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Geocaching Map Enhancements


jri

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Yes, I can see the labels now. Thank you! I look forward to having names on at some point if you have time. :)

 

The names should pop up if you hover the mouse over the label, but they clutter up the map too much if you show them for every cache. That's why I decided to have a separate list in the sidebar. The list gets sorted alphabetically to make it easier to match up the codes to the names.

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I know that you've mentioned about getting GME to work with IE8, but that version of IE is rather ancient (in fact, some sites don't support it any more). As many people use IE9 (which is itself getting rather old) and IE10 is starting to become widespread; I wonder whether you've looked into adapting GME to work with these popular browsers? Personally, I do use Firefox and Chrome but have a preference for IE as the others have some annoying problems.

 

Obviously if you prefer to restrict it to selected browsers then that's fine, but I thought I'd ask the question.

Edited by Happy Humphrey
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I know that you've mentioned about getting GME to work with IE8, but that version of IE is rather ancient (in fact, some sites don't support it any more). As many people use IE9 (which is itself getting rather old) and IE10 is starting to become widespread; I wonder whether you've looked into adapting GME to work with these popular browsers? Personally, I do use Firefox and Chrome but have a preference for IE as the others have some annoying problems.

 

Obviously if you prefer to restrict it to selected browsers then that's fine, but I thought I'd ask the question.

 

I had a brief look at getting GME to work with IE. Unfortunately, it's all rather more effort than I can afford, especially since my first daughter was born last summer! Part of the problem is IE's support for javascript and other web standards. The later versions are supposed to better in that respect, but IE8 is the version I have installed on the Win XP machine I do most of my development on (we're still stuck with IE6 at work!) The next problem is support for development and debugging. Again, later versions might be better, but the other browsers are much easier to work with. The final issue is support for Greasemonkey and userscripts in general. Last time I fished about, I couldn't find much information about IE extensions to provide userscript functionality. I've used Trixie with IE8, but I've no idea if it works with IE9 or 10. There was also an extension called IE7Pro that was reputed to work (and not just with IE7). However, I've not had any user feedback about either system.

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I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome. But my main caching computer is the one it doesn't quite work on (and can't be upgraded to IE9). The "larger map" option does show the map tiles correctly however. IE is my preferred browser, so hopefully a little tweak will get it working again?

 

IE8

cfc9dcad-c577-489f-8c2e-6e125601b6e5.jpg

 

IE9

67bd7af7-435e-48d4-b8ed-9903aa94feed.jpg

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I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome. But my main caching computer is the one it doesn't quite work on (and can't be upgraded to IE9). The "larger map" option does show the map tiles correctly however. IE is my preferred browser, so hopefully a little tweak will get it working again?

 

I've fired up IE8 and confirmed I have the same problem too.sad.gif It seems to be caused by the same thing as a known bug in the new v5.0 of the Leaflet Maps API, to do with TileLayer Opacity and IE8's shockingly poor support for Cascading Stylesheets. The main map page still uses Leaflet v4, which is why it hasn't broken. Unfortunately the Leaflet folk haven't yet released a fixed version (and Groundspeak may not update to it for a while anyway). Worse yet, the official Leaflet fix may not fix GME. I'll see if I can figure out a workaround, but I'm afraid supporting IE isn't a top priority for me at the moment huh.gif

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I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome. But my main caching computer is the one it doesn't quite work on (and can't be upgraded to IE9). The "larger map" option does show the map tiles correctly however. IE is my preferred browser, so hopefully a little tweak will get it working again?

 

I've fired up IE8 and confirmed I have the same problem too.sad.gif It seems to be caused by the same thing as a known bug in the new v5.0 of the Leaflet Maps API, to do with TileLayer Opacity and IE8's shockingly poor support for Cascading Stylesheets. The main map page still uses Leaflet v4, which is why it hasn't broken. Unfortunately the Leaflet folk haven't yet released a fixed version (and Groundspeak may not update to it for a while anyway). Worse yet, the official Leaflet fix may not fix GME. I'll see if I can figure out a workaround, but I'm afraid supporting IE isn't a top priority for me at the moment huh.gif

 

Well, the workaround was easier than I thought. I've uploaded a bugfix version to http://userscripts.o...pts/show/109145

 

v0.6.3

  • Fixed: workaround for Groundspeak / JQuery Mobile bug that stopped the map sidebar working on Android browsers.
  • Fixed: workaround for Leaflet 0.5 opacity bug that stopped cache page maps working in IE8.
  • Fixed: better layout for the Cache List sidebar buttons in Chrome and IE.
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I know that you've mentioned about getting GME to work with IE8, but that version of IE is rather ancient (in fact, some sites don't support it any more). As many people use IE9 (which is itself getting rather old) and IE10 is starting to become widespread; I wonder whether you've looked into adapting GME to work with these popular browsers? Personally, I do use Firefox and Chrome but have a preference for IE as the others have some annoying problems.

