Trans Australia Trails - Share your GPS Tracks - Page 6

HerrMnnn · 03-10-2011, 11:58 AM

This is looking good fellas, will be a fantastic resource once it gets more tracks uploaded. I uploaded a track and downloaded a few others and it all worked perfectly (I'm using Firefox). I need to re-do a few rides and record gpx files so I can upload them....

One suggestion that I thought might help especially in the future when there are lots of tracks: it may be difficult to work out which track I want to download just by name if I don't know the area (town names etc), but looking at the track line on the map I can see where I want to go. It would be great to have some way to label the track without making a mess of the display. Perhaps a popup of the track details when I hover the mouse over the track? Or click a track and it highlights it in the list? Maybe even right click a track and download gpx? I understand this is probably more technically challenging than it appears but it would be a nice touch.

Any plans to promote the site to get more riders uploading tracks?

PeterWebtrax · 04-06-2011, 12:17 AM

After a long delay (just to give you guys time to test the original version;-) I have finally got around to producing an updated version of Trans Australia Trails.

Check out Version 2 at http://transaustraliatrail.com.au/

Most of the changes are on the 'Find tracks' page, as this is likely to be the most used page on the site. A brief description of some of the changes is on the front page.

Looking for your constructive feedback. It would also help if folks could load up some more tracks to make it more realistic. We currently have 54, but a few of those won't display as they are the wrong format.

Also, someone in Tasmania must have a GPS track to share.

You might notice there is a big difference between the way various tracks display, ie some are plain line with no waypoints, others have well documented waypoints. I have no idea what sort of GPS they are coming from, and how the waypoint descriptions are being added, so I might get in contact with some of the well documented ones' authors to find out, and post the info on the site. It makes a big difference to the usefulness of the track when it is documented well.

I will now start working on improving the admin pages, ie for uploading and editing tracks. Currently you are still restricted to uploading GPX type files. I should be able to set this up so it can convert from other formats automatically. Not sure how well it will work yet though.

Once that is done, say 3-4 weeks (the eternal optimist that I am), we should be able to 'go live' and promote it more to make it 'the' place for adventure riders to put their tracks.

Cheers
Peter

carmima · 04-06-2011, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterWebtrax

After a long delay (just to give you guys time to test the original version;-) I have finally got around to producing an updated version of Trans Australia Trails.

Check out Version 2 at http://transaustraliatrail.com.au/

Most of the changes are on the 'Find tracks' page, as this is likely to be the most used page on the site. A brief description of some of the changes is on the front page.

Looking for your constructive feedback. It would also help if folks could load up some more tracks to make it more realistic. We currently have 54, but a few of those won't display as they are the wrong format.

Also, someone in Tasmania must have a GPS track to share.

You might notice there is a big difference between the way various tracks display, ie some are plain line with no waypoints, others have well documented waypoints. I have no idea what sort of GPS they are coming from, and how the waypoint descriptions are being added, so I might get in contact with some of the well documented ones' authors to find out, and post the info on the site. It makes a big difference to the usefulness of the track when it is documented well.

I will now start working on improving the admin pages, ie for uploading and editing tracks. Currently you are still restricted to uploading GPX type files. I should be able to set this up so it can convert from other formats automatically. Not sure how well it will work yet though.

Once that is done, say 3-4 weeks (the eternal optimist that I am), we should be able to 'go live' and promote it more to make it 'the' place for adventure riders to put their tracks.

Cheers
Peter

Great work Peter and thanks for the effort...it's greatly appreciated

rosscoact · 04-06-2011, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carmima

Great work Peter and thanks for the effort...it's greatly appreciated

Get stuffed, I told him to do it, I should take the credit

PeterWebtrax · 04-06-2011, 01:55 AM

Well you obviously didn't tell me hard enough, given how long version 2 has taken to arrive.

PeterWebtrax · 04-06-2011, 01:58 AM

Also forgot to mention.

The site looks like shit in IE6. Usable, just, but the track list is stuck down below the map, etc, etc.

Life's to short to worry about 10 year old web browsers.

If enough people complain, I might deign to look at it.

Cheers
Peter

carmima · 04-06-2011, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosscoact

Get stuffed, I told him to do it, I should take the credit

you bloody crack me up - the only thing that keeps me sane half the time

PomInOz · 04-06-2011, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterWebtrax

Also forgot to mention.

