GPXSonar


[Version 1.4]


'GPXSonar' is a program designed for geocachers who need to take GPX files obtained from Pocket Queries with them in the field. Its ultimate goal is to allow for 'zero-paper' geocaching.

The software allows the user to:

  • View, search, filter lists of geocaches.
  • Export waypoints to GPS receivers.
  • Log a cache in the field.
  • Generate reports.
  • Manage travel bugs in and out of caches.
  • Track the trade of geoswag.
  • Manage your own caches.
  • Import waypoints from EasyGPS .loc files.
  • Show spoiler pictures gathered with Spoiler Sync


You can find a detailed User's Guide for GPXSonar at gpxsonar.homeip.net


What's new in the 1.4 release?

 

New Feature: Integration with Spoiler Sync (http://www.anode.plus.com/spoilersync/). When properly configured using the ‘File\App Config’ menu, GpxSonar will add a ‘Show Spoiler Pics’ link to any cache page which has spoiler pictures associated with it.

 


What's new in the 1.3 release?

 

Bug Fix: The “Last Found” column is now correctly labeled “Last Log”.

 

New Feature: In field notes reports and cache page details, the cache waypoint now links back to the corresponding cache page on GC.com

 

New Feature: Added support for the new Earthcache type on GC.com

 

New Feature: Added an option to automatically name exported files after the name of the GPX file currently loaded.

 

New Feature: Added the ability to export waypoints in CSV format (“Name”, “Lat”, “Lon”)

 

New Feature: Added a “Total Field Notes” counter in the GPX File Info report to show how many field notes are currently in memory.

 

New Feature: Added the “Field Notes Cleaner” option under the Tools menu. This option will permanently purge the memory from all field notes. Use it CAREFULLY!

 

Change: renamed the “Field Notes” counter in the GPX File Info report to “Visible Field Notes”. This count refers to the count of field notes matching a cache listed in the GPX file currently opened.

 

Change:  Travel Bug serial numbers can now be alphanumerical and as long as 15 characters. This is intended to support Jeep TBs.

 

Change: GC.com has changed the spelling of “Multi-Cache” to “Multi-cache” causing GpxSonar to not represent multi-cache icons properly in the main cache list. This is resolved.

 

Change: Removed “Surprise_Cache.gif” file from the WptTypes directory. This cache type never existed.

 

Change: Added “Unknown_(Mystery)_Cache.gif” file. Some older GPX files still seem to reference this cache type and cache pages were showing a missing icon when referencing it.

 


What's new in the 1.2.2 release?

 

Bug Fix: Field notes were not saved when the 'Notes' column was hidden in the main cache list. This issue is now resolved.

 

New Feature: Added ability to auto-launch MSFT Pocket Street & Trips after exporting to a push-pins file if a S&T map exists with the same name.

 

New Feature: Added cache type, owner and ratings to S&T push-pin tags.

 

New Feature: S&T push-pin icons now represent the various cache types.

 

New Feature: Added the ability to categorize caches in the cache manager, making cache list more manageable.

 

New Feature: Added field notes deletion warning in field notes report filter dialog.

 

New Feature: Added support for exporting waypoints in MapTech MXF format.

 

Change: The 'Return' key on the keyboard is disabled in the text search dialog. The only way to close the dialog is through the ‘x’ in the right corner.

 

Change: Removed field notes report cancellation dialog.

 

Change: Changed "To Magellan Meridian" to "Magellan SD File" in the waypoint export menu.

 

 

Changes in 1.2.0:

 

Bug Fix: the ‘Today’ screen is now accessible.

 

Bug Fix: removed cache types and cache containers from the filters that weren't valid GC.com types.

 

Bug Fix: the ‘Hide Found Caches’  bit was always checked even if the 'Cache Attributes' filter was disabled in the Active Filters dialog. This would  cause caches to disappear from the main list when logging a find in the field notes. Also, the ‘Hide Found Caches’ bit is no longer on by default.

 

New Feature: cache page details are accessible with a single click on the main cache list.

 

New Feature: a ‘Dismiss Menu’ item has been added to the cache options menu accessible via a ‘tap & hold’ gesture.

