GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

1k · December 12, 2004

1. Mass delete of waypoints. My database has grown and I want to trim it down. How do I select a group of waypoints to delete? I can build a filter and set a flag on the ones I want to delete, but I cannot find a way to delete more than one waypoint at a time.

From the GSAK help file, found using the index to search for "delete":

"You can delete any waypoint from the current database. Highlight the waypoint by clicking anywhere on the row, and press the Delete key. Alternatively, right-click on the row and choose Delete from the menu. GSAK displays... [a]...dialog box:

Use the radio buttons to choose one of two other options. Choose All caches in filter to delete all waypoints in the active filter. Note that this action will fail if there is no active filter set--to delete all waypoints in the database, choose Database Þ Delete All Waypoints. Choose All user ticked to delete all waypoints that have the user flag set."

December 12, 2004

2. Found caches. After finding a cache twice, I have run a "found by me" pocket query, and entered the found caches from my logs. I am still missing one that I will find. In GSAK, the yellow count box shows xxx, If I dbl click or select the default filter "My found caches", xxx -3 are shown. What could be causing the difference?

Not sure why you "found the same cache twice" but have you looked to see if that or any other cache you have found is now archived? Those caches don't come in your PQ's. That has always been a problem with counts. Also, are you pulling your PQ's to include ALL states you have cached in? I only pull from Washington/Idaho where I live but also have 50 some in Calif that I don't pull. My "yellow box" only shows 180 some when I have over 300.

Does any of that help?

2.8k · December 12, 2004

2. Found caches. After finding a cache twice, I have run a "found by me" pocket query, and entered the found caches from my logs. I am still missing one that I will find. In GSAK, the yellow count box shows xxx, If I dbl click or select the default filter "My found caches", xxx -3 are shown. What could be causing the difference?

I'm not 100% sure I have the correct handle on your question, but I will try to at lease answer what I think you are asking.

The yellow box shows your found count (xxx). GSAK calculates this by counting all your found logs, so as you have already pointed out you can have more than one find on a cache. This measn that your found count can be greater than the number of caches found if you know what I mean.

When you set a filter of "found caches" the status bar returns the number of caches in your subset (in your case xxx - 3). The reason being that the subset shows the number of caches not the number of finds. Another words you don't see the cache twice in your subset if you have found it twice - you only see the cache once but with 2 found logs.

HTH

December 12, 2004

I'm certain I'm missing something, but I can't find it in the help. Perhaps someone other than Clyde can assist me (as I want him to keep working -- all I want for Christmas is my new release! :anicute: )

I (think I) know that a GPX record includes XML for any log entries our team has made in addition to the five most recent logs. I'm not able to find our entries, though, in GSAK's offline browser. Is there some filter or option I can set to see them in GSAK? TIA.

Steve

1k · December 12, 2004

I'm certain I'm missing something, but I can't find it in the help. Perhaps someone other than Clyde can assist me (as I want him to keep working -- all I want for Christmas is my new release! )

I (think I) know that a GPX record includes XML for any log entries our team has made in addition to the five most recent logs. I'm not able to find our entries, though, in GSAK's offline browser. Is there some filter or option I can set to see them in GSAK? TIA.

Steve

When I filter on found caches, my logs always appear in the offline page shown in GSAK, even if they're considerably older than the last log that would otherwise be shown (in that case, they appear as the last log at the bottom of the page). I'm not sure which of these settings are relevant to seeing your found logs, but here's what I have set:

Under Options\General: "Limit number of logs in offline pages" = 20.

Under Search\Filter\Logs:

Log Date = "on or before" followed by today's date (e.g. 12/12/04)

Logs to Search = "All"

Check: "Found", "Not Found", and "All Notes"

Include/Exclude = "Include"

Required count = "Any Number"

Log Types: Check: "Found", "Not Found", "All other notes"

I suspect that if you change your settings to match these, you'll see your logs in the offline pages!

Edit: correct oversight

Edited December 12, 2004 by Kai Team

December 12, 2004

Under Options\General: "Limit number of logs in offline pages" = 20.

That turns out to be the key.

First, a minor correction for those who might be reading this and trying to work it themselves: The offline log limit is on the tab in Options\HTML, not the General tab. And that number simply has to be at least one more than the number of logs in the XML that belong to other cachers (now, if only I could figure out how that number is derived :unsure: ).

I'd been hesitant to increase that value, because I didn't want too many logs in my PDA download, but since I can control that value when the CacheMate file is exported, I no longer care how many logs show up in GSAK's offline view.

