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GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)


ClydeE

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Just got my notification for the update... although GSAK already alerted me of an update a couple days ago. That's cool.

 

The update highlighted the column sort feature. I wanted to use that to wonder aloud about a column which would display the number of logs for each cache. As I build a local database, some of the caches has 20 or more logs, and some have five or less. I think that would be interesting, and possibly useful information when sending the data to my PDA.

 

Jamie

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From the last two updates I can not get a connection in the Split Screen Viewing Area window of Gsak.

When I click on the waypoint URL it wont work.

Still the Wright click menu open in a new window works fine it opens the window explorer.

 

Please help!

Edited by Aandi
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YIKES! I can't see my Counts at the bottom of the page after upgrading to 5.1.1, I can see that they are there but I have no way to pull them into view, how do I do that?

(snip)

This of course has pushed the counts further over to the right of your screen. On screens that are only on 1024 width you must have the screen maximized to see all your counts.

Any way you can shrink the fields just a wee bit? Maybe the "Subset" field can be shrunk a tad? Or would it be possible to make them dynamic, so each user could decide for themselves how wide to make 'em?

(snip)

Ok, I have coded a patch in an attempt fix the issue of the new status bar and counts moving off the screen when not maximized.

(snip)

GSAK will now dynamically resize the width of the other items in the status bar to make sure counts will always fit.

 

Awesome, Clyde. You rock! Thanks much!

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Just got my notification for the update... although GSAK already alerted me of an update a couple days ago. That's cool.

 

The update highlighted the column sort feature. I wanted to use that to wonder aloud about a column which would display the number of logs for each cache. As I build a local database, some of the caches has 20 or more logs, and some have five or less. I think that would be interesting, and possibly useful information when sending the data to my PDA.

 

Jamie

I will add this one to the list <_<

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I'm trying to run GSAK 5.1.1 (build 14) for the first time (no previous builds of GSAK ever installed on my PC), but it just appears to lock up at the splash screen.

 

Is there something I'm doing wrong? I don't see anyone else reporting this difficulty

Please see this post

Installed 5.1.1 Release 14. Had to deselected all Startup files to get it to run. Took about 2-3 minutes to load. Reselected all Startup files. GSAK takes 2-3 minutes to load. Running Windows ME. Is this normal for this new version?

Hmm, I have never heard of GSAK taking that long to start up on any system.

 

Do you have a virsus scanner running that has "realtime protection"? If so, then exclude the file "GSAK.ini" (install folder of GSAK). This file contains all the GSAK settings and gets updated very often. Some virus scanners seem to cause a bottleneck here when a particular file is updated frequently.

 

The other poblem is memory. How much memory has your Windows ME system got? Although GSAK will run in 32mb of ram if you have other applications running your system will "thrash" paging memory in and out from disk.

Clyde,

 

You identified the cause. I do have Norton Antivirus ver 5.00.02 running with updated antivirus files. If I completely disable the Norton Auto-Protect feature, GSAK 5.1.1 loads normally. If I exclude GSAK.exe and GSAK.ini in Norton AV, it still takes forever for the program to load. When loading the system is so busy it locks up the cursor until the programs loads. My testing was done without any other programs running. GSAK ver 5.1.0 Build 30 does not have the slow load problem but loads in what I would consider a normal time for my notebook, with Norton Auto-Protect enabled. My notebook has 128MB RAM. Haven't noticed the same slow load issue with any other programs. I'll use 5.1.0 since I'm a little uneasy about disabling the Auto-Protect feature. Thanks

 

corncat

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You identified the cause. I do have Norton Antivirus ver 5.00.02 running with updated antivirus files. If I completely disable the Norton Auto-Protect feature, GSAK 5.1.1 loads normally. If I exclude GSAK.exe and GSAK.ini in Norton AV, it still takes forever for the program to load. When loading the system is so busy it locks up the cursor until the programs loads. My testing was done without any other programs running. GSAK ver 5.1.0 Build 30 does not have the slow load problem but loads in what I would consider a normal time for my notebook, with Norton Auto-Protect enabled. My notebook has 128MB RAM. Haven't noticed the same slow load issue with any other programs. I'll use 5.1.0 since I'm a little uneasy about disabling the Auto-Protect feature. Thanks

 

corncat

It may also be related to some of the other files that GSAK loads. Will the auto protection allow you to ignore a whole folder (and sub folders within them). If so, then could you please give this a try, I would be interested to know what happens.

