Wap Re-enabled

[Jeremy]

The functionality is extremely basic, but you can now access the WAP version of the site.

 

So far you can:

• Search by waypoint
  
• Search by Postal Code
  
• Search by Waypoint name (eg: GC123)
  

On the cache listing if it has hints, you can click to view them.

[Jeremy]

I have yet to work this with an emulator, so if someone can test on a real phone and let me know, that'd be great

[Swagger]

My phone uses an HTML browser, so I can't test it, but I noticed two things that may cause problems.

 

1. There's a javascript function. It doesn't look like it's a necessary function, but if so, a WAP browser won't handle it.

 

2. It's not coded in WML. If the WAP browser only renders WML, it won't display the page. I don't know if newer phones will render basic HTML, but I know that the older phones wouldn't.

 

I'm glad it's there, though. It beats the 17k+ page that I would normally have to load on my phone (at 14.4kbps) to do a search.

[Swagger]

I just tried out the "light" site and noticed that the zip code listing uses javascript links to go to the cache page. That's not going to work at all - no phone that I've seen handles javascript.

 

Note that I haven't been phone shopping in a year and a half, so perhaps some newer browser versions handle some basic javascript functions.

 

WML is the language of WAP, and doesn't include support for javascript at all.

 

What I'd like to see ( ) is the current HTML site (without any reliance on javascript) in addition to a WML site for true WAP browsers. That would give the users of both types of phone-based browsers mobile access to the search facility.

[+mlord]

HTTP Error 301

 

-ml

[+RJFerret]

OK, that's too cool and funny. That's essentially the information I parse from a cache page and sync to my Palm device.

 

Only I don't include the placer's name, but do average the ratings into one number and include the hint encrypted (as the Palm program HintDecoder let's me decrypt in the field).

 

I'll be using that link in the future--it gives exactly what's needed, no extraneous BS and loads a heckuva' lot faster!

 

Cool!

 

Randy

 

(Things are improving all the time...)

[Jeremy]

It should be detecting the version of browser that is hitting it, and responding with whatever capabilities it has. I'll look to make sure the objects I'm using are the correct ones that work with WAP.

[+mlord]

I just tried it from my AudioVox-8300 handset, and it works, but it's definitely not optimal yet.

 

Jeremy: I've sent you a PM regarding my own WAP interface -- you may want to have a look (from a phone or simulator) to get some ideas. For data entry fields (eg. Lat/Lon), it is important to provide a format example to aid the user -- I have no idea what the geocaching.com/wap prompts want me to enter for those. On handsets with the OpenWave browsers (nearly all except Nokia), one can supply detailed formatting info in the WML code, which really speeds up data entry and accuracy.

 

Because of the two browser families, nearly all pages will need to be rendered differently based on the type of browser: one method for OpenWave, another method for Nokia. Best to test everything on the two types of simulators as well.

 

Cheers

[+astrandb]

I´ve tested with my old Ericsson R520. It seems to work OK.

/Åke S

[The Cuthberts]

Nokia 6310i works fine when searching by waypoint name. Will try others when the boss isn't looking.

[+tally-2]

It works great on my cell phone. It shows, well, everything but pictures and the finder's notes. If we need the hint I can click on that and it will decode it. This will be wonderful! Thank you so much!

Bob and Sandy

[+garri]

It works great for my Motorola V-50

 

I tried to access for first time last sunday, isn't works very well.

 

The reason of visiting the wap version of Geocaching.com was because I forgot that every time that I upload data to my GPS the previous waypoints are removed, and i wanted to find the coordinates of the cache that we want searching for his human name not by GCxxx, because it was the only thing i remember of that cache.

 

What kind of chars i have to write for search by coordinates? It's a waste of time pressing x times the special chars key for writing coordinates. Why not include an INPUT for º, another INPUT for minutes and other for seconds?

