CacheMonkey v1.0 Released

Discussion about software such as GSAK, OziExplorer etc, as well as all things hardware, GPSrs, laptops, PDAs, paperless caching, cables etc
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Stargiver
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CacheMonkey v1.0 Released

Post by Stargiver » 04 April 03 10:43 pm

<pre><b><font size="3">CacheMonkey</font></b>
Registered User
Posts: 1
(10/29/02 4:02:19 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del All CacheMonkey v1.0 Released

A new tool to help with your geocaching has been released.
It is a java application and should run on any OS (with some features disabled on some platforms).

CacheMonkey is a tool developed by The GeoMonkeys to help
you get out in the field geocaching quicker, it lets you
spend less time at the terminal preparing your gps and
tracking which geocache to hunt next.

Its main features are :

- Download ANY list of geocaches from geocaching.com
- Track which geocaches you have found, and those you havent
- Export waypoint info to other popular mapping programs Used by Geocachers
- Upload geocache waypoints to your gps
- Provide shortnames for geocaches so you no longer need
to remember what GCFFFF is.
- Sort and group geocaches by those you have found and
those you planted or are yet to find.
- Links back to geocaching.com and mapping websites.
- Provide some information such as distance to each cache
which may help you decide which Geocaches to hunt next

Go to geomonkeys.com/main/Cache...onkey.html to get your copy now! ITS FREE!

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Horus</font></b>
Admin

Posts: 92
(10/29/02 7:50:58 pm)
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Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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Very nice guys, from what I've seen already it's an excellent little application. Uploading to the GPS worked a treat, as did saving out in Ozi .wpt format. I did have a problem with going to web sites, I kept getting the following error -

Error opening URL : Create Process : start & h t t p://blah.blah.blah...& error=2

Any ideas?

The only thing I would like to see is when I change the column sizes I'd like them to stay set, likewise with the window sizes. Everytime I load or download new caches I have to resize the columns to get the best view of the data. A minor point and it certainly doesn't take away from the programs functionality - well done.

I also tried the app on my Mac OS X machine and got the following error -

&The jar file &cachemonkey.jar& couldn't be launched. It probably doesn't contain a &main class& definition in the manifest. To be able to launch this jar you will need to add one&

Any ideas guys?




&Good Geocachers are hard to find&


Edited by: Horus at: 10/29/02 7:52:11 pm</font>

<b><font size="3">CacheMonkey</font></b>
Registered User
Posts: 2
(10/29/02 8:21:19 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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On macosX i believe you still need a script to execute the program, it is slightly different in format, you cant just execute the jar to make it run. I know the script has to use : characters instead of ; characters in the script , but other than that im not sure of what else needs to change.

Try editing the batch file to change that, then making the batch file a shell script and execute that.

Persitant resizable columns shouldnt be too hard to add, ill see what i can do.

As for the start error, what os are you running that under?
can you send me a screen shot of the error?

Thakns for the feedback.

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Horus
Admin</font></b>

Posts: 94
(10/29/02 8:30:53 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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Will looks into runing it on the Mac tomorrow, I'll follow your suggestions and see what I dig up, and post the results of course.

Using Windows XP Pro when I got the URL handling error, will e-mail you a screen grab asap (later tonight).


&Good Geocachers are hard to find&


</font>Horus
Admin

Posts: 95
(10/30/02 1:18:38 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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Further uses show the following problems -

&Km to home& not working - has this been implimented yet? Have I missed a configuration setting? I have my home lat/long set in the prefs.

I just downloaded all NSW caches - just to see how quick it was, downloading the Tasmanian caches isn't much of challenge And the status column shows a seemingly random listing of &Found&, Not Found&, &Hidden& and a couple of &Unavailable& caches - again, is this a bug? a feature not yet implimented or B.T.O.E.* on my part?

*B.T.O.E. = Between The Operators Ears




&Good Geocachers are hard to find&


<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">CacheMonkey
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 3
(10/30/02 3:26:14 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del CacheMonkey v1.1 NOW Released
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Ive had to release v1.1 today as v1.0 should have stopped working.
Just download 1.1 and unzip it over 1.0, things should start working again.
Also i have added a few new features :

Bugs:
-----
* Longtitude hemisphere restored properly on restart
* Cache status should now work properly!
* list downloads should work again.