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AndyFriday, you and your relatives can get an email account easily. Gmail is now open to anyone, and provides a gigabyte of free storage, plus the ability to pop and forward any or all of your mail. I use it for registering on websites, and other times when I don't want to give out my real email address. It's free, and it works well for me. You can sign up for an account here.

 

Horsegeeks, you should be able to print the help file by opening it, selecting Contents, and clicking on the Print... button at the bottom.

Edited by NightPilot
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I use GSAK as my primary database and as I do puzzle and multi caches I create new waypoints with the inital GCXXXX followed by "-2", "-3", etc (without the quotes) for each waypoint of that series/puzzle. So a waypoint looks like GCXXXX-2 for the second waypoint. I have had no trouble exporting this to my Garmin etrex Legend C via USB, until recently. I think it changed with the latest release (I am running 5.1.1). The hyphen gets dropped now in the transfer. So what starts out as GCXXXX-2 on GSAK ends up as GCXXXX2 in my GPS. Not a big deal but that little hyphen is actually a good eye catcher when I am searching for a wayoint to find. Is it me or did something change? I have not changed any settings. Thanks again for a great product. <_<

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Horsegeeks, you should be able to print the help file by opening it, selecting Contents, and clicking on the Print... button at the bottom.

I can also provide you with the complete help file in HTML format if that is any help (all the files zipped up take about 2.5mb)

Edited by ClydeE
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Just wanted to publicly acknowledge Clyde for all his outstanding work and continued development/ehancement to GSAK. I'm sure we've all replaced several applications and a lot of clunky processes with this great tool (and the ones "under the hood").

 

I just caught wind of a proposed feature addition in 5.2, which is support for POP3, allowing GSAK to connect to your mailbox and pull down PQ emails. I can't WAIT!! That is going to be a critical component in automating the process of getting PQs from my Inbox into GSAK, my Palm, my GPSr, and HTML "journals".

 

With regard to that feature: I'm hoping (and have every reason to believe, based on the rest of GSAK) that the filters for selecting PQs will be fairly granular. If I can merely do a REGEX on the subject header, that should be sufficient - it's just that I get both "found" and "notfound" PQs which need to get imported to different databases depending on the query.

 

Anyway - counting the days until that release hits the streets!

 

On a completely unrelated note: I've been doing some work to automate routine/repetitive tasks within GSAK, and came across a function I can't seem to find in the macro "dictionary". In order to create a "journal", of sorts, containing just my finds, sorted by date - I copy my "found" database to a "report" database, and then perform a "Database->Purge Logs" with a particular set of options.

 

Just wondering how hard it would be to expose this functionality as part of the macro language? It seems that all the other macro functions support a "saved settings" concept on their respective dialogue boxes, while the "Purge Logs" function does not. I have no idea if this would hinder exposing this function, but... can I make a feature request that, in some future release, that it is available from a macro? Compared to the POP support, it's WAY down on the list - I'd just like to see it make its way into version 7 or 8.... <_<

 

Thanks again for an outstanding tool that makes my life SO much easier!!

Billy

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I use GSAK as my primary database and as I do puzzle and multi caches I create new waypoints with the inital GCXXXX followed by "-2", "-3", etc (without the quotes) for each waypoint of that series/puzzle. So a waypoint looks like GCXXXX-2 for the second waypoint. I have had no trouble exporting this to my Garmin etrex Legend C via USB, until recently. I think it changed with the latest release (I am running 5.1.1). The hyphen gets dropped now in the transfer. So what starts out as GCXXXX-2 on GSAK ends up as GCXXXX2 in my GPS. Not a big deal but that little hyphen is actually a good eye catcher when I am searching for a wayoint to find. Is it me or did something change? I have not changed any settings. Thanks again for a great product. <_<

GPSBabel (which GSAK uses "under the hood" to send waypoints to your GPS) has had some changes in this department.

 

Robert may well correct some of the finer points of this reply, but this should at least give you the jist of the reason behind this change.