 

The good news is, from JimJinks' feedback, it looks like GME already works in IE9, using the Trixie add-in. smile.gif

 

I had the previous version working fine under XP/IE8/Trixie but now I've installed the new version, the map on the cache page is just a grey square. It works fine under W7/IE9/Trixie on another computer and also using a test install of Chrome.

 

The fixes I've made in v0.6.3 should mean that the script largely works under both IE8 and IE9. It might work under IE10 too, but I haven't had any feedback.

 

The bad news is, it doesn't look like Trixie is available any more. sad.gif I was going to ask you to install it in IE10 and let me know if it works, but as their website has gone down and I can't see anywhere else to download it from, if you haven't already got it, you're stuck. Worse yet, I've not had any other feedback on other cunning ways of getting userscripts to run under IE, and can't see anything too helpful on Google. ohmy.gif I might be able to do something a bit Heath-Robinson with bookmarklets, but otherwise, without any decent Greasemonkey clone for IE, it looks like GME support on Internet Explorer could be a bit of a no-hoper...

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I installed GME 0.6.3 on Chrome under Windows Vista with only a slight hiccup the other day and it's been running fine ever since.

 

However, when I attempted today to install it on a different laptop, also running Chrome but in desktop mode under Windows 8, I didn't have as much success.

 

rsx7ZtT.jpg

 

As you can see from the screenshot above, the 'Find my Location' button has become misplaced on top of the 'Zoom Out' button at the top left of the screen rendering that button unusable, and the 'GME Configuration' panel normally found at the bottom left of the screen is missing altogether. I have discovered that this is due to some over-enthusiasm on the part of another extension I run on this particular laptop called Ghostery. This is a privacy application that blocks tracking cookies and helps me maintain laptop security. It was only by whitelisting www.geocaching.com in Ghostery that I was able to view and use the extension correctly.

 

I outline the problem I encountered together with the solution above both for jri's information and possibly to assist anyone else who encounters the same issue.

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Hello,

 

Lately when I select the Google Terrain map I get white roads on a black background. I have tried this on FF 19.x and Chrome 25.x and the problem persists on both browsers. Did something change on Google's end that is causing this ?

 

FWIW I'm getting the same on FireFox.

 

Yup, Google have changed the URL scheme for terrain maps in some complicated way. As a quick workaround, you can use the standard Google map with Colin Marquardt's Hill Shading overlay. If you've not already added this to GME, click on the GME gear icon to go to the configuration screen, choose 'Manage additional maps', and paste the following into the 'Mapsource' box:

 

{"alt":"Hillshading",  "tileUrl":"http://toolserver.org/~cmarqu/hill/{z}/{x}/{y}.png",  "attribution":"Hillshading by <a  href='http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Colin_Marquardt/Hike_%26_Bike_Map'>Colin  Marquardt</a> from NASA  SRTM data", "overlay":true}

Hit OK and you then should be able to turn on and off the Hillshading overlay from the map selector control. You might also want to remove Google Terrain from the list of available maps (via 'Choose maps to list' on the configuration screen).

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Hello,

 

Lately when I select the Google Terrain map I get white roads on a black background. I have tried this on FF 19.x and Chrome 25.x and the problem persists on both browsers. Did something change on Google's end that is causing this ?

 

FWIW I'm getting the same on FireFox.

 

Yup, Google have changed the URL scheme for terrain maps in some complicated way. As a quick workaround, you can use the standard Google map with Colin Marquardt's Hill Shading overlay. If you've not already added this to GME, click on the GME gear icon to go to the configuration screen, choose 'Manage additional maps', and paste the following into the 'Mapsource' box:

 

{"alt":"Hillshading",  "tileUrl":"http://toolserver.org/~cmarqu/hill/{z}/{x}/{y}.png",  "attribution":"Hillshading by <a  href='http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Colin_Marquardt/Hike_%26_Bike_Map'>Colin  Marquardt</a> from NASA  SRTM data", "overlay":true}

Hit OK and you then should be able to turn on and off the Hillshading overlay from the map selector control. You might also want to remove Google Terrain from the list of available maps (via 'Choose maps to list' on the configuration screen).

 

Nice!!.

