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Set the map background to UK Ordnance Survey Maps


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NB. This is for UK Ordnance Survey Maps it will ONLY work for viewing geocaches in the UK.

 

I've been frustrated by the background maps on geocaching.com/map page none of the background options are entirely satisfactory. So I looked to see if alternative options were available and found out that you can use a FireFox plugin script to allow you to change the background map.

 

I then found out how to add the Ordnance Survey maps which you can get free on Bing Maps as the background layer. I thought that other Geocachers would be interested.

 

So here are the steps:

 

Adding OS Maps to Geocaching.com

1. Install Firefox from: http://www.getfirefox.com

2. Run Firefox and visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

3. Click to install the GreaseMonkey plugin

4. Visit https://www.bingmapsportal.com/ and create a free Bing Maps account. NB. This uses any Microsoft Live account so you might already have one if you use Hotmail, Outlook.com, Xbox live etc.

5. Login to https://www.bingmapsportal.com/

6. Once logged into the Bing Maps Portal click on “My Account” and select “Create or view keys”

7. Click the first here to create a new key

8. Give it a name – eg: Geocaching OS Maps

9. Give it the URL ie: http://www.geocaching.com

10. The key type needs to remain as basic

11. The application type should be Public website.

12. Click create to create your key.

13. Now copy your key details and save this to a text file for later.

14. Visit http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm#install to install the Geocaching Maps plugin

15. Visit Geocaching.com maps page https://www.geocaching.com/map/ sign in with your geocaching account if you aren’t already signed in.

16. If you are a premium member then you need to make sure your map preferences are set to Leaflet. You do this via the left hand fly out menu “set map preferences” green button at bottom right. If the fly out menu isn’t visible click the green arrow on the extreme left of the map to open the fly out menu.

17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon.

18. This brings up the types of maps you can select from there’s already quite a choice but we are going to add the OS Maps.

19. Click on the Manage Maps tab

20. Now we need to paste some text into the Mapsource field and then click add then save.

21. The text is

• {"alt":"Bing OS Maps","tileUrl":"http://ecn.t{s}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}?g=3440&lbl=l1&productSet=mmOS&key=YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE", "subdomains": "0123", "attribution": "Bing Maps", "overlay":false}

• From the text above you need to replace the text YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE with the key you got in step 13. Note its the bit starting { and ending } (including those curly brackets) that you want not the black dot as well.

22. Paste the text string copied from step 21 with the text replaced with your unique key into the Mapsource box

23. Click add and you will see a new item appear on the sources list called Bing OS Maps.

24. Click save to save and close this window this will also refresh the browser.

25. Whilst still on the geocaching.com maps page notice the map selector in the top right corner and click on it.

26. Select the newly added Bing OS Maps and behold your geocaching background map is now a bang up to date OS Map. Note that of course this only works if you are viewing UK locations.

27. You can use the selector in the top right to change to any of the other map types too. You can also use the configure option cogwheel to choose which one you want as the default when you use geocaching.com

Edited by ShammyLevva
  • Upvote 1
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NB. This is for UK Ordnance Survey Maps it will ONLY work for viewing geocaches in the UK.

 

I've been frustrated by the background maps on geocaching.com/map page none of the background options are entirely satisfactory. So I looked to see if alternative options were available and found out that you can use a FireFox plugin script to allow you to change the background map.

 

I then found out how to add the Ordnance Survey maps which you can get free on Bing Maps as the background layer. I thought that other Geocachers would be interested.

 

So here are the steps:

 

Adding OS Maps to Geocaching.com

1. Install Firefox from: http://www.getfirefox.com

2. Run Firefox and visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

3. Click to install the GreaseMonkey plugin

4. Visit https://www.bingmapsportal.com/ and create a free Bing Maps account. NB. This uses any Microsoft Live account so you might already have one if you use Hotmail, Outlook.com, Xbox live etc.