 

According to the Garmin spec the hyphen is actually an invalid character to send down to the GPS.

 

Even so, some Garmin GPSrs accept the character, some don't, some give weird errors. This behaviour may even change after a firmware upgrade.

 

So to comply with the Garmin spec (and to stop the headache of trying to track down these weird problems) this has now changed so a hyphen is never sent down to the GPS. Just replace with a space for a similar effect.

 

Oh and I just found this direct post from the man himself:

 

Section 7.2 of the Garmin protocol spec (001-00063-00 Rev.  says:

 

Unless otherwise noted, all devices use characters from the ASCII character set. Each string type is limited to a specific subset of ASCII characters as shown below:

Table 26  Character Sets

User Waypoint Identifier: upper-case letters, numbers

[ blah blah blah ]

Some devices may allow additional characters beyond those mentioned above, but no attempt is made in this document to identify these device-specific additions. The host should be prepared to receive any ASCII character from the device, but only transmit the characters shown above back to the device.

 

After spending literally months of chasing around problems with "random" weird Garmin problems because some units will crash or otherwise act wierd if they they see characters other than what's strictly allowed, I finally got militant with the waypoint names and now brutally enforce the spec **with one exception**. I do allow spaces in D108's, D109's, and D110's which is technically illegal, but those are present only on units new enough that they don't totally go into hyperspace if they see something as radical as a space in the waypoint name. (It remains on my list to be equally militant with waypoint comments, and routepoints, but they seem to cause less indigestion in the geriatric Garmins.)

Edited by ClydeE
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On a completely unrelated note:  I've been doing some work to automate routine/repetitive tasks within GSAK, and came across a function I can't seem to find in the macro "dictionary".  In order to create a "journal", of sorts, containing just my finds, sorted by date - I copy my "found" database to a "report" database, and then perform a "Database->Purge Logs" with a particular set of options.

 

Just wondering how hard it would be to expose this functionality as part of the macro language?  It seems that all the other macro functions support a "saved settings" concept on their respective dialogue boxes, while the "Purge Logs" function does not.  I have no idea if this would hinder exposing this function, but... can I make a feature request that, in some future release, that it is available from a macro?  Compared to the POP support, it's WAY down on the list - I'd just like to see it make its way into version 7 or 8....  <_<

 

Thanks again for an outstanding tool that makes my life SO much easier!!

Billy

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I must confess, the macro language has become very popular with the "power" GSAK user. My mind boggles when I see what some of you are doing with them. The macro language will continue to be expanded and new features added. It really is starting to become one of the "killer" features for many users.

 

Not all dialogs have settings or are supported in the macros. However, over time I plan to expose just about everthing that GSAK can do into the macro language.

 

I will put the "purge option" on this list, and as you have asked so nicely it will get a higher priority :angry:<_< (I just won't give you an exact time when it will happen :unsure: )

Edited by ClydeE
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Robert may well correct some of the finer points of this reply,

No corrections needed. You nailed it.

 

FWIW, I did observe a case (the day before my departure on a trip with a wee bit of geocaching involved) where the 60CS will silently drop the waypoint FOLLOWING a waypoint with "naughty" characters in the comment field. (Yes, that was a huge amount of fun to figure out on 740-ish waypoints...) I didn't have time to track it down completely, but expect increased belt-tightening in this area soon.

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Horsegeeks, you should be able to print the help file by opening it, selecting Contents, and clicking on the Print... button at the bottom.

I can also provide you with the complete help file in HTML format if that is any help (all the files zipped up take about 2.5mb)

Would you please send that .html file to me Clyde. It would be a big "help" in our efforts. Thanks very much

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You identified the cause.  I do have Norton Antivirus ver 5.00.02 running with updated antivirus files.  If I completely disable the Norton Auto-Protect feature, GSAK 5.1.1 loads normally.  If I exclude GSAK.exe and GSAK.ini in Norton AV, it still takes forever for the program to load.  When loading the system is so busy it locks up the cursor until the programs loads.  My testing was done without any other programs running.  GSAK ver 5.1.0 Build 30 does not have the slow load problem but loads in what I would consider a normal time for my notebook, with Norton Auto-Protect enabled.  My notebook has 128MB RAM.  Haven't noticed the same slow load issue with any other programs.  I'll use 5.1.0 since I'm a little uneasy about disabling the Auto-Protect feature.  Thanks

 

corncat

It may also be related to some of the other files that GSAK loads. Will the auto protection allow you to ignore a whole folder (and sub folders within them). If so, then could you please give this a try, I would be interested to know what happens.