Features:
----------
* Hide certain status from lists
* only download first X pages
* only download caches placed in last X days
* export cache info to csv
* added right mouse menu to cache list

Not all reported bugs from v1.0 have been fixed, so dont rereport your bug if it hasnt been fixed yet.
</font>

<b><font size="3">leek
Registered</font></b> User
Posts: 20
(11/2/02 8:56:35 am)
Reply | Edit | Del Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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Hi Brad,

Just picked up release 1.2 to experiment with and it seems to be an excellent program... Thanks for your efforts...

Everything seems to work under Windows XP, except the link to the cache page and/or MapBlast page. When I click on this option, nothing seems to happen in the CacheMonkey Window but an error is reported in the DOS window as follows:
Error opening URL: CreateProcess: start &......& error=2.
I do not use a proxy to access the internet, and the only oddity I can think of is that IE is not my default browser. Can you think of anything I can try?

Also I haven't managed to get the export to GPS to work yet... It seems to fail on the first cache, but no error is reported in the DOS box... My Meridian GPS provides for
NMEA v1.5 APA
NMEA v1.5 XTE
NMEA v2.1 GSA
Any idea which option I should select?

Suggestions for future releases:
- include cache size in the details downloaded
- provide a link to the new Sydways mapping as discussed recently in the forum
- download the details pages of selected caches to text files (which can then be downloaded to a PDA for easy access to instructions in the field)

Cheers,
Leek

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Mind Socket
Registered User
Posts: 17</font></b>
(11/3/02 9:13:58 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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CacheMonkey has certainly hit high rotation on my list of apps! :)

Here is a little list of things that I think would be groovy to include in future releases:
* Shortcut to download/print out selected cache pages. (maybe download, combine, process and print from Java). An associated datafile containing cache descriptions would be good.

* Generic list of strings to exclude for short names (perhaps as a regular expression), eg &i![0-9]:& for ideology caches, or &MS-[0-9]*:& for Mind Socket caches, &([IVX]+)& for roman numerals, other dull words (in addition to &the&) &in& &a& &and& &cache& &on& &No:&

* Option to exclude spaces from short names

* Travel bug indicator

* Option to add a prefix letter on short name based on cache type (&V& virtual,&M& multi, none for regular). Alternatively, allow symbol selection based on type (eg &?& for mystery)

* Append from website - Load CMO file, append new details from first N pages downloaded or last N days.

Cheers,
- Rog
<b><font size="3"> </font></b></font><b><font size="3">
Mind Socket
Registered User
</font></b>Posts: 18
(11/3/02 9:45:41 pm)
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Re: CacheMonkey v1.0 Released
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Oops, looks like 1.2 does at least one of those things already. Fantastic!


<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">CacheMonkey
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 4
(11/6/02 8:49:11 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del Next version and some current issues.
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I appreciate everyone suggestions, they are great, and im really pleased that CacheMonkey is working out well for most people.

However it is VERY difficult to add support for other peoples GPS units without access to them. I have tried to code to the Garmin spec and the NMEA spec as closely as possible, however I only have 1 gps to test against. My only suggestion if you cant send directly from cachemonkey would be to export to oziexplorer or another application and then upload to your gps. I may add support for magellan GPS's using their sepcific protocol in the future, but for now, i have no plans to do that. I do plan to go over the NMEA code again though, so perhaps ill fix up some things then.

As for the suggested features :
I dont want to make cachemonkey download actual cache pages as this will blow out cachemonkey's load on Geocaching.com by up to 25 times. This is really not acceptable, and Jeremy has already expressed his disklike of CacheMonkey and all its variants. So that exludes adding anything to the main list that isnt on any standard cache list, and also adding the ability to download the pages for selected caches, sorry. A travel bug indicator would be possible, ill have a look at this one.

Some of the suggestions sound great and ill do my best to add them.
A customised list of letters to include in cache names would be pretty easy, does that meet what you are suggesting mind socket?
The prefix letter for cache type sounds good, it would give you an idea of what sort of cache your after, or symbols for cache type, ill work on this one a bit and see which one (or both) work out.

