PHP-Nuke Geocaching Block

[+Wipeout]

I was wondering if anyone out there had a block for listing the caches nearest a particular location (zip code more then likely). There is a block listed on my website that shows the websites that are nearest to my coordinates. I would love to see something like this for caches too. However I don't think I have the programming experience to program this myslef. Any one that can help, or is one available already? Thanks everyone!

 

-=Wipeout=-

http://www.wipeout1.com

[+VentureForth]

Go to www.geocaching.com. There is an option to hunt by zipcode in the upper right corner. All results will be listed in order from nearest to furthest.

 

There is also a link on the left side of the page called "Hide and Seek a Cache". Click on this, and there is a plethora of search options.

 

You can search from a set of coordinates, either ddd.ddddd format or ddd mm.mmm format.

 

You can even search by a telephone area code.

 

If you want this data ported to your computer, you need to cough up the $30, become a charter member, and learn about pocket queries.

 

Enjoy!

 

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Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+Wipeout]

I know aboutthe search features within the geocaching.com website. What I am actually looking for is a block that parses the geocaching database and will display the caches nearest my zip code on my own website. Of course, there would also be a link back to the geocaching webpage. Have a look at the GeoURL block on at my URL above if this is unclear.

[+VentureForth]

I know that they don't like parsing blocks to external websites, but I know some do it. Good luck - shouldn't be too hard to get an answer.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I was hoping there was more to the original question than I gathered from it.

 

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Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+Wipeout]

No biggie I probably wasn't clear enough in my original post thanks to the large amounts of cold meds in my blood system! heeh!

[+trippy1976]

I am interested in similar things for the Michigan Geocaching web site. I could see a block built that uses a GPX file and an XSL style sheet to present the information... but I haven't even considered it because I'm 99% sure I would be violating some kind of distribution thingy with the pocket queries.

 

However, you can certainly easily build a form in a block that links to the gc.com site to perform a search in a zip code. That's a good idea, I will probably do it, I'd be happy to share the code.

 

But as far as automagically updating - as far as I know there is nothing that will help you with that. I've been wondering aloud about some kind of licensing agreement for sites that want to do such things and with web services it is within the realm of the possible. But whether it's probable or on the roadmap... I can't say.

 

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trippy1976 - Team KKF2A

Saving geocaches - one golf ball at a time.

[+ClayJar]

An automated "slashbox" type thing would be a very nice use of web services, but that does not yet exist. You might want to try writing a clear, concise explanation of what you want to do and then writing Jeremy to ask permission. It's worth a shot, at least.

 

If you were only displaying a box of the latest/nearest few caches with the names, waypoints, ratings, and such (not the coordinates), and the listed caches were linked to their cache pages on Geocaching.com, and you included an "*as of ##TIMESTAMP##" note with the //gpx/time in it, I'd say you have a decent chance of being in the "allowable (with permission) uses of PQ GPX data". Of course, perhaps Jeremy would not give permission (and there are valid reasons), but I'd tend to think that he'd probably give you permission to do that with your GPX.

 

[Watcher Downloads] - [Official Geocaching Chat]

[+Sissy-n-CR]

Just getting into the PHPnuke thing myself, but I'd certainly be interested in two syndicated news feeds. One would be the nearst 10 caches not found by a certain user ID. The other caches placed in the last week.

 

The first one would ask, and hold in your cookie, your GC.com userID. Then when you visit the site it would query GC.com for your nearest 10 caches you haven't found.

 

The other one would be very similar, but instead would list the newest cache similar to the new cache notification.

 

Alternatively, writing a module in which we could receive a query based on a set radius, a bounding box, or a state. This module could then do all kinds of number crunching and display of stats--ala Arizona GeoCaching Website

 

There is another cache stat cruncher which I haven't been able to find again. It looks at the caches and determines "how good it is" by the number of finds, the time between finds, and some other criteria. But the author won't release it because it scrapes this site. Of course, just numbers is going to really tell how good a cache is, but was fun to look at.

 

I think allowing groups access to the data and being able to warehouse portions off site would be a good thing. (By portions, I mean portions of the cache info, like name, owner, coords, log basics, and such. Not the full data of the cache.) By it's very nature groups have sprung up and will continue to do so. Letting these groups help their local cachers would further the sport, IMO.

 

Kind of like writing a front-end to GC.com site. Once you decide which cache you want, click and you go that page on the GC.com for more information.

