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mors
USA
157 Posts |
 Posted - 21 févr. 2006 : 23:41:02
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I make a program that navigates to a website, extracts addresses from the source, and repeats. Depending on the website and how they list their locations, it can be difficult. After that, I use various websites to get the lat/long from each address (mappoint.com has it in the url, others I use are maporama, googleearth).
For example, the speedway site took me pretty much a full day of manual work trying to get the lat/long from the addresses. Best Buy today didn't take long since I used whitepages.com, which has the lat/long built in. For Outback, I manually clicked on each location, then used a program to extract the address and lat/long for that location from the HTML source (this took awhile to get, but since they had lat/long built in, it didn't take all day).
As far as Kinko's, it seems like the best way to go is to search by zipcode, and extract each of them. Luckily, it has the lat/long in the HTML source of each location it pulls up, so once the program is written to pull everything out, then it's just computer time. Since it would have to search each zipcode, it could take a few days to run (like my Best Buy program that is still running). |
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jeffcarp
USA
25 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 04:53:54
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| Well that is what I was afraid of. While I am technology savvy, I am not a programmer or have any knowledge of it. Sounds like I am at others mercy for POI's then. I was hoping that it was something that I could do myself. Thanks. |
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FTLOSM
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 05:13:38
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Well I am new to all this (my gps isn't even here and I have no previous GPS experience to even know what POI's will be in it) but I read/hear/see the need for updated and added POI's and have many personal interest POI's I will be checking on or adding in if not there already.
And in my town alone there is a new target about to open, a new walmart that just opened and a few favorites I doubt will be in there but I sure will be tryin to add them.
Also is this the only USA POI place to get custom updated POI's like this? If there are others where are they? We should merge and try to get them all into one spot for everyone to enjoy...
So once I dig in and learn my way around the POI Loader program and its ins and outs (and don't laugh but even figure out HOW to load these into my C340 which arrives via fedex tomorrow btw) I will do what I can how I can when I can time wise to help create a few POI's for places we visit often that others can use too.
I will be no doubt asking a few questions as I go in how to create the proper master list of say Radio Shacks or White Castles, and whatnot but I sure don't mind spending some time to help out.
I will be honest I am saving the files to a folder and have the POI Loader program here, yet I don't really even really get/understand/know what the HECK I am doing at the moment, but I will be learning...
The coolest one I saw done already was HONDA cuz we just bought an 05 Honda Pilot and knowing where all those dealers are will be SWEET in case we need service or anything...
I look at it this way if we all even just did ONE POI even if it did take a good amout of time, if we all did one or two or whatever we could do and upped them we would have one heck of a list to work with.
I am wondering how many POI's are in my C340 and how many I can jam in there ontop of the exisiting ones, also can I edit OUT ones I don't care for (say all burgerkings since wife HATES them) to make room for other POI's that might not be in there like White Castles (one of my favs) etc?
Bill :) |
Edited by - FTLOSM on 22 févr. 2006 05:18:10 |
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FTLOSM
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 22:52:32
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Ok certainly not my first or last dumb question, and yes I will admit I was too excited to RTFM so please forgive me for asking -
I have saved a poi zip file from here (honda dealers) and have it in a folder on my desktop, my c340 came today and I was gonna add these in real quick, here is what happens when i use poi loader sofware with c340 hooked up thru usb.
I start poi program with c340 on and attached, it finds it i go to next
I browse to the folder where I have unzipped the honda file and i see a bmp a csv and an 0v2 file, in the browse window i am not able to go past the folder to the direct csv file but it is in that folder.
I left setting to feet and miles being here in usa and michigan, and i tried express and manual mode then it takes me to a page that asks me to check this box if the file contains proximity alerts (I left that unchecked) hit next and it says the file (XXX/XXXXXXXXx/XXXXXXxx/XXXxx honda.csv is invalid do you want to continue. If i choose yes it says no valid data was found in that directory.
Do I have to be in a certain menu screen to accept poi updates (unit is on but at main where do you want to go menu) or do I have to have an SD card in this to accept an upload like that or is it something simple pc wise I am doing wrong?
Thanks,
Bill |
Edited by - FTLOSM on 22 févr. 2006 22:54:55 |
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FTLOSM
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 23:06:23
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Weird, I tried a few others (same as above) and they worked, costco, sams, etc
but Target file says invalid and so did the honda file that I also found in this thread, even tried to re-download them and re-unzip but same result both times...
Since the poi loader worked on most is it just a corrupt file or something I am not doing right here?
