern as to which caches are missing.

 

Scott

[+infosponge]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Team My Blue Heaven:

That is the exact same problem that I am having. I can't find any pattern as to which caches are missing.

Scott

---

 

I think Eurastis figured it out & that matches the pattern I'm seeing.

 

Say there are 400 caches in your area.

You ask for 250 for your e-book.

It takes the 400, sorts them by cache number, then returns the first 250. They're not the 250 closest out of the 400, they're the 250 oldest.

[+infosponge]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TresOkies:

It's better than the mess of PHP scripts I ran on my own and I like the way I can keep different files for different locations

---

 

What I did was have a few PHP scripts:

 

1. retrieve a list of the cache ID's for all the caches within a particular zip code

2. retrieve the data for a single cache, filtering out the graphics, formatting, etc. and converting it to plain text

 

From Plucker, I made a home page for the database with a list of the zip codes I'm interested in, i.e. my home zip code, plus zip codes of towns I travel to. Plucker calls script #1 for each zip code. Script #1 calls script #2 for each cache in the area.

 

I did a similar thing for benchmark data...so what you wind up with is a nice compact set of HTML documents with the data you want and then Plucker scrunches that into a compressed database for viewing in the Palm.

 

Obviously, script #1 and script #2 are a heck of a lot easier to write if you have access to the geocaching database instead of having to screen-scrape the data out of HTTP requests.

[+infosponge]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TresOkies:

It's better than the mess of PHP scripts I ran on my own and I like the way I can keep different files for different locations

---

 

What I did was have a few PHP scripts:

 

1. retrieve a list of the cache ID's for all the caches within a particular zip code

2. retrieve the data for a single cache, filtering out the graphics, formatting, etc. and converting it to plain text

 

From Plucker, I made a home page for the database with a list of the zip codes I'm interested in, i.e. my home zip code, plus zip codes of towns I travel to. Plucker calls script #1 for each zip code. Script #1 calls script #2 for each cache in the area.

 

I did a similar thing for benchmark data...so what you wind up with is a nice compact set of HTML documents with the data you want and then Plucker scrunches that into a compressed database for viewing in the Palm.

 

Obviously, script #1 and script #2 are a heck of a lot easier to write if you have access to the geocaching database instead of having to screen-scrape the data out of HTTP requests.

[+My Blue Heaven]

quote:

---

Originally posted by infosponge:

 

I think Eurastis figured it out & that matches the pattern I'm seeing.

 

Say there are 400 caches in your area.

You ask for 250 for your e-book.

It takes the 400, sorts them by cache number, then returns the first 250. They're not the 250 closest out of the 400, they're the 250 oldest.

---

 

I think that is it. I just looked at my search results and you are right, the more recent caches are the ones that are missing. Given that there are over 500 caches in Arizona, and there being a 500 cache limit, I think this is a bug that will have to be addressed before this is really practical. I want to see them sorted by distance instead of date.

 

Scott

[dboggny]

i got a report today. i asked for 100 caches withing a 100 mile radius of my location. i did not choose a state or province nor any other locations (i went and bouble checked and i believe this statement is correct), yet, i only got caches in ny state and none from nj. i got caches 100 miles away but none 10 miles away over the hudson river. how bizzare. i think i need another beer.

 

SR and dboggny. WHAT?!?!

[+Dan_Edwards]

First off...

 

This feature friken ROCKS!

 

I am not a huge fan of Mobi, but I already had it because of few books I bought, so I can live with it. I would really like to have plain text as a option though so I could just import it into one of my other readers like WordSmith.

 

When I did a search I asked for only those with a level two terrain or higher and I got some level ones. I have not had time to figure out what the pattern is, because I don't think I got all level ones.

 

I would like the option to decrypt the hint, but not have it be the default. I have a decrypt program on the Palm. I only read the hint as a last resort. As long as I am wishing on someone elses time and hard work, I would like the logs to be on a seperate page. I am really only interested if the last few logs are no-finds. I don't want any spoilers if I can avoid it, but I like the info available if I get stuck.

 

Once again, thanks for a way cool feature.

 

Dan

 

A = A

[iryshe]

I checked the search code and indeed it does do a search and orders by the cache ID, which if you selected a smaller search results than the result actually returned, you would get a list of n caches from oldest to newest (meaning many new ones were lost).

