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Individual Gpx Downloads Now Available


Jeremy

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Just added the ability to download GPX files on the individual cache pages. I needed to change some of the underlying functionality to the page anyway so worked to get this feature up quickly.

 

The code is from the same application that runs the Pocket Query Generator, so you should get the same results. I added the last 5 logs by default to this download, and appended your find to the bottom if you found it and it didn't show up in the first 5.

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I know that nobody likes a complainer, and I think this is a groovy feature, but the current field layout is inconsistent with the PQ's and thus causes tools (like my own GPSBabel) indigestion. The output isn't technically wrong, it's both legal and within the spirit of GPX, but it would sure simplify things if they were consistent between the PQ's and this new thingy.

 

If I look at GCGZ0B the specific problem seems to be the addition of the cache text in the "cmt" tag. This causes GPSBabel to use that as the cache description. (GPX has about a zillion things that _can_ be used for names and ultimately has to pick one and it's kind of pointless to argue about which is best...) The bad thing is that this will tank waypoint shortname generation. To wit:

(robertl) rjloud:/home/robertl/src/geo/gpx

$ gpsbabel -i gpx -f 94377.gpx

Fri Mar 19 02:00:00 2004

37.832183N 90.248383W GCGZ0B/Midwest Invitational Geocaching Competition by Mo*Geo, Event Cache (1/1)

(robertl) rjloud:/home/robertl/src/geo/gpx

$ gpsbabel -i gpx -f /tmp/GCGZ0B.gpx

Fri Mar 19 02:00:00 2004

37.832183N 90.248383W GCGZ0B/<B>Registration and event manual is <a href="http://www.mogeo.com/migc__manual.htm">HERE </a> <B>

 

In fact, this exposes that HTML tags aren't stripped out of this field by GPSBabel and probably should be, but look at what users of, say, Streets and Trips will now get as output from the same cache page delivered via the two different ways:

 

$ gpsbabel -s -i gpx -f /tmp/GCGZ0B.gpx -f 94377.gpx -o s_and_t -F -

Name,Latitude,Longitude,Name 2,URL,Type

<B>Rgstr,37.832183,-90.248383,<B>Registration and event manual is <a href=http://www.mogeo.com/migc__manual.htm>HERE </a> <B>

,http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ae0ebd7c-1900-4f41-b310-a102ed90edc4,""

Midwst n,37.832183,-90.248383,Midwest Invitational Geocaching Competition by Mo*Geo Event Cache (1/1),http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ae0ebd7c-1900-4f41-b310-a102ed90edc4,""

 

(The first is the new stuff and the second is from a PQ.)

 

Could you please consider dropping the <cmt> data to make it consistent with

the PQ's?

 

Thanx,

RJL

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Neat :)

 

Will it ever be possible to do

 

1. Hide and seek a cache, get a bunch of caches listed

2. Do a select all (or select which ones you want)

3. Do a "download waypoints" BUT get them in GPX format ?? (not in LOC format)

 

In reality like the pocket generator function but on demand ?? Premier Member only feature again ?

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This is surely a great new feature.

 

However I think it may have exposed a "bug" in the way caches are indicated as available and archived.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but:

 

Every GPX file from gc.com contains an "Available" flag and an "Archived" flag

 

"Available" is set to true when a cache is available and set to False when a cache is temporarily disabled.

 

"Archived" is set to true when a cache has been archived, and set to false if it ever becomes unarchived.

 

However the new single GPX download of cache GCH5JG (and other but not all archived caches) has the "Available" flag set to true, and the Archived flag set to "true". This to me is impossible - how can a cache be available when it is archived?

 

This does give me a few problems with GSAK, and I suspect other programs that cater for "Available" and "Archived" may have issues with this logic as well. Easy enough to program around, but I thought it was worth a mention.

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Great new feature that I had been looking forward to. I downloaded all of the GPX files for archived caches that I have found as well as caches that were out of my normal PQ area. Imported into GSAK and now I finally have an archive of all the caches I have found, easily sortable by about any criteria I could hope for. Thanks again.