5. Login to https://www.bingmapsportal.com/

6. Once logged into the Bing Maps Portal click on “My Account” and select “Create or view keys”

7. Click the first here to create a new key

8. Give it a name – eg: Geocaching OS Maps

9. Give it the URL ie: http://www.geocaching.com

10. The key type needs to remain as basic

11. The application type should be Public website.

12. Click create to create your key.

13. Now copy your key details and save this to a text file for later.

14. Visit http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm#install to install the Geocaching Maps plugin

15. Visit Geocaching.com maps page https://www.geocaching.com/map/ sign in with your geocaching account if you aren’t already signed in.

16. If you are a premium member then you need to make sure your map preferences are set to Leaflet. You do this via the left hand fly out menu “set map preferences” green button at bottom right. If the fly out menu isn’t visible click the green arrow on the extreme left of the map to open the fly out menu.

17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon.

18. This brings up the types of maps you can select from there’s already quite a choice but we are going to add the OS Maps.

19. Click on the Manage Maps tab

20. Now we need to paste some text into the Mapsource field and then click add then save.

21. The text is

• {"alt":"Bing OS Maps","tileUrl":"http://ecn.t{s}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}?g=3440&lbl=l1&productSet=mmOS&key=YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE", "subdomains": "0123", "attribution": "Bing Maps", "overlay":false}

• From the text above you need to replace the text YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE with the key you got in step 13. Note its the bit starting { and ending } (including those curly brackets) that you want not the black dot as well.

22. Paste the text string copied from step 21 with the text replaced with your unique key into the Mapsource box

23. Click add and you will see a new item appear on the sources list called Bing OS Maps.

24. Click save to save and close this window this will also refresh the browser.

25. Whilst still on the geocaching.com maps page notice the map selector in the top right corner and click on it.

26. Select the newly added Bing OS Maps and behold your geocaching background map is now a bang up to date OS Map. Note that of course this only works if you are viewing UK locations.

27. You can use the selector in the top right to change to any of the other map types too. You can also use the configure option cogwheel to choose which one you want as the default when you use geocaching.com

 

Many thanks for posting this. It works beautifully, except that at step 17 I don't get the four buttons, but the GME settings are available from the drop down at the top of page (beside the user name). I have found since that the four buttons were hidden behind the side bar, minimising this and expanding this made the buttons visible.

 

Thanks again,

 

Paul

Edited by phethuk
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Many thanks to ShammyLevva for these excellent instructions. :cool:

 

I have managed to get OS maps working on Chrome on my Mac.

 

You will need to install Chrome if you don't have it and you don't have to install the 'greasemonkey' plugin.

 

I then followed ShammyLevva's instructions from point 4 onwards to set up a Bing account.

 

At point14 on his instructions where you need to install the 'Geocaching Maps' plugin I had to right click on the green install link on the download page and save the linked .js file to my desktop.

 

I then opened the chrome extensions by typing chrome://extensions/ in the url bar on Chrome and then dragged the 'Geocaching_Map_Enhancements.user.js' file from the desktop on the chrome extension page and this installed the extension.

 

From there I followed ShammyLevva's instructions from point 16 onwards.

 

It worked a treat for me great to have OS maps on the geocaching.com map :D

Edited by The Geotourers
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Don't know whats gone wrong for me but when I select Bing OS the browser only shows the geocaches not the map just a grey screen with no details?

I'm on v 46 of Firefox Also tried a slightly different script still no joy.

As an edit, tried it on chrome with Tampermonkey installed and it works just fine but not on FF?

Edited by UrbanFox2
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Hi, can I have some help please. Once again the OS maps have gone. This time I've lost the buttons mentioned as :-

"17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon."

 

Thanks.

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18 minutes ago, BCNorwich said:

Hi, can I have some help please. Once again the OS maps have gone. This time I've lost the buttons mentioned as :-

"17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon."

 

Thanks.

 

Are you now using the new "Search Map", if so the GME  addon doesn't work with that map, you need to use the old "Browse Map" from the "Play" drop down menu select "View Browse map" at the bottom, or just go here https://www.geocaching.com/map/  

 

Other than that I've no idea.