 

I made a temporary fix for now. You may get a few less results now the way the search is set up, so if you create any "from origin" searches, you may have to choose a higher number of results than you would normally select.

 

But at least the results will be the closest from your origin, regardless of how many caches you choose to see.

 

I'll make it more accurate in the near future. I'll also see what I can do about showing distance from origin in the table of contents.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+Allen_L]

First it is an impressive version 1.0. My main gripe isn't with the content, but the reader. Like others I would like to highlight the clue and paste it into a decoder. So I have the following ideas (all of which are worth at least as much as you paid for them)

 

1. Have a choice to place them already decoded in the file.

2. Place the decode hints in a separate section

3. If the format will allow it place the hint at the top of a page, that way chances are good that it will all fit on one page.

 

My next suggestion is to consider other formats, for example a raw txt file, or a maybe XML, which I could then reformat into what ever I needed for my own use.

[+mrcpu]

I believe the format has been chosen because the prc file and the software are designed for copyrighted works. The idea is that the data is still copyright Geocaching.com and therefore they DON'T want us to be able to do whatever we want with it.

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

[+BigNick]

Nuts, Mobi is only for Palm OS 3.x, guess us OS 2.x users are out of luck (I have an orignal 1000 with the 2.0.5 upgrade)

Nick.

[iryshe]

GPX will most likely be the next format available for the Pocket Query. We will extend GPX to provide additional Geocaching details (decoded hints and such).

 

I was able to copy and paste data from the MobiPocket reader. I haven't tested it on the palm but it seems to work fine on my Jornada. We will add (an appendix?) decoded hints so you don't have to do the decryption by hand. I'm currently working the bugs out so it can run unattended, but afterwards we'll tweak some of the issues we've already seen.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+infosponge]

The GPX format would be great! You guys are the best!

[+the england's]

Is this new pocket query a member only tool?

 

Just wondering. I might have to become the first aussie to have membership.

 

"Before beginning a hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it." Pooh

[+roadwarrior50]

Jeremy,

This is a great idea. I have used it twice and now better understand the flexibility and power of this new tool.

 

Thanks.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

Clunky? What's clunky? Have you used the "find" feature by waypoint? Also, the Table of Contents are in alphabetical order. Using your GPS with your eBook works pretty well. I've tested it "on the road" with 500 caches and its pretty effective.

 

Perhaps you could provide a more descriptive reasoning as to why this doesn't work for you. It would certainly help me understand what needs to be added/changed.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

---

[+MissJenn]

How does one delete a query? (I must be missing something obvious.)

[+Gimpy]

On my first query, I failed to put a check in the box to skip caches I own. Got it right on the second query, & works great, but no longer need the first query.Any way to delete it?

 

"Gimpy"

[Jeremy]

At the moment you can change the query so that it will not generate on any day (uncheck the days to generate)

 

I modified the search so that it will now sort all searches by origin by the distance from that origin. You'll need to use the "find" feature to get to specific cache pages now instead of scrolling by alphabetical order.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[dboggny]

what is gpx, please? what does it do for me and why do i need it. sorry for the ignorant question but i am not a techno anything and it hurts my head to think about some fo these things. i can certainly help you with your crime scene in exchange for an answer to this question thanks for the help

quote:

---

Originally posted by infosponge:

The GPX format would be great! You guys are the best!

---

 

SR and dboggny. WHAT?!?!

[dboggny]

what is gpx, please? what does it do for me and why do i need it. sorry for the ignorant question but i am not a techno anything and it hurts my head to think about some fo these things. i can certainly help you with your crime scene in exchange for an answer to this question thanks for the help

quote:

---

Originally posted by infosponge:

The GPX format would be great! You guys are the best!

---

 

SR and dboggny. WHAT?!?!

[robertlipe]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dboggny:

what is gpx, please? what does it do for me and why do i need it.

---

Short answer: GPX is a standard way of interchanging waypoint and route information to make it portable between programs that read and write such things. The goal is to stop tormenting hapless users with gratituosly different file formats.

 

Shorter answer:

http://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp

[+MissJenn]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy Irish:

At the moment you can change the query so that it will not generate on any day

---

Yep - that's what I did. Thanks for the reply!

