+HistDrew Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I love the way the search function on GC works, but I also would like to be able to do some types of searches that it just doesn't do. For most of these, there are workarounds developed by people far cleverer than me. So here's my "How Do I...?" I'd like to be able to search, in a pocket query, in the all the usual ways. But I'd like to be able to have it return results limited only to those caches (that I haven't found) and with a "Difficulty/Terrain" combo that I have not yet found. Does anyone know a way to massage the searches to do this? Right now I just do a general search for caches I haven't found, load the PQ into MacCaching, and then manually scan for D/Ts I don't have. It's cumbersome, though, and it would be nice to have a workaround. HistDrew Quote Link to comment
+The A-Team Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 (edited) Does anyone know a way to massage the searches to do this? You only have 2 options: 1. Run a series of pocket queries, each specifiying a single D/T combination. You'll have to look up which combos you still need and manually run PQs for each. 2. Download a large number of caches and filter them offline. There's no way to do what you want all in one shot with PQs. Edit to add: Keep in mind that you can preview PQs. If you only expect a handful of results for a D/T combination, you don't need to run the PQ. Just preview it, and you can manually download the few caches it returns. Edited June 4, 2012 by The A-Team Quote Link to comment
+HistDrew Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 Does anyone know a way to massage the searches to do this? You only have 2 options: 1. Run a series of pocket queries, each specifiying a single D/T combination. You'll have to look up which combos you still need and manually run PQs for each. 2. Download a large number of caches and filter them offline. There's no way to do what you want all in one shot with PQs. Edit to add: Keep in mind that you can preview PQs. If you only expect a handful of results for a D/T combination, you don't need to run the PQ. Just preview it, and you can manually download the few caches it returns. Yeah, I do the PQ for each D/T combo, but there's 16 of them. Kind of a long process when I go to a new area. And, filtering them (ie. in MacCaching) is the other way. Not ideal, but it's faster than individual D/T searches. Ah well. It'd be nice to have a checkbox in the "That (And)" section--in addition to "I haven't found," "I don't own," etc. that is something like "Is a D/T I haven't found." Seems like it should be an easy one, considering all the other options that are on there. Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 in addition to "I haven't found," "I don't own," etc. that is something like "Is a D/T I haven't found." What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" Or the Alphabet Challenge. We need a checkbox for "Starts with a letter I haven't found" Let's not forget The Bridge Challenge, the Cache Owner Alphabet Challenge, the Cemetery Challenge, the Color Challenge, the Micro Size Challange, the Regular Size Challenge, the Attributes Challenge, the Top Favorites Challenge, the Military Challenge, the River Challenge, the Rocks Challenge, the Altitude Challenge, etc. All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. Quote Link to comment
+DadOf6Furrballs Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 in addition to "I haven't found," "I don't own," etc. that is something like "Is a D/T I haven't found." What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" Or the Alphabet Challenge. We need a checkbox for "Starts with a letter I haven't found" Let's not forget The Bridge Challenge, the Cache Owner Alphabet Challenge, the Cemetery Challenge, the Color Challenge, the Micro Size Challange, the Regular Size Challenge, the Attributes Challenge, the Top Favorites Challenge, the Military Challenge, the River Challenge, the Rocks Challenge, the Altitude Challenge, etc. All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. Quote Link to comment
+HistDrew Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 in addition to "I haven't found," "I don't own," etc. that is something like "Is a D/T I haven't found." What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. True, it could get crazy. On the other hand, the Groundspeak stats page shows you the D/Ts you've found, as well as "months I've found." So, if they're going to show you what months or D/Ts you've found, why not something to facilitate the D/Ts or even "months hidden" that you haven't found. Seems like if you can have an automatic display of the one's you've found, there might be a way to figure out the opposite. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" Or the Alphabet Challenge. We need a checkbox for "Starts with a letter I haven't found" Let's not forget The Bridge Challenge, the Cache Owner Alphabet Challenge, the Cemetery Challenge, the Color Challenge, the Micro Size Challange, the Regular Size Challenge, the Attributes Challenge, the Top Favorites Challenge, the Military Challenge, the River Challenge, the Rocks Challenge, the Altitude Challenge, etc. All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. WHOOOAAAA, big fella!!! I'm all for increasing the versatility of PQ parameters, but this thing is gonna tip over if you keep on like that! Quote Link to comment
+The A-Team Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" Or the Alphabet Challenge. We need a checkbox for "Starts with a letter I haven't found" Let's not forget The Bridge Challenge, the Cache Owner Alphabet Challenge, the Cemetery Challenge, the Color Challenge, the Micro Size Challange, the Regular Size Challenge, the Attributes Challenge, the Top Favorites Challenge, the Military Challenge, the River Challenge, the Rocks Challenge, the Altitude Challenge, etc. All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. WHOOOAAAA, big fella!!! I'm all for increasing the versatility of PQ parameters, but this thing is gonna tip over if you keep on like that! Just you wait! He hasn't gotten to the blackout challenges yet! Quote Link to comment
+BeerBrewerDan Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 (edited) in addition to "I haven't found," "I don't own," etc. that is something like "Is a D/T I haven't found." What about the Jasmer Challenge? Shouldn't there also be a checkbox for "Is hidden in a month I haven't found" Or the Alphabet Challenge. We need a checkbox for "Starts with a letter I haven't found" Let's not forget The Bridge Challenge, the Cache Owner Alphabet Challenge, the Cemetery Challenge, the Color Challenge, the Micro Size Challange, the Regular Size Challenge, the Attributes Challenge, the Top Favorites Challenge, the Military Challenge, the River Challenge, the Rocks Challenge, the Altitude Challenge, etc. All those checkboxes are going to get pretty unwieldy pretty fast. Despite all of your sarcasm, these are legit ideas. In fact, one could boil them down if one took the time to think it through (instead of piling on someone who had a reasonable question). Wild card searches on cache names - perhaps SQL metacharacters could be used, since SQL must surely be used by the system today - would solve the problem on the alphabet challenge query. And given an advanced search capability similar to, but maybe not exactly the same as, MS Outlook you could say which critical fields you'd like to search against. Perhaps you're looking for the word "cemetary" in the cache description where GZ is within X miles of a town. That'd be pretty darn cool. Or maybe you're searching for caches that do not have LPC anywhere in the name/desc/hint. Heck, if I'm dreaming I'd like to click on an empty box in my Fizzy or Jasmer grids and have that launch a search that has those items already filled in (caches I haven't found with this D/T combo) with additional choices (within X miles, size large, etc). In terms of exposing more searchable items, like months I haven't found, combo boxes could clean up the checkbox area a bit or maybe there could be a "common" section (with things like "I haven't found" and "Found recently") and a "advanced" section for people like HistDrew. The rest of the people can stick with the basic searches. Like you guys. Edited June 5, 2012 by BeerBrewerDan Quote Link to comment
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