+sbell111 Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Every so often, I take a trip and do some geocaching. I have a ton of fun, but am away from an internet connection for some time (it being a vacation and all). Often when I return I have 100 or more caches to log. It is a pain to log them all individually. I dream of a piece of software that would allow me to log all of the caches at the same time. Perhaps it would be a palm database that one could use to record all of his/her cache hunts and then sync to a pc. Running a desktop application would upload the logs to the website. Quote Link to comment
+SBPhishy Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Yup. That would be cool. You could use your internet browser on your cell phone to log your finds while you were away. It might make it easier, so you wouldnt have a huge number of logs when you got home. Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 sbell111... This is exactly with this goal in mind that I wrote GpxSonar. The trouble is that GC.com does not have a 'standard' backend ready for this. As soon as Jeremy has the proper web service online to support logging caches from 3rd party apps, GpxSonar will do it. Regards, Fabien. Quote Link to comment
+Volwrath Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Sounds like a good premium feature! Quote Link to comment
+sbell111 Posted March 9, 2004 Author Share Posted March 9, 2004 ... As soon as Jeremy has the proper web service online to support logging caches from 3rd party apps, GpxSonar will do it. When that happens, I'll go over to the dark side and buy a pocket pc. You'll be my hero for this as well as your great caches. Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Actually, a suitably determined programmer can do this without any support (in either sense of the term) from the host site. Logging a cache is simply submitting a form. It's pretty trivial for motivated individuals to send a login, get a viewstate, and POST a completed form. (Note that I didn't say it was trivial for Aunt Tillie.) As painful as the logging process is and as slow/unreliable as the site has been over time, one might suspect that programmers that have been known to log a lot of caches have already been inspired to research this, even if the tools aren't robust enough to share.... Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 robertlipe... a suitably determined programmer can do this without any support (in either sense of the term) from the host site Yup. But kludgy solutions are just that. Life is much better for all involved when the solution is designed properly Quote Link to comment
+RobAGD Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 I have logged caches from my Cell and my Palm Not using GC.Com Someone got a little creative and shared, I am not at liberity to devulge the url, but its very handy. -Robert Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 robertlipe... a suitably determined programmer can do this without any support (in either sense of the term) from the host site Yup. But kludgy solutions are just that. Life is much better for all involved when the solution is designed properly Oh, I agree the mechanism could be more pleasing from a programmer's view. But at my stride, I can log 7 caches a minute (and I don't cut and paste logs) so the basic approach has been proven to remove the bottleneck from web interaction to how fast my fingers can convey coherent words. I hereby predict in the time anyone waits for an official logging API from this site or waiting for gratituous page loads or turnarounds, one can log a Whole Lot of caches. The meter -running at a log every 8.5 seconds- starts NOW. 11:33 central standard time, march 8, 2004. Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 robertlipe... I agree with you that the proper web service may take a while to show up and that a hack is better than nothing in the meantime. Just curious, are you throttling your "cache logger" to be 'nice' on the site or is there another reason? Would you care to share your code? There's little sense in re-inventing that wheel even though I have all the necessary building blocks to make it happen. -Fabien Quote Link to comment
+webscouter. Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 For those of us that aren't programmers I have found that using watcher has speeded up logs immensly. I take my laptop with me, when I find a cache I create a Watcher note but DO NOT mark it as found. When I get home I add a filter of not found with notes. I can then copy the note, open the page on GC.com from the link in Watcher, paste the note and then mark the cache found in Watcher. The cache gets hidden in Watcher and I can do about 10 caches a minute without any trouble at all. Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 robertlipe...Just curious, are you throttling your "cache logger" to be 'nice' on the site or is there another reason? There's no need to throttle it as it's still bound by how quickly I can type logs. Unlike the original request, I don't compose logs offline, I do that at a keyboard. Since I can write graffiti but don't really like to (and can remember about the last 200 hunts in enough detail to compose a coherent log of complexity directly proportional to the effort of the cache placement) I compose the logs on a real keyboard. It, like most well designed forms of automation, is actually substantially *kinder* to the host site than the manual version. I don't have to wait for the page to load, go to the log page, fill in the form, wait for the completion page, go back to the cache page, view nearest, and so on. It's very surgical. This log (defaulting to a sane date, found, etc.) goes to this cache, and here are links to my nearest unfound caches in that area. Would you care to share your code? There's little sense in re-inventing that wheel even though I have all the necessary building blocks to make it happen. There's not really much code involved, but as it's deeply entwined in another work that I don't have permission to release, I really can't. Taking the building blocks found in the tools at http://geo.rkkda.com this wheel can be invented in under an hour. (Of course, it could then be extended nearly infinitely...) I'll give you the tip that if you hook it to an existing program that knows how to parse coordinates, decode hint, and compute distances to nearby caches, it becomes trivial. 101 lines of Javascript (cookie mgmt for default dates) and html gave me a three pane log interface that lets me bypass the host logging facilities. It depends on the other encumbered code, but I'd bet that something like this could be stitched into a tool like gpx2html easily by an aforementioned motivated programmer type. Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 robertlipe... Thanks for the clarification. The scenario that I'm considering has some overlap with yours but is more about fully automating the logging of caches based on notes already taken in the field with GpxSonar. I have in mind to write a PPC client capable of POSTing to GC.com directly (w/o a PC client). -Fabien. Quote Link to comment
+Marky Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 I was thinking of writing an e-mail script that will run against a specific e-mail account and log my cache finds that way. The purpose for this is that I can send an e-mail from my sidekick phone even when I don't have cell signal (it is stored locally and then sent when signal is acquired). I think Kablooey has this working already. --Marky Quote Link to comment
+JeepCachr Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Its down right mean to brag that you can enter logs from your phone and your palm but not share with the community how you do it. Quote Link to comment
+RobAGD Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Jeepcachr - Its not my program or service, but I thought I would let people know its currently being done. Its super basic but it gets the job done if you want to try logging from the field. Now if I could just get the Phone Pics to auto upload I would be set -R Quote Link to comment
+JeepCachr Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Jeepcachr - Its not my program or service, but I thought I would let people know its currently being done. Its super basic but it gets the job done if you want to try logging from the field. Now if I could just get the Phone Pics to auto upload I would be set -R But this is like saying I have a great cache with a super FTF prize (garmin 60cs) but I'm not going to tell you where it is. I know its out there but have no idea where to start looking for it... Quote Link to comment
+sbell111 Posted March 11, 2004 Author Share Posted March 11, 2004 ... or when my wife says, 'Remind me to tell you something.' Quote Link to comment
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