 

--RuffRidr

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You will be unable to get GPX format from the search results page. Each cache page can be 120k in size or more, and the CPU usage for generating these pages would bring the machine to its knees.

 

We will eventually move completely to GPX, but the results page will only have the basic details of the caches (as in, the stuff already listed on that page like type, difficulty/terrain and owner)

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Very nice new feature. Thank you!

 

Now... How about getting .gpx files for an entire query set (similar to how you can get .loc files for an entire query set)?

 

I don't buy the argument that it would slow the machine down. The reason being is that the .gpx files already contain all the information on the cache pages, and I already have to visit each cache page to print out the caches I'm gonna go visit so I'm already generating the same computational hit I would think.

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Now...  How about getting .gpx files for an entire query set (similar to how you can get .loc files for an entire query set)?

 

I don't buy the argument that it would slow the machine down.  The reason being is that the  .gpx files already contain all the information on the cache pages, and I already have to visit each cache page to print out the caches I'm gonna go visit so I'm already generating the same computational hit I would think.

The difference is that because you are a human, you hit the server at a much, much slower pace. When you have programs that are requesting groups of cache pages, you are talking about something quite different, from a database and web server point of view.

 

Plus, he already said he wasn't going to do it. :)

 

--Marky

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I don't buy the argument that it would slow the machine down. The reason being is that the .gpx files already contain all the information on the cache pages, and I already have to visit each cache page to print out the caches I'm gonna go visit so I'm already generating the same computational hit I would think.

Are you doing it at a computer's speed for multiple people? Having a system generated query produces significantly higher impact than someone paging through cache by cache.

 

There are PQs on demand. All you have to do is limit the number of PQs on a given day. If you set your two or three PQs to catch regular data on MWF. On Tuesday or Thursday you can run 5 instant PQs that spit the data out to your e-mail and never run again.

 

If you're worried about catching the right results, but the query first - and select no days to run. Go back to the PQ generator page and run the results (to see the loc downloads and the results of the queries - no GPX yet). Once you're satisfied that you're going to get the results you want, go back to the PQ and edit it to run either once (one time, then deleted), or run for today. If it's a new PQ and you haven't run your five already, you should have the GPX results that you have tested and gotten the results for in less than 15 minutes (in my experience).

 

Adding the instant GPX download for an individual cache page just AUGMENTS what is already available.

 

THANKS JEREMY!

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THANKS JEREMY!!!!

 

Finnally I have all of my found caches in GSAK. Just one thing though. When I got the files for caches I have found, but are now archived, my logs showed up in them, but they were not flagged as having been found by me. NOt sure if this is a GSAK problem of a GPX file problem.

 

keep up the great work!!!

 

jjb

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When I got the files for caches I have found, but are now archived, my logs showed up in them, but they were not flagged as having been found by me.  NOt sure if this is a GSAK problem of a GPX file problem.

GSAK, Spinner, and other programs use the <sym> field to determine if a cache is found.

 

<sym>Geocache</sym>

<sym>Geocache Found</sym>

 

The mini-GPX files obtained this way always have the first example, even if they contain a "found" log by the requestor. So this is technically a problem with the GPX file. Since the GPX generator is already looking at the current logged in user to include his "found" log, it should be able to include a proper <sym> field.

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THANKS JEREMY!!!!

 

Finnally I have all of my found caches in GSAK. Just one thing though. When I got the files for caches I have found, but are now archived, my logs showed up in them, but they were not flagged as having been found by me. NOt sure if this is a GSAK problem of a GPX file problem.

 

keep up the great work!!!

 

jjb

LilDevil is correct.

 

However, the lastest Beta version of GSAK (3.00) will now also interrogate the logs to correct your found count.

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When I saw this feature available, I thought "Great, now I can finally get ALL my cache finds into a .gpx" Since I was only missing about 10, I didn't think I'd have any troubles. Then I noticed one slight problem.

 

The option ISN'T AVAILABLE for LOCATIONLESS caches. Is there a reason for this? Locationless caches show up in normal PQ's.....

