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Geocaching Widget

racher

By racher
in General geocaching topics

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racher

+racher

Posted
Posted

I'm looking for input on what other Mac Geocachers would like to see in a dashboard widget.

 

For those who are unfamiliar, Apple Computer released an update to their OS X last month, and it has a new featured called the dashboard. It's a feature where with a push of a button or movement of the mouse, you can pull up a bunch of little commonly used tools. (i.e. Yellow Pages Search, Calculator, Weather, FedEX/UPS tracking information, Calendar... etc)

 

I would like to create one that ties into a GC.com account and gets the list of closest caches. I started working on this last night. (Since I just got my new PowerBook with Mac OS X Tiger!)

 

So, do any of you Mac using Geocachers have any other ideas you think a dashboard widget should include.

 

-Eric

 

dashboard_small.jpg

 

*Click to Enlarge*

TeamK-9

+TeamK-9

Posted
Posted

I don't know Mac specifically. I'm hoping to buy one though when I go to college. I have done a little research and I think the widgets are cool.

 

I'd think a plain old zip code search would be great...

Monkeybrad

+Monkeybrad

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great idea! I think that nearest unfound would be an awesome widget, how about a link to the my account page as part of it? I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

Edit: because not everyone wants a link to my my account page.

Edited by Monkeybrad
racher

+racher

Posted
  • Author
Posted

This is a rough draft of the widget for Mac OS X 10.4. What does everyone think?

 

-Click the link to see the image in context-

widget1.jpg

halley-peabody

+halley-peabody

Posted
Posted
This is a rough draft of the widget for Mac OS X 10.4. What does everyone think?

Personally, I prefer things that are low profile and understated, as well as blending in with other, "like" objects (in this case widgets). Yours is a cute idea, but it's not to my taste.

flir67

flir67

Posted
Posted (edited)

link the coordinates you type in, to a map or topo map free online... there are several free gps mapping sites outthere.

 

have it so you can save it to your desktop and easily view it.

Edited by flir67
racher

+racher

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well, after some basic programming, I'm still learning how to parse GPX files. I have a couple ideas for getting data into this widget.

 

1) Whenever the 'GC.com sandbox' is finished, I would have the applet connect, and using the username, pull a list of closest unfound caches. Or this could be a search done by zipcode/coords.

 

That would be awesome! I wouldn't want to steal any thunder from the GC.com site.

 

2) Have the member download a GPX file and have the widget parse that for list of current unfound caches. Kinda of a neat, caching "To Do" list, no live updates with this method.

 

3) The last option which I considered until I realized that it violates the TOU, was having the program grab a users unfound page and reading the data from it.

 

Jeremy any idea on the sandbox availability?

 

-Eric

Phobos+Demos

+Phobos+Demos

Posted
Posted

A zip code search would be great. A quick display of the 10day weather forcast in an area other than were you live, like a traval forcast. Some way of knowing how long you will have to drive to get to a cache i.e. ETA. Any of these would be good.

Thanks Phobos :laughing:

twjolson & Kay

twjolson & Kay

Posted
Posted
A zip code search would be great. A quick display of the 10day weather forcast in an area other than were you live, like a traval forcast. Some way of knowing how long you will have to drive to get to a cache i.e. ETA. Any of these would be good.

Thanks Phobos :laughing:

Can we make it find the caches for us too?

RiverExplorer

+RiverExplorer

Posted
Posted

I don't want to hi-jack your thread or your project, but my son has already created such a widget. It searches by Zip, or GC# or Keyword, and displays the results in your web browser. It's only for Max OSX 10.4 Tiger (Sorry Windows folks), but it is REALLY handy, since all the widgets can be called instantly to the screen by use of a hot key or hot corner, and take no time to "load". I have found myself using it alot already (along with all the other cool widgets!) He just posted it to the widget sites, but it takes a while to become publicly available on them, but if you want, you can download it directly from his site:

 

http://ashanks.ctsquare.net/geocaching.html

 

He's only 14, but way beyond his years in programming. Dang kid!! He's just like his Dad ('cept he's smart an' all) :D

 

Here's a photo of the widget on my desktop:

 

WidgetPhoto.jpg

 

RiverExplorer (a Mac using cacher!)

carleenp

+carleenp

Posted
Posted
link the coordinates you type in, to a map or topo map free online... there are several free gps mapping sites outthere.

 

have it so you can save it to your desktop and easily view it.

Coords to maps is something I would love to have in a widget.

carleenp

+carleenp

Posted
Posted
I don't want to hi-jack your thread or your project, but my son has already created such a widget. It searches by Zip, or GC# or Keyword, and displays the results in your web browser. It's only for Max OSX 10.4 Tiger (Sorry Windows folks), but it is REALLY handy, since all the widgets can be called instantly to the screen by use of a hot key or hot corner, and take no time to "load". I have found myself using it alot already (along with all the other cool widgets!) He just posted it to the widget sites, but it takes a while to become publicly available on them, but if you want, you can download it directly from his site:

 

http://ashanks.ctsquare.net/geocaching.html

 

He's only 14, but way beyond his years in programming. Dang kid!! He's just like his Dad ('cept he's smart an' all) :lol:

 

Here's a photo of the widget on my desktop:

 

WidgetPhoto.jpg

 

RiverExplorer (a Mac using cacher!)

Cool! Thanks!

 

It is nice to see some Mac people playing with this new feature. :D

racher

+racher

Posted
  • Author
Posted

That's similar, but what I wanted was a widget that would display the cache list in the widget.

 

Having it link to a website is very easy. That's not the goal of my widget, my goal was so that you wouldn't have to use the website.

 

-Eric

DavidMac

+DavidMac

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think I remember a Konfabulator widget with similar functionality; it returned a list of the closest caches based on some search term (zip code, I think) and updated at a regular interval. It would be nice to see something like this.

 

I don't know exactly how Dashboard works (I don't have Tiger yet) but I wonder if there would be a way to grab pocket query search results (say by requiring the user to copy/paste the URL to the "preview" page for the PQ they want, then somehow grabbing the informaiton off of that page and displaying it in the widget). I'm not sure if it would work since I think you have to be logged in to view PQ preview results, but if there was a way for Dashboard to get pages from the GC site while being logged in (does it use Safari to grab pages?) it would give premium members the option of setting up a "nearest caches that haven't been found" query, etc. Otherwise, it could be done by zip code, coordinate, or distance, since those are pretty easy to specify in a URL.

 

edit: Here is an example of the URL to the "preview" page of one of my queries. I can view it, but if I'm logged out I can only see the name of the PQ and can browse the gallery. I'm not sure if other premium members can see the actual results? It'd be great to have the results presented by Dashboard in a list; I could then set up a PQ that would let the widget show me a list of new caches in the area that haven't been logged yet.

 

edit 2: Off topic note: by coincidence, the reason I created the query I linked to was because I was in Seattle a few months ago. I actually took the flight 167 from MSP- the one that I just realized is listed in that widget in your screenshot- to get there. :unsure: Small world!

Edited by DavidMac
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