Kai Team, you have no idea of how many hours of work you've just saved me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :unsure:

Steve

1k · December 12, 2004

First, a minor correction...

Kai Team, you have no idea of how many hours of work you've just saved me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Steve

You're welcome! And thanks for fixing my oversight - I did the same thing with the Search\Filter\Logs (forgot to name the tab), but edited the post to correct that one! :unsure: Sorry for misleading you slightly!

Edit: typo - geez, I should just get off the computer tonight!

Edited December 12, 2004 by Kai Team

2.8k · December 12, 2004

The offline log limit is on the tab in Options\HTML, not the General tab. And that number simply has to be at least one more than the number of logs in the XML that belong to other cachers (now, if only I could figure out how that number is derived ).

The next version should help you out here. When you export to CachMate (or to GPX for that matter) there is now a new option "always include my logs". If you check this option, then it doesn't matter what you limit the number of logs to, you will allways get logs made by you, no matter how far back they are. :unsure:

December 12, 2004

Thanks for all the help.

I just missed the delete waypoints in filter only. Must have tried it before setting the filter, but not after.

As for finding a cache twice, I went searching for a cache I had already logged, because my paper record keeping was kind of slack. OK it was a mess. GSAK will keep me from doing that again.

Thanks again. Happy Holidays to all.

Jeff

December 13, 2004

Again something not listed in the help file(that I could find).

Is it possible to have the distance readout on GSAK key off of a arc/poly setting. ie I set a arc filter to give me the caches within 30 KM of my route, but at present I don't know how far off of the route they are, only how far they are from a centre point (home, office, hotel, etc) is it possible to set that same arc as the distance reference point?

December 13, 2004

You know what would be cool? If I could right-click on a cache listing in GSAK and have an option to update it from the GC website. It seems that the GC####.gpx files all reside in the same directory on the Geocaching.com servers. i.e. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/GC####.gpx.

Also, if it were possible to select more than one cache (which I don't think it currently is), this could be done with multiple selections, maybe with a limit if necessary. And of course, a way to bypass the confirmation of overwritting each cache listing would be necessary. Or maybe a similar dialog box confirming the same actions to be taken with the whole group selected.

Sound feasible?

Thanx for a great product Clyde. I just put up the $$ today. I encourage others to do the same.

December 13, 2004

Yea i to am for something like that. It would be nice if the status of the files in GSAK would update at a certain time of day so you can get an accurate status of the listing in your Database. Rather than just having to load the GPX files from the PQ in order to get the status updated.

2.8k · December 13, 2004

Again something not listed in the help file(that I could find).

Is it possible to have the distance readout on GSAK key off of a arc/poly setting. ie I set a arc filter to give me the caches within 30 KM of my route, but at present I don't know how far off of the route they are, only how far they are from a centre point (home, office, hotel, etc) is it possible to set that same arc as the distance reference point?

No, The arc filter is giving you distances from many points (all the points along the line that makes up the arc). Currently if you need to see this distance the only place it shows is on the "arc/poly" tab (which you can call up at any time while the filter is active)

1k · December 13, 2004

Is it possible to have the distance readout on GSAK key off of a arc/poly setting. ie I set a arc filter to give me the caches within 30 KM of my route, but at present I don't know how far off of the route they are...

Assuming that the arc you've selected is something like a road or a line between two known points, an alternative approach is to export your filtered caches to your mapping software.

This gives you a visual sense of where the selected caches are relative to the arc (i.e. an existing road, or a line between two points that you add to the map), and you can use the distance measurement tool of your mapping software to get the exact distance if you want it.

I do this with Mapsource Metroguide or NG Topo! (dpending on where I'm going) and often print the map so I can decide, in the field, the most desirable route from one cache to the next.

2.8k · December 13, 2004

You know what would be cool? If I could right-click on a cache listing in GSAK and have an option to update it from the GC website. It seems that the GC####.gpx files all reside in the same directory on the Geocaching.com servers. i.e. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/GC####.gpx.

Also, if it were possible to select more than one cache (which I don't think it currently is), this could be done with multiple selections, maybe with a limit if necessary. And of course, a way to bypass the confirmation of overwritting each cache listing would be necessary. Or maybe a similar dialog box confirming the same actions to be taken with the whole group selected.

Sound feasible?

Feasible, yes. Practical no.

Unfortunately this practice comes under the banner of "Spidering" the Groundspeak website. Jeremy has gone as far as to say that IP addresses caught doing this will be banned - so I would hate to see you or the GSAK program banned.

All news is not bad though. Jeremy has talked about setting up a "sand box" for developers like myself to interface directly witht he gc.com website. However, we don't actally know what this "sand box" will allow and as yet I have not seen it come to light.

