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PQA


mrcpu

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Would you be interested in a PQA (Web Clipping Application) based on the Geocaching site. Basic features would include:

 

-search for a cache same as WAP pages

-View cache details and logs

 

Rob

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Jeremy,

 

I have been reading up on PQA's and made a couple of basic ones myself. I believe that a PQA can be made for geocaching.com with VERY LITTLE effort on your part.

 

Specifically you would need to add a couple of meta tags and a few tags that would cause the palm to ignore certain things like the big graphics and things like that.

 

The overall impact on the site would be nothing as regular web browsers would ignore the palm specific tags.

 

I'd be more then willing to do the PQA component. Keep in mind that the PQA method is usually NOT a complete rewrite of the HTML like a WAP site is!!! We just need to tag the existing site so that palm.net proxy server strips out the extra weight and non-palm friendly components.

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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A PQA is a Palm Query Application, aka Web Clipping Application.

 

It is a PALM 3.5 feature that works on the PALM VII, Kyocera Smartphone etc.

 

It is essentially a compiled website with the ability to link to real live data over some sort of wireless internet connection.

 

Essentially the PQA would be a local web page or two running on the palm and providing a simple interface for doing a search. The search would come to the Geocaching site. With a few tags dropped into the right place, it should be possible for Jeremy to use the existing codebase without much modification. Essentially the regular web browser would ignore the palm tags and the palm tags would make the palm ignore things like big graphics and such.

 

Rob

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quote:
Originally posted by T-storm:

Pardon my ignorance... do I understand correctly that a wireless enabled PDA would be required for this app to be beneficial? So if I have a PDA that relies on synchronization with my PC PQA wouldn't help me?

 

Thanks,

 

T-storm

 


Palm does sell the software for Palm enabled devices that do not have wireless connectivity built in. I have a Palm OS PDA (Handera 330) that I routinly connect to the net, so I've taken a look at PQA. Personally, I decided that it was not worth spending the money.

 

Note that PQA is a proxy based service, all Internet requests go through a Palm proxy service. Palm used to give away the PQA software, but when it went commercial, they moved the address of their proxy service, thereby disabling the older, free software. Now, there is a hidden procedure that works on some Palm devices that patches the older software to work again, but it is not universally successful.

 

I use a regular old standards based free text web browser on my Palm device that works great for directly accessing geocaching.com and retreiving cache pages. It does not go through any proxy, I just connect to my local service provider, log in just like I was on my home PC, and browse on over to geocaching.com. I've even logged finds from the cache site in this manner. So, my vote is a no on having Jeremy take time to make the site PQA enabled as there are other features I'd like to see worked on.

 

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quote:
Originally posted by T-storm:

Pardon my ignorance... do I understand correctly that a wireless enabled PDA would be required for this app to be beneficial? So if I have a PDA that relies on synchronization with my PC PQA wouldn't help me?


Yes, this is for wireless, real-time access to geocaching.com.

 

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A new wireless browser for the Palm (and Visor) is now in beta test. It appears to be at least as good as DPWeb. It also supports cookies, SSL, WAP and instant messaging. It is beta, so it's not 100% glitch free. But I've used it to access cache pages, and posted a test log with it. Worked great! It has various emulation modes, and you need to set it to either IE or Mozilla to work with geocaching.com.

 

Check it out at this link.

 

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