Edited November 20, 2003 by garri

[+Insp Gadget]

Seems to work fine on my Motorola Timeport

[+The Cheeseheads]

Works fine on a Motorola i90c. One of the caches had a link to another cache in the description which gave me a "page not found" error when I tried to follow the link.

[+zoinks]

I tested it on a Nokia 3650 successfully.

 

Cool!

[+Marky]

Pulling up a cache page by waypoint works on my Nextel Blackberry but I can't get a list of nearest caches from either coordinate or zipcode. The coordinate page may be just that I'm entering in the data incorrectly (it just returns me to the page without any error messages). The zipcode search fails after about 45 seconds and gives the following error message:

An error occurred while fetching the requested page.

 

Of course, searching for nearest caches will be useless (or annoying) to many people until we can log in and filter out our finds...

 

I think allowing cache find logs to be entered from a wap screen would be nice. I know I like it.

[+Stunod]

I'm having trouble with it on my Motorola v60i

 

I get the following message after entering a zip code to search:

Network error: data too large

 

Anyone else having similar problems?

 

I get the same problem Marky does with the coordinate search...it sends me right back to the page to enter the data (it does this in IE on my PC, too).

 

The lookup by cache waypoint name does work, though.

Edited November 20, 2003 by Stunod

[+LazyK]

Unable to access using a Samsung v205 on t-Mobile network. All I get is an error message indicating "Not Acceptable".

 

Found this description of the error message:

Precompiled WML cannot be loaded; usage yields a "Not Acceptable" message and the page cannot be rendered.

 

Is the WAP search page 'precompiled WML'?

 

Dan

[umc]

I got a 500: Internal Server error and when I click on details I get this:

 

1002: Digest is too large for devise.

 

Thats on a Motorola i95cl

 

That was when searching via zipcode.

Edited November 20, 2003 by umc

[+Lamneth]

The ALT value of IMG tags should be displayed in place of the missing image.

[+Stunod]

I figured out how to do the coordinate search (at least on the PC - I'll try it on the phone later).

 

The coords need to be entered as decimal degrees and the longitude needs the negative added to it to make it west

 

For example:

41.7198

-88.0646

Edited November 20, 2003 by Stunod

[Jeremy]

I'll re-post a topic after making some changes and running them through some emulators.

[+dogwash]

Great job. It seems to work quite good with a Sony Ericsson T68i. Though the search with coordinates returned too much contents to be displayed. Searching after waypoints worked without problems.

[+jeff35080]

I get the following message after entering a zip code to search:

Network error: data too large

 

I get it on a Motorola V200

 

I can't get any of the options to work

 

I'm sure Jeremy will have it fixed soon. It used to be a really cool feature that did work on my V200

[lowracer]

Rock and Roll! Thanks for the WAP. I've got a Samsung A500, which I've been using wapGoogle with to look up by waypoint ID. Now I can go straight to the horse's mouth for the cache info while out in the field and encounter a waypoint that I don't have a sheet printed for.

 

Feature requests:

1) Difficulty/terrain display

2) Logs? Maybe not all logs but the last 5 are usually very helpful. Sometimes logs have got better coords if the original placer had a crappy signal lock.

3) If logs can't be displayed, at least a smiley face or a frowney face to indicate if the last person to search was successful.

 

-mark.

[+RobertM]

Would it be possible to actually log in and do a filter find, so caches I've found and placed don't show up?

 

But this is looking VERY good. Thanks Jeremy! :-)

 

Some screen shots as well:

 

I took them quickly, so quality is not too good either.

[+RobertM]

It'd be nice if the following was shown on the main list as well:

Waypoint ID

Difficulty/Terrain

Distance to cache (from searched point) in KM ;-)

Placed By

 

Currently it shows:

0mi|Ready, Steady, Attempt!|Traditional Cache

 

How about:

0km GCGKV2 4/1 Ready, Steady, Attempt! by RobertM Traditional Cache

 

But I guess some guys wouldn't want so much data displayed either. If we logged in perhaps we could set what we want shown? :-)

[+RobertM]

Another thing.

