Geocaching Search for Firefox

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 09 February 05 9:04 pm

I have been working on 2 search plugins for Geocaching.com and Geocaching.com.au

What commonly do people want to search for related to the 2 sites?

Keywords?
Postcodes?
Cache names?
Username?
Forum Posts?

Please tell me which searches you use commonly

Heres an example of the Geocaching.com Plugin with the keyword 'Treason' already entered.

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 09 February 05 9:06 pm

I search using all of the above...

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 09 February 05 9:13 pm

I use cacher, cache name the most - but the others i do use occassionally.

Looks like a great util! How about the .au logo instead of the .com one?

embi · Post by **embi** » 09 February 05 10:10 pm

GCID e.g. GCEMBI

dak's Emu Mob · Post by **dak's Emu Mob** » 09 February 05 10:27 pm

I almost exclusively use keywords, that is, cache names. Sometimes I search on 'Placed Name', but not very often. I never use postcodes, and can't understand why it's the default search on the gc.com Advanced Search page, when it's already available on th main page.

I actually suggested on the Yank forum that the default search for the Advanced page be changed to Keyword. I was howled down, and made feel foolish for suggesting such a stupid thing.

God Bless America! <-- sarcasm fully intended!

Actually, a better alternative is this site. I use this now instead of gc.com's Advanced Search. With this search you don't even have to choose what to search onit figures it out for automatically.

Cheers,

dak

Zytheran · Post by **Zytheran** » 09 February 05 10:46 pm

I most often use the GCxxxx as this is used for reporting finds. All my searches are prelisted using Geotoad these days. The other option I use is search by state as this gives me the latest caches in SA, from here I make a loc file for uploading into GPS. Once using the site I'd use the find nearest button to generate a list of 20 nearby caches which is then printed out.

Mind Socket · Post by **Mind Socket** » 10 February 05 8:17 am

I've produced one for Geocaching Australia already, using the main generic keyword search. Part of this has involved tweaking the search results themselves to give searchbar users a better set of results.

I was actually going to submit it to the main search plugin site, as well as hosting it on gca, but maybe we should combine forces on this one first.

I'm also working on a basic registry addition for IE users.

- Rog

tolmh · Post by **tolmh** » 10 February 05 12:41 pm

Definitely the GCxxxx code. 'Caches near this cache' is my next most-used search.

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 10 February 05 2:04 pm

Mind Socket,

Since the plugin I made for GCA is only working for general searches at the moment why dont you continue work on your GCA plugin and I will work on my GC one.

My plugin in the end will emulate the 'smart search' from http://boulter.com/gqs/ based on the text entered.

I will run a PHP script to check on my site and then redirect the search text to the appropriate GC search function (cache name, cache ID, keyword, etc)

I am looking at

input based on 6 charactures starting with GC for cache id searches
searches for cache names have to be enclosed in " " for the script to recognise them as an attemp for a name search.

Mind Socket · Post by **Mind Socket** » 10 February 05 2:11 pm

Mine only does general searches also. At your suggestion, and since I can change the GCA search code, I'll keep working on that one.

I think to do different kinds of searches on GCA will require either a change to the search code or make multiple search plugins. Things like nearest caches based on a waypoint code are probably better done with a general search and then clicking through to the "nearby" page.

Alternatively, some address bar shortcuts might be the way to go. Eg gcanearest:GCXXXX in the address bar would resolve to the required URL.

Fun stuff

- Rog

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 10 February 05 2:14 pm

edited my above post

Mind Socket · Post by **Mind Socket** » 10 February 05 2:19 pm

Ah, gotcha. Fortunately, the GCA search already overloads the general search param (it does postcode, place name, cacher name, cache name, waypoint code), so if it's missing anything, we can add it to the backend.

Great idea though for GC.com, that will be really nifty.

- Rog

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 10 February 05 3:05 pm

Post code search doesnt work since the backend being used at the moment (for testing and development, http://boulter.com/gqs/) only supports number searches that are 5 characture which would become a zip code. 4 number post codes become keyword searches with no results

Its getting there

EDIT: I have been in contact with the backend site owner and hes happy to make changes like allowing 4 number searches for postcodes etc.

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 10 February 05 5:58 pm

To test the current 'Geocaching Smart Search' visit
http://xca.auscstrike.com/

Its currently work in progress but it works

I am talking with the backend developer to see if we can include postcode support, Aussie cache ID finder and Swaggie ID finder in his PHP program.

Note: It wont currently work with Mozilla's 'Search Sidebar' or the Firefox addin 'Sidebar Advanced Search'. If you dont know what these are then theres no need to worry

EDIT: URL changed

dak's Emu Mob · Post by **dak's Emu Mob** » 10 February 05 6:10 pm

G'day Lt Sniper,

Have I missed something? I clicked on the link, which popped up a dialog box asking me to confirm the installation of the plugin. I clicked "OK", and the dialog box went away.

What now? I can't see any discernable difference. I'm using Firefox 1.0. I'm not using the Mozilla Sidebar or Firefox Addon AdvancedSearchBar. How do I use it?

Cheers,

dak