GPX V2.0

[+the Seagnoid]

Apologies, I could not find an GPX forum.

 

Is it time to start work on version 2 for the geocaching GPX format? This would allow those suggestions that are problematic at the moment.

 

Features:

1. Require the mobile device to support 15 geocache sizes:

We already want to add nano. The size name would be delivered as part of the GPX download, along with a number marking size order/max sizes, allowing a correct display of the name and/or size graph. The device manufacturer could still limit the displayable text length. eg <SizeName>nano <SizeOrder>1/8 (zero = virtual, 1 = nano, 2 = micro, etc, 8 = not specified). If new sizes are added sizes are reordered to suit.

 

2. Require the mobile device to support 50 cache types:

Currently there is some discussion about adding "challenges" as a unique cache type. "Labs" is another that might get added. As with cache sizes, deliver the cache type name with the GPX. Maybe dowload a bitmap image of the icon, or allow the device manufacturer to use no/generic icons for caches types it didn't know about. Where possible, the manufacturer should allow the reading of a file to pick up new cache types, so that new types can be added after purchase.

 

3. Anything else?

 

In the user profile have a checkbox specifying which GPX version to download - by default the old one. The device manufacturers and the user community will announce when their devices or software upgrades will support the new version.

For the existing GPX format, the new cache sizes will be converted to their nearest equiv, or be flagged as not specified, and new cache types as puzzles.

Come to think of it, if we use new tag fields then we could use the same GPX version, as applications will ignore fields they don't know. However, I suspect this will slow device manufacturers from converting to the new format.

 

Yes? No? Comments? Brickbats?

[+niraD]

I don't think it makes sense to include "not specified" size values (or type values, or attribute values, or any other values). Just specify the ones that will be used, and let device vendors test against those. When another size (or type, or attribute, or whatever) is added, then the device vendors are going to need to test against the new spec anyway. And devices that can't handle the new format will still need an older GPX format, so the site will still need a way to generate the older GPX formats, just as it does now.

 

But the main things I can think of right now that should be in the new GPX format are:

new nano size

new attributes

personal cache note

include both original coordinates and corrected coordinates somehow

[+The A-Team]

An updated GPX schema was in the works a few years ago, but that seems to have been abandoned. Here's Moun10Bike's statement regarding it:

Update of GPX schema is no longer in the planning. It's a fairly "old school" way of delivering cache data. We are instead focused on improving the API to deliver data in more customized formats, and an overhaul of the search functionality is a major step toward that.

Granted, that's about 1.5 years old now, but I don't think we've heard anything different since then.

[+Walts Hunting]

It's been pretty well known that the PQ's were going the way of Betamax.