Added side note:

One feature I will be looking at that may help this "automatic updating" is the ability download mail from your mail server. That way you could set up a macro that would atomatically download the GPX file and update the database in one step (even set up a batch job to run daily to fully automate the whole process)

Edited December 13, 2004 by ClydeE

2.8k · December 13, 2004

Also, if it were possible to select more than one cache (which I don't think it currently is),

Yes, you can select more than one waypoint via the "user flag". The normal procedure to select a group of waypoints is:

1. Clear all user flags

2. Tick all the user flags for the waypoints you are interested in

3. Set a filter on "user flag = set"

You now have a subset of just the waypoints you have selected via the user flag.

December 14, 2004

I have 2 questions!Is there a limit to how many databases you can make and is there a limit to database size?

Guy

2.8k · December 14, 2004

I have 2 questions!Is there a limit to how many databases you can make and is there a limit to database size?

There is no limit to the number of databases you can have.

The theoretical limit to the database (if you have enough disk space) is 1 billion waypoints/logs - though I think you might find GSAK runs a tad slow with this many waypoints and/or logs :grin:

December 14, 2004

[ Added side note:
One feature I will be looking at that may help this "automatic updating" is the ability download mail from your mail server. That way you could set up a macro that would atomatically download the GPX file and update the database in one step (even set up a batch job to run daily to fully automate the whole process)

Now i would be definately game for something like that. Is this a fesible update we could see in the near future? Thats the only con i have is thier is no automatic update for the database from within the program without actully loading GPX files manual from PQ's.

December 14, 2004

Thank you clyde for your quick responce!I want to keep a database for the whole state of Arizona and also keep smaller databases for each city!I just wanted to make sure I can do what I have planned !

2.1k · December 14, 2004

There is no limit to the number of databases you can have.

Come on, that long integer or what ever has to run out sometime (doesn't windows limit you to 65535 items in a list box?).

Just wondering how all of you create these massive pocket queries (like an entire state). Do you do it in dozens of queries, or is there something I'm missing?

2.8k · December 14, 2004

There is no limit to the number of databases you can have.

Come on, that long integer or what ever has to run out sometime (doesn't windows limit you to 65535 items in a list box?).

True, there would be some windows limit (which I'm not sure exactly what the magic number is), but I suspect most users would grow very old before creating that many databases :grin:

2.8k · December 14, 2004

[ Added side note:
One feature I will be looking at that may help this "automatic updating" is the ability download mail from your mail server. That way you could set up a macro that would atomatically download the GPX file and update the database in one step (even set up a batch job to run daily to fully automate the whole process)

Now i would be definately game for something like that. Is this a fesible update we could see in the near future? Thats the only con i have is thier is no automatic update for the database from within the program without actully loading GPX files manual from PQ's.

The next version of GSAK is just about out the door - so you won't see it there.

However, I will try to include in the one following.

Note: With the use of scripting (Outlook for example) and GSAK command line macros there are some users that are already automating this process now.

December 14, 2004

ibycus,to answer your question you can probably do 6 pocket queries for this state and have every cache in Arizona in your database!

December 14, 2004

I'm not all familiar with Outlook, i have it but dont use it. I would be very intrested in how to make that work.

I had another con with GSAK, BUT with the release of 5.0 you just sent out cured that. Being able to move Waypoints from database to database is very nice and was my other con. Wish i had this feature 4 days ago though....LoL

Havent had a good chance to play with it sent you just sent it out literally minutes ago, but so far i like what i see. Keep up the good work, Just when i though i was scratching the surface on the one i had Now i have to learn whole new tricks.

December 14, 2004

In version 5 how do I create a cache density html report? Not sure how after reading through the version history and help menu.

Thanks,

-jerbear4

2.8k · December 14, 2004

In version 5 how do I create a cache density html report? Not sure how after reading through the version history and help menu.

File=>Export=>Html

It is one of the 10 reports you can select in the "indices to Generate"

December 14, 2004

Hello all.

I am kind of new to posting in this type of group, so if I mess something up please forgive me. The question I have is dealing with GSAK and a scroll mouse. When I click on the "Help" icon and the help screen that pops up says "GSAK Main Screen" at the top of the page and has a picture of the program a little lower in the window that you can click on various parts of it to get help on that section. My mouses scroll wheel will NOT work on this page at all. It works fine in the normal program but not in this help page. I emailed Clyde about this and he says that all his computers work just fine in this area and no one else has said anything about this. Has any one else came across this besides me? Maybe it because I am running Win 98 Second Edition still? Can someone else check this to see if you are having this minor problem as well? Oh, I have this problem in verion 5 as well as the prior version of GSAK.