 

I added that. I now use the Hillshading overlay with Open Cycle maps and get the contour lines along with the terrain. Thanks jri I am very happy.

 

regards.

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:D Just in time for Easter, GME v0.6.4 is out! :D

 

v0.6.4

  • Labels can be configured to show names or codes on the main Geocaching Map.
  • GPX route export.
  • Scale bar added to the maps on cache listing pages.
  • Faster start-up with less chance of errors.
  • Improved freeform coordinate parsing on cache page.

 

By popular request, you can set whether you want cache labels to show GC codes or cache names. The default is GC codes, because cache names tend to look very untidy and cover up far too much of the map, especially in areas that are saturated with geocaches.

 

If you use the route measurement function, you can now export your route as a GPX file. You can also drag the GPX link onto another map page, or (in the Chrome browser only) directly to your desktop.

 

I've also removed the broken Google Terrain maps from the default selection, and added in Colin Marquardt's Hillshading layer. NB this change shouldn't have any effect for existing users unless you reset the GME configuration back to defaults. If you are using custom map sources, you might want to export these before resetting.

 

Another minor change: I've moved most of the documentation onto my own website, at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

 

As I learn more javascript, GME is getting better under the hood too, with various minor bugs fixed. It's now grown to over 100kB in size, more than 2000 lines of code and over 35,000 downloads!

 

Hope you enjoy the latest version.

Edited by jri
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Thank you very much for all your hard work! It certainly makes it easier for me as I now rarely bother to export caches to Memory Map, especially since the cache names are now displayed. I have managed to set my preferences but I cannot find how to draw a route on the map. Where is Measure Route please?

 

On the main map page, click on the GME 'i' icon, then click on the map where you want to start your route. Choose 'Measure Route' from the pop-up menu, and a marker will appear. Click again and choose 'Extend' to add more waypoints.

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Thank you very much for all your hard work! It certainly makes it easier for me as I now rarely bother to export caches to Memory Map, especially since the cache names are now displayed. I have managed to set my preferences but I cannot find how to draw a route on the map. Where is Measure Route please?

 

On the main map page, click on the GME 'i' icon, then click on the map where you want to start your route. Choose 'Measure Route' from the pop-up menu, and a marker will appear. Click again and choose 'Extend' to add more waypoints.

 

Oooh, I didn't know you could do that :-)

 

Thanks again btw. I think I'm still using an older version but it seems to work just fine for me. But it's an excellent tool which I really appreciate.

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The download link does not work it only shows the script.

 

Which web browser do you use?

 

You could get that problem if you are using Firefox but haven't got Greasemonkey installed (or accidentally disabled it), or if you are using a browser like Opera that needs the script to be saved somewhere specific.

 

The installation section of the documentation may well help - see http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

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Ooops! apologies all round. I was trying to install the script onto a friends PC which I am sure had Greasemonkey installed. But the PC recently has had a rebuilt hard-drive fitted, so perhaps it (greasemonkey) had not been installed.

 

I thought I'd checked it but perhaps not, as I was also fixing a problem on their laptop and doing things with GSAK and some macros on both so perhaps things got a bit out of kilter.

 

To much multi-tasking but thanks for the prompt, just carried out a greasemonkey and script installation and all is well.

 

Bye the way both my friends and myself think that the Geocaching Map Enhancements is a 'must have'.

 

Thanks for all of the effort put into them.

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I have installed the map enhancements successfully on my laptop and on friend's computers. However I have also installed it on my netbook with Windows 7 starter edition using Chrome. I followed the procedure exactly as on the others but the leaflets icon only appears for a split second then disappears so I cannot select Ordnance Survey.

Any ideas please?

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I have installed the map enhancements successfully on my laptop and on friend's computers. However I have also installed it on my netbook with Windows 7 starter edition using Chrome. I followed the procedure exactly as on the others but the leaflets icon only appears for a split second then disappears so I cannot select Ordnance Survey.

Any ideas please?

 

Do you mean that when you hover the mouse over the map selector icon, the list of maps appears briefly then disappears before you can click on the one you want? That sometimes happens if there are cache icons in the area under the popup menu. There's not too much you can do, other than moving the mouse carefully, or panning the map to a less crowded area. However, you might work around it by using the GME config screen to set OS maps as your default, so it loads automatically. Click on the GME gear icon, then click 'Choose Maps to List' from the config dialog.

 

If you mean that the map selector icon at the top-right of the map and/or the GME icons at the bottom-left just vanish, then it sounds like the script isn't loading properly. That could be caused by over-enthusiastic security software, or a clash with a different extension. If you are using Tampermonkey, you should be able to change the order in which your userscripts load.

