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Palmable Geocaching.com Data

teamwsmf

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teamwsmf

teamwsmf

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quote:
Originally posted by infosponge:

I have my own web site scripts in PHP that extract the data into a nicely reduced form for Plucker to use. I had this script publicly available for a while, but then it was blocked.

 

Would the code for this be available somewhere? Id love tobe able to mine my own..and plucker I love to pieces.

 

quote:
Originally posted by infosponge:

 

but I'm sure my unix / open source guru skills won't be very handy with the Windows / .NET infrastructure here. icon_smile.gif Be glad to do whatever I can though...even if it's just alpha testing.

 

Same here. Windows/.net is such a great way to limit the talent pool. Hopefully the .net python hooks will get better and we can help out.

 

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TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

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infosponge

+infosponge

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Given that my site was blocked, I don't feel comfortable giving out the code and contributing the the general delinquency of other geocachers. icon_smile.gif

However, there are usually examples of doing similar things in any decent PHP or Perl cookbook as it's just a matter of sucking in the page and running a bunch of RegEx's on it to get the data you need.

It's even easier if you *cough* have access to the database *cough* and can just use a different template to generate output than the standard HTML template. Assuming you're using templates in the first place, I guess.

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infosponge

+infosponge

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Posted

Given that my site was blocked, I don't feel comfortable giving out the code and contributing the the general delinquency of other geocachers. icon_smile.gif

However, there are usually examples of doing similar things in any decent PHP or Perl cookbook as it's just a matter of sucking in the page and running a bunch of RegEx's on it to get the data you need.

It's even easier if you *cough* have access to the database *cough* and can just use a different template to generate output than the standard HTML template. Assuming you're using templates in the first place, I guess.

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Jeremy

Jeremy

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Posted

I'm not exactly sure what the confusion has been lately about Palmable data. I've said in many different areas on the site that I'm working on a solution, but it is taking a while. Be patient. We're getting close to a completed solution and should have it available on the site soon.

 

We wanted to have a solution for both Palm and Windows CE/PocketPC as well as Laptops, and not have an application that impacts the speed of the site. This involved some preparation steps to upgrade the database to support this new tool. Trust me, we'll have something shortly.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

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skydiver

skydiver

Posted
Posted

I use a Kyocera 6035 with Handspring's Blazer Browser. Browse geocaching.com just fine that way. Have actually been on a cache site, logged in to geocaching.com, and decrypting the hint when I could't find the cache (only works when the cache is in range for digital cellular coverage).

kyocaching.jpg

Now, obviously, if you don't have the 6035, you can't use all the fun wireles features. But, I don't see why someone with a regular palm couldn't use Blazer to download geocaching.com pages while wired to their desktop, and then take the pre-downloaded pages with them on the hunt.

 

Blazer's Website

 

--- Two paths diverged in a wood, and my... my GPSr pointed dead center between them. ---

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mrcpu

+mrcpu

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by skydiver:

I use a Kyocera 6035 with Handspring's Blazer Browser. Browse geocaching.com just fine that way. Have actually been on a cache site, logged in to geocaching.com, and decrypting the hint when I could't find the cache (only works when the cache is in range for digital cellular coverage).

http://www.rusticweb.com/geocaching/kyocaching.jpg

Now, obviously, if you don't have the 6035, you can't use all the fun wireles features. But, I don't see why someone with a regular palm couldn't use Blazer to download geocaching.com pages while wired to their desktop, and then take the pre-downloaded pages with them on the hunt.

 

I also have a 6035. I wrote a PQA interface for the Pathetique site which you can get by sending me an email with the subject "SEND PQA" (use mrcpu@myrealbox.com ).

 

I totaly disagree with you that the site is usable! Yea, I can stand there in the swamp for 10 minutes using up airtime to pull down the site OR the PQA/Pathetique solution is a heck of a lot faster.

 

I Decided to move forward from this though. With the help of someone who flipped me a script to reference (I was having cookie issues) I wrote a cgi program that takes the cacheid and returns a just the raw text with no tables, no graphics, nothing! I find that when I'm out caching on a saturday I just GO! Then I get to a location and need to find out exactly what kind of cache it is or after looking, find out the hint.

 

Before anywone asks: NO you can't have my scripts

 

To be fair, it would be obtuse for Jeremy to block me or anyone using my script because it only proxies the connection and strips the data down, without keeping copy. This is less stressful on the site then if I had Advantgo'd the site. Blocking me would then mean that ANYONE who goes through a proxy or runs with graphics turned of should be blocked!