Set Norton up to exclude the GSAK folder under Program Files. Did not make any improvements, but actually made the loading process much slower. Uninstalled 5.1.1 and reinstalled 5.1.0 and it works fine without any exclulsions. It's probably related to my version of Norton, as it's quite old.

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Is there a way to lock a cache entry so that refresh/updates do not change them?

Yes, right mouse click on the cache, and select edit, then check the "Lock" box.

When you lock a cache, this will stop all fields for that cache updating.

Thanks for your reply.

 

This is a little different than my original question but I created a new waypoint (for a location I want to always have in the GPSr as a reference). I "locked" it as you suggested, but the next update blew it away -- gone completely. What am I doing wrong?

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Is there a way to lock a cache entry so that refresh/updates do not change them?

Yes, right mouse click on the cache, and select edit, then check the "Lock" box.

When you lock a cache, this will stop all fields for that cache updating.

Thanks for your reply.

 

This is a little different than my original question but I created a new waypoint (for a location I want to always have in the GPSr as a reference). I "locked" it as you suggested, but the next update blew it away -- gone completely. What am I doing wrong?

I don't have an answer for that.

 

Loading in data should never delete any existing waypoints.

 

Please check you do in fact have the correct database, and that the data is not sorted in a different sequence that would make you think the waypoint is not there.

 

Try adding the waypoint back in again and load the GPX file again. If you do get exactly the same error then we need to take this offline to track down the problem.

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Hi ClydE.

 

With the popularity of macros growing by leaps and bounds, may I suggest you add to your website a library area where GSAK users can upload and share their macros? If this would be too much additional admin overhead you, perhaps someone with the required skills and savvy could set this up?

 

Just a thought...

 

Thanks yet again for a great piece of software.

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With the popularity of macros growing by leaps and bounds, may I suggest you add to your website a library area where GSAK users can upload and share their macros? If this would be too much additional admin overhead you, perhaps someone with the required skills and savvy could set this up?

Yea, I get the feeling this is something I will need to do later down the track.

 

In the mean time please check out this thread

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With the popularity of macros growing by leaps and bounds, may I suggest you add to your website a library area where GSAK users can upload and share their macros?  If this would be too much additional admin overhead you, perhaps someone with the required skills and savvy could set this up?

Yea, I get the feeling this is something I will need to do later down the track.

 

In the mean time please check out this thread

That's what gave me the silly idea. :(

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Is there a way to lock a cache entry so that refresh/updates do not change them?

Yes, right mouse click on the cache, and select edit, then check the "Lock" box.

When you lock a cache, this will stop all fields for that cache updating.

Thanks for your reply.

 

This is a little different than my original question but I created a new waypoint (for a location I want to always have in the GPSr as a reference). I "locked" it as you suggested, but the next update blew it away -- gone completely. What am I doing wrong?

Just a thought ...

 

Have you made sure you have "Clear database before loading" unchecked under the "Open GPX/LOC File" menu?

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Is there a way to lock a cache entry so that refresh/updates do not change them?

Yes, right mouse click on the cache, and select edit, then check the "Lock" box.

When you lock a cache, this will stop all fields for that cache updating.

Thanks for your reply.

 

This is a little different than my original question but I created a new waypoint (for a location I want to always have in the GPSr as a reference). I "locked" it as you suggested, but the next update blew it away -- gone completely. What am I doing wrong?

Just a thought ...

 

Have you made sure you have "Clear database before loading" unchecked under the "Open GPX/LOC File" menu?

Where were you earlier :) That ended up exactly being the problem :)

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Okay, I'm seeing more strange behavior - and I know Clyde is going to tell me it's a "personal problem" ;) but here goes...

 

After running macros (most recently and specifically my "process found" macro, which copies waypoints to a "Report" database) - GSAK seems to be in an unusual state. Hitting CTRL-D, or selecting "Database->Select" from the menu, does not bring up the database selection dialog box - but instead does a "Calculating distance and bearing" progress bar, and then refreshes the current list.

