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| 4 | <head><title>GPXView - Geocaching with Maemo</title> |
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| 9 | |
| 10 | <center><img src="images/gpxview.png"></center> |
| 11 | |
| 12 | <center><h1>GPXView - Geocaching with Maemo</h1></center> |
| 13 | <center>Till Harbaum <a href="mailto:till@harbaum.org"><till@harbaum.org></a></center><p> |
| 14 | |
| 15 | GPXView is a <a href="http://geocaching.com">geocaching</a> |
| 16 | application. Its main purpose is to work with <a |
| 17 | href="http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/">pocket queries</a> in GPX |
| 18 | format (hence the name GPXView). GPXView allows you to conveniently |
| 19 | read the information stored in these files and navigates you to |
| 20 | geocaches using your devices built-in GPS. GPXView features many |
| 21 | advanced features including full HTML rendered cache descriptions, GPS |
| 22 | based voice navigation and a built-in map viewer.<p> |
| 23 | |
| 24 | <h2>Obtaining it</h2> |
| 25 | |
| 26 | GPXView is available for three different plattforms: |
| 27 | |
| 28 | <ul> |
| 29 | <li>Maemo4 (codenamed Chinook/Diablo) on Nokia N800 and N810 |
| 30 | <li>Maemo5 (codenames Fremantle) on Nokia N900 |
| 31 | <li>Desktop Linux |
| 32 | </ul> |
| 33 | |
| 34 | The latest N810/N800 version is available from the |
| 35 | <a href="http://maemo.org/downloads/product/raw/OS2008/gpxview/?get_installfile">Nokia repositories</a>.<p> |
| 36 | |
| 37 | <center><img src="images/maemo4.gif"><h5>GPXView on N810</h5></center> |
| 38 | |
| 39 | The N900 version is available from the extras repository and can be |
| 40 | installed from the Navigation section in the Application Manager on |
| 41 | that device. However, since there's a review process involved in |
| 42 | getting software into the repective repositories and since the review |
| 43 | process for the N900 is rather slow, it may take some time for the |
| 44 | latest version to show up on your device.<p> |
| 45 | |
| 46 | <center><img src="images/cachelist.gif"><h5>GPXView on N900</h5></center> |
| 47 | |
| 48 | There is no pre-packaged version for the Linux desktop. In order to install |
| 49 | GPXView on a desktop PC you'll have to download the <a href="http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/pool/diablo/free/source/g/gpxview/">source code</a> |
| 50 | and compile and install it yourself.<p> |
| 51 | |
| 52 | <center><img src="images/desktop.gif"><h5>GPXView on Ubuntu Linux</h5></center> |
| 53 | |
| 54 | <h2>Getting started</h2> |
| 55 | |
| 56 | GPXView comes ready-to-run and even includes some little "welcome" |
| 57 | demo file. You can use this to learn about the basic usage of GPXView and |
| 58 | check out the various program features.<p> |
| 59 | |
| 60 | <center><img src="images/welcome.gif"><h5>First start of GPXView</h5></center> |
| 61 | |
| 62 | However, to start hunting geocaches near your location you |
| 63 | need to get the appropriate pocket queries in GPX or LOC format either |
| 64 | from geocaching.com where you have to be a paying member to be allowed |
| 65 | to download them. Or you check free services. Sources known to work |
| 66 | with GPXView are: |
| 67 | |
| 68 | <ul> |
| 69 | <li><a href="http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/">Pocket queries</a> from geocaching.com, available to paying customers only |
| 70 | <li>LOC files from geocaching.com are available for free, but contain very limited information only |
| 71 | <li>GPX files from <a href="http://www.opencaching.de/">Opencaching.de</a> |
| 72 | </ul> |
| 73 | |
| 74 | <h3>Installing GPX files</h3> |
| 75 | |
| 76 | Once you got your GPX files you might install them anywhere on your |
| 77 | device like e.g. the memory card on your N900. Files being downloaded |
| 78 | in ZIP format from geocaching.com can be left compressed. GPXView will |
| 79 | uncompress them automatically.<p> |
| 80 | |
| 81 | <h3>The GPX list view</h3> |
| 82 | |
| 83 | To import such files into GPXView you need to start GPXView and |
| 84 | and select "Import file" from the main menu. The GPX file will then |
| 85 | be included into the main screens list of GPX files. The following |
| 86 | session has two active GPX files and a closed one installed.<p> |
| 87 | |
| 88 | <center><img src="images/gpxlist.gif"><h5>GPX list</h5></center> |