The site looks like shit in IE6. Usable, just, but the track list is stuck down below the map, etc, etc.

Life's to short to worry about 10 year old web browsers.

If enough people complain, I might deign to look at it.

Cheers
Peter

A 10 year old and highly insecure browser that even MS don't want to support anymore. Can someone tell the IT dept where I work that!!

I'd not worry about it Peter. Develop an iPhone app instead.

(Rossco...I told him first this time!!)

abhibeckert · 04-06-2011, 02:38 AM

Hey wow, this site is great! How come I never heard about it until now?!

There's only one ride in my area, and it's a biggie (cape york, 2600km's). So I won't be able to try that one out anytime soon... But I'd love to explore/add some one or two day rides.

I'm planning to do a ride in 3 weeks that would be perfect, but looks like I may have to cut out most of it due to flooding. Planning to do the real ride once a few river crossings open though.

Can you add a help section, explaining clearly what rides are welcome, and what aren't? I'm guessing my last two rides (a trail ride with some nasty creek crossings, and a simple cruise down the entire length of the bruce highway) are probably not suitable, but more specific guidelines would be great!

Also, if you need any help/advice/whatever with technical aspects of the site send me a PM. I'm a programmer with 10 years experience, the last 6 or so at the largest web development shop in this part of QLD, and I've also worked on a few iPhone apps recently. Most importantly I love riding and am a GPS geek.

Anything from design, to programming, to hosting... I can probably help out, or help you get in touch with someone. Don't have much free time, but this seems like a worthwhile project!

PeterWebtrax · 04-06-2011, 03:07 AM

I think once we make the uploading of tracks a little easier we can start promoting it more then.

Re types of tracks, there's not really any rules at the moment. The hope is it will cater for everyone's needs, from one day loops, weekend trips, to the full blown 'trans australia trail'.

We'll probably need to get the tagging system worked out better to make it easy for people to search for just the type of trail they want. Eg, there is a 'loop' tag, so if you are in Sydney and want a short loop ride you should be able to search for 'Sydney' and set the tag to 'loop' to get a selection.

Currently there are a lot of 'location' tags in the tag list, which are probably superfluous as they can be found by searching on the title or description. So might try to cull them down to a smaller, more useful set.

Also I have gone through and tried to standardise the naming of the tracks, so they reference Start location, location 1, location, 2, etc, end location. Mkes it much easier to browse down the list and get a good idea of where each track goes. Will be especially important once we start to get lots of tracks going from A to B via different routes.

Re the offer of help, thanks, I will get back to you via PM. I certainly need some. Only reason I've got back into it lately is that I've got rid of all my outstanding jobs and just doing something for myself for a while.

GPS knowledge would be great, as they all seem to do something completely different when saving tracks in various formats. Took me days to get a single set of conversion parameters that would bring them down to something like a standard format.

Cheers
Peter

V8R · 04-06-2011, 05:50 AM

nice work guys, i stumbled over this again the other day. keep it coming :)

nazza · 04-06-2011, 02:19 PM

Good job guys! I will probably use it from time to time so will link to it on my new blog / site

PeterWebtrax · 05-10-2011, 12:59 AM

Version 3 has arrived.

Ok, so it's 5 weeks since Version 2 went up. I did say 3-4 before Version 3. That's pretty good given my track record for delivering software.

First things first. Many thanks to the over 100 people who have gone to the trouble of registering on the site. I was surprised when I saw the number. You don't need to register to find tracks, so it's a good number.

What's changed you say?

You can now upload your GPS tracks direct from (almost) any type of GPS, so no more hassle manually converting your files into GPX format so we could process it.
Courtesy of GPSBabel (http://www.gpsbabel.org/), when you upload your file, we should be able to recognise the type and do the appropriate conversion. There are over 50 different file types supported.

Now obviously we don't have 50 different GPSs to test this shizzle with, so what do we need now? We need you! Get your Garmins, TomToms, Magellans and IGN Rando(!)s out, upload a track to your PC, then put it in to TAuT.

There is a new option in the 'Edit tracks' list to quickly view just the track you have uploaded, so you will be able to see if it gets converted properly.

If it does, all well and good, if not, contact me (attach the file to your message) and I'll try to see what the problem is.

The system tries to work out what type of file it is from the extension on the file name, eg .gdb is Garmin, but there are some that it can't work out, so you may need to choose the appropriate type from the menu supplied.