 

The only way I can resolve this is to exit GSAK and restart. This is "semi-reproducible" - it was happened three times this evening, but does not happen EVERY time I run a macro. Weird. That, coupled with the previous issue, would make me think I don't have the latest/greatest version - but I certainly appear to.

 

Hmmmm.... like I said - must be a personal problem. B)

 

Have a great evening!

Billy

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Okay, I'm seeing more strange behavior - and I know Clyde is going to tell me it's a "personal problem" ;) but here goes...

 

After running macros (most recently and specifically my "process found" macro, which copies waypoints to a "Report" database) - GSAK seems to be in an unusual state. Hitting CTRL-D, or selecting "Database->Select" from the menu, does not bring up the database selection dialog box - but instead does a "Calculating distance and bearing" progress bar, and then refreshes the current list.

 

The only way I can resolve this is to exit GSAK and restart. This is "semi-reproducible" - it was happened three times this evening, but does not happen EVERY time I run a macro. Weird. That, coupled with the previous issue, would make me think I don't have the latest/greatest version - but I certainly appear to.

 

Hmmmm.... like I said - must be a personal problem. B)

 

Have a great evening!

Billy

It could be a factor of what is in the macro, not the fact that you are running a macro. Does it always occur with a given macro, or is that unpredictable? See if you can find a pattern in what is seemingly erratic. I know Clyde would appreciate the extra information even if it is to confirm that you have tried it.

 

Of course I don't mean to speak for Clyde, but I know when I try to debug my own stuff, I like to know that kind of stuff myself.

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After running macros (most recently and specifically my "process found" macro, which copies waypoints to a "Report" database) - GSAK seems to be in an unusual state.  Hitting CTRL-D, or selecting "Database->Select" from the menu, does not bring up the database selection dialog box - but instead does a "Calculating distance and bearing" progress bar, and then refreshes the current list.

 

The only way I can resolve this is to exit GSAK and restart.  This is "semi-reproducible" - it was happened three times this evening, but does not happen EVERY time I run a macro.

Ok, I can see how this could happen but at the moment I am not sure why

 

When you run a macro GSAK goes into a special "mode" which allows it to run continuously without bringing up warning or information messages etc. When the maco finishes this mode should be turned off.

 

What is happening to you, is that you are still in "macro" mode even after the macro has finished. This will dramatically alter the behaviour of many menu options.

 

What we need to do is track down how you could still be left in macro mode. Perhaps the macro terminated abnormally? Perhaps there is a particular statement in the macro you are running?

 

Can you check when this happens which macro you are running and send me a copy. Any other information you can give me would also be helpful.

Edited by ClydeE
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Ok...... ;)

I seem to be having a problem with GSAK 5.1.1 . Everytime I try to add a new loc/gpx, the program APPEARS TO ADD IT, the summary box states "Total Waypoints Added: 0" I'm still only running on the lowely "loc" files but I never had a problem with the last two GSAK versions I was running. B)

"Tools=>Send Debug info to Clyde" then could you please email me the tracking number and attach the LOC file you are trying to load.

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Upgraded to 5.1.1, loaded a new .gpx file, and tried to generate Memory Map export. I now get the message "Missing required file xref.txt in the HTML folder, please generate offline HTML again" before the dialog displays. Not being sure what I needed to do here - I tried doing a "Database->Repair" but that didn't fix it. So I closed the program and restarted it and that seemed to work. SO - I am up and running agin but thought you might want to know about this rather odd glitch.

 

Thanks for all your hard work on this ;)

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Upgraded to 5.1.1, loaded a new .gpx file, and tried to generate Memory Map export. I now get the message "Missing required file xref.txt in the HTML folder, please generate offline HTML again" before the dialog displays. Not being sure what I needed to do here - I tried doing a "Database->Repair" but that didn't fix it. So I closed the program and restarted it and that seemed to work. SO - I am up and running agin but thought you might want to know about this rather odd glitch.