 

CR

 

[teamwsmf]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ClayJar:

If you were only displaying a box of the I'd say you have a decent chance of being in the "allowable (with permission) uses of PQ GPX data". Of course, perhaps Jeremy would not give permission (and there are valid reasons), but I'd tend to think that he'd probably give you permission to do that with your GPX.

---

 

There has already been a thread about this and the answer came back with talk of "the law" "copyright infringment" "ripping off gc.com and thier IP" and other such terms as well as a general negative vibe from the posters to that thread.

 

Anything that is seen to "dilute" gc.com's Intelectual Property will be dealt with.

 

OF course form waht I am seeing on the web this is not really halting developement of folks using screen scrapings anf the gpxs.

 

Over the last month I have heard of several sites not only offering up local info on caches but people sharing thier gpx's to stitch togther regularly updated databases from whcih to query against.

 

I would be veryinterested in seeing a PHPNuke based set of blocks that would use the gx or other data streams to reort back infromation helpfull to geocahcers....I mean thats the main thing here, right, being helfull to the folks who geocache?

 

Keep us infromed

 

-tomwsmf

 

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TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

[+Wipeout]

If anything, I believe this will increase traffic to the GC website and generate more interest in our hobby. I noticed that Jeremy visited my site and I am sure he has some opinions on the subject. Have anything to add Jeremy?

[+parkrrrr]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TeamWSMF:

There has already been a thread about this and the answer came back with talk of "the law" "copyright infringment" "ripping off gc.com and thier IP" and other such terms as well as a general negative vibe from the posters to that thread.

---

But you're not at all bitter or spiteful, oh no. And you'd never misrepresent the argument against yourself either.

 

It's not geocaching.com's intellectual property that you're misappropriating, it's my intellectual property, and that other guy's intellectual property, and see her over there in the corner? Her intellectual property too. You'd like for it to be about violating geocaching.com's intellectual property rights, though, because then you get to use the same tired old arguments that are used by people who copy music illegally, that were used in the eighties by people who copied software illegally, and will be used next year by the people who are copying DVDs illegally. This isn't about screwing a corporation. This is about screwing your fellow geocacher and frankly, you're not my type.

 

[FullOn]

Wipeout, I'm all for PHP-Nuke/geocaching blocks too. I've just started a Southern California Geocachers site that uses the PHP-Nuke engine. I've got one block that I hard code info into that just links back to the geocaching site. It's just a convienent place to see the upcoming events caches and it doesn't change that fast, so it's manageable. I'd like to have a 50 most recently placed caches block on the site that would update itself. Another block that would be nice is a scrolling block showing recent forum postings for certain topics on this site. There are a couple of ways to do this, but not without violating geocaching.com's rules about use, so I'm holding off.

 

Obviously you wouldn't want to violate any copyright laws, so getting permission from the people that own this site is certainly the way to go. Duplicating information that is contained here would of course fall into the category of use that WarmFuzzy is talking about, plus it could be considered direct competition for geocaching.com. Your site certainly seems to fall into the same category that our site is - a companion site to geocaching.com.

[teamwsmf]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy:

 

But you're not at all bitter or spiteful, oh no. And you'd never misrepresent the argument against yourself either.

---

 

Bitter? Heck right after that last thread a dozen sites poped up with exactly what I was looking for. I did not have to raise a finger, host a page or do any work. Seems there were plenty of folks out ther e who had the same idea, some a lot longer than I did, and just ran with it without a care to post of it up here.

 

Lets face facts, there were already sites out there doing this about 6 months ago or longer via other methods. Brians oft mentioned geopalm site is a great example of that.

 

So why get on my case. I was asking questions and voicing my opinion, others where and are out there actualy doign what you say you despise, and no words for them?

 

Your IP has been floating free on the net for a while with not an iota of aid from me. It was even posted about here a few times. No harsh words then though.

 

And what about all these neat tools that are comming out to make it Easier to do all this. Arent things like spinner, gpx2html and thier like simply

giving aid to the "criminals" of your IP?

 

AS more and more local site post data your goign to find yourself spending more and more time protecting your IP, the set of Lat Long coordinates to a geocache you placed..probably on public lands.

 

And so it goes.

