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iGeoCacher - The fine art of getting GPX data onto your iPhone/iPod Touch

Note: For those using my transfer server here's a quick and dirty recipe of the following

The easy part is configuring the iPhone/iPod Touch. In the system settings under the iGeoCacher application you will see sections titled : "Ayefon Transfer Server" and "Your PC/Server."

Please Note: These URL settings entries are NOT interchangeable. The first URL points to a transfer server that I've set up for the convenience of my customers and which provides data in iGeocacher's native XML format. The second points to the web root folder of a web server that you have access to. Data files you place in that folder must be in the GPX or LOC formats used by geocaching.com.

Note that I use the file extension to tell which type of file is being downloaded so that has to be maintained as either GPX or LOC. If you are trying to serve these files from an IIS server you may have to define these MIME type extensions to the server. Later versions of IIS don't "know" the GPX and LOC types as valid and will refuse to serve them by default without a configuration definition. See your IIS docs for more info or contact your server admin. Fortunately, other web servers such as Apache aren't so picky.

Now a number of folks don't like to be dependent on anyone's server or service. I like that too. I'd love to have everyone independent so if my server goes down which it does on occasion even though it is a commercial service from GoDaddy, you won't be affected. So the next two URL's you can point anywhere you can host your GPX/LOC files. Mac OSX users can just turn on personal web sharing in their settings and host right on their own networks. Windows users have a bit more work to do because some versions of Windows used to come with Personall IIS but I understand that Microsoft has removed that. In lieu of that some versions of Vista include IIS(Internet Information Server) but it isn't installed by default. You can use Add Programs to install it I'm told. I gave up on Microsoft after XP and have moved to the Mac world this year after the last twenty or so with Windows. But I digress.

iGeocacher uses the SAME communications as your built in Safari browser. It just looks for the file at the given URL with a port 80 HTTP request. In fact, you can independently check your setup by just using the Safari browser on your iPhone/iPod Touch with that same URL. It won't be pretty because it is XML data, not HTML but you will see the text and that will verify that you have connectivity. If you can't see the data with Safari, then iGeocacher won't be able to either.

Most of you that will buy iGeocacher have already joined the geocaching.com site (with which I have NO affiliation whatever) and you will use pocket queries or GPX files. You can use LOC files but they contain little information other than the cache name and coordinates. But iGeocacher can use LOC files too. You just won't have as much information in the displays. There isn't any way for me to directly connect to their site and they'd probably object if I did so you either have to browse their site and download or use their pocket query facility to get the GPX files emailed to you.

So the bottom line is that configuring iGeocacher to get your GPX file is as easy as entering a URL in your browser except that you are entering the URL in your settings.

Now for the tricky part. You have to get your GPX files/pocket queries somewhere where they can be read using a URL from your iPhone/iPod Touch. This amounts to nothing more than copying the file to an available web server that you have access to.

1. You can use mine (hosted with GoDaddy)

To get them on my server you use the upload url:

http://www.ayefon.mobi/geo/upload.cfm

IMPORTANT NOTE: Groundspeak sends you pocket query files in ZIP compressed form by default. You must unzip them first. Typically there are two files, one with the cache data and one with waypoint data. You want the first one (does NOT have WPT in the file name.)

Select the GPX link for GPX formatted files and the LOC link for LOC formatted files. On the following screen enter your id and browse for your file and send it. Use the group buttons and clear checkboxes as desired to build queries from single or multiple uploads.

To then download the into your iPhone/iPod Touch you use the following in the first URL option in the settings:

http://www.ayefon.mobi/geo/igeocacher3.cfm?id=<your account id goes here>

2. You can use your own personal web server setup on your PC/Laptop.

Enter the URL that reaches your personal web server's web root folder. The filenames you specifiy on the download page will then be appended to this with a leading slash to form the complete file URL for downloading when you press the download button adjacent to the filename on the downloads page.

Now I can't possibly predict what your local web server URL will be as that depends on a number of factors but it will probably look something like the following:

http://192.168.1.101/somefolder

Most home networks have an IP address for workstations that is in the 192.168 region. To see if you have connectivity before trying it with iGeocacher, just test the URL you believe to be correct using the Safari browser in your iPhone/iPod Touch. if you see the text data from the XML, then you have it right and iGeocacher should be able to see it as well. Don't bother with iGeocacher trials until you can pass the Safari test. They use EXACTLY the same communications mechanism and if Safari can't see the data, then neither can iGeocacher. You might have to turn off any firewall software that prevents your PC from accepting outside HTTP requests from your iPhone/iPod Touch. That can prevent connection too.

Note for you lucky Mac users. All you need to do is turn on personal web serving in your system preferences under Internet & Network, Sharing. Just check the checkbox to allow web sharing. Put your GPX or LOC files in your ~user/sites folder and use the URL shown for your personal website with the file name appended. Mine looks like:

http://192.168.1.101/~don

so if I have a file named "caches.gpx" in the group1 download box then the full url used for downloading will be

http://192.168.1.101/~don/caches.gpx

3. You can use any other web server you have access to.

For example, most ISP's that provide you with your basic internet connectivity offer a few megabytes of storage on your own personal web server as part of the account. Some folks are using things like mac.com (now mobile me) or iDisk or other similar services that offer picture, web, blogging etc. Check with your ISP to see if you are already provided with this service. If so, that is a GREAT way to go as it avoids the complications of setting up your own personal web server. Windows makes that a royal pain.

TESTING/TROUBLESHOOTING:

Whichever of the three methods described here you use, it's a good idea to verify your network connection independently of iGeocacher using your browser. So test any URL you use above by putting it in your Safari Browser on the iPhone/iPod touch and verifying that you can connect and see the text data from your file. It won't be pretty or formatted but that's not the point. If you can see it at all then you've got things set up correctly from a network perspective and that SAME URL should work fine in the iGeocacher settings. If you can't see it then there's no point trying it in iGeocacher because it uses the same communcactions mechanism as Safari.

It's getting one PC (your iPhone/iPod Touch) to talk to another that is tricky and most of the problem is typically on the PC side. On the iPhone/iPod it's just entering the correct URL once you get that set up externally on whatever file hosting method you choose.

VISTA

I don't own Vista and I probably never will. They haven't even allowed it at work yet due to all of the issues. From working with one customer trying to get the shttpd method to work it seems that Vista has all kinds of security features built in that are almost guaranteed to frustrate the dickens out of you trying to set it up as a personal web server. If any brave soul comes up with a sure fire way to make that work, I'd love to get a detailed description of what you did to add to this material. I'm sure it can be done, I just don't have any way to figure that out for you as I don't currently have access to any Vista machines and it isn't practical to spend several hundred dollars just for that purpose. So I'd love to hear from any Vista users that can detail exactly what you did to get personal web serving working if you do. I understand that they DO include IIS 7.0 for personal web serving in some versions but that you have to install it using the normal add programs mechanism. It seems somewhat complicated to get set up from what I read in the Microsoft on-line docs but if anyone does, please share the wealth (g). I've even Googled the topic but have yet to find any good "how to" articles on the subject. I found lots of folks complaining about trying to do it with Vista, however.

I'm guessing most of my Vista users are the ones that are using my server because it is so much easier. The choice is yours. Let me hear from you if you beat it into submission. Others would really benefit from the knowledge.