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I have a bit of an odd situation..  Recently I started being unable to import a zipped GPX file into an existing category of my local geocaches.  I tried importing it into a new category, and it works fine.  Tried updating that new category, that also works fine!  But importing into the category I've always used always fails around 17 records.  It won't be a big deal if I just have to create a new category, but I have several solved puzzles I have yet to find in the list and a few of caches marked as DNF etc in the existing one, but seems like a bit of an odd bug going on here.

Code Select Expand

E/DataImportGpx( 4800): parseGpx(org.kxml2.io.KXmlParser@45d781a8, menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.dj@45d7e9b0)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.a.k.a(L:210)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.locus.core.f.aa.a(L:1123)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.di.p(L:875)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.dj.a(L:580)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.a.b.a(L:440)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.a.a.b(L:102)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.a.a.a(L:50)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.dq.run(L:346)
E/DataImportGpx( 4800):         at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1096)
E/FileImport( 4800): parseGeoData(FayetteMaster.gpx)
E/FileImport( 4800): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.a.k.a(L:210)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.locus.core.f.aa.a(L:1123)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.di.p(L:875)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.dj.b(L:538)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.a.b.a(L:477)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.a.a.b(L:102)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.a.a.a(L:50)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at menion.android.locus.core.gui.extension.dq.run(L:346)
E/FileImport( 4800):    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1096)


[Wishlist one: Colorizing of category icons]

Menion,

I have two wishlist items, hopefully they're interesting to you and other users.  I think both fit in well with the existing Locus functionality.  Please, anyone also interested in either or both speak up!

Thanks!!  

Wishlist one:  Colorizing of category icons

Use Case:  Per category being able to identify special items.  Specifically to geocaching, say I have a Pocket Query of typical Unfound caches, I'd leave this the default.  But I also have a Pocket Query of my DNF's, I want to color these a Blue color so I can quickly identify them on the map.  I personally already have the PQ's set up this way from a long time back.  I have DNF's (Blue), Mine (Purple), Lonely (Orange), etc..  The colors were done on datafile creation for an old Geocaching program called GeoNiche and was very handy for me.

Suggestion on implementation:  In Category->Edit screen, there's Icon, Name, add an option here, perhaps Overlay Color, which offers you the Choose Color dialog you have in Settings and some other places.  Default to White/Transparent (ie:  No change).  If the user does change it, simply overly this new color over the icon on the Edit screen (for preview) and on the Map.  For most Geocaching icons, this would basically make the white Square colorized depending upon setting.  Some other icons may or may not work well with this, such as the Black Star on Orange probably won't show much change but that's okay.

Wishlist two:  Refresh of Imported Data

Use Case:  I have a Pocket Query, such as all of the caches I have nearby I have not found.  Currently I go to Data Manager->Import, select File, Select Category, answer a few questions.  It would be nice to go to a Data Manager->Categories->Tap Category and Refresh to accomplish the Import without selecting a File and Category.  Less chance for error (selecting wrong file or category), same taps but potentially less fuss if you have a lot of files in the directory you import from.

Suggestion on implementation:  Store the file used to import data into the Category on Import.  To then refresh, Data Manager->Categories->tap category shows Points, Edit, Delete.  Add "Refresh" here.  When this is hit, it automatically imports that file, asking the typical overwrite etc questions.  I basically have one ZIP or GPX per Category, other folks might have multiple files they import into a given category.  Not sure what to suggest here...  Import Last, somehow track all of them?  Import Last seems reasonable to me.

Use Case Two:  Refresh All categories!  I currently have about 6 categories I keep up to date, but keep them separated so I can turn them on or off, such as Unfound, My Hides, My Finds, set of caches in another area, etc.  It would be nice to refresh them all at once.

Suggestion on implementation:  Not sure here.  A "Refresh All" button doesn't really fit under a specific Category, and you don't have anything on the "Menu" button here.  You do not have anything on a long-press of a category, maybe this could pop up a "Refresh All" menu?  Not sure what to suggest here.

Guys,

I have a phone and a tablet..  I inevitably download data separately on both, but I'd like to not lose that data..  No point in downloading it twice, or trying to copy from one to another etc..  So I came up with a system I thought I'd share.  Maybe it's useful to a few other folks.

Note you'll clearly have to tweak this to your setup, paths you use, etc etc...  And note I only do Online maps, so these scripts are "hard coded" to the mapsOnline directory.  If you do other types, or multiple types, you'll have to modify accordingly.  And note I've just recently started doing this.  It seems to work, but you'll want to do testing of your own.  If you notice any mistakes or have suggestions, or even find it useful, feel free to say so!

I have a set of scripts on both devices which uploads and downloads the data to my server...  I use the "rsync for Android" in the market to get the rsync and ssh binaries to use in Android, but in reality I use run 'em in gscript (quicker to write a shell script and execute it than in the rsync Android gui).  Note here I'm also using keys so I'm not prompted for passphrases etc, so you'll probably want to do the same thing.  I already had this set up for backing up my SD card, so it was easy to re-use for Locus.

So here's the process I use..

First thing to do is change to the Blank map on both devices.  Otherwise I run into sqlite problems in Locus, I presume because the database is changing out from under Locus, not sure, Menion was looking into it at one point but not sure if he found anything he could fix here..  The symptom will be errors in logcat, but the obvious failure is that you can no longer add any tiles to the map, anything added will not persist next time you start Locus.  

