Warning: Geocache description in Montana can be incomplete!

[+taeke]

Hi

 

Today I headed out for a multi-cache. I usually generate a bunch of caches and load them in my device. Unfortunately I discovered that the description of the multi-cache ended premature (I am glad the cache wasn't too far from home). So I drove home and checked my GPX-file, and there the description was, in "full glory". So it seems that the Montana can choke on the description.

 

So, my advice is to make sure you check the text of all the caches you plan to do, before you leave home. This is going to be a pain when you have a few thousand when you plan to go on a long trip though, but it will avoid disappointment, because there is no way to show the text on the device.

 

I have e-mailed the Montana-team, and hope they will take action ASAP.

 

I am using firmware v3.40 and download my files in GPX v1.0.1 from geocaching.com

[+dfx]

Not only the Montana does that, also Oregons, Dakotas, Colorados... they all cut off the HTML at some point, something like after 4096 bytes. It becomes a problem especially with cache listings that employ a lot of horrible HTML, usually generated by monstrosities ala MS Word.

[+taeke]

they all cut off the HTML at some point, something like after 4096 bytes. It becomes a problem especially with cache listings that employ a lot of horrible HTML, usually generated by monstrosities ala MS Word.

 

It doesn't seem to be file-length related. The "long description" is 11424 bytes, and it cuts off at about 8481 bytes. There is indeed a lot of HTML-code in it, but it's not generated by MS Word, but a download from this site

[+dfx]

they all cut off the HTML at some point, something like after 4096 bytes. It becomes a problem especially with cache listings that employ a lot of horrible HTML, usually generated by monstrosities ala MS Word.

 

It doesn't seem to be file-length related. The "long description" is 11424 bytes, and it cuts off at about 8481 bytes. There is indeed a lot of HTML-code in it, but it's not generated by MS Word, but a download from this site

 

Or was it around 8k bytes then... It's definitely length related. The HTML code is user-provided and not generated by the site, so whoever created it could have used Word or whatever other HTML non-editor.

[+taeke]

Or was it around 8k bytes then... It's definitely length related.

 

That would be 8192 bytes then (if they work in digital multiples). Maybe a bit old-fashioned to have such small limits, I would say.

 

The HTML code is user-provided and not generated by the site, so whoever created it could have used Word or whatever other HTML non-editor.

 

Ah yes of course. Now I understand *which* HTML you mean. That is indeed user generated.

[+dfx]

Or was it around 8k bytes then... It's definitely length related.

 

That would be 8192 bytes then (if they work in digital multiples). Maybe a bit old-fashioned to have such small limits, I would say.

 

Yup. Pretty sure that when you take the part of the description that you see and convert all the XML entities to their character equivalents (mostly &. ", < and >), you'll get almost exactly 8k bytes.

Edited September 21, 2011 by dfx

[+taeke]

Yup. Pretty sure that when you take the part of the description that you see and convert all the XML entities to their character equivalents (mostly &. ", < and >), you'll get almost exactly 8k bytes.

 

In raw bytes it's a lot more (19502 bytes of raw data of the "long description"). I've been removing some pieces and indeed it seems to be a size issue, as part which disappeared first, now all of a sudden shows up. I wonder what is actually counted then as limit? Is it the made-up text which appears on the screen? Or is it text + HTML? Or is it text + XML?

 

It's just a PITA to have to open every cache and check if it is complete and if necessary edit the raw textfile to remove excess data. Maybe I should write a script or find a program to remove the HTML data as it isn't used. Or maybe geocaching can include this as an (premium member?) option in the GPX-generation?

 

Ideally it would be nice of Garmin to extend the limit

[jholly]

Ideally it would be nice of Garmin to extend the limit

My guess is the site-that-should-not-be-mentioned probably does not allow the HTML and the length in their cache descriptions. Since Garmin is now fully supporting that site I would not expect them to provide support for a site they do not support.

[+taeke]

Ideally it would be nice of Garmin to extend the limit

 

The Montana team just wrote back to let me know they are working on improving this in the future. Of course no date given, but I'm glad to hear it seems to be "in the works".