 

Instead of using the list box to select the search by, can you please change it to 3 hyperlinks and we click on the one we want and it takes one to the correct screen to enter what we need? It's just easier to enter it like that on a mobile device.

[+Gorak]

Hmmm... I managed to enter a Postal Code search but repeated attempts all resulted in no caches being found. Not sure what i am doing wrong.

[+Ducky]

works fine on my Nokia 3590 but I fear this will cause me to cache even more!

[ju66l3r]

Getting the same response as Stonud when I do the zipcode search. I'll have to play with it more later when I have unlimited minutes tonight after 9 PM.

 

Phone: Sanyo SCP-5150

Browser: Openwave Mobile Browser 4.1.24f (WAP edition)

Service: SprintPCS 2.5 Generation (pre-Vision/3G)

 

Thanks for working on this Jeremy, my friends were getting tired of me losing my printouts and calling them to read to me from the website.

 

EDIT: PS - Can you make the site wap.geocaching.com instead of www.geocaching.com/wap? For this browser (and others) if I put in geocaching, it will assume wap and .com so i don't have to type as much. Also it's easier to type wap instead of 3 w's and finding the / is longer too. Just makes it more concise for phone typing.

Edited November 21, 2003 by ju66l3r

[+Stunod]

EDIT: PS - Can you make the site wap.geocaching.com instead of www.geocaching.com/wap? For this browser (and others) if I put in geocaching, it will assume wap and .com so i don't have to type as much. Also it's easier to type wap instead of 3 w's and finding the / is longer too. Just makes it more concise for phone typing.

I like this suggestion, too (even though you misspelled my name )

[+RobertM]

Hmmm... I managed to enter a Postal Code search but repeated attempts all resulted in no caches being found. Not sure what i am doing wrong.

You need to enter the space between the 2 parts of the postal code, for example A1B 2C3, not A1B2C3.

[+RobertM]

EDIT: PS - Can you make the site wap.geocaching.com instead of www.geocaching.com/wap?  For this browser (and others) if I put in geocaching, it will assume wap and .com so i don't have to type as much.  Also it's easier to type wap instead of 3 w's and finding the / is longer too.  Just makes it more concise for phone typing.

Can't you just bookmark the page?

Edited November 21, 2003 by RobertM

[+Gorak]

Hmmm...  I managed to enter a Postal Code search but repeated attempts all resulted in no caches being found.  Not sure what i am doing wrong.

You need to enter the space between the 2 parts of the postal code, for example A1B 2C3, not A1B2C3.

Thanks, Robert. I switched to all caps but didn't consider the space in the middle. I'll give it another go. Almost makes me want to dig my old Nokia Communicator out of the drawer.

[+RobertM]

The javascript links in the list of caches doesn't work on all WAP / mobile browsers. :-(

 

Can the javascript be replaced by a regular link instead, please? :-)

 

Thanks

RobertM

[Jeremy]

Can the javascript be replaced by a regular link instead, please? :-)

The application should adjust to work on whatever mobile device that is looking at the page. As I said above, I will be continuing to work on the page. Thanks for the input.

[+RobertM]

It's the Palm WebPro browser that doesn't seem to adjust. :-(

 

Thanks again for the great work on these pages!

Edited November 23, 2003 by RobertM

[+LazyK]

According to http://www.w3schools.com/wap/wml_validate.asp, the page isn't valid wml. That may explain why it doesn't work in some browsers.

 

LazyK - Dan

[Jeremy]

That validator won't work unless the site recognizes it as a phone. The page will generate based on what browser is looking at it. If you look at it with IE, for example, it will be plain html.

 

However, we are working on a new wap interface. Try http://wap.geocaching.com and let us know what you think.

 

Since this is an old post I will create a new topic.