 

New Feature: a ‘Ignore All Caches By This Owner’ item has been added to the cache options menu.

 

New Feature: a ‘Un-Ignore All’ button has been added to the dialog controlling ‘ignored’ caches under the ‘Cache Attributes’ filter.

 

New Feature: the cache list represents disabled caches and archived caches with a yellow or a red triangular icon respectively.

 

New Feature: the cache page details now shows in red if the cache is available or not.

 

New Feature: the GPX file report shows the count of archived / disabled caches.

 

New Feature: the ‘Cache Attributes’ offers the ability to hide archived/disabled caches.

 

New Feature: added icon for ‘archived’ vs 'needs archiving' in cache logs.

 

New Feature: added a menu system to the interface.

 

New Feature: added an ‘Exit’ item to the File menu.

 

New Feature: added a ‘minimum column width’ enforcement point (to prevent columns from being collapsed down to nothing)

 

New Feature: added a ‘Filter’ button which becomes enabled when there’s at least one active filters. The button also provides a quick access to the filters.

 

New Feature: The on-screen keyboard pops up automatically when appropriate.

 

New Feature: Field notes are saved automatically when they’re closed. The ‘Save’ button has been removed.

 

New Feature: A ‘Timestamp’ button has been added to the field note dialog allowing to track revisions to a note.

 

New Feature: sorting is case-insensitive on the waypoint, cache name and owner columns.

 

New Feature: the application automatically reloads the last GPX file that was opened.

 

New Feature: a ‘Text Search’ button has been added to quickly access the search function.

 

New Feature: added a ‘Cache Ratings’ filter.

 

New Feature: added a ‘Cache With TB’ filter.

 

New Feature: added the ability to export the field notes to GSAK.

 

New Feature: added the ability to export cache waypoints as MS Pocket Street&Trips Push Pins.

 

New Feature: added the ability to export cache waypoints as Pharos OSTIA 6 waypoints.

 

New Feature: the location of the waypoint files and notes exported by GPXSonar is now user-definable. By default, all files are now exported to the \My Documents folder.

 

New Feature: the main cache list displays characters like ÖÄÅöäåûüÜ correctly.

 

New Feature: the field notes report now includes the date & the time when the note was created.

 


What's new in the 1.1 release?

 

New Feature: it is now possible to bookmark ‘center’ coordinates.

 

New Feature: the application can now be installed on to a memory card.

 

New Feature: the GPX file statistics now include the count of found caches and field notes.

 

New Feature: it is now possible to export the cache data to a .loc file. GPS Tuner users will appreciate this one ;-).

 

New Feature: a new menu called ‘My Stuff’ has been added which groups the following options: ‘Travel Bugs’, ‘Caches’ (new), ‘GC.com User ID’ (new).

 

New Feature: ‘My Stuff\GC.com User ID’ : this new option allows you to provide the user ID that you use on www.geocaching.com so that GpxSonar can identify the caches that belong to you. This information is used some of the other new features.

 

New Feature: ‘My Stuff\Caches’ : this option opens up a ‘Cache Manager’: you can use it to manage the caches that you haved placed and you can use it to make permanent copies of cache pages showing in the main cache list so that they can be available even if you don’t have the GPX file where they originally came from loaded in the application. In either case, all the properties of the caches are editable. If a cache has multiple waypoints, they can also be tracked individually. The management of the waypoints is eased with the ability to import a GPX file generated by EasyGPS so that you don’t have to enter them manually. If you don’t know about EasyGPS, you can find more information at http://www.easygps.com

 

New Feature: the caches that you own are now tagged with a ‘red arrow’ icon in the main cache listing. This features requires you to provide the user ID that you use on geocaching.com.

 

New Feature: the statistics report about the content of the GPX file (accessible from “Reports\GPX File Info”) has been improved to include icons.

 

New Feature: the ‘Field Notes’ report has been enhanced with a filter allowing you to report on and delete field notes selectively.