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FTLOSM
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 23:14:14
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Ok even weirder (you can all laugh at me here for my newbieness) but when i load one of these files it shows in my custom poi's yet whatever i load it appears to load OVER the last file i put in, for instance I had speedway in there then i did costco, now i see costco but all the speedways i saw in there a min ago are not there even when i spell speedway...
Is this a memory issue (do I need to add an sd card) the poi loader shows me its successful and doesn't mention anything about being out of space or anything...
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jeffcarp
USA
25 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 23:16:32
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| POI Loader overwrites whatever is in the Garmin unit on each load of a POI file. You've got to load all files every time. |
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mors
USA
157 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 23:17:54
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you are correct - if you reload custom POIs, you must have all your files in that one folder because it overwrites all of your custom points. The Honda file: delete the first line in the file (it has header information that should not be there). I was thinking the Target file worked fine on mine. I know the Wal-Mart file is messed up. Let me know.
!!! EDIT !!! - the Target file also has the header line that should not be there. One more thing to note, from what I understand, if you want the bmp to show up, then that bmp must be named the same as your csv file! |
Edited by - mors on 22 févr. 2006 23:20:32 |
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mors
USA
157 Posts |
Posted - 22 févr. 2006 : 23:37:02
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jeff:
An update on the Kinko's POIs: I made the program this morning and started running it (been running for 7 hours). From my calculations, it's going to take 35 more hours to complete so by Friday (hopefully), I should have something. |
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gpspassion
93389 Posts |
Posted - 23 févr. 2006 : 03:10:15
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1. That program sounds interesting, but it seems you need to adapt it to each source ?
2. One thing we did in the French forums is put NV (not verified) in front of the POI Name to indicate it hadn't been marked on location but rather derived from a list, that way people using it know they would need to adjust it.
3. Looks like I need to do some updating of the index on the front page ;-)
As we seem to be picking up speed here, I wonder if it isn't time to set up a complete section with various sub-sections like HowTos/POI Lists/Questions & Comments. That way each list would have it's own thread and its "manager" could easily update the file in the first message when need be.
What do you guys think ?
_________________________________________________________________________
Discounts and Assistance/Réductions et Assistance (Club GpsPasSion) / Où commencer? |
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njphilwt
USA
696 Posts |
Posted - 23 févr. 2006 : 03:23:46
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Makes sense.
It is definitely "picking up speed", as you say.
BTW, the thing about generating from a list of addresses is that even the OEM POI's are done that way. If you look at MapSource for a given POI and then just look up the address to let it do the calculation, it comes up with the same location.
I use GPSvisualizer to convert batches of addresses to coordinates. It generally converts about 80% of a given list. So two out of ten will require some correction of the address before the coordinates can be obtained. Even so, it saves a lot of time because it processes as a batch.
Phil
27x0 Tips, Tricks, How-to
Convert GPX and CSV files with GPXtoPOI |
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mors
USA
157 Posts |
Posted - 23 févr. 2006 : 05:01:08
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I was thinking this topic will get a bit big to "weed" through if one is scanning. I understand about the "NV" thing and will try to remember to put that in front of the names. Yes, I do have to write different programs for each source. It really doesn't take long to write the program. The time spent is computer time to extract addresses. Also, if I have to get lat/long from the addresses, there is quite a bit of manual work in that.
One last thing, I hope users check out all POI files to validate their local listings and add new/delete old ones accordingly so we can keep these files updated. |
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mors
USA
157 Posts |
Posted - 23 févr. 2006 : 05:03:21
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| njphilwt: I have seen GPSVisualizer but it says to only do a couple of addresses or it'll block my IP address. Is there something I'm missing on their site that will allow me to do this? |
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FTLOSM
USA
44 Posts |
Posted - 23 févr. 2006 : 05:44:36
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quote:
Originally posted by jeffcarp
POI Loader overwrites whatever is in the Garmin unit on each load of a POI file. You've got to load all files every time.
So there is no way for me to load in these custom pois into the MAIN poi database (vs in the custom poi file area) or a way to get all of my custom choices at once to be saved in the custom poi area (only one set at a time can be loaded and accessed in the custom poi area)
So i cant get in all speedways outbacks and honda dealers and walmarts at the same time... I would love to just have these load into the main poi area vs CUSTOM poi's any chance of being able to do that?
Or am I not understanding something here on how POI uploaded files work. (still very new to all this sorry for the questions). |
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njphilwt
USA
696 Posts |
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