 

Edited by MartyBartfast
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Hello MartyBartfast,

Thanks for your response. I was/am trying to use the old map but followed your link just in case, no luck though.  The niggling thing is I've lost those buttons before and got the back, I might even have posted the resolution somewhere as well. I just can't think how to get them back, old age in the way I suppose.

 

PS I'm using the Firefox browser

Edited by BCNorwich
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On 1/25/2016 at 5:16 PM, ShammyLevva said:

NB. This is for UK Ordnance Survey Maps it will ONLY work for viewing geocaches in the UK.

 

I've been frustrated by the background maps on geocaching.com/map page none of the background options are entirely satisfactory. So I looked to see if alternative options were available and found out that you can use a FireFox plugin script to allow you to change the background map.

 

I then found out how to add the Ordnance Survey maps which you can get free on Bing Maps as the background layer. I thought that other Geocachers would be interested.

 

So here are the steps:

 

Adding OS Maps to Geocaching.com

1. Install Firefox from: http://www.getfirefox.com

2. Run Firefox and visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

3. Click to install the GreaseMonkey plugin

4. Visit https://www.bingmapsportal.com/ and create a free Bing Maps account. NB. This uses any Microsoft Live account so you might already have one if you use Hotmail, Outlook.com, Xbox live etc.

5. Login to https://www.bingmapsportal.com/

6. Once logged into the Bing Maps Portal click on “My Account” and select “Create or view keys”

7. Click the first here to create a new key

8. Give it a name – eg: Geocaching OS Maps

9. Give it the URL ie: http://www.geocaching.com

10. The key type needs to remain as basic

11. The application type should be Public website.

12. Click create to create your key.

13. Now copy your key details and save this to a text file for later.

14. Visit http://geo.inge.org.uk/gme.htm#install to install the Geocaching Maps plugin

15. Visit Geocaching.com maps page https://www.geocaching.com/map/ sign in with your geocaching account if you aren’t already signed in.

16. If you are a premium member then you need to make sure your map preferences are set to Leaflet. You do this via the left hand fly out menu “set map preferences” green button at bottom right. If the fly out menu isn’t visible click the green arrow on the extreme left of the map to open the fly out menu.

17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon.

18. This brings up the types of maps you can select from there’s already quite a choice but we are going to add the OS Maps.

19. Click on the Manage Maps tab

20. Now we need to paste some text into the Mapsource field and then click add then save.

21. The text is

• {"alt":"Bing OS Maps","tileUrl":"http://ecn.t{s}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}?g=3440&lbl=l1&productSet=mmOS&key=YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE", "subdomains": "0123", "attribution": "Bing Maps", "overlay":false}

• From the text above you need to replace the text YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE with the key you got in step 13. Note its the bit starting { and ending } (including those curly brackets) that you want not the black dot as well.

22. Paste the text string copied from step 21 with the text replaced with your unique key into the Mapsource box

23. Click add and you will see a new item appear on the sources list called Bing OS Maps.

24. Click save to save and close this window this will also refresh the browser.

25. Whilst still on the geocaching.com maps page notice the map selector in the top right corner and click on it.

26. Select the newly added Bing OS Maps and behold your geocaching background map is now a bang up to date OS Map. Note that of course this only works if you are viewing UK locations.

27. You can use the selector in the top right to change to any of the other map types too. You can also use the configure option cogwheel to choose which one you want as the default when you use geocaching.com

 

I have had a similar issue with my OS maps disappearing.

 

I use Firefox, and greasemonkey. I noticed there was a major update of Firefox a week or so ago, and I had not been able to access the OS maps since then, despite the usual restart/switch on and off etc.

 

I have just re-installed the plug-in as in step 14 in the instructions above, when I moved to step 15 the OS maps reappeared as if by magic

 

I wonder whether the firefox update had affected the plugin?

