SMS notifications

[alpha993]

<GCA Admin Hat>
Just a heads up that automated scraping of data as indicated in this thread is against GC's Terms and Conditions and could result in account termination....

They are pretty sensitive about it.
</GCA Admin Hat>

<P>From First To Find -- New Cache Watcher page "On August 14th or 15th gc.com introduced an error into their query page listings. This error causes FTF to fail. I've decided to wait a day or so to see if they fix their problem before I revise my program to deal with the error. "

<P> Seem they might be pretty sensitive and pretty aware of it too...

[zactyl]

I don't get why they don't include coordinates in the notification anyway...

They make you read the cache page so you know if there are any restrictions or warnings you should be aware of.

And if there are any fine products you might be interested in.

[Mloe]

Has anyone got it currently set up where a perl script (or similar) gets forwarded the e-mail, and parses it out to an sms gateway with the name, distance, and co-ords of the cache?

Well.. now... :)

$ cat /tmp/tick

This is an automated message from Geocaching

For GC163VW: Camp Granada 2007 (Traditional Cache)
Location: Queensland, Australia
42.9mi W (69km W)
theUMP published Camp Granada 2007 (Traditional Cache) at 9/21/2007

Log Date: 9/21/2007
Hello, Muddah. Hello, Fadah.

$ cat /tmp/tick | /tmp/email2sms.pl
GC163VW: Camp Granada 2007 (traditional, 69km W): S 27 22.643 E 153 15.256
$

... although those aren't GC163VW's real co-ords.

Getting the email to the script and the one line summary from the script to your phone is left as an exercise for the reader. Seems to already be plenty of suggestions for ways to skin that second cat at least. I use procmail and a command line tapi client with a modem for this sort of thing but that's not going to help if you're not using something unixy.

I'd fully expect the below code to stop working at any moment because well.. it really shouldn't be possible now. It's not code I actually use (I just wrote it earlier this evening) so I don't mind that. :)

Code: Select all

Code removed by moderator (CraigRat)
(Posting scraping code may get this site into legal difficulties with Groundspeak.)
Please do not post actual code on the site!

... although on preview I see the script has been rendered broken despite use of the 'code' directive so you'll have to figure it out yourself a little bit. :)

[CraigRat]

Guys,
I've had to edit the above post as it's pushing the boundaries of what can be posted here.

Please keep it on the 'conceptual' level to avoid us getting in any legal problems please!

[fehrgo]

I do find it interesting that the WAP site does not require a login, though. It is too bad that you can't directly link to a cache using a url that would fit inside an SMS, as this should still be within what would be considered acceptable by GC. Unfortunately any passed parameters are likely to grow the URL too much.

[team unicycle]

It is too bad that you can't directly link to a cache using a url that would fit inside an SMS, as this should still be within what would be considered acceptable by GC. Unfortunately any passed parameters are likely to grow the URL too much.

You could run it through tinyurl.com first, or roll your own tiny url if you have an online server.

[fehrgo]

Ah yes, I hadn't thought of that. Now you have me thinking of proxying the wap session...

[alpha993]

<P>From First To Find -- New Cache Watcher page "On August 14th or 15th gc.com introduced an error into their query page listings. This error causes FTF to fail. I've decided to wait a day or so to see if they fix their problem before I revise my program to deal with the error. "

<P> Seem they might be pretty sensitive and pretty aware of it too...

<P>Version 5 of First To Find was released on 25 Sept 2007 and fixes the error mentioned above. It also has a new feature to send messages only during certain hours of the day (handy if your computer runs services long after you turn in each night).

[team unicycle]

This doesn't go get the coordinates, but it does give me a name, bearing, distance, and a link that I can click on to launch my browser:

Incidentally, here's my version of Fehrgo's code. I would have said mine was simpler, but being Perl, both versions are hard to read

Code: Select all

   while ($line = <>) {
      chomp($line);

      if ( $line =~ /^For (GC.*): (.*) ((.*))/ ) {
         $cacheid   = $1;
         $cachename = $2;
         $cachetype = $3;
      }

      if ( $line =~ /^[.0-9]*mi .* ((.*))/ ) {
         $distance = $1;
      }

      if ( $line =~ m|http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx| ) {
         $cacheurl = $line;
      }
   }

[Burton's]

Hi guys, thanks for everything but geez, it sounds a bit difficult for a humble Fitter. Besides if its outside the boundaries, possibly we should leave it alone.

[Team Piggy]

Besides if its outside the boundaries, possibly we should leave it alone.

Now your getting the picture.

Old story if you play with naughty stuff, you might get in trouble (or get others in trouble)..

[setsujoku]

Hi guys, thanks for everything but geez, it sounds a bit difficult for a humble Fitter. Besides if its outside the boundaries, possibly we should leave it alone.

The base scripts that have been mentioned only convert the e-mail that you receive as a notification to an SMS.

If you start including anything else after that, then thats where you might find yourself over the wrong side of the line

[luckdogscrew]

Has anybody written a script in Outlook to make an email message from the Notification emails and then send it to an SMS Gateway, Such as BigPonds?

I know if you get Premium Mail from Big Pond you can do this pretty easily, but has anybody worked out a way to do it without paying the $15 for the premium mail?

I have seen a software called SMS organiser at http://www.users.bigpond.com/web.guru/index.html

Has anybody tried this?

[team unicycle]

Missed one today - the "Subject" header became "subject". I've made it case insensitive now, but I'm curious as to why that would have changed.

[fehrgo]

That sounds RFC non-compliant...

edit: I can confirm my notifications were coming in lowercase today as well. Waymarking notifications have been with a lowercase subject line for some time, apparently, although it isn't like many of those are generated.

Thanks for the heads up, regex updated.