Append to a CMO file from the website is a bit tricky, but i have thought about this one, ill have another look for the next version.

A link to sydways mapping would be good, however only specific to syndey users, so a generic list of mapping sites is needed, this requires a lot more work than just a link to Sydways. Im working on this one too. Check the next version.

For people having problems linking to directly to websites from within cache monkey, I have a few suggestions.
The way cachemonkey links to the sites is the only way possible from a JAVA app, that i know of anyway. It executes on the command line the command
&start &URL&&
So go to a command prompt and try typing
start www.geocaching.com
if it doesnt start up your browser and load geocaching.com in it then the links wont work.
It may give you more info on whats going wrong.
If you want to take this further send me an email at geomonkeys.com and ill try to work it through with a few users and track down exactly whats going wrong.

Also under unix os's, you can create a script called start and put in the cachemonkey folder, then make the script startup your appropriate browser and open the url.

The next version wont be out for a while as I have lots of other java coding to do, next break i get in the coding i get paid for, ill get back onto cachemonkey.

I hope this hepls you out.

The more people that request a feature, or report a bug, the more likely i am to get some work done on cachemonkey, so let me know with an email, what you want, and whats not working.


Regards,
GeoMonkey Brad , AKA CacheMonkey</font>




<b><font size="3">Mind Socket
</font></b>Registered User
Posts: 20
(11/7/02 7:57:47 am)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: Next version and some current issues.
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All sounds great! :) I understand the bandwidth concerns of geocaching.com. I plan to do some coding for my own webpage that hopefully won't be too great a hit on them.

Maybe I should get myself a subscription so I don't feel guilty ...

- Rog

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">leek
</font></b>GeoCacher

Posts: 29
(11/8/02 12:13:48 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
More suggestions
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A couple more suggestions for a future version:
- How about allowing the choice of symbol for exports to EasyGPS files as well as on the upload to GPS. This would allow non-Garmin users some control over the symbols uploaded to their GPS.
- Could you include an option to export the short name as the cache code to EasyGPS files as well...
<b><font size="3"> </font></b></font><b><font size="3">
Team Unicycle</font></b>
Registered User
Posts: 2
(11/11/02 12:00:36 am)
Reply | Edit | Del CacheMonkey - not displaying cache page
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The createprocess error indicates the file &start& was not found. My work-around was to write a program start.exe which calls ShellExecute, passing the url parameter on to it. This works a treat.

Also, you could use this start.exe program to do anything you like with the url. For example, you could use it to open a local copy of the cache page instead of the online version.



<font color="#FF9900">
</font><b><font color="#FF9900" size="3">CacheMonkey</font><font color="#FF9900" size="3">
Registered User</font></b><font color="#FF9900">
Posts: 5
(11/15/02 10:03:35 am)
Reply | Edit | Del CacheMonkey v1.3 Released
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CacheMonkey 1.3 Released.
Now includes custom URLs. You can link directly to whatever websites you like directly from within CacheMonkey.

Also includes a fix for those users having trouble linking to websites under windows XP.

Enjoy!
</font>
<b><font size="3">leek
GeoCacher</font></b>

Posts: 36
(11/18/02 11:52:33 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Custom URLs
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Hi Brad,

Maybe I'm missing something, but I seem to be having problems with the custom URL feature...

I have set up the custom URL to be:
www.street-directory.com....&sizey=800

If (for example) I right-click on the Bogle-Chandler Mystery Cache, and click on Sydways, it generates the following URL:
www.street-directory.com....&sizey=800

as compared to the mapping on geocaching.com.au which generates the following URL:
www.street-directory.com....&sizey=800

Both are not totally accurate, but the CacheMonkey URL seems to be more inaccurate than the other...

Is there a datum problem?



<b><font color="#FF9900" size="3">Mind Socket
GeoCacher

Posts: 26
(11/19/02 8:08:51 am)
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Re: Custom URLs
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I think there may be a need for a datum conversion for street-directory.com coords. Does it appear to be out by about 200m?