 

Meanwhile, Im out geocaching with my family, making the occasional post here, setting up new caches with the kids and sharing it with any and all. Life is short, this is a game of treasure hunt; the turf wars, chest thumping and purity police work Ill leave to others.

 

Thankfuly that old saying still holds true....the net routes around blockages.

 

-tomwsmf

 

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TeamWSMF@wsmf.org

[+trippy1976]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TeamWSMF:

And what about all these neat tools that are comming out to make it Easier to do all this. Arent things like spinner, gpx2html and thier like simply

giving aid to the "criminals" of your IP?

---

 

People may use these tools to abuse the terms of service, but you can hardly imply they were set up to aid those people. They were set up by paying users to provide other paying users an interesting way to manipulate the queries that are being recieved. They were never intended to be intermediaries in the manipulation and subsequent posting of data for the world to see. They are for ME to parse MY gpx files with. Not me to parse my GPX files with so that I can then in turn share them with everyone.

 

I am hoping upon hope that the April/May/Whenever update to gc.com is going to include a web services interface that will solve all our problems once and forever by giving us an easy an equitable route to get this kind of information.

 

Regardless of whether I input the information to build the database, I understand what is involved in maintaining it and providing it to the public. With that information... I can empathize with the people who don't want to let the fruits of their hard work (GPX in particular) become a thing that is freely handed by users to the masses. IT IS WORTH PAYING FOR!

 

However... I lust for the ability to poll the database for information and hope that someday it will be made available to me and/or my organization in the future in some fashion.

 

--------

trippy1976 - Team KKF2A

Saving geocaches - one golf ball at a time.

[+parkrrrr]

quote:

---

Originally posted by TeamWSMF:

Your IP has been floating free on the net for a while with not an iota of aid from me. It was even posted about here a few times. No harsh words then though.

---

 

Examples? I don't see my cache pages or my travel bug pages posted anywhere without my permission. Maybe I'm missing them. My copyright notice and license terms are available in my cache descriptions to anyone who has the skill to make a website; if they're being violated, I want to know about it.

 

The Palmable site is not a good example. The person who operated it knew he was in violation of the terms of use of geocaching.com, and went to enormous effort to both avoid detection and work around the blocks that were in place to prevent what he was doing, rather than work within the system to change the system.

 

As trippy said, the tools we¹ make to manipulate GPX might possibly aid those among us who would agree to abide by the license terms provided by geocaching.com and then turn around and ignore that agreement (There are words for that kind of people) but they are not intended for that purpose any more than your car is intended for the purpose of making it easier to run over children and old people in the street. That a few scumbags are using those tools to break their promise to geocaching.com and the geocaching community is not a reflection on the toolmakers, but on the scumbags.

 

Once again you try to twist my position to make your tediously shaky position look better. I'll explain it again, since you're obviously one of the "slow" ones: my intellectual property is not a set of coordinates. You know as well as I do that you can't copyright a set of coordinates. My intellectual property is in the form of cache descriptions, photographs, and other graphics that I have spent hours creating for the purpose of sharing them with the geocaching.com community. I do not want to share them with other communities, because I have strong feelings about most of the people who claim to represent those other communities. I do not want them to be copied to other websites, because when the time comes for my caches to go away I want them to actually go away; that's part of the "maintenance" thing, you know. But then, maybe you don't actually believe in maintaining your caches. And most importantly, I believe that by placing my cache descriptions on geocaching.com, I'm helping geocaching.com to sell premium memberships, travel bugs, and other things that help Jeremy pay to put food on his table while he makes the geocaching experience better for all of us. If you don't like what Jeremy's doing, that's great. Go put your cache descriptions on one of those other websites and get them to put even a quarter as much work into making their site easy to use. But don't trust them if they tell you you can make copies of the cache descriptions on their site to do with as you will; they don't have the right to tell you that either.

 

They're my cache descriptions. They're my pictures. Whether you like it or not, the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee that I have the right to say what happens to them, and that when you ignore that right you can - and will - be punished for it.

 

¹ That's right, I make a couple of tools to manipulate GPX. In fact, I have a tool that extracts data from MobiPocket documents, probably in violation of at least part of the DMCA. I'm capable of hating what your² elected representatives have done to copyright law while not feeling the irrational desire to use other people's hard work without their consent; perhaps you should work on that.

 

² Yes, your elected representatives. I sure didn't vote for them, I voted for a guy who's actually against more government control of my life.