jri Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 There's now a way for people who use the Chrome browser to see Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain on Geocaching.com I've written a Greasemonkey script that adds an OS map type option on the Geocaching Maps Beta page. It also works on geocache pages when you use dynamic maps. The script displays OS Landranger (1:50000) and Explorer (1:25000) imagery from Bing. I've written the script to work with both Chrome and Firefox. For Chrome, you don't need to install Greasemonkey - just install the script from userscripts.org (link below). Chrome and Chromium have been able to run userscripts directly since v4, but I've only tested with v13. For Firefox, you need to install the Greasemonkey extension ("How do I use this?" link on userscripts.org). I've tested with FF5 and 6 on Windows and FF3.6 on Linux. Firefox 5 broke Greasemonkey, but this has been fixed in Greasemonkey v0.9.8. To find out more or install the script, visit the Geocaching Map Enhancements page on userscripts.org Quote Link to comment
+mcwomble Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I installed these on Chrome by mistake last week and was mightly surprised to find the OS map feature. It's brilliant! Thanks very much!! Quote Link to comment
+fluoro Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 This is really cool, thankyou! Quote Link to comment
+MrLifeboat Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 You sir are a champion amongst men. I raise my hand and salute you. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
+Dave's Piglings Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 fantastic thank you very much! Quote Link to comment
+Fianccetto Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Thank you very much. This is great, can now see easily where the local trails are and which caches are near them, and where there are long gaps along the trails. There are so many footpaths to explore, and so little time! A word of caution though, comparing these with Magic maps, I can see the minor tracks/footpaths do not quite match up with the Magic maps ones (not the national trails, the smaller farm tracks and such) and the restricted areas such as SSSI, rural parks and so on are not on the OS map. It will be a lot easier to quickly see where existing caches are on magic maps without having to input each set of coords, thanks! :-) Quote Link to comment
+Gackt Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 I am finding this additional feature very useful indeed. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Quote Link to comment
+JF20938 Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 I've just downloaded this to Firefox and it's wonderful. The refresh option is overshadowed by the OS map feature but is no small achievement by itself. Thank you very much - I'll never need to download cache data to Quo again. Hoorah! Quote Link to comment
+calibri Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Thanks very much.That really is agreat tool. Quote Link to comment
jri Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 (edited) Thanks for all the positive feedback. I've tweaked the script again. v0.4 now lets you search the Beta Map by Ordnance Survey National Grid references. If that sounds helpful, you can get the update at http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/109145 Edited August 30, 2011 by jri Quote Link to comment
+The Fruitloops Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 This is great, it even prints with the cache locations. No more trips to the library to get maps ( I'm a bit old school and have to have a map with me) Quote Link to comment
+Flyfishermanbob Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Just occasionally , a wee gem appears on the UK forums .... this is by far the best for a long long time . Thanks so much .... A smiley Crome user Quote Link to comment
+perth pathfinders Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Just occasionally , a wee gem appears on the UK forums .... this is by far the best for a long long time . Thanks so much .... A smiley Crome user Hey, pretty darn smart!! :laughing: Even I managed to get it working!! Quote Link to comment
+Fianccetto Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 This is great, it even prints with the cache locations. No more trips to the library to get maps ( I'm a bit old school and have to have a map with me) How do you print from the Beta Map? Quote Link to comment
jri Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 This is great, it even prints with the cache locations. No more trips to the library to get maps ( I'm a bit old school and have to have a map with me) How do you print from the Beta Map? Pressing Ctrl-P normally works. In Firefox, you might have to check the Page Setup menu first, to make sure that your browser is set to print background images. Quote Link to comment
+Fianccetto Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 This is great, it even prints with the cache locations. No more trips to the library to get maps ( I'm a bit old school and have to have a map with me) How do you print from the Beta Map? Pressing Ctrl-P normally works. In Firefox, you might have to check the Page Setup menu first, to make sure that your browser is set to print background images. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