If this works well, we could even go 'live' soon.

Cheers
Peter

PS If you've forgotten the address it is:
http://transaustraliatrail.com.au/

Silky · 05-10-2011, 01:29 AM

Hi Pete,

I'm getting a few "Unable to display track" errors coming up.

The first track and the Colo Heights to Bilpin are two, third track I tried worked.

PeterWebtrax · 05-10-2011, 02:09 AM

Hmmm, that 'Alice' track has had some problems loading at various times, but not sure if it is related to being the first track loaded, or the track itself.

Then if one fails to load, the next one usually fails as well, which is probably a bug on my part. Will look into it. Colo heights should definitely load ok. Try repeating the load and see if it comes through the second time.

I have checked all the tracks and they do all display, but I might have to increase the timeout on the first one loaded.

If others have the same problem could you post here.

Cheers
Peter

04-06-2011, 12:17 AM	#77
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	Beta version 2 After a long delay (just to give you guys time to test the original version;-) I have finally got around to producing an updated version of Trans Australia Trails. Check out Version 2 at http://transaustraliatrail.com.au/ Most of the changes are on the 'Find tracks' page, as this is likely to be the most used page on the site. A brief description of some of the changes is on the front page. Looking for your constructive feedback. It would also help if folks could load up some more tracks to make it more realistic. We currently have 54, but a few of those won't display as they are the wrong format. Also, someone in Tasmania must have a GPS track to share. You might notice there is a big difference between the way various tracks display, ie some are plain line with no waypoints, others have well documented waypoints. I have no idea what sort of GPS they are coming from, and how the waypoint descriptions are being added, so I might get in contact with some of the well documented ones' authors to find out, and post the info on the site. It makes a big difference to the usefulness of the track when it is documented well. I will now start working on improving the admin pages, ie for uploading and editing tracks. Currently you are still restricted to uploading GPX type files. I should be able to set this up so it can convert from other formats automatically. Not sure how well it will work yet though. Once that is done, say 3-4 weeks (the eternal optimist that I am), we should be able to 'go live' and promote it more to make it 'the' place for adventure riders to put their tracks. Cheers Peter

04-06-2011, 02:19 PM	#87
nazza Trouble Joined: Jul 2010 Location: Port Lincoln Oddometer: 2,190	Good job guys! I will probably use it from time to time so will link to it on my new blog / site __________________ dr650: Charlie ‎Paused my round Oz tour.. arghhh Plinkin! Adventure Riding Blog \| Adventure Riders Blogs \|Bike Gps, bluetooth and much more (Coupon Code= adv)

05-10-2011, 01:29 AM	#89
Silky Awaiting Baby... Joined: Jul 2007 Location: Sydney - North Oddometer: 1,270	Hi Pete, I'm getting a few "Unable to display track" errors coming up. The first track and the Colo Heights to Bilpin are two, third track I tried worked. __________________ Mmmm Sherbert

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03-10-2011, 11:58 AM	#76
HerrMnnn Inactive Joined: Aug 2009 Oddometer: 477	This is looking good fellas, will be a fantastic resource once it gets more tracks uploaded. I uploaded a track and downloaded a few others and it all worked perfectly (I'm using Firefox). I need to re-do a few rides and record gpx files so I can upload them.... One suggestion that I thought might help especially in the future when there are lots of tracks: it may be difficult to work out which track I want to download just by name if I don't know the area (town names etc), but looking at the track line on the map I can see where I want to go. It would be great to have some way to label the track without making a mess of the display. Perhaps a popup of the track details when I hover the mouse over the track? Or click a track and it highlights it in the list? Maybe even right click a track and download gpx? I understand this is probably more technically challenging than it appears but it would be a nice touch. Any plans to promote the site to get more riders uploading tracks?

04-06-2011, 01:55 AM	#80
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	Well you obviously didn't tell me hard enough, given how long version 2 has taken to arrive.