 

New Feature: the dialog used to enter coordinates has been enhanced with a waypoint projection feature. The projection distance can be expressed in ‘Meters’, ‘Feet’ or ‘Paces’. Angles can be expressed in degrees or in terms of a direction (N, S, E, W, NE, …).

 

Bug Fix: under HPC, Pocket Internet Explorer has trouble with filenames containing spaces. GPXSonar no longer uses spaces in bitmap filenames to work around this issue.

 

Bug Fix: the ‘Distance Units’ were not set properly by default. They are now set to ‘Statute Miles’ by default.

 

Bug Fix: In the ‘Travel Bugs’ properties dialog, the maximum length for the name of a travel bug has been extended to 100 characters from 30.

 

Bug Fix: In cache log entries, any coordinates provided by a cacher would not be displayed. This has been fixed.

 

Note: because of the changes affecting the naming of some of the files used in previous versions of GPXSonar, you should uninstall the application from you Pocket PC before installing version 1.1. Before you uninstall it, please make sure to make a backup of the GPXSonar.dat file located under \Program Files\GPXSonar\Config or you may lose the custom data that you may have entered in the application (field notes, etc.).


What's new in the 1.0 release?



New Feature:Smileys in log entries are now represented as bitmaps.

Bug Fix:It was possible to export more than 500 waypoints to the Magellan Meridian. This is now limited to 500 which is the GPSr's limit.

Bug Fix:Invalid characters are properly filtered out when exporting waypoints to the Magellan Meridian.

Bug Fix:When showing 'Found Caches Only', the caches marked with a green checkmark are now also included in the result set.

Bug Fix:Caches without hints would still look like they had hints in the generated HTML page. This is now resolved.

Bug Fix:Hints formatted with HTML breaks are now properly displayed in the hints viewer and the ROT13 converter.

Bug Fix:Actual coordinates in Field Notes reports are properly formatted.

Bug Fix:Log entries containing breaks are now properly formatted.

Bug Fix:Cache pages containing UTF-8 escape characters are now properly displayed.

Bug Fix:The 'Bearing' column is now accurate.

Bug Fix:In case of an XML parser failure, the offending line # is properly calculated.

Bug Fix:In BETA 2, bad characters in GPX files could still cause the XML parser to fail in some specific cases.


BETA 2 Changes



Bug Fix: In BETA 1, some GPX files containing cache pages with very large description would crash GPXSonar and/or cause a hard reset of the device. This problem has been resolved.

New Feature: A 'Search' filter has been added allowing exact or partial text searches on cache waypoints, names and owners. The search on these three columns is done automatically.

New Feature: It is now possible to view unencrypted hints directly on the cache page. However, the hints are only visible when they are highlighted by the user.

New Feature: It is now possible to generate a report on the caches bearing a field note. After a report is generated, GPXSonar also offers the option to delete the field notes.

New Feature: GPXSonar now automatically re-sorts the cache list when the center coordinates are altered either by making the selected cache the center or by manually entering coordinates for the current location.

New Feature: A green checkmark appears in front of the name of every cache that has already been found.

Bug Fix: GC.com has added 2 new cache log types. One of them being a 'camera' type of log. The other one is still being investigated.

Bug Fix: GC.com sometimes produces Pocket Queries containing invalid characters which cause the parser attempting to read them to fail. GPXSonar tries to filter such characters out as the GPX file is being read.

New Feature: GPXSonar automatically saves the configuration of the application and any user-supplied data automatically every 30 seconds if alterations have been made.

Bug Fix: In some instances, the code generating the caches pages would produce malformed HTML.

Bug Fix: A new 'Performance Management' option has been added which allows the user to control how GPXSonar utilizes memory. By default, the performance option is set to 'Use More Memory' in order to be faster. The other option makes the program consume less memory but is slower to load GPX files.

New Feature: A 'Preference' option has been included which allows to eliminate columns from the display. Also, the width of the columns is now preserved between runs.

Bug Fix: Once again, the icons representing the caches have changed on the geocaching.com web site. GPXSonar has been updated accordingly to provide the same look and feel.

New Feature: It is now possible to search on cache 'Owners'. This is a side effect of the 'Search' filter.