 

Hope that works for you

 

 

 

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Woo! Hoo!  I am an incurable mapaholic & am never happier than when I have an OS map in hand.  I did purchase OS mapping for my etrex 30x as I just enjoy looking at all the information on the maps when I am out walking & when I have downloaded caches onto the gps they make so much more sense to me than the basic pre-installed map or with the default geocaching background on the website.  So when I found this instruction to install OS maps as on-screen background I whooped for joy.  BUT then I read the instructions & despaired as I am no techie & am still on the basic science of all this stuff like extensions & plug-ins!  However I gave it a go & after a few hiccups it all worked.  At first I failed to read the instructions properly & did not install greasemonkey correctly.  I am on an old PC on Windows7 & Chrome.  I went back & read all the above posts & had a go at installing Tampermonkey.  More puzzled staring at the screen but just kept clicking on things.  Eventually found my way to the Mapsource field in point 20.  Typed in that looooong string of characters & got an error message.  Went through it again with a fine tooth comb, replaced a . with a and bingo! it worked.  TIP for the visually challeneged - type it on a word doc first in BIG typeface then copy & paste.

 

So after all that waffle I just came here to say two things

1. give it a go & don't give up

2. a huge THANK YOU to ShammyLevva & everyone else who added comments & tips.

 

Edited by grimpil
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The OS Map installation is no longer working for me  - have not been trying to view it for a few weeks so no idea when it stopped playing ball with me.  Is anyone else having the same problem, before I start paying around with my settings only to discover it no longer works per se

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1 hour ago, grimpil said:

The OS Map installation is no longer working for me  - have not been trying to view it for a few weeks so no idea when it stopped playing ball with me.  Is anyone else having the same problem, before I start paying around with my settings only to discover it no longer works per se

 

It's fine for me, but I am using an old version of Opera (12.16) that does things totally differently which may be why.

 

Thinking along those lines, has your browser updated itself recently? There may be a privacy setting or something that's switched?

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On 7/1/2019 at 3:47 PM, MartyBartfast said:

 

Are you now using the new "Search Map", if so the GME  addon doesn't work with that map, you need to use the old "Browse Map" from the "Play" drop down menu select "View Browse map" at the bottom, or just go here https://www.geocaching.com/map/  

 

I copied MartyB's message to  save typing it again , it seems the most likely problem.

 

Works fine with W7 and firefox for me at the moment, but I recall that sometime around Easter this year I lost GME for a while, due to ( If I recall correctly) some FF update causing a problem with greasemonkey, or possibly vice - versa ! An update of greasemonkey might be one thing to try..

 

Edited by hal-an-tow
left something out
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I had tried toggling between search & browse - although in fact I had the screen that showed the OS maps bookmarked so I could always go straight there.  But does not now work.  No worries.  Knowing the problem is with me as said I will leave it until I have my new Win 10 desktop set up sorted.  I used Tampermonkey BTW & there are no recent updates.  And I have "Leaflet" map prefernces selected.  So lots of options to try & am sure with all the helpful suggestions on this thread I will easily get the OS maps back.  It's not life & death for me - caching is not an everyday activity.

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Just re-added the OS maps. As I'd done everything in the OP years ago I only needed to do steps:

 


5. Login to https://www.bingmapsportal.com/

6. Once logged into the Bing Maps Portal click on “My Account” and select “Create or view keys”



13. Now copy your key details and save this to a text file for later.



17. Assuming everything has installed correctly up to this stage you will now see at the bottom left of the map a row of four buttons the 4th of which is a cogwheel icon. Click this icon.

18. This brings up the types of maps you can select from there’s already quite a choice but we are going to add the OS Maps.

19. Click on the Manage Maps tab

20. Now we need to paste some text into the Mapsource field and then click add then save.

21. The text is

• {"alt":"Bing OS Maps","tileUrl":"http://ecn.t{s}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}?g=3440&lbl=l1&productSet=mmOS&key=YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE", "subdomains": "0123", "attribution": "Bing Maps", "overlay":false}

• From the text above you need to replace the text YOUR_BING_MAPS_KEY_GOES_HERE with the key you got in step 13. Note its the bit starting { and ending } (including those curly brackets) that you want not the black dot as well.

22. Paste the text string copied from step 21 with the text replaced with your unique key into the Mapsource box

23. Click add and you will see a new item appear on the sources list called Bing OS Maps.

24. Click save to save and close this window this will also refresh the browser.

and it's all back.

