Messages

@voldapet. As Menion said, the app paid more then it used so your argument that even more payment is needed to keep the service going is thereby invalidated. Your Garmin example is also outdated. Please check the playstore and be amazed what is going on on the GPS scene now a days. Community driven, commercialy driven, but free is the hype at the moment especially now Google Maps is getting better by the day and starting to show offline incentives.

As for the good people of the TU Berlin, if what Menion said about the traffic his server was drawing in Januari I think they will be smiling over your remark just now. 2T a month is probably less then peanuts for then. More like flees or a mild cold. It also doesn't add up to thousands of users. Where f.i. Locus Free points to 1 million installs this in no way implies the amount of daily users, vector map users, or regular vectormap downloaders. The 2T per month indicates that I am not far wrong with that logic.

With a non-technical user I mean someone who cannot root his phone, let alone run or install a script on it which probably will be true for the majority of Locus users.

That said I will now refrain from further comments as IMHO everything that I had to say has been said on the topic.

@gynta
What do you mean? I already gave several solutions. But these will not help non technical users thats why I am speaking up for them.

@menion

I know the app was supposed to be temporary but there was no talk about that the future maps would come at a price, otherwise I might have reconsidered in buying an app that would be obsoleted without IMHO proper replacement.

Am I right that we (buyers of the add-on) served as testers for the current system? You really had us pay for helping you? Because that is how it feels now. So I think it would be an acceptable solution if you would offer the owners of the app some sort of compensation. A good idea might be the price of the app in credits for the new system.

Anyway your business model has left a dent in my and probably many other users belive in the community spirit here. I think there are other ways to solve this vectormap storage problem then the current one you choose as my script clearly states. Now I am awaiting the first troll lecturing about OSM bandwith and supportive spirit.

I am supportive as I showed when I bought that app and and increase in bandwith for OSM resolves from taking out the app. Not my doing.

There you go my friends. Same license as OSM pun intended. :mrgreen:

#!/system/bin/php
<?php

/*
   licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
   created and copyright by Roelf Renkema in protest of shutdown locus vectormap app
*/

// CHANGE if the destination on your device differs
$dest = "/emmc/Locus/mapsVector/";
//CHANGE if you want to use another source
$source = "http://download.mapsforge.org/maps/";
//CHANGE to maps you want, you need to create the dir structure yourself
$maps = array(
            "europe/andorra.map",
            "europe/liechtenstein.map"
);

foreach($maps as $map){
   $furl = $source.$map;
   $fdest = $dest.$map;
   
   $lsize = filesize($fdest);
   $esize = getextsize($furl);
   if(!$lsize) $lsize=0;
   echo "$furl is $esize bytes big. Local size = $lsizen";
   if($lsize != $esize){
      getextfile($furl,$fdest);
   } else {
         echo "Skipped $mapn";
   };
}

exit;

function getextsize($furl){

   $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $furl); //specify the url
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    $head = curl_exec($ch);
    $size = curl_getinfo($ch,CURLINFO_CONTENT_LENGTH_DOWNLOAD);
   curl_close($ch);
   
   return($size);
};

function getextfile($furl,$fname){
   $fp = fopen($fname, 'w');
   if (!$fp) exit("Failed to open file for writing");

   $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $furl);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
    curl_exec($ch);
   curl_close($ch);
   fclose($fp);
if (is_resource($fp))
   fclose($fp);
};

?>

This is the script I use for anyone intereted save and set the right permissions:

#!/system/bin/sh
# wget -P <destination dir> url
# The example below retrieves the andorra map on my android galaxy s.
# running the script with SManager.(free version available in PlayStore)
# at http://fwd4.me/154I
wget -P /emmc/Locus/mapsVector/europe http://download.mapsforge.org/maps/europe/andorra.map

HMM I'm just thinking, I could even make this better by useing a PHP script and have it check for filesize changes before download and have it run on a nightly base. Then I wouldn't have to do anything anymore ever and Locus would always be cutting edge up to date. Isn't it nice if developers get you hacking at their walls?

Menion you only prove my point as where the dataconsumption is concerned, the add-on brought more in then the actual costs. So in principle there is no reason not to continue with it as far as data is concerned. Leaves us with the time investment you do.

Here I would like again point out that this could/should be fairly automatic and boils down to processor time. If that is all to much for you, you could just link to mapsforge. Simple.

Do not forget that the license of the OSM data allows you to sell it as long as you adhere to the same license. Which means that anyone buying the maps from you can distribute them freely if they want. So all and all the only thing you do here is frustrating people without any need without any benefit. (FGS use a paypall donate button if you want more money)

This is not an attack on you personally but mere a request to reconsider here. as I think it is not worth it. You have a fine product that has a fair price and people will propagate it if you don't piss them off with these kind of actions. If you haven't noticed the trend is going to free maps everywhere.

Now I for me have solved the problem with a simple script on my android phone, downloading the map from the forge with wget and installing it in the Locus dir with the help of the SManager app. But I again, politely, ask you to reconsider and turn back from this move. I will then be more then glad to edit my remarks in the playshop and propagate Locus once again to anyone who looks for a decent GPS app.

<rant mode on>
@druki, thats ridiculous as the maps are available on http://download.mapsforge.org/maps/ without the overhead and noise. Fact is we want to be able to do this within the app without the menace of wingetting and scping it to our devices.

That was what the add-on did. That is why we bought the add-on in the firstplace. So lets face it a ample change and update of the addon to use f.i. the mapsforge repo would have been as easy as 1 2 3. But that wouldn't bring in a steady source of income right?

As far as mapsforge is concerned they don't give a shit if you winget it curl it or use the bloody addon. This is no more then pure customer frustration.
<rant mode off>

I think this was a very bad decision and I am very disappointed with it. Not only did I pay for the pro version, I also paid for vector app because I was OK with donating the extra for the trouble of making the maps. Something that takes time but is fully automatic. I also doubt very much that the payload on the server is so high that it wouldn't be covered by payed extensions. It's not like these maps have such major changes everyday. And yes I know the costs of a server as I am hosting myself.

So bottom line for me is that it looks like Locus is becoming a milkcow and I will refrain from buying anything anymore till the maps will be available for people who bought the (now useless) map extension. Posted on Play store too.