 

Personally, I'd love to have a more open discussion here in the forums with Jeremy regarding exactly what he is planning. "Don't Worry, it's coming soon" doesn't mean that it will be what we are looking for. Over all I'd love to see more information coming from Geocaching.com with regards to what is being worked on, how these things will work etc!!!

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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LindaLu

+LindaLu

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by skydiver: I don't see why someone with a regular palm couldn't use Blazer to download geocaching.com pages while wired to their desktop, and then take the pre-downloaded pages with them on the hunt.

---

 

I've been using my new PDA for about a week now when geocaching, and it is great! No more printing out tons of cache pages. However, skydiver, if you would read the other posts in this thread, you would see that the feature that a lot of people would like is a way to automatically download the pages while being able to select. For example, I would like all the caches within 20 miles (or 30 miles) that I have not found yet. All of the present solutions either require you to download all of the caches, or snag them one by one.

 

Thanks, Jeremy and crew, for working on this. I look forward to the result!

 

LindaLu

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blscearce

+blscearce

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by skydiver:

 

I don't see why someone with a regular palm couldn't use Blazer to download geocaching.com pages while wired to their desktop, and then take the pre-downloaded pages with them on the hunt.

 

 

 

 

Short answer: you can, but it's suboptimal. Long answer .

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infosponge

+infosponge

Posted
Posted

All most of us ever wanted/needed was a "low chrome" version of the pages...no ads, no graphics, no table formatting...basically just text. This downloads nicely into a Palm or other handheld using tools like Plucker. Perhaps that's why you're sensing the frustration...all we were asking for was a dumbed-down version of the existing pages, for our dumbed-down devices.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Irish:

I'm not exactly sure what the confusion has been lately about Palmable data. I've said in many different areas on the site that I'm working on a solution, but it is taking a while. Be patient. We're getting close to a completed solution and should have it available on the site soon.

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teamwsmf

teamwsmf

Posted
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Posted

quote:
Originally posted by infosponge:

All most of us ever wanted/needed was a "low chrome" version of the pages...no ads, no graphics, no table formatting...basically just text. This downloads nicely into a Palm or other handheld using tools like Plucker. Perhaps that's why you're sensing the frustration...all we were asking for was a dumbed-down version of the existing pages, for our dumbed-down devices.

 

I think thats part of the fustration, but for me at least the fustration is there is already a really cool solution ( http://www.pathetique.com/geocaching/ ) that works with minimal inpact on geocaching.com while getting lots of folks the stuff on thier palms.

 

I know Jermey and crew are working on the brand new jimmys and its going to rock, but other solutions that dont adversly impact the main source should not be shooed aside.

 

Its also, as you say, fustrating when you can come up with a good idea and only get greif for it.

 

Anyway, I hope all goes well with the .net centralized solution. As a charter memeber I look forward to giving it a whirl.

 

-tom

 

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

TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

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Eric O'Connor

Eric O'Connor

Posted
Posted

Another fun thing to do with a Palm is to sync ClayJar's chatlogs.

 

I'm another Plucker (don't say that out loud) user and lover the way it can nab-n-grab pretty much everything you toss it's way.

 

I just wish I could figure out how to use it on my Palm's flash-ram card rather than in the primary memory. No biggie I guess.

 

I knew I'd been in Berkeley too long when I saw "Free Firewood" and I wondered who this Firewood fellow was and what he had done.

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parkrrrr

+parkrrrr

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by TeamWSMF:

Now that there is an offical way to get the gc info on your pda, what is every using to do the deed?

 

I'm still using my custom scripts, because they still have functionality I can't get the official way.

 

warm.gif

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mrcpu

+mrcpu

Posted
Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:

quote:
Originally posted by TeamWSMF:

Now that there is an offical way to get the gc info on your pda, what is every using to do the deed?

 

I'm still using my custom scripts, because they still have functionality I can't get the official way.

 

http://216.202.195.127/warm.gif

 

What kind of functionallity? I have a script and PQA that I used to use but I'm pretty well converted to the new method.

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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parkrrrr

+parkrrrr

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Posted

tracker.jpg

 

The image above is what I see when I'm caching, courtesy of Terraserver, geocaching.com, and some glue. I also have a memo with the cache description in it, reformatted so the decryption key can be read with the standard Palm font, which I can pop up over Tracker using daMemoPad.

 

warm.gif

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teamwsmf

teamwsmf

Posted
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Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:

http://216.202.195.127/tracker.jpg

 

Amazingly cool. I have heard of more than a few folks working on thier own scripts to get this done up. Sounds like they figure the push is on to lock down the "offical" PDA format why not just get going and make it good.

 

Is now a good time to suggest a Source Forge Geocaching project to get all the script ideas and the like out, tested and perfected?

 

-tom

 

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

TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

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