[+mrcpu]

Agggh! I'm frustrated! I was out today and needed the hint. The hint always seems to be divided on seperate pages. To make matters worse when I try to highlight, the interface doesn't scroll so I have to highlight half, copy, past into the palm decoder, go back, page down, oops too far, go back...huh? the page wasn't breaking there last time... copy, go to decoder, paste, crap not the right section, go back page down, copy go back to decoder, paste, decode... hmmm... what did the first half say again, go back to reader, page up, page up, page down, there it is, copy , go to decoder, paste, decode... ok, but what did the last part say again.........

 

Jeremy, while I have hair (Grey hair) left would you please insert a page break just before the hint so that it will PROBABLY be all on one page!

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

[+mrcpu]

Agggh! I'm frustrated! I was out today and needed the hint. The hint always seems to be divided on seperate pages. To make matters worse when I try to highlight, the interface doesn't scroll so I have to highlight half, copy, past into the palm decoder, go back, page down, oops too far, go back...huh? the page wasn't breaking there last time... copy, go to decoder, paste, crap not the right section, go back page down, copy go back to decoder, paste, decode... hmmm... what did the first half say again, go back to reader, page up, page up, page down, there it is, copy , go to decoder, paste, decode... ok, but what did the last part say again.........

 

Jeremy, while I have hair (Grey hair) left would you please insert a page break just before the hint so that it will PROBABLY be all on one page!

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

[+Crusso]

Jeremy,

 

Like the feature...Hate the crap it put on my PC....Finally deleted it.

 

Ebook feature was worth having to delete the extra stuff.

 

Anyway,

1. Is there a way of adding a

 

"Run query one time only"

 

feature to the days to run the query option?

This would save alot of time/effort instead of requiring us to go back & uncheck the days if we are just playin around with the query. I imagine it would also take a load off the system as I'm sure lots of people will not remember or even know to uncheck & there will be lots of unneeded queries processing repeatedly.

 

2. Can you add a "Add this cache to a query" option to the seek a cache page the way the "Download to easyGPS" checkbox works?

This way we could pick which caches we want to have downloaded instead of a mass amount of caches we may never need. At the end of the selections we would need an option to "Process checked caches as a query"

 

3. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE FILE WITH CSPOTRUN READER. Froze up my Prism good! (Dont ask why I did it, I just did! Also opened it with Palmreader, just garbled characters)

 

4. Can we get a choice of "List by just waypoint" or "List by waypoint & title" on the index as it would be a much easier to read/cleaner index w/o the title next to the waypoint I.D.#

 

Keep up the good work & thanks!

 

[This message was edited by Crusso on July 14, 2002 at 08:37 PM.]

[+Crusso]

One last issue...

Is there a way of getting JUST my own hidden caches returned in a query? I would like a separate file of just the ones I have hidden to refer too. The Query generator page says if you check off "Caches I have found" as well as "Caches I haven't found" nothing will be returned. There is a check box for excluding your own caches. How about one for "Just my caches"?

[+Eurastus]

I have a query that generates a list of all caches I've found. I discovered that it will not return a cache that has been archived or temporarily unavailable ; previously it did.

 

It would seem to me that even if the cache is no longer there, one would like to know that it was once there, visited, and logged. How about the option to include archived or unavailable caches if desired?

 

[This message was edited by Eurastus on July 15, 2002 at 10:42 AM.]

[+Eurastus]

I have a query that generates a list of all caches I've found. I discovered that it will not return a cache that has been archived or temporarily unavailable ; previously it did.

 

It would seem to me that even if the cache is no longer there, one would like to know that it was once there, visited, and logged. How about the option to include archived or unavailable caches if desired?

 

[This message was edited by Eurastus on July 15, 2002 at 10:42 AM.]

[+Summitt Dweller]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy Irish:

 

I added another feature where you can search for caches that have been logged in the last 7 days. I can't give you parameters but this should be effective enough if you made it a weekly query.

---

 

Thanks Jeremy...much appreciated and I'll try it out shortly. Also, I see that you now sort caches by distance from origin...yet another great feature.

 

Mark

[+Borgt]

I had a Palm some time ago, but sold it because I rarely used it. With this new feature, I'd like to get another one for the sole purpose of this application. I want to spend as little as possible... what Palm model should I get? I'll probably buy used or refurbished, so even a discontinued model is fine.

[+Olar]

Has anyone found that the copy function in Mobireader will only hold approx. 60 to 70 characters of text? Doing a copy of encrypted hint (assuming hint is all on one page) and pasting to the Hint decoder will only give me a partial. Its the same if I paste to somewhere else like memo-pad. On the other hand doing a copy and paste originating from any other document to the hint decoder works fine.