 

Thanks for all your hard work on this ;)

Oops - spoke too soon - that only worked once and then when I hit "Generate" it gave the same message. I am now stuck for a while B)

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Upgraded to 5.1.1, loaded a new .gpx file, and tried to generate Memory Map export. I now get the message "Missing required file xref.txt in the HTML folder, please generate offline HTML again" before the dialog displays. Not being sure what I needed to do here - I tried doing a "Database->Repair" but that didn't fix it. So I closed the program and restarted it and that seemed to work. SO - I am up and running agin but thought you might want to know about this rather odd glitch.

When you generate the memory map export you have taken the option "Use local URL (GSAK Generated HTML)". However, the cache pages in the local folder provided were generated with an older version of GSAK.

 

Either uncheck that box, or generate your HTML files again (File=>Export=>Html) so they match the current version of GSAK

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Either uncheck that box, or generate your HTML files again (File=>Export=>Html) so they match the current version of GSAK

Thanks for the quick response.

 

I deleted all my old HTML files and regenerated them but still have the same message even after closing and reopening the program. So I'm still stuck I'm afraid.

 

I notice also that the file names of the HTML files have now changed to be numeric rather than using the waypoint code which is a shame since now I can't find the correct HTML file from a directory listing B)

 

I guess there was a valid reason for doing this so I'll live with it ;)

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Either uncheck that box, or generate your HTML files again (File=>Export=>Html) so they match the current version of GSAK

Thanks for the quick response.

 

I deleted all my old HTML files and regenerated them but still have the same message even after closing and reopening the program. So I'm still stuck I'm afraid.

 

I notice also that the file names of the HTML files have now changed to be numeric rather than using the waypoint code which is a shame since now I can't find the correct HTML file from a directory listing B)

 

I guess there was a valid reason for doing this so I'll live with it ;)

GSAK allows for waypoints of any kind, not just geocaching.com. The problem I was finding with making the waypoint the file name is that users were starting to introduce sysmbols that were invalid file names. For example if you had a waypoint with the name of "what?" then the HTML file would get generated as what?.htm which is an invalid file name. You might say just don't let users enter these characters into the waypoint name, but this is not practical when it comes to waypoints generated from other sources (GPX files) like benchmarks for example.

 

When you generate your HTML files what folder are you generating them to? (remember GSAK appends a folder named "cache" to where you tell it to generate the files)

 

When you look in this folder can you see the xref.txt file?

 

When you do the memory map export have you set the folder to EXACTLY match this folder?

 

For example, if you did your HTML generation to "c:\memory\htm" then you must make sure the folder you specify in memory map is "c:\memory\htm\cache"

 

edit: added last paragraph

Edited by ClydeE
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When you do the memory map export have you set the folder to EXACTLY match this folder?

 

For example, if you did your HTML generation to "c:\memory\htm" then you must make sure the folder you specify in memory map is "c:\memory\htm\cache"

 

edit: added last paragraph

Therein lies the issue I think. I found that I could generate Memory Map export OK with "Use local URL" unchecked and also with it checked PROVIDED THE PATH IS THAT OF THE FILES ON MY PC.

 

Unfortunately this has effectively removed a very useful feature that I was greatly benefitting from in the earlier versions. Because Memory Map allows you to export your waypoints to your PDA I had also set up an export that generated the local URLs THAT WOULD WORK ON MY PDA and so therefore the path was not the same as that on my local PC. I can see why the need to introduce this xref file might have caused this new limitation but I guess all I can ask is that you somehow find a solution that enables the use of a "non matching" path to the "local" files since this enables a key feature of Memory Map.

 

In the meantime I guess I'll have to go back to an earlier version of GSAK which is cool by me.

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Clyde

 

I am having a strange thing happen. I have just upgraded to the latest version of GSAK. When I send waypoints to my Geko GPS I use the tags %drop2-%typ1

 

This used to give me MB67-T but I now seem to be missing the - I am now getting MB67T

 

Any ideas

 

Martin

Edited by one4zorro
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Clyde

 

I am having a strange thing happen.  I have just upgraded to the latest version of GSAK.  When I send waypoints to my Geko GPS I use the tags %drop2-%typ1

 

This used to give me MB67-T but I now seem to be missing the -  I am now getting MB67T

 

Any ideas

 

Martin

Reference this post and answer.