| 89 | |
| 90 | These GPX list will be loaded whenever you restart GPXView. Since |
| 91 | these files may contain plenty caches, loading them may take a few |
| 92 | seconds. While loading you'll see a progress bar.<p> |
| 93 | |
| 94 | <center><img src="images/loading.gif"><h5>Loading ...</h5></center> |
| 95 | |
| 96 | You may wish to temporarily disable certain GPX files from this list |
| 97 | in order to speed up loading. In order to do so, just click the |
| 98 | <img src="images/delete.png"> icon (on N800/N810 and desktop use the |
| 99 | Import->Close in the menu instead). A dialog will pop up to ask you |
| 100 | whether you want to remove that entry completely from the list or |
| 101 | whether you only want to close it.<p> |
| 102 | |
| 103 | <center><img src="images/close_remove.gif"><h5>Close or Remove?</h5></center> |
| 104 | |
| 105 | If you choose to close the file it will be displayed in "disabled" style |
| 106 | as visible in the GPX list screenshot above. These files will not be |
| 107 | opened at startup and thus don't affect the startup time of GPXView. The |
| 108 | containing cache files are not imported and are e.g. not found when using |
| 109 | the Search function and are not displayed on the map. To reenable a closed |
| 110 | entry just select it.<p> |
| 111 | |
| 112 | <h2>Main Menu</h2> |
| 113 | |
| 114 | The main menu can be reached from the main screen (and e.g. not |
| 115 | from the map screen). It exact contents vary with the state of the |
| 116 | main screen and e.g. some menu entries may only be visible if the |
| 117 | main screen is in "GPX list" mode.<p> |
| 118 | |
| 119 | <center><img src="images/menu.gif"><h5>The main menu</h5></center> |
| 120 | |
| 121 | <h3>Tools Menu</h3> |
| 122 | |
| 123 | The tools submenu is reached via the main menu. It can be used |
| 124 | to invoke various geocaching related tools. The tools act as |
| 125 | if they were seperate programs but are tightly integrated into |
| 126 | GPXView and typically import or export data to or from GPXView.<p> |
| 127 | |
| 128 | <center><img src="images/tools.gif"><h5>The tools submenu</h5></center> |
| 129 | |
| 130 | <h4>Geomath</h4> |
| 131 | |
| 132 | <center><img src="images/geomath.gif"><h5>The Geomath tool</h5></center> |
| 133 | |
| 134 | The geomath tool allows very basic geocoordinate calculations. |
| 135 | Two coordinates can be entered into it as well as a distance and |
| 136 | a direction angle.<p> |
| 137 | |
| 138 | Clicking the "Calculate" button calculates the distance between |
| 139 | the two given coordinates and projects the first coordinate (on the |
| 140 | screens left) by the given distance and direction. The resulting |
| 141 | projected coordinate is then be displayed in the bottom row.<p> |
| 142 | |
| 143 | The resulting coordinate can be used within GPXView from the |
| 144 | coordinate selector tool using the geocalc icon |
| 145 | <img src="images/pos_geomath.png">. This icon also shows up in the map |
| 146 | if a valid geomath result is present. |
| 147 | |
| 148 | <h5>Usage example: "Go 120m in 65°" from the given start coordinate</h5> |
| 149 | |
| 150 | The cache description tells you to walk a certain distance into a certain |
| 151 | direction from a given coordinate. First you select the caches main position |
| 152 | <img src="images/cache_type_traditional.png"> from the coordinate selector |
| 153 | tool <img src="images/pos_get.png">. The start coordinate should then be |
| 154 | displayed in the left column. Now enter the requested distance and direction |
| 155 | into the appropriate fields (on Maemo5 using the picker tools). When done |
| 156 | just click "Calculate" and the "projection" row will contain your target |
| 157 | coordinate. This coordinate can now be selected in the caches "goto" view |
| 158 | and is also being shown in the map. You can even re-select the projected |
| 159 | coordinate in the Geomath dialog for further processing and to e.g. walk |
| 160 | another distance in another direction. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | <h4>Geotext</h4> |
| 163 | |
| 164 | <center><img src="images/geotext.gif"><h5>The Geotext tool</h5></center> |
| 165 | |
| 166 | The geotext tool allows two simple text operations often required to solve |
| 167 | a geocache. Many geocaches ask you to calculate the letter sum of a certain |
