No solution checker in iOS using official app

[+yxza]

Hello, I was just made aware of the fact that the Solution Checker supplied by Groundspeak does not show in iOS if you look at the cachedescription using the official app. After doing some testing I found that the same error (?) occurs both in Cachly and Looking 4 Cache.

I'm currently running iOS ver 14 and have no possibility to test other versions.

Comments anyone?

[+barefootjeff]

The inbuilt solution checker is a website-only feature. From the Help Centre:

 

 

Take note of the note at the bottom.

[+HHL]

At least the GS muggle app should show the checker attribute icon which it lacks at the very moment.

[+Team DEMP]

The attribute, if nothing else, will alert someone the official checker exists. I thought that was the sole purpose of the new attribute.

Wasn't GS going to run a script and apply the new attribute/icon to all existing caches where the checker was in use? Not sure that was done yet or there's a long way for it to go to finish running. 

Foe the moment, you need to go to the website in a browser to use it. 

[+Team DEMP]

1 hour ago, yxza said:

Hello, I was just made aware of the fact that the Solution Checker supplied by Groundspeak does not show in iOS if you look at the cachedescription using the official app. After doing some testing I found that the same error (?) occurs both in Cachly and Looking 4 Cache.

 

At some point, I thought maybe the checker was going to be enabled for 3rd party apps, but maybe I got my wires crossed. It could be the attribute is a first step and then a new API to call if the attribute is present with the interface surfaced within the 3rd party app? We'll have to wait and see. 

[+kunarion]

On 9/21/2020 at 5:22 AM, yxza said:

Hello, I was just made aware of the fact that the Solution Checker supplied by Groundspeak does not show in iOS if you look at the cachedescription using the official app. After doing some testing I found that the same error (?) occurs both in Cachly and Looking 4 Cache.

I'm currently running iOS ver 14 and have no possibility to test other versions.

Comments anyone?

 

A solution checker will create new problems if it's in the App, because many times, a cache's Puzzle doesn't work within the App.  That is, if it's a puzzle cache, I work on it in a web browser on a desktop PC, not on a phone.  Sure you might like the checker anyway.  But when it's added, prepare for the forum posts to increase, when the checker is there, but the key portion of the cache puzzle is not evident.

 

Plus the App is designed to work offline.  Is it the idea that the checker will function offline?

 

But I tried it in two of my iPhone browsers, and the checker shows up on the phone online in a browser.  View a cache in The App, "open in browser", run the checker.  If The App, rather than showing nothing, included a link to the company Solution Checker, at least you'd know which particular page provides the checker.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by kunarion

[+thebruce0]

An in-browser checker could be implemented as a menu item, and by tapping that menu item it would inform you that you need to have internet connectivity, and the API could do the coordinate check call. I don't see a problem with that, and frankly I'd be surprised if this attribute hasn't prompted (or wasn't prompted by) a future goal to have the checker available to mobile apps. Especially if the attribute is (intended to be) automatically tied to the existence of the checker.  It would need to have error code to handle if there's an inconsistency of course (attribute where there's no checker) but hopefully they'll address that issue long before that point.

[Keystone]

I moved this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum.

[+kunarion]

7 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

An in-browser checker could be implemented as a menu item, and by tapping that menu item it would inform you that you need to have internet connectivity, and the API could do the coordinate check call. I don't see a problem with that, and frankly I'd be surprised if this attribute hasn't prompted (or wasn't prompted by) a future goal to have the checker available to mobile apps. Especially if the attribute is (intended to be) automatically tied to the existence of the checker.  It would need to have error code to handle if there's an inconsistency of course (attribute where there's no checker) but hopefully they'll address that issue long before that point.

 

Do 3rd-party coordinate checkers show up in the App (their links)?  Usually on a cache page there's a URL or link to click even when the icon isn't shown.

 

I've never really tried that, because as I mentioned, I never would bother with a checker within The App.  If TPTB keep improving the App for the phone, it may one day do almost as much as the web site that currently runs on one's phone.  Ah, the miracles of these modern times.

[+SpiritGuide]

Geooh GO for Android uses the API to recognize a cache has the HQ solution checker and shows a built-in dialog to enter solutions without having to use the website. It may be the only app to do this.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, SpiritGuide said:

Geooh GO for Android uses the API to recognize a cache has the HQ solution checker and shows a built-in dialog to enter solutions without having to use the website. It may be the only app to do this.

I've wondered if the plan from HQ was that The Official App was for Basic Members, to get the idea of Geocaching out there "for free" for Basic restricted App use.  And then when they catch the Geocaching bug, they subscribe AND then buy some 3rd-party App that has all the bells and whistles a Premium Member could ask for.  Or they decide to use a handheld GPS instead, in which case, the fanciest App in the world doesn't matter.  Some of us see TPTB adding some new feature to The App, and we don't use The App, and we wonder why the web site isn't the priority.  AND that new App feature introduces new glitches, yet the existing glitches were never fixed which is why we don't use The App.

 

Anyway, the way it could work (it can't, but at least it could work in theory), is other developers would make Geocaching Apps that have cool features that they think we will love, while The Official App stays very simple and lets you click a cache and go find it.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by kunarion

[+CAVinoGal]

On 9/22/2020 at 7:04 PM, kunarion said:

 

Do 3rd-party coordinate checkers show up in the App (their links)?  Usually on a cache page there's a URL or link to click even when the icon isn't shown.

 

Yes, they do.  At least Certitudes (my checker of choice) does.  Here's the description of one of my puzzles, and it shows the checker which is clickable to take you to certitudes.org where you can check coordinates/codeword as needed.  (Official geocaching app on Google Pixel, Android)

 

ETA: I just realized this is in the iOS forum - and I'm using an Android.  oops.  

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by CAVinoGal