+abanazar Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Thanks very much for posting this. It's an excellent addition Quote Link to comment
+Firefighter0793 Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Just GREAT! Thanks :-) Quote Link to comment
+redsox_mark Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Brilliant, thanks! I like seeing the cache locations on the OS map, so up to now I've been pasting the coordinates into http://benchmarks.org.uk/, and manually marking up the map. This will save lots of time. Quote Link to comment
+Captain Gore-tex Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Can I add my thanks, works a treat with Chrome. Very clever and thanks for your hard work and sharing. Quote Link to comment
+Moote Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Also works on the far superior and safer Dragon browser ;-) Dragon is Chrome based, but has better security, especially when you use the Secure DNS servers Quote Link to comment
+The Growler Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 This is a great addition, thank you. How do I get Explorer maps up though as it appears to be landranger only. I use Firefox. Thanks Quote Link to comment
jri Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 This is a great addition, thank you. How do I get Explorer maps up though as it appears to be landranger only. I use Firefox. Thanks It looks like Bing (where the script gets the maps from) has changed to only supply Landranger imagery. I'll have a look to see whether there are some tweaks I can do to get the Explorer maps back. Quote Link to comment
+mikenjess Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I downloaded this script (LOVE Greasemonkey!!) a while ago and it is FAB. Thank you so much for writing it, I use it all the time. Jess Quote Link to comment
+redsox_mark Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 This is a great addition, thank you. How do I get Explorer maps up though as it appears to be landranger only. I use Firefox. Thanks It looks like Bing (where the script gets the maps from) has changed to only supply Landranger imagery. I'll have a look to see whether there are some tweaks I can do to get the Explorer maps back. Ah. I noticed the other day that I could't zoom down to Explorer level; I assumed it was some temporary glitch. Would be great if you can get them back; I've become quite attached to this feature. Quote Link to comment
+wigglesworth Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Brilliant - thank you so much for sharing this with us!! Quote Link to comment
jri Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 This is a great addition, thank you. How do I get Explorer maps up though as it appears to be landranger only. I use Firefox. Thanks It looks like Bing (where the script gets the maps from) has changed to only supply Landranger imagery. I'll have a look to see whether there are some tweaks I can do to get the Explorer maps back. Ah. I noticed the other day that I could't zoom down to Explorer level; I assumed it was some temporary glitch. Would be great if you can get them back; I've become quite attached to this feature. I've had a poke about, and unfortunately this looks non-trivial to fix. The problem is that most of the map sources I've found align OS map tiles to Grid North, while Google Map tiles align to True North. This doesn't normally matter too much if you're only interested in one point, but the further you go from that point, the greater the divergence. This means that if you want to do a simple overlay of Geocache locations (google-style map tiles) onto OS map tiles, they'll be OK at the centre of the screen, but increasingly mis-aligned towards the edges. I do have a cunning plan, but it might take a while to put into practice. Quote Link to comment
+The Growler Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Either way, I'm grateful for your efforts. Quote Link to comment
+jayjaybee8 Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I've been pointed to this only this evening; as a devoted lover of OS Maps for 50 years, and a geocacher for one of those, this is like discovering the Missing Link. Unbelievably efficient Thank you doesn't do it Justice Quote Link to comment
+rutson Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Problem at Bing's end see: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/fi-FI/vemapcontroldev/thread/8c9f7506-bfaa-4b98-8e98-eee9f7064db0 Quote Link to comment
Blue Square Thing Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Problem at Bing's end see: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/fi-FI/vemapcontroldev/thread/8c9f7506-bfaa-4b98-8e98-eee9f7064db0 Thanks for posting that - v helpful to know. Quote Link to comment
+The Growler Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Let's hope it gets sorted as it would be absolutely brilliant for this lo-techy to have a nice explorer map to print off before I set out. Quote Link to comment
+Geocass&Andy750x Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Problem at Bing's end see: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/fi-FI/vemapcontroldev/thread/8c9f7506-bfaa-4b98-8e98-eee9f7064db0 My heart sunk when I realised that the Bing maps were now 50k! I really thought it was due to the OS withdrawing the rights to display them (or something like that). I hope it's just due to a technical fault at the Bing maps end. jri: Thank you for your script! Quote Link to comment