| 168 | text or word. Just enter this word into geotext and the character sum |
| 169 | is being displayed while you type. Another common operation is the "shift" |
| 170 | letters. If you shift the letter "a" by one you get the next letter "b" (and |
| 171 | "z" becomes "a" again). If you shift by two "a" becomes "c" and so on. This |
| 172 | is the so-called cesar encryption. A special case is a shift by 13. This |
| 173 | encryption of shifting letters by 13 is named rot13 and is for example used |
| 174 | on the geocaching.com website to encrypt hints and spoilers. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | <h4>Precise Position</h4> |
| 177 | |
| 178 | <center><img src="images/precise_position.gif"> |
| 179 | <h5>The Precise Position tool</h5></center> |
| 180 | |
| 181 | The Precise Position is more for the hider than for the seeker. It is |
| 182 | supposed to be used when standing still. It allows you to average the |
| 183 | current position over some longer period of time. The tool will also |
| 184 | show you graphically how far all the positions received so far are |
| 185 | apart to give you an impression how precise the position really |
| 186 | is. The more coordinates you get and the smaller the radius of the |
| 187 | circle containing them all is the more precise is the resulting |
| 188 | coordinate. You can then copy the resulting coordinate to the |
| 189 | clipboard for further processing in other applications. |
| 190 | |
| 191 | <h4>GeoToad</h4> |
| 192 | |
| 193 | GeoToad is not part of GPXView itself but has to be installed |
| 194 | seperately. GeoToad is written in the ruby language and as of this |
| 195 | writing has to be installed together with the ruby interpreter from |
| 196 | the extras-devel repository when using Maemo5.<p> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | <a href="http://code.google.com/p/geotoad/">GeoToad</a> allows you to |
| 199 | download geocache information directly from the <a |
| 200 | href="http://www.geocaching.com/">geocaching.com website</a>. In order |
| 201 | to comply with the terms of that site, GeoToad intentionally runs |
| 202 | rather slow to prevent to overload that site with automated requests.<p> |
| 203 | |
| 204 | To use GeoToad you first have to enter your account information (you |
| 205 | don't need a premioum account!), the location you want to get geocache |
| 206 | information from and the size of the area you are interested |
| 207 | in. Please, start with an area of ~1km (0.6 mi) radius. Otherwise the |
| 208 | download may take rather long. You also have to select a place to |
| 209 | store the resulting file. You can choose any location, but it's |
| 210 | preferred to use a memory card to save precious root file system space |
| 211 | on a mobile device like the N900.<p> |
| 212 | |
| 213 | <center> |
| 214 | <img src="images/geotoad_setup.gif"> |
| 215 | <h5>Setup of GeoToad</h5> |
| 216 | </center> |
| 217 | |
| 218 | GeoToad is then invoked using the parameters you just entered.<p> |
| 219 | |
| 220 | <center> |
| 221 | <img src="images/geotoad_run_1.gif"> |
| 222 | <h5>Running GeoToad</h5> |
| 223 | </center> |
| 224 | |
| 225 | After a few seconds the first information should be returned and |
| 226 | GeoToad starts reporting what it receives from geocaching.com.<p> |
| 227 | |
| 228 | <center> |
| 229 | <img src="images/geotoad_run_2.gif"> |
| 230 | <h5>Search results are coming in</h5> |
| 231 | </center> |
| 232 | |
| 233 | Once geotoad is done it reports some statistics about its work and |
| 234 | GPXView tells you that the GeoToad job is done.<p> |
| 235 | |
| 236 | <center> |
| 237 | <img src="images/geotoad_run_3.gif"> |
| 238 | <h5>GeoToad download is done</h5> |
| 239 | </center> |
| 240 | |
| 241 | You can now close the window and return to the main screen. You'll find that |
| 242 | the download has been added to the list of GPX files.<p> |
| 243 | |
| 244 | <center> |
| 245 | <img src="images/geotoad_result_1.gif"> |
| 246 | <h5>The resulting file</h5> |
| 247 | </center> |
| 248 | |
| 249 | You can now use this file like any other GPX file you might have downloaded |
| 250 | from geocaching.com or similar sites.<p> |
| 251 | |
| 252 | <center> |
| 253 | <img src="images/geotoad_result_2.gif"> |
| 254 | <h5>Caches downloaded by GeoToad</h5> |
| 255 | </center> |
| 256 | |
| 257 | </body> |
| 258 | </html> |
| 259 |