- Rog </font></b>

<b><font size="3">CacheMonkey
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 6
(11/20/02 8:13:09 am)
Reply | Edit | Del Oooops...
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Looks like there is a datum issue here, i was just assuming it would use WGS84 co-ords expressed as UTM's. Apparently not. Ill have to track down a java based datum converter, anyone know of one?

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Biggles Bear
GeoCacher
</font></b>
Posts: 53
(11/20/02 5:17:52 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del Suggestion
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Hi! Just been having a play with CacheMonkey 1.3.

Any chance of getting the “Home Point” exported when you export to Easy GPS etc? </font>

<b><font size="3">CacheMonkey
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 7
(11/21/02 12:41:43 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del CacheMonkey 1.4
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The datum problem has well and truly been solved in the best way possible. You can now choose what datum you would like the co-ords placed into the url using. There are over 240 Datums to choose from so that should meet with most people requirements.

By the way: the datum to use for the Sydney maps is Australian Geodetic 1984.

Regards
GeoMonkey Brad.

Ps in reply to the previous post, ive added your suggestion to the change list, it should be in the next release.


<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">leek
GeoCacher</font></b>

Posts: 38
(11/21/02 12:58:27 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: CacheMonkey 1.4
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Well done Brad... The Sydways link seems to be very accurate now...

A question for you... When installing a new release, which file(s) should I not extract in order to preserve the options I have entered previously... Every time I install a new release, I have to set up all my options again. I presume there is an easy solution for this...
</font>
<b><font size="3">maccamob
GeoCacher
</font></b>
Posts: 48
(11/21/02 11:38:34 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del Re: CacheMonkey 1.4
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Brad,
While on the subject of different datums, can you extend your coverage to include VICGRID (which is the datum used for the Melbourne on-line maps at Street-directory.com)? Info on VICGRID is at www.giconnections.vic.gov.../vic14.htm
</pre>

User avatar
Stargiver
Venerable giver of Stars
Posts: 49
Joined: 02 April 03 7:08 pm
Location: System

Post by Stargiver » 04 April 03 10:57 pm

<pre><b><font size="3">CacheMonkey
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 8
(11/22/02 9:51:02 am)
Reply | Edit | Del Re: CacheMonkey 1.4
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The only file you need not replace is your cachemonkey.props file, this contains all the settings that </pre>
<pre>cachemonkey uses. I include it with each release as it has a default setup in it for anyone doing a new install.

Ill have a quick look at VICGRID today, but im not promising anything.

Brad.

<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Derringer
Registered User
</font></b>Posts: 14
(1/17/03 1:24:20 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del cachemonkey
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How does one configure cachemonkey to go to a selected cache page?
The custom URL page is not very informative for a non computer literate person like myself :[ </font>

<b><font size="3">Mind Socket
GeoCacher</font></b>

Posts: 49
(1/21/03 2:25:54 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del
Re: cachemonkey
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Hi Derringer,

I assume you want to do a custom URL, and are not having problems with the default cache page link. Your best </pre>
<pre>bet is to go to a sample web page in your browser. An example might be the link that toggles a cache on your </pre>
<pre>watch list on gc.com:
www.geocaching.com/my/wat...sp?w=12345
This example toggles cache 12345 on your gc.com watch list. In cachemonkey, use the $no symbol in place of the</pre>
<pre>number. There are other symbols available for coords and GC codes etc to use as needed also.
So, in this example, your custom URL in cachemonkey would be:
www.geocaching.com/my/wat....asp?w=$no

This example doesn't use any coords, so the datum option doesn't matter.

If you're still stuck, let us know what custom URL you're trying to create. Chances are it will be useful to </pre>
<pre>others also.

- Rog


<font color="#FF9900"><b><font size="3">Derringer
Registered User</font></b>
Posts: 15
(1/24/03 2:20:03 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del Using url's in cachemonkey
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I must be missing something basic. All I want to do is highlight a cache in a cache list and go to the cache </font></pre>
<pre><font color="#FF9900">page. All I get is a message in Java
&Error opening URL:Null&
Very helpful!!!!

I did try your examples but get same message
Kevin
</font></pre>

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