Thanks...

Dennis C. Fawver

2.8k · December 14, 2004

Hello all.
I am kind of new to posting in this type of group, so if I mess something up please forgive me. The question I have is dealing with GSAK and a scroll mouse. When I click on the "Help" icon and the help screen that pops up says "GSAK Main Screen" at the top of the page and has a picture of the program a little lower in the window that you can click on various parts of it to get help on that section. My mouses scroll wheel will NOT work on this page at all. It works fine in the normal program but not in this help page. I emailed Clyde about this and he says that all his computers work just fine in this area and no one else has said anything about this. Has any one else came across this besides me? Maybe it because I am running Win 98 Second Edition still? Can someone else check this to see if you are having this minor problem as well? Oh, I have this problem in verion 5 as well as the prior version of GSAK.

Thanks...

Dennis C. Fawver

The help file is actaully a windows application (not controlled by GSAK)

I think on some Win 98 systems the wheel mouse may not work properly in some applications if you don't have the specific driver installed for that mouse.

Are you using the driver that came with the mouse or just the Generic win 98 driver that was allocated to it when you installed windows?

December 14, 2004

I just checked and I have the latest verion of the mouse drivers installed. I am using the Logitech drivers, NOT the windows drivers. I am using a Logitech MX500 optical mouse. This is not a big deal, I was just curious about it. If it won't work, oh well. I can still use the up and down arrows.

2.8k · December 14, 2004

I'm not all familiar with Outlook, i have it but dont use it. I would be very intrested in how to make that work.

Check out this post

5k · December 14, 2004

My mouses scroll wheel will NOT work on this page at all.

Mine doesn't scroll either. I'm running Windows ME.

It's annoying, but my system behaves that way with all help files of that type. It's not a GSAK issue.

Jamie

1.1k · December 14, 2004

FWIW, my wheel mouse (microsoft optical) works fine. Sounds like a driver issue to me.

December 14, 2004

Hey Clyde, thanks for 5.0, looks cool. I'm looking forward to exploring it. Merry Christmas to you too. :grin: :grin:

2.6k · December 14, 2004

I installed 5 as soon as I got my notification last night. Very cool! Thanks for all the work you put into this for us! And I didn't get you anything for Christmas. Sorry. :blink:

December 14, 2004

There is no limit to the number of databases you can have.

Come on, that long integer or what ever has to run out sometime (doesn't windows limit you to 65535 items in a list box?).

Just wondering how all of you create these massive pocket queries (like an entire state). Do you do it in dozens of queries, or is there something I'm missing?

For Virginia I have 12 PQ that I run on alternating days. Each is for 500 caches within a 500 mile radius. They can give a lot of duplication depending on the cache concentration in an area but the process seems to work well. For Locationless and out of state caches, I have a separate "Found By Me" PQ which I run whenever I locate one of these caches.

My Christmas wish is to be able to download information when a cache is permanently archived.

Clyde...thanks for a great product. GSAK has furthered my addiction!

December 14, 2004

Hello all.
I am kind of new to posting in this type of group, so if I mess something up please forgive me. The question I have is dealing with GSAK and a scroll mouse. When I click on the "Help" icon and the help screen that pops up says "GSAK Main Screen" at the top of the page and has a picture of the program a little lower in the window that you can click on various parts of it to get help on that section. My mouses scroll wheel will NOT work on this page at all. It works fine in the normal program but not in this help page. I emailed Clyde about this and he says that all his computers work just fine in this area and no one else has said anything about this. Has any one else came across this besides me? Maybe it because I am running Win 98 Second Edition still? Can someone else check this to see if you are having this minor problem as well? Oh, I have this problem in verion 5 as well as the prior version of GSAK.

Thanks...

Dennis C. Fawver

Mine works fine. It's a Logitech cordless, optical on my HP laptop running XP SP2.

December 14, 2004

If you have a Logitech mouse. Try clicking on the scroller like a button. It should place a circle with a arrow up and a arrow down. Then you just push your mouse up or down a tad and it scroll the page automatically, depending on which way you tell it to go.

Also if your running Win 98, good luck getting support for it. Microsoft dropped all Supoort for Win 98 a few months back

December 14, 2004

Is anyone else not getting "mouse-over" text on the toolbars? Is there a setting I don't have set correctly?

December 14, 2004

I'm getting mouse over text, so it might be you.