 

If that doesn't give you an obvious solution, it might be a bug in the script or a problem caused by something changing on the website. Try reloading the Maps page, then open the Chrome console (press Ctrl-Shift-J) and see if there are any error messages. You should normally see 5 errors and warnings about viewport arguments, and four messages about scripts being inserted.

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downloaded and installed nice add on :) has it got or can u do a add on like on c:geo where u can show circles around each cache i only ask as looking to place some new caches and wanted to see how close i can get to ones close by ?

 

Click the i icon, then click on the map where you want to centre the circle, and choose 'Drop marker' from the menu. The default radius is 0.1 miles, the minimum cache separation distance.

 

There isn't an option to put a circle around every cache at the same time as I would prefer it if people found a good location for a cache, then checked that they could place something there, rather than placing caches in mediocre locations because they fill gaps in the saturation map. Also, you still have the problem of avoiding the physical stages of multicaches and final locations of puzzles. These don't show up on the map, but will get flagged up during cache submission.

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just tried it out just what u was after as looking to do a small series and was finding it hard to work out how close i was to the last one i planned only thing i may think off is when u drop a marker maybe have a small dot in the middle to show the center

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As of today I have lost the OS maps overlay which is the one I use the most :( I just get a grey screen with the caches on but no map. I'm using Firefox 20.0.1 and GME v0.6.4.

 

I've tried installing older versions of GME back to 0.5.2 but not joy......any ideas?

 

Thanks

Edited by Blue Wkd
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As of today I have lost the OS maps overlay which is the one I use the most :( I just get a grey screen with the caches on but no map. I'm using Firefox 20.0.1 and GME v0.6.4.

 

I've tried installing older versions of GME back to 0.5.2 but not joy......any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

I am having the same result with OS maps, also with Bing map and Bing Aerial View. just a grey back ground and all the caches

all the other maps are working the same as usual

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I'm having issues as well; with Leaflet Maps selected, and GME installed, on Chrome 26.0.1410.64m, the caches appear for a few seconds, then the map seems to reset, and all the caches disappear. Selecting OS Maps just gives me a blank grey map. When I click on the Configure button, I get a white half-page at the bottom of the screen, showing configuration options, instead of the neat config menu I'm used to seeing.

 

I guess Groundspeak have broken something again.

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I upgraded to version 0.6.4 on Chrome this morning and am experiencing problems.

 

While the map itself appears no geocaching icons are displayed on it :(

 

Anyone else having problems?

 

Mine's not working properly either. Admittedly I seem to have an older version of GME, but it seems that yesterday's update has caused the problem. I have no option to change the map type, and if I click on Search or Pocket Queries I lose the map view and get a screen all about configuring GME

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As of today I have lost the OS maps overlay which is the one I use the most :( I just get a grey screen with the caches on but no map. I'm using Firefox 20.0.1 and GME v0.6.4.

 

I've tried installing older versions of GME back to 0.5.2 but not joy......any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

I am having the same result with OS maps, also with Bing map and Bing Aerial View. just a grey back ground and all the caches

all the other maps are working the same as usual

 

Same for me on all PCs.

 

There must have been a change to the web site.

 

I guess the script will now need to be changed to accommodate the site change.

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Yup, Groundspeaks update to the website last night broke GME again.

 

On the main maps page, they have upgraded from v4 to v5.1 of the Leaflet Maps API, which has stopped OS maps (and other maps that use quadkeys) from working. They still work on cache listing pages (as those pages already use Leaflet v5.0). The fact that Groundspeak use different software versions on different parts of the site is one of the things that make writing scripts such a joy (and one reason the website is slower than it could be).

 

Updating the script for the new API will be easy. In fact, if you know how to edit scripts yourself, search for the function

extendLeaflet()

then change the line

if( L.version >= 0.5 ) {\

to

if( true ) {\

and the maps should start working again.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like there are also some changes to the layout or page structure which are breaking the sidebar menus and config screen. I'm away from home at the moment and can't do any debugging on the computer I have with me, so I'm not going to be able to post an updated script until sometime next week.

 

In the meantime, if you spot any more problems that haven't already been mentioned here, let me know and I'll try to include them in the fix.

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...Updating the script for the new API will be easy. In fact, if you know how to edit scripts yourself, search for the function

extendLeaflet()

then change the line

if( L.version >= 0.5 ) {\

to

if( true ) {\

and the maps should start working again...

 

Wow! I have no idea how to edit scripts either (I've never done anything like this before), but reassured by the knowledge that if I mucked it up, I could always delete the download and re-download it again, I had a bash!