 

On locationless cache pages, (both archived and active ones I checked) The text is there Click icon to download but there aren't any icons there, to download .loc or .gpx

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The option ISN'T AVAILABLE for LOCATIONLESS caches. Is there a reason for this?

I noticed that a few minutes ago. It is a holdover from the fact that loc files are worthless for locationless caches. I'll correct this in the updated pages (tomorrow).

 

Same goes for "Geocache Found" symbol, and removing the cmt tag since it hoses GPS Babel.

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The option ISN'T AVAILABLE for LOCATIONLESS caches.  Is there a reason for this?

I noticed that a few minutes ago. It is a holdover from the fact that loc files are worthless for locationless caches. I'll correct this in the updated pages (tomorrow).

 

Same goes for "Geocache Found" symbol, and removing the cmt tag since it hoses GPS Babel.

And the Available/Archived anomoly raised here?

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And the Available/Archived anomoly raised here?

Sure it hasn't been fixed yet? I downloaded 3 caches (active, disabled and archived) when I read your post about that, to check them with CMConvert, and the attributes in the GPX file were all correct for each of the 3 cases.

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And the Available/Archived anomoly raised here?

Sure it hasn't been fixed yet? I downloaded 3 caches (active, disabled and archived) when I read your post about that, to check them with CMConvert, and the attributes in the GPX file were all correct for each of the 3 cases.

Yes, quite sure (as of 5 minutes ago any way)

 

As I said in my post - not ALL archived caches but definitely a lot. For instance if you download the single GPX file GCH5JG and interrogate you will see that Available=True, Acrhived=True.

Edited by ClydeE
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The archived caches that showed up correctly in the GPX file... were they also disabled? The one you just pointed at wasn't, but the one I was checking earlier today was (both "temporarily disabled" and "archived" set). That could be it... the "archived" flag also needs to set the "disabled" flag when generating the GPX file.

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And the Available/Archived anomoly raised here?

Sure it hasn't been fixed yet? I downloaded 3 caches (active, disabled and archived) when I read your post about that, to check them with CMConvert, and the attributes in the GPX file were all correct for each of the 3 cases.

Yes, quite sure (as of 5 minutes ago any way)

 

As I said in my post - not ALL archived caches but definitely a lot. For instance if you download the single GPX file GCH5JG and interrogate you will see that Available=True, Acrhived=True.

Following on....

 

I suspect if a cache went from available=>Temp disabled=>archived then the anomaly would not exist.

 

I think the problem caches are the ones that go straight from available=>archived

 

I would offer the opinion that when a cache goes from available=>archived the database is only updating the archived flag to true. My suggestion is that this is an "oversight" and in this instance the available flag should automatically be set to false.

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I would offer the opinion that when a cache goes from available=>archived the database is only updating the archived flag to true. My suggestion is that this is an "oversight" and in this instance the available flag should automatically be set to false.

For the last month or so, archiving a cache also sets it as disabled. Many caches that were archived before that still show as active (not disabled).

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I just checked the feature with GPXSonar and everything works except for the <sym>Geocache Found</sym> issue mentioned above. Since the app doesn't take into account the 'archived' / 'disabled' attributes (yet), there's no problem there.

 

Regards,

Fabien.

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For the last month or so, archiving a cache also sets it as disabled. Many caches that were archived before that still show as active (not disabled).

Thanks for the info.

 

It'd be nice, though, if the GPX generator would do a reality check when it comes to that. A workaround, in the meantime, would be to have an app that reads those attributes look at the archived attribute first, and not consider the cache to be available if it's set to true. That's what I've done in the last 2 versions of CMConvert (ever since I actually started using that info), which is probably the reason I haven't had any support emails on the subject :D

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The code is from the same application that runs the Pocket Query Generator, so you should get the same results. I added the last 5 logs by default to this download, and appended your find to the bottom if you found it and it didn't show up in the first 5.

Obviously a lot of people like this but when I saw it I had hoped it would download everything on the cache page. Not just what I can get in the PQ already.

 

Is it possible to have this feature download everything? (All Finds, DNFs and notes too.)

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