+Tek_kaz Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 An excellent tool thank very much for your hard work. Quote Link to comment
jri Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 News from Bing on the MSDN forums... A data update we received was missing the higher detail data. It will be re-published as soon as a new copy is received and processed. Well, I don't know how long we will have to wait, but it looks hopeful that it will get fixed without me having to do any alterations to the script Quote Link to comment
jri Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 News from Bing on the MSDN forums... A data update we received was missing the higher detail data. It will be re-published as soon as a new copy is received and processed. Well, I don't know how long we will have to wait, but it looks hopeful that it will get fixed without me having to do any alterations to the script Further updates from MSDN... This will likely be corrected in the next imagery update. Our team is well aware of this issue and are monitoring it. Imagery updates occur in Bing Maps ever 3-4 months. The last one was around the end of September/ begining of October. So it looks like the larger-scale maps could be back sometime in January / February... Quote Link to comment
+metal-bijou Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 This is great.Thank you. Quote Link to comment
+CrossieCrew Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Just been pointed in the direction of this by I!. Fantastic and a huge thanks for writing this. Quote Link to comment
+JF20938 Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 News from Bing on the MSDN forums... A data update we received was missing the higher detail data. It will be re-published as soon as a new copy is received and processed. Well, I don't know how long we will have to wait, but it looks hopeful that it will get fixed without me having to do any alterations to the script It looks like the 1:25K maps are back! They are for me tonight via Firefox at maximum zoom. Wonderful!! - John. Quote Link to comment
+RetallickRamblers Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 News from Bing on the MSDN forums... A data update we received was missing the higher detail data. It will be re-published as soon as a new copy is received and processed. Well, I don't know how long we will have to wait, but it looks hopeful that it will get fixed without me having to do any alterations to the script It looks like the 1:25K maps are back! They are for me tonight via Firefox at maximum zoom. Wonderful!! - John. Yay! Quote Link to comment
+pumpkin-head Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 this makes me happy - thank you Quote Link to comment
+redsox_mark Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Hooray! I have been missing these. Great to have them back. Quote Link to comment
+mcwomble Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Yay - chrome too!! Thanks for the fix!! Quote Link to comment
+mellers Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I've just installed this and it's GREAT! Thank you. Quote Link to comment
+Jenny&James Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thank you so much for this fantastic add-on! Quote Link to comment
+flipflopnick Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Some scripts work in Opera browser too. Save scripts to a folder and point Opera at that folder. Refresh the page. Quote Link to comment
+redsox_mark Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 With today's site update, the OS map option from Chrome is gone. Quote Link to comment
+little-leggs Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 With today's site update, the OS map option from Chrome is gone. Not happy .. the uses of the OS map was grate ... WHY , did they have to change it .. and will a new script be written soon to over come our loss Quote Link to comment
jri Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 With today's site update, the OS map option from Chrome is gone. Not quite! OS Maps still seem to work on the cache pages - but sadly not on Beta Maps. Partly, it must be said, because "Beta Maps" has become just plain "Maps", and partly because we're into the brave new world of using the Leaflet API rather than Google Maps. This is presumably because Google are going to start charging high-volume websites for using their API. and will a new script be written soon to over come our loss I've already figured out a way of making OS maps work with the basic Leaflet API. Unfortunately it may take me a few weeks to figure out how to integrate this with the new Geocaching Maps website. I'll see what I can do... Quote Link to comment
+The Growler Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 and will a new script be written soon to over come our loss I've already figured out a way of making OS maps work with the basic Leaflet API. Unfortunately it may take me a few weeks to figure out how to integrate this with the new Geocaching Maps website. I'll see what I can do... You are a diamond geezer Quote Link to comment
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