Thanks Miha. that has answered my question - I have to say its a shame, I will have to use a space from now.

 

Martin

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but I guess all I can ask is that you somehow find a solution that enables the use of a "non matching" path to the "local" files since this enables a key feature of Memory Map.

Poking around I guess this solution would be to look for xref.txt in the directory identified in the edtHtmFolder key in the [TfmHtml] section of the gsak.ini file instead of using what the user typed in the "Use local URL" field. Thinking about it this makes sense since that SHOULD be where the user last sent their HTML files :ph34r:

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Thanks Miha. that has answered my question - I have to say its a shame, I will have to use a space from now.

Well, this is probably not a supported solution, but it seems if you export to MapSource and then to the GPS, the dash still goes! That's what I'm doing until they remove it there too! After all, Garmin doesn't yet have a problem with Mapsource doing it! :ph34r:

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YIKES! I can't see my Counts at the bottom of the page after upgrading to 5.1.1, I can see that they are there but I have no way to pull them into view, how do I do that?

Your taskbar is probably "locked" in position. If you right click anywhere on the taskbar you'll get a menu that has a selection "lock the taskbar". If there is a checkmark there then click on it to remove the it.

Now you will only see the bar when you put your mouse cursor right to the bottom of the screen/page.

 

Cheers, Olar

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While I anxiously await the release of the POP support, which will enable automated retrieval and processing of PQ emails... I thought I'd through out one more "Pie In the Sky" feature request that addresses a different link in the automation chain.

 

Now granted - this feature would only be useful for CacheMate users - but then, there are a whole slew of other options which are for unique software or hardware configurations and interfaces, so... it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

Have you seen Jeff Boulter's Express Logger? This tool (along with all his others) is a fairly simple yet extremely valuable service. You've started exploring a similar path with the "Semi-Automatic Logging" feature you've introduced.

 

Here's how it works: While I'm out caching, I'm using CacheMate to document my activities: Notes on the hunt or the cache, trade items, TBs, trackable signature items... that sort of thing. When I find a cache, I mark it as such, and it gets time stamped.

 

At the end of the day, I sync up my Palm, and then provide my "Found" CacheMate DB as an input to the express logger. It dynamically generates some extremely useful navigation links (log / view cache, email owner, watch, etc), together with a chronologically sorted list of your finds, and your relevant notes. This makes caching (especially large number of caches) INFINITELY more streamlined - less searching for caches, rendering of pages - it even reduces the burden of geocaching.com.

 

The recent gc.com redesign temporarly broke the Express Logger, but Jeff came up with a quick solution, and now spawns the "log find" link in a fresh browser window (since it can't be framed anymore). I am absolutely stoked on the functionlity this tool provides - but if it could all be incorporated into GSAK, then all the better, right?

 

Anyway - again, this is a long term feature request, and may not even meet your criteria as "someplace you want to go" with GSAK. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

 

As always, thanks again for such a great tool!

Billy

(aka SnoWake)

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Clyde, all this talk of macros lately has given me a wild idea that you might want to consider. Why not implement the macro language with a real scripting language? One good such candidate would be Python, and I know that for example Paint Shop Pro uses Python as its macro language. It needn't be more complex for the casual macro user, and the power user/programmer will have a full programming language at their disposal. I think this opens up many new possibilities. What do you think?

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Clyde, all this talk of macros lately has given me a wild idea that you might want to consider. Why not implement the macro language with a real scripting language? One good such candidate would be Python, and I know that for example Paint Shop Pro uses Python as its macro language. It needn't be more complex for the casual macro user, and the power user/programmer will have a full programming language at their disposal. I think this opens up many new possibilities. What do you think?

I'm not quite sure how that fits in with the over all scheme of things in GSAK (there could also be install issues etc), but I will certainly give thought to something like this.

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While I anxiously await the release of the POP support, which will enable automated retrieval and processing of PQ emails... I thought I'd through out one more "Pie In the Sky" feature request that addresses a different link in the automation chain.

 

Now granted - this feature would only be useful for CacheMate users - but then, there are a whole slew of other options which are for unique software or hardware configurations and interfaces, so... it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

Have you seen Jeff Boulter's Express Logger? This tool (along with all his others) is a fairly simple yet extremely valuable service. You've started exploring a similar path with the "Semi-Automatic Logging" feature you've introduced.