So after I set the map to Blank on both devices, I run the script to sync the Locus data up to my server on both devices.  Then I run a shell script on my Linux box to combine the maps from the phone and tablet into one "merged" directory, ready for download.  Then I run the script to sync the Locus data back down to each device.  Probably take 15-20 minutes total I'm guessing to do the whole process if a lot of stuff has changed, so I typically won't be doing this unless I know I have "enough" data to share.

Now, here are the scripts..   These scripts are for my Dell Streak 7 tablet.  The scripts for my phone are similar, except they use "locus-n1" instead of "locus-ds7' so the files are kept separately between the two devices.

This script uploads /mnt/sdcard/Locus/ to my /media3/android/microsd/locus-ds7/ path on my Linux machine.

Code Select Expand

#!/bin/sh
/data/data/eu.kowalczuk.rsync4android/files/rsync -rltDv
 -c --chmod=u=rwX,g=rX,o=rX
 -e "/data/data/eu.kowalczuk.rsync4android/files/ssh -l wally -y -i /sdcard/sdcard2/bin/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key"
 /mnt/sdcard/Locus/ wally@192.168.0.6:/media3/android/microsd/locus-ds7/

And the companion script which downloads the data back..  Note I only download the mapsOnline folder back down for now..  I haven't quite figured out if I can or want to merge points databases..  This copies down from the Linux box's /media3/android/microsd/locus-merged/mapsOnline/ folder back down to my locus maps directory to update it to the newly merged data.

Code Select Expand

#!/bin/sh

/data/data/eu.kowalczuk.rsync4android/files/rsync -rltDv
 -c --chmod=u=rwX,g=rX,o=rX
 -e "/data/data/eu.kowalczuk.rsync4android/files/ssh -l wally -y -i /sdcard/sdcard2/bin/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key"
 wally@192.168.0.6:/media3/android/microsd/locus-merged/mapsOnline/*
/mnt/sdcard/Locus/mapsOnline/
And I'll attach the shell script here rather than paste it..  Read over it.  What I'm doing is if a file exists in both directories and it does NOT have the same md5sum, I'm merging the two together into the "merge" directory.  After that, I look in both directories.  If a file exists that does not exist in the "merge" directory, I copy it.  This catches the databases which were the same on both paths (checksum) and those which only existed on one device.

In an effort to combine these into one list, could anyone help me list any areas which don't match the set units in the preferences?  Here's the places I know of..

Hopefully menion can fix each as he has time    And he is, quickly as always!

The following are always in Meters regardless of Units in settings:

• Edit Point Altitude (Somewhat important)
• Settings -> Track Recording, Interval, max accuracy, track width units (Somewhat important)
• Settings -> GPS and Location, Adjust Altitude (Low priority)
• Settings -> Sensors, Speed value (Semi important)
• Settings -> Guiding, Waypoints: Distance for sounds, Waypoints: Set Next Point, Waypoints: Distance for Sounds (Low Priority)

Items that were always in Meters, but have been fixed:

• Draw Circle under Geocaching tools
• Projection Distance under Geocaching tools
• Guided voice navigation I announces the number of feet but actually says "Meters" (TomTom voices don't have feet, but do have Yards)

Today I finally converted my two dozen PQ's that covered about half of my state into PQ's that cover my entire state in 20 PQ's.  If you're curious, here's a good explanation:  http://www.geocachingmaine.org/forum/co ... ltiple-PQs

Basically you make a PQ starting from the start of geocaching until whatever date in your area which your PQ is full.  I pick 500 so they'll be emailed to me and I can parse 'em through some Perl to do fun stuff to them, but some folks pick 1000 because it's easier.  Then just keep going.  For my state, Kentucky, this is around 10560 active caches.  I actually exclude my own and found caches from the list.  I figure maybe twice a year I'll go back and fix the PQ's, as caches get expired, I find 'em, etc...  Only real maintenance is the most recent set which will eventually grow to over your limit and you'll have to create a new PQ to cover it.  The good thing is you don't have to run every set every week, I plan on manually ticking off the oldest ones every month or so to pick up on any archives etc but otherwise that data really isn't changing except for logs.

So I loaded it into Locus.    I haven't tried to load the whole dataset into one category but I bet it'd be just fine..  This is 6 zipped PQ's that are loaded in..

Here's the grouped POI view of my state..



And ungrouped..



I didn't benchmark the loading of data, but it was very reasonable....  MAYBE would take 5 minutes to load all 9550 at once.  And about 45s total to make them all visible in the categories.  And actual usage is very fast, even with the name showing up under the cross.  Turning that off and there's no lag at all.  My tablet is a Dell Streak 7 and it has a Tegra 2 CPU..  Not sure if it's using both CPUs or not.  Just thought I'd post this, I thought it was pretty cool how well Locus handles it.

My largest of the PQ's is 4200 (basically the entire state minus some 5 areas I regularly visit I broke off into their own areas using gpsbabel) takes 2:34 to load from start of Import to finish.

FYI if anyone counts, the grouped view adds up to 9250..  Not sure about the discrepancy, but I suspect some individual caches are not shown nor grouped, not sure.

I have been using BackCountry Navigator for about a year for both its in-app capabilities but also the ability to use its tiles outside of the app, namely in my main geocaching app, GeOrg.  Unfortunately satellite tiles don't work, but the OSM tiles I have work fine so I use those while I'm mobile geocaching so I don't use any data and less battery while I'm out caching.

The more I use Locus the more I'm thinking I'm no longer going to use Backcountry Navigator, but I don't want to give up the offline maps in GeOrg.  I could of course just keep the tiles I have downloaded, but I'd prefer to use the more up to date tiles that I have in Locus.

Is it possible to access these externally and if so, is there documentation I can pass onto a developer in order to utilize them?

Thanks!