Thanks, Olar

 

[+Eurastus]

I noticed the same thing today...I thought it was just me

[iryshe]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Olar:

Has anyone found that the copy function in Mobireader will only hold approx. 60 to 70 characters of text?

---

 

Really? Crap. I'll work on adding an appendix that has the hints decrypted. Hopefully it will be available in tomorrow's notifications.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+byonke]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

I removed the archived and unapproved caches from the list. For some reason they slipped through. Future searches will not have them.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

---

 

I'm glad to see that archived and unapproved caches are not listed by default, but I think an option to include archived caches would be useful. I would like to create an .loc file of my finds, but anything that has been archived since we found it will not be on the list.

 

This search feature continues to look better each day, and I have already found it to be very useful. Keep up the good work.

 

Brian

[dboggny]

dear jeremy, incase it helps to know, i got a report today and it seems like (and i only checked the first 20 or so caches) that the bug i reported to you below is fixed. i hope it helps to know that. thank you. db

quote:

---

Originally posted by dboggny:

i got a report today. i asked for 100 caches withing a 100 mile radius of my location. i did not choose a state or province nor any other locations (i went and bouble checked and i believe this statement is correct), yet, i only got caches in ny state and none from nj. i got caches 100 miles away but none 10 miles away over the hudson river. how bizzare. i think i need another beer.

 

SR and dboggny. WHAT?!?!

---

 

SR and dboggny. WHAT?!?!

[+TresOkies]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paul & Suzanne:

I had a Palm some time ago, but sold it because I rarely used it. With this new feature, I'd like to get another one for the sole purpose of this application. I want to spend as little as possible... what Palm model should I get? I'll probably buy used or refurbished, so even a discontinued model is fine.

---

 

You need a model that runs Palm OS 3.x or higher. That means no Pilot or Palm Pilot models. Palm IIIx, Palm V, or m105 would work fine. Probably should have at least 2MB and preferably more memory. The MobiPocket software itself is 450K on my m500 and a modest query came to 125K. If you have larger queries or more than one query in a populated area, you could easily have 1.5MB just in queries and software.

 

-E

 

--

N35°32.981 W98°34.631

[+AV8NDAD]

This does seem like a cool feature, so I performed my first query (100 caches I haven't found near my home zip code). In installed and tested MobiPocket, then synched my query file.

 

The table of contents looked fine. When I tapped on a cache, it brought up a page of garbage and froze the Visor. I had to perform a soft reset. I then tried a different cache and I got the same garbage and froze again. This time, however, when I did my reset, my Visor screen just flashed the 'Palm Computing Platform' spash screen over and over.

 

Ugh! I hate it when I decide to become an 'early adopter.' I guess I know how I'll be spending my day at the office tomorrow.

[+MartyFouts]

Looks like a great start.

 

You mentioned 'sorting out open ebook'. This makes me think that you might be creating open ebook format files and then converting them to mobi's format. If so, would it be possible to make open ebook format an output option?

 

Here's why: I'm odd, in that I don't like to bother the web site when I'm exploring an area. What I do now is download the .loc entries for all the caches in the area that I'm headed to and convert the waypoints so that my road-map software can read it. On the road-map software, i can click on a cache location and have it go to the web page for that cache. That's cool, but it means I have to be on line.

 

So, what I'd like to do, is get the result from my query and massage the .loc files so that instead of the URL for the web page they have an index to the cache site in the ebook file so that clicking on them would cause the ebook reader to go to the right page.

 

I'll write the software to do that, but in order to be able to, I need the ebook in a format that I can process. So, to make a long story short, I either need to know how to read Mobi's format (anybody have a reference document?) or I need the ebook in a format I can read.

 

Another benefit of this is that I can run a 'get all' query once, put the db on my laptop, and then filter what I put on the PDA so that I only take info for the day with with me. To do this otherwise I have to plan out everything two days in advance, set up the query and hope I didn't screw it up.

 

Anyway, long story short: can someone point me at documentation on the mobi format, or can you make the open book version of the ebook available as an output option?

 

Thanks

[iryshe]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marty Fouts:

Looks like a great start.

 

You mentioned 'sorting out open ebook'. This makes me think that you might be creating open ebook format files and then converting them to mobi's format. If so, would it be possible to make open ebook format an output option?