[+t4e]

Ideally it would be nice of Garmin to extend the limit

 

The Montana team just wrote back to let me know they are working on improving this in the future. Of course no date given, but I'm glad to hear it seems to be "in the works".

 

to me that's the equivalent of "the cheque is in the mail"

Edited September 21, 2011 by t4e

[jholly]

Ideally it would be nice of Garmin to extend the limit

 

The Montana team just wrote back to let me know they are working on improving this in the future. Of course no date given, but I'm glad to hear it seems to be "in the works".

 

to me that's the equivalent of "the cheque is in the mail"

or "under review"

[+taeke]

or "under review"

 

That's more like it

[+taeke]

I tried to use the Macro removal script in GSAK to shorten the description, but it removes all formatting, making all sentences join each other.

 

I sent Garmin an e-mail to consider this problem. While on Garmin's hometurf, longer descriptions won't be too often a problem, over here in Europe, quite often the descriptions are written in 2, 3, sometimes 4 languages. Quite often English as last, so that would lead to a serious disadvantage for the English-speaking cachers who are not prepared for this, and do not speak any of the other languages properly.

 

Hence I requested Garmin to review the length of allowed text.

[+HHL]

I tried to use the Macro removal script in GSAK to shorten the description, but it removes all formatting, making all sentences join each other.

 

I sent Garmin an e-mail to consider this problem. While on Garmin's hometurf, longer descriptions won't be too often a problem, over here in Europe, quite often the descriptions are written in 2, 3, sometimes 4 languages. Quite often English as last, so that would lead to a serious disadvantage for the English-speaking cachers who are not prepared for this, and do not speak any of the other languages properly.

 

Hence I requested Garmin to review the length of allowed text.

 

Try that:

http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=19583&st=0entry139719

 

Hth

Hans

[+taeke]

Try that:

 

Thanks Hans. If I understand this correctly, this is a filter to find caches where the description is too long so you can edit them manually? But then it still requires manual labour to shorten them?

[+dfx]

I tried to use the Macro removal script in GSAK to shorten the description, but it removes all formatting, making all sentences join each other.

 

This is very similar to my solution. My script strips out all HTML tags except a few special ones (<br>, <b> etc) and leaves line formatting intact. Never noticed any cut-off description ever since.

[+HHL]

Try that:

 

Thanks Hans. If I understand this correctly, this is a filter to find caches where the description is too long so you can edit them manually? But then it still requires manual labour to shorten them?

 

First of all it's a filter, yes. But after filtering I do NOT altering the file. I'm just doing an export as a Poi with the complete description provided from the mentioned macro.

That way you'll get a shortend waypoint exported as an ordinary geocache and an extra Poi that holds the entire description.

 

Frohes Jagen

Hans

[+taeke]

But after filtering I do NOT altering the file. I'm just doing an export as a Poi with the complete description provided from the mentioned macro.

That way you'll get a shortend waypoint exported as an ordinary geocache and an extra Poi that holds the entire description.

 

OK. But then still the problem remains that the macro strips away too much. For instance the new-line character is removed too (<BR />), which I would like to keep.

 

I'm going to try and hack the macro a bit. I installed beta 8, but yesterday I realised I installed version 7 earlier (forgot about it), so as long as the nags don't drive me nuts, I'll keep on working on it

[+Bullygoat29]

But after filtering I do NOT altering the file. I'm just doing an export as a Poi with the complete description provided from the mentioned macro.

That way you'll get a shortend waypoint exported as an ordinary geocache and an extra Poi that holds the entire description.

 

OK. But then still the problem remains that the macro strips away too much. For instance the new-line character is removed too (<BR />), which I would like to keep.

 

I'm going to try and hack the macro a bit. I installed beta 8, but yesterday I realised I installed version 7 earlier (forgot about it), so as long as the nags don't drive me nuts, I'll keep on working on it

 

Your not stripping anything away with HHL's solution. You're just identifying which caches are going to be a problem and exporting them as POIs so you have the full description in the POI.