04-06-2011, 01:58 AM	#81
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	Also forgot to mention. The site looks like shit in IE6. Usable, just, but the track list is stuck down below the map, etc, etc. Life's to short to worry about 10 year old web browsers. If enough people complain, I might deign to look at it. Cheers Peter

04-06-2011, 02:38 AM	#84
abhibeckert Beastly Adventurer Joined: Feb 2010 Location: Cairns, Australia Oddometer: 1,422	Hey wow, this site is great! How come I never heard about it until now?! There's only one ride in my area, and it's a biggie (cape york, 2600km's). So I won't be able to try that one out anytime soon... But I'd love to explore/add some one or two day rides. I'm planning to do a ride in 3 weeks that would be perfect, but looks like I may have to cut out most of it due to flooding. Planning to do the real ride once a few river crossings open though. Can you add a help section, explaining clearly what rides are welcome, and what aren't? I'm guessing my last two rides (a trail ride with some nasty creek crossings, and a simple cruise down the entire length of the bruce highway) are probably not suitable, but more specific guidelines would be great! Also, if you need any help/advice/whatever with technical aspects of the site send me a PM. I'm a programmer with 10 years experience, the last 6 or so at the largest web development shop in this part of QLD, and I've also worked on a few iPhone apps recently. Most importantly I love riding and am a GPS geek. Anything from design, to programming, to hosting... I can probably help out, or help you get in touch with someone. Don't have much free time, but this seems like a worthwhile project!

04-06-2011, 03:07 AM	#85
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	I think once we make the uploading of tracks a little easier we can start promoting it more then. Re types of tracks, there's not really any rules at the moment. The hope is it will cater for everyone's needs, from one day loops, weekend trips, to the full blown 'trans australia trail'. We'll probably need to get the tagging system worked out better to make it easy for people to search for just the type of trail they want. Eg, there is a 'loop' tag, so if you are in Sydney and want a short loop ride you should be able to search for 'Sydney' and set the tag to 'loop' to get a selection. Currently there are a lot of 'location' tags in the tag list, which are probably superfluous as they can be found by searching on the title or description. So might try to cull them down to a smaller, more useful set. Also I have gone through and tried to standardise the naming of the tracks, so they reference Start location, location 1, location, 2, etc, end location. Mkes it much easier to browse down the list and get a good idea of where each track goes. Will be especially important once we start to get lots of tracks going from A to B via different routes. Re the offer of help, thanks, I will get back to you via PM. I certainly need some. Only reason I've got back into it lately is that I've got rid of all my outstanding jobs and just doing something for myself for a while. GPS knowledge would be great, as they all seem to do something completely different when saving tracks in various formats. Took me days to get a single set of conversion parameters that would bring them down to something like a standard format. Cheers Peter

04-06-2011, 05:50 AM	#86
V8R Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2008 Location: Central West NSW, .au Oddometer: 291	nice work guys, i stumbled over this again the other day. keep it coming :)

05-10-2011, 12:59 AM	#88
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	Version 3 has arrived. Ok, so it's 5 weeks since Version 2 went up. I did say 3-4 before Version 3. That's pretty good given my track record for delivering software. First things first. Many thanks to the over 100 people who have gone to the trouble of registering on the site. I was surprised when I saw the number. You don't need to register to find tracks, so it's a good number. What's changed you say? You can now upload your GPS tracks direct from (almost) any type of GPS, so no more hassle manually converting your files into GPX format so we could process it. Courtesy of GPSBabel (http://www.gpsbabel.org/), when you upload your file, we should be able to recognise the type and do the appropriate conversion. There are over 50 different file types supported. Now obviously we don't have 50 different GPSs to test this shizzle with, so what do we need now? We need you! Get your Garmins, TomToms, Magellans and IGN Rando(!)s out, upload a track to your PC, then put it in to TAuT. There is a new option in the 'Edit tracks' list to quickly view just the track you have uploaded, so you will be able to see if it gets converted properly. If it does, all well and good, if not, contact me (attach the file to your message) and I'll try to see what the problem is. The system tries to work out what type of file it is from the extension on the file name, eg .gdb is Garmin, but there are some that it can't work out, so you may need to choose the appropriate type from the menu supplied. If this works well, we could even go 'live' soon. Cheers Peter PS If you've forgotten the address it is: http://transaustraliatrail.com.au/

05-10-2011, 02:09 AM	#90
PeterWebtrax ^OP Gnarly Adventurer Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Capital country Oddometer: 396	Hmmm, that 'Alice' track has had some problems loading at various times, but not sure if it is related to being the first track loaded, or the track itself. Then if one fails to load, the next one usually fails as well, which is probably a bug on my part. Will look into it. Colo heights should definitely load ok. Try repeating the load and see if it comes through the second time. I have checked all the tracks and they do all display, but I might have to increase the timeout on the first one loaded. If others have the same problem could you post here. Cheers Peter