The question i have is im not about to sort the database by last four logs. I can sort everything else but the last four logs wont let me do it. Anyone is having this issue?

Also tried the move/copy waypoints feature for databases and kept giving me dump erros. I tried finding something on it in the help topics but it hasnt been wrtten yet so thier is no help file on how to move and copy waypoints.

December 14, 2004

Some of the macros I read about here sound very interesting but I don't know how to write them. Is there a source for such things, or how does one go about writing them?

7.4k · December 14, 2004

Clyde, one of my macros has stopped working with the new version 5 because it contains conditional statements of the type "IF EXIST...". Has support for this been removed from v5? Is there a workaround?

I use these to tell GSAK to load certain files if they exist (for those PQs that I only generate once in a while), and to ignore the load statement if they don't.

7.4k · December 14, 2004

Some of the macros I read about here sound very interesting but I don't know how to write them. Is there a source for such things, or how does one go about writing them?

Here is a thread that will help you get started!

2.8k · December 14, 2004

Clyde, one of my macros has stopped working with the new version 5 because it contains conditional statements of the type "IF EXIST...". Has support for this been removed from v5? Is there a workaround?

I use these to tell GSAK to load certain files if they exist (for those PQs that I only generate once in a while), and to ignore the load statement if they don't.

IF Exist, was never a GSAK macro command. Perhaps you are getting confused with a .bat file?

2.8k · December 14, 2004

The question i have is im not about to sort the database by last four logs. I can sort everything else but the last four logs wont let me do it. Anyone is having this issue?

The last 4 logs column is not part of the database - it is calculated on the fly, a screen full at a time (besides what would you actually sort on). However, this should not crash GSAK but just give you a message saying you can't do this sort.

Also tried the move/copy waypoints feature for databases and kept giving me dump errors.

Hmm, I don't have any other reports of errors on this one. Please let the error dump send to me so I can investigate the problem.

I tried finding something on it in the help topics but it hasnt been wrtten yet so thier is no help file on how to move and copy waypoints.

I will fix the link in the maintenance release, but for now you can get to this help topic via the "Version History" and clicking on the green link in the "Major Changes" section

2.8k · December 14, 2004

Some of the macros I read about here sound very interesting but I don't know how to write them. Is there a source for such things, or how does one go about writing them?

There is also a topic devoted to macros including examples in the help file. Please see the "Automating GSAK" topic in the help file (Under Miscellaneous features) or just do a search on Macros.

2.8k · December 14, 2004

I use these to tell GSAK to load certain files if they exist (for those PQs that I only generate once in a while), and to ignore the load statement if they don't.

The new load command has the "settings" token which will allow you to control all options in the load. A better way to do this now would be to save all your GPX files in the one folder, then run the "load" command with settings pointing to that folder (perhaps with the option to delete files after loading to tidy things up)

This way It doesn't matter how often or seldom you run a particular PQ, or what the names of your GPX files are.

Edited December 14, 2004 by ClydeE

7.4k · December 14, 2004

IF Exist, was never a GSAK macro command. Perhaps you are getting confused with a .bat file?

Nope, this is a macro file called by my .bat file, and it worked fine until this upgrade. Hmmm...

I guess that I mistakenly thought that GSAK macros recognized IF EXIST, but it did no harm if it was present - perhaps GSAK just skipped over it. Now, it throws up an error. No problem - I've adjusted my macros to correct my error.

Edited December 15, 2004 by Moun10Bike

December 14, 2004

The last 4 logs column is not part of the database - it is calculated on the fly, a screen full at a time (besides what would you actually sort on). However, this should not crash GSAK but just give you a message saying you can't do this sort.

I get what your saying when you say what would you sort on. I just found it handy to find not found caches like newly placed or not found or what not. I guess i need to play with the filters some more set up one to show me 'Not Found" Caches.

2.8k · December 14, 2004

The last 4 logs column is not part of the database - it is calculated on the fly, a screen full at a time (besides what would you actually sort on). However, this should not crash GSAK but just give you a message saying you can't do this sort.

I get what your saying when you say what would you sort on. I just found it handy to find not found caches like newly placed or not found or what not. I guess i need to play with the filters some more set up one to show me 'Not Found" Caches.

Yep, see the "logs" tab on the filters. Click on help, and refer to the examples. There are all sorts of combinations you can filter on here. For example for "not founds" you can get results like:

Show me all caches where exactly the last 2 logs were DNF

Show me all caches where any 2 out of last 4 logs were DNF

Show me all caches where my friend "bozo" logged a DNF (requires sufficinet log history)

etc, etc.

Edited December 14, 2004 by ClydeE

GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

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