 

Here's how it works: While I'm out caching, I'm using CacheMate to document my activities: Notes on the hunt or the cache, trade items, TBs, trackable signature items... that sort of thing. When I find a cache, I mark it as such, and it gets time stamped.

 

At the end of the day, I sync up my Palm, and then provide my "Found" CacheMate DB as an input to the express logger. It dynamically generates some extremely useful navigation links (log / view cache, email owner, watch, etc), together with a chronologically sorted list of your finds, and your relevant notes. This makes caching (especially large number of caches) INFINITELY more streamlined - less searching for caches, rendering of pages - it even reduces the burden of geocaching.com.

 

The recent gc.com redesign temporarly broke the Express Logger, but Jeff came up with a quick solution, and now spawns the "log find" link in a fresh browser window (since it can't be framed anymore). I am absolutely stoked on the functionlity this tool provides - but if it could all be incorporated into GSAK, then all the better, right?

 

Anyway - again, this is a long term feature request, and may not even meet your criteria as "someplace you want to go" with GSAK. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

 

As always, thanks again for such a great tool!

Billy

(aka SnoWake)

Yea, I really put in the semi automatic logging as an interim step while waiting for the Groundspeak "sandbox" (being set up for developers like myself to directly interface with Groundspeak).

 

I will add this one to the list, but I would like to see what this "sand box" will offer before I commit on this one.

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Yea, I really put in the semi automatic logging as an interim step while waiting for the Groundspeak "sandbox" (being set up for developers like myself to directly interface with Groundspeak).

 

I will add this one to the list, but I would like to see what this "sand box" will offer before I commit on this one.

I understand and agree completely. Yes, an even tighter (or loosly-coupled ?) integration, say, via Web Services, or some such, would likely eliminate the need for something like this.

 

On the other hand - regardless of what happens in the gc.com sandbox/eventual production environment - we've still got the "gap" of getting electronic "notes" from CacheMate back into... GSAK, GC.COM, etc. I don't think anyone wants to have to READ the information that they already painstakingly entered into their PDA, before they can log their finds.

 

So, I guess there are two bits of functionality here:

 

1) CacheMate "Import" capability into GSAK - so we get the timestamp, brief notes, and most importantly, for those of us with failing memories -- a complete list of found caches, without relying on pen/paper.

 

2) Automated logging, from GSAK to GC.COM. This could range from simply presenting a convenient list of links, to pulling them into a frame (as you do with the "split screen" mode), or even full-scale integration (e.g. when you click "LOG" in GSAK, it actually completes the full transaction at gc.com on the users behalf.

 

Again, these certainly aren't features I'm expecting any time soon, or to even necessarily pan out - just trying to envision the "ideal end state", and things that would make my already-easy life even easier.

 

Here's wishing everyone a GREAT weekend!

Billy

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From the last two updates I can not get a connection in the Split Screen Viewing Area window of Gsak.

When I click on the waypoint URL it wont work.

Still the Wright click menu open in a new window works fine it opens the window explorer.

 

Please help!

Sorry, I some how missed this one.

 

GSAK needs to be able to access the internet to provide this information in split screen.

 

It sounds like you have firewall software of some type that is blocking GSAK access to the Internet. You may have previously allowed GSAK Internet access, but many firewall programs recognize that the exe has changed and so you then need to grant access again

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1) CacheMate "Import" capability into GSAK - so we get the timestamp, brief notes, and most importantly, for those of us with failing memories -- a complete list of found caches, without relying on pen/paper.

I'm not sure if you are aware but CacheMate (CM) already provides much of this functionality. (Apologies if you already know but others may be unaware and may find the following helpful).

 

Each time a cache is logged as 'Found' CM moves it to its 'Temp' category and timestamps it.

 

At the end of a days caching it's then a simple job to select 'Export Logs' and CM generates a memo pad entry for each found cache (the user can select the category to put these memos in). The memos are in chronological order and all the user notes are there.

 

When these memos are hot-synced to the PC they can be copy and pasted into GSAK's 'Log Section'.

 

Not complete auomation but pretty darn good and a great time saver.

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited by Motley Crew
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