 


  1.  
  2. I opened the downloaded file in 'notepad'
  3. Searched for the text exactly as explained and deleted it
  4. Copied the new text from this thread and pasted it in

 

..... and VOILA!!!! It worked! Hooray! Thank you so much for your helpful explanation in advance of you being able to update it for us!

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  1.  
  2. I opened the downloaded file in 'notepad'
  3. Searched for the text exactly as explained and deleted it
  4. Copied the new text from this thread and pasted it in

 

..... and VOILA!!!! It worked! Hooray! Thank you so much for your helpful explanation in advance of you being able to update it for us!

 

Easy peasy! In fact (in Firefox anyway) you can just use "edit script" so no need for Notepad.

He'll make programmers of us yet <_<

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Yup, Groundspeaks update to the website last night broke GME again.

 

On the main maps page, they have upgraded from v4 to v5.1 of the Leaflet Maps API, which has stopped OS maps (and other maps that use quadkeys) from working. They still work on cache listing pages (as those pages already use Leaflet v5.0). The fact that Groundspeak use different software versions on different parts of the site is one of the things that make writing scripts such a joy (and one reason the website is slower than it could be).

 

Updating the script for the new API will be easy. In fact, if you know how to edit scripts yourself, search for the function

extendLeaflet()

then change the line

if( L.version >= 0.5 ) {\

to

if( true ) {\

and the maps should start working again.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like there are also some changes to the layout or page structure which are breaking the sidebar menus and config screen. I'm away from home at the moment and can't do any debugging on the computer I have with me, so I'm not going to be able to post an updated script until sometime next week.

 

In the meantime, if you spot any more problems that haven't already been mentioned here, let me know and I'll try to include them in the fix.

 

Thank you for the solution. I downloaded the script yesterday for the OS maps, then 2 hours later it wouldn't work and wondered how I'd knackered it. But thanks its all a o k now. Top stuff.

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its been a while since i have used the script so forgive me if im going over old groundbut didnt there used to be a button on a previous version that allowed your to compile a cache list from what is currently on view on the full map screen?

 

It's now on the i menu so that you can aim the search a bit better. Click the i icon, then click the point to centre your search on. Choose 'List caches' from the menu that pops up, and you'll get a list of the closest caches.

 

The script should also have a way to label and list the caches on the map, but it's currently broken.

 

You can see the full feature list at http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm

Edited by jri
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Hi jri, thanks for the info on how to resolve the maps issue, a quick edit that now works fine again.

 

Groundspeak are aware of another issue, whereby caches are not shown when the "preview in geocaching maps" button is selected for a Pocket Query, if you have the Leaflet maps preference selected (they are displayed in Google maps, but that's no good 'cos then we can't use GME). When they tinker with that, they might break something else again...

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Yup, Groundspeaks update to the website last night broke GME again.

 

On the main maps page, they have upgraded from v4 to v5.1 of the Leaflet Maps API, which has stopped OS maps (and other maps that use quadkeys) from working. They still work on cache listing pages (as those pages already use Leaflet v5.0). The fact that Groundspeak use different software versions on different parts of the site is one of the things that make writing scripts such a joy (and one reason the website is slower than it could be).

 

Updating the script for the new API will be easy. In fact, if you know how to edit scripts yourself, search for the function

extendLeaflet()

then change the line

if( L.version >= 0.5 ) {\

to

if( true ) {\

and the maps should start working again.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like there are also some changes to the layout or page structure which are breaking the sidebar menus and config screen. I'm away from home at the moment and can't do any debugging on the computer I have with me, so I'm not going to be able to post an updated script until sometime next week.

 

In the meantime, if you spot any more problems that haven't already been mentioned here, let me know and I'll try to include them in the fix.

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Thanks so much JRI ... was going round the bend when this was broken last night....whatever happened to continuity and product testing by the Geocaching systems team.

 

In my day (40 years experience in computers before retirement) no changes would be allowed to be made without FULL testing of all elements before product release.

 

Regards

Mr Wendykmj

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A big self congratulatory pat on the back for all those of you who know how to edit the user script. Anyone care to gizza clue???

 

1) Top right hand corner - click on the little arrow by the monkey.

 

2) Click manage user scripts

 

3) Click options on the Geocaching map enhancements

 

4) Click on the map script

 

5) Click edit this user script

 

6 Edit as per the instructions in the jri post

 

7) Click File then save

 

Should then work.

 

Nb for some reason I have several map scripts and ended up editing them all before it worked.

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