---

 

The short answer is no.

 

What you really want would be better handled by an XML format like GPX. Our next item to tackle is extending GPX (GPS data in XML format) to allow additional geocaching fields, so you can either create your own application that reads them or download one that (I'm sure) many developers who play are chomping at the bit to create (like yourself?).

 

Anyway, hacking Mobipocket would be a bunch of wasted effort. What you would like is an open format for Geocaching pages. That will become available once we sort out how to generate the files and a set standard for distributing them.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+Allen_L]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

What you would like is an open format for Geocaching pages. That will become available once we sort out how to generate the files and a set standard for distributing them.

---

Cool, can't hardly wait, but I guess I have to.

[+Cache-Quest]

I would like to get a weekly list of all my found caches in the .loc format. I have a query, but I have over 300 finds and it is only returning about 250 caches. The query requires a where and I selected all the states in the US. I wish I didn't have to specify a where at all.

 

Did I do something wrong?

 

Thanks,

Jerry

Cache-Quest

[+MartyFouts]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marty Fouts:

Looks like a great start.

 

You mentioned 'sorting out open ebook'. This makes me think that you might be creating open ebook format files and then converting them to mobi's format. If so, would it be possible to make open ebook format an output option?

---

 

The short answer is no.

 

What you really want would be better handled by an XML format like GPX. Our next item to tackle is extending GPX (GPS data in XML format) to allow additional geocaching fields, so you can either create your own application that reads them or download one that (I'm sure) many developers who play are chomping at the bit to create (like yourself?).

 

Anyway, hacking Mobipocket would be a bunch of wasted effort. What you would like is an open format for Geocaching pages. That will become available once we sort out how to generate the files and a set standard for distributing them.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

---

 

Three points:

 

1) I don't want to hack Mobipocket. I want to hack an open format.

 

2) Open Ebook is an open format.

 

3) Would someone please point me at the legal document on Topographics web site that contains the license for GPX. As far as I can tell it is a proprietary format and doesn't have an acceptable license.

[+MartyFouts]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

 

Our next item to tackle is extending GPX (GPS data in XML format) to allow additional geocaching fields, so you can either create your own application that reads them or download one that (I'm sure) many developers who play are chomping at the bit to create (like yourself?).

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

---

 

Do you have an idea when you'll be starting the discussion in the GPX mailing list on how to extend the format?

[iryshe]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marty Fouts:

 

Do you have an idea when you'll be starting the discussion in the GPX mailing list on how to extend the format?

---

 

I don't plan to discuss it in the mailing list.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+byonke]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cache-Quest:

I would like to get a weekly list of all my found caches in the .loc format. I have a query, but I have over 300 finds and it is only returning about 250 caches. The query requires a where and I selected all the states in the US. I wish I didn't have to specify a where at all.

 

Did I do something wrong?

 

Thanks,

Jerry

Cache-Quest

---

 

Jerry

 

You probably have the same problem as I had. I think the ones that don't show are the ones that have been archived. I was hoping to have an option to include archived caches in the data distribution.

 

Brian

[+embra]

Pocket queries pretty much do what I am looking for, bravo! I found one little thing that I pass along for what it's worth...

 

Having read in this thread that the beta won't let you delete a query, I modified a saved query rather than create a new one, changing the name of the search and the zip code. The returned .loc and .prc files have the same name as my original query. That's no problem for opening into ExpertGPS, but I presumed I had to change the prc file to prevent overwriting my original ebook download on the pda.

 

Of course it's easy to change the prc file name before moving it to the pda, and I would suppose creating a new query gives a unique name. But, in this instance, it was a little bump on an otherwise marvelously smooth information transfer. Thanks, guys.

 

max

Just visiting this planet

[dboggny]

jeremy, i will give you another $30 to provide the files in palm doc format so i can use just a text program and not mobi which i am finding to be unstanble. please!!!!!

 

SR and dboggny. Oh man, my mother in law is here

[+mrcpu]

quote:

---

Originally posted by dboggny:

jeremy, i will give you another $30 to provide the files in palm doc format so i can use just a text program and not mobi which i am finding to be unstanble. please!!!!!

 

SR and dboggny. Oh man, my mother in law is herehttp://img.Groundspeak.com/user/9372_700.gif

---

 

I second that motion! I'd rather see the downloads as RTF, that way ANYTHING can open them!

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command