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Just popping back in here to confirm I got the OS map background option back again.  Just followed all the original instructions, copied & pasted that long string of characters which I had kept on a word document after the previous successful install & bingo!  Made life much easier than trying to retype it all again.  Simples!

 

(New Year Resolution to self - I will NOT be defeated by technology!)

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Yes the latest geocaching.com changes do seem to have caused issues with the mapping again.

 

I did not loose the main OS mapping feature so have not had to reapply the GME bing maps script etc BUT what is still annoying is that the small map on a cache page now only displays in Openstreetmap format whereas before the latest Groundspeak update re cookis etc, it used to allow other formats including OS mapping.

 

Now there appears to be no way to change this?

 

JRI has said that he will look at the GME script when time permits because he can see there are some problems since the Groundspeak updates last week.

 

Anyone else notice this issue?

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3 hours ago, BCNorwich said:

Hi, I used to be able to see the OS maps but not for a while now. I've just gone through the MartyBartfast  instructions above, I can now have the Bing map but still don't have the OS map.

Can anyone help please? Bernard

It works for me still, just tried it  :

osmap.thumb.jpg.3a49aa24790eb00f42e4d40bb2792e44.jpg

 

It doesn't work on the 'search' map though, the one which (Still, despite many requests on here) is forced on us as the default first map to (slowly) appear, you only get GME if you wait for that map to be at least partially loaded (if you are too quick to click on the 'browse 'map link, the map you get is centered on your home co-ords rather than whatever cache you are actually interested in), and then click on the 'Browse map' button.

The Groundspeak mapping is so slow I seldom use it any more. To print a map for a walk I use GSAK and a macro (which I mentioned in a post earlier in this thread), which gives me a faster result with OS mapping , better icons, and labels which adjust immediately when the map is zoomed. The only feature I miss from GME is the route tool .

 

It may be that your browser has been auto updated and broken the script , in which case other users will be along with the same problem soon. I've turned off auto updates for exactly this reason , when I manually allow an update on firefox I can immediately check my useful scripts are still OK, and if not, have a good idea why.

 

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I've been having problems again getting OS maps to work ... have now got them back, BUT the top/right drop down list of maps doesn't include OS so only way I can get them is to make OS the default map. That's fine but then when I zoom out past the OS range I have no map, without refreshing the page, which promptly zooms out to show the whole country.

 

My "long" list without OS included is attached, I also asked a friend to check and his map list is short and includes OS, see also attached.

 

Has anyone seen this problem of the list not showing correct maps installed via the GME manage window? Better still, anyone know how to change the displayed list?

 

174152148_GeocachingMapList.thumb.jpg.70cef06d5dd7736ff1f4ec140f001ab1.jpg258845415_CorrectGeocachingMapList.thumb.jpg.0136764373ec3ac9215373945b9262f8.jpg

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Solved the problem very soon after pressing send! Sorry!

 

Thought I had tried disabling other extensions/scripts but clearly not as its the "GC little helper II" script that appears to be changing various things on the Geocaching Map screens. Disabled now and the map list is correct and selects maps ok. Will miss quite a few of the "GC little helper II" functions such as ability to change the order of your displayed Souvenir list and short cuts to other functions, but having OS Maps working properly is far more important to me!

 

At least if anyone else has the above problem, here is one reason for things having changed. Attached screen shot shows the list and restoration of the "Browse Map" button.

Geocaching Map List with disabled GCLittleHelperII.jpg

  • Upvote 1
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I am having trouble getting OS maps on GME. It worked well for couple of years but stopped working about 12 months ago. I have faithfully followed the latest  instructions on the forum but no joy. I am using Chrome on win10.1. This the GME text string I use -

{"alt":"Bing OS Maps","tileUrl":"http://ecn.t{s}.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r{q}?g=3440&lbl=l1&productSet=mmOS&key={AnlxQfoPfB1qFTmE9bEjXulYKzBA7FGsyXXPTR0gZ8YWyR4kvAZTrASQNjwk5vPF}", "subdomains": "0123", "attribution": "Bing Maps", "overlay":false}.

Can any one help please?

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