Extra_POI_Editor - A tool to View/Edit/Convert POI/TourGuides (Part 1)

Look at the top of this page for the link to FAQ and then Creating POI files. There is a lot of info and explanations there as well as some examples.

In summary, you can use a simple text editor, whatever is Mac's equivalent to Notepad or your spreadsheet program that is similar to Excel. Be sure to save the file as a .csv and you've got it.

You may also want to look here:

http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/pagepoi.htm#poi...

Gary has written a fairly extensive tutorial on how to create a CSV file. The steps are written for a Windows PC, but the process is the same regardless of the OS.

And a final Mac related link:

http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk/mac/MacGarminTools/

I cannot get this editore to load . I have tried all the versions. I am using Win XP . Win zip tells me my system needs updated . I have already updated my system with DEll. So i am lost any help.

What is your WinZIP version? You may need to update your WinZIP version. Visit www.winzip.com and get the latest.

Otherwise, I can provide a self extracting zip here, but htis time only:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Extra_POI_Editor+...

I just installed 4.07 of the editor and am running Windows XP SP2 with the latest updates.

On the Preferences dialog, the editor just hangs when I click on the browse button for File Open Startup Path (for at least a minute) and Windows says it is a non-responding application when I try to close it.

Also, I have tried setting E:\Custom POIs manually as that path and it did not seem to have any immediate effect. I think I discovered that it becomes effective after closing and restarting the editor but am not sure that is exactly what happened.

There is an OK button on the dialog for defining 4-column CSV field assignments for saving/setting a new profile name but I do not see how to save the other dialog settings.

I delete all of the default description text except the leading address tag and click the close button. When I close and restart the editor, the default description for that profile is back again.

The latest Help for this dialog discusses the effects of the settings when importing and writing CSV files. However, the note at the end of the Help says the settings have no effect when opening a csv file.

I need them to be effective when I open a csv file and they DO SEEM TO BE EFFECTIVE when I open one so that's good but the help seems to be wrong.

What am I missing?
Should I be doing something differently when I want to map csv file values when I open one?

1- Problems with file open startup path

When you hit the browse button (...), it tries to open the current directory, ie the directory where the application is running from.

For some reason, it cannot access this drive. I hope this gives you a hint of what is happening.

2- How do I save 4-column CSV field assignments?

Normally, you just hit "Close". It will work until the next power up. I mixed up the registry key and I cannot retrieve it. I will fix this in v4.10. I should release very very soon. Sorry about that.

3- Incorrect Help info for 4-colum CSV assignments?

The 4-Column CSV is for writing to files only. It does not work for reading them. I checked the help file, but I could not see anywhere it says it is working when reading file. There is only a mention this may work in the future.

If you want to break columns into GPX fields, you can use the M-Column CSV profiles. This works for read and write, but it is far less flexible as the 4-Column CSV for writing.

Instead, I propose you to mail me a file you want to break into pieces. I will have a look at it and propose you a way to do it. My first suggestion is to configure the M-Column CSV assignment. If you do not find anything that matches, simply put the 4th column in the address field and let the program auto-extract the phone, state and zip (enable them in the Preferences). Then, run the Batch Reverse Geocoding. It will use the information from the Reverse Geocoder to extract the rest of the information. There are rules for that, and this is why I need to see your file to make sure they apply.

Thanks for the feedback.

Turbo

To install the editor, I copied the exe and chm files to C:\Program Files\ExtraPOI_Editor so that probably does not help you much. However, I probably had drives C through J or so available at the time.
I have three partitions on hard drive 1, 2 partitions on hard drive 2, and I think I had the 755T connected for a couple more drives.
This is on a Thinkpad T60 laptop with the second hard drive in the ultra-bay.

However, I just tried the two browse buttons again, one with a value in the field and one blank and they both opened the directory you say they should.
So, the problem is now gone and I have no idea why although I only have drives C through H right now.
Actually, there is/was no drive F in either case because that would be my DVD drive if were in the ultra-bay instead of hard drive 2.

You are correct that the help talks about the future for importing now that have re-read it.

Now for the more interesting news.
I took the first user profile and named it Col4_as_Addr, deleted the default contents of the description field except for the leading address tag, closed the preferences dialog, and did a File -> Open on the Rest Area Combined CSV file.

The loaded records showed the column 4 text as the second line of each item in the edit window and displayed as expected in the preview window.
That implies to me that column 4 data did get parsed and assigned as I expected upon opening the file.

Since everything already looked the way I wanted it,
I just did a File -> SAVE AS to save it as a GPX file and loaded it with POI Loader.
I was pleased as punch!

The GPX file had the column 4 data in the address field and it showed up in the second line of each displayed record in the 755 just like in the editor after it opened the csv.

So, maybe I am just not understanding what I am doing but getting what I want anyway

Whatever you do, please don't "fix" it so it doesn't work for me.

I should tell you what I am trying to do.

For simple csv POI files loaded on my 755 and 2720 GPSs, I have to select a found POI, get a blank page except for its title that is the full name of the POI, then press MORE on the 755 to get the column 4 data.

That's a lot of turning over rocks to find the info.
Often, the column-4 data is pretty short and virtually everything I want to know could be right in the second line of the found POI which I discovered can be addressd by the GPX address field.
(I have another forum topic open looking for information about how the GPS uses that field other than to display it.)

The Rest Area Combined and Zip Codes POI files are good examples.

So far, I get two good results for my efforts:

1. The first 24 characters of the address field are showing up in the second line of text in the POI list on the 755.

2. The address (column 4) data appears on the first sub-page for the item in both the 755 and 2720.

I suppose I am abusing the intent some place but they should have allowed for what I am trying to do for usability reasons.

So far, I have not found any other modified GPS functionality.

when I run it I get this error message

"Component "RICHT32.OCX" or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid"
any ideas whats up with this error message

kb5rir, see turbocc's post about two thirds of the way down the page:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21156?page=10

Hi KenBushaw,

I know why you are confused about the 4th column CSV assignemnt. You are configuring the 4-Column CSV Fields (which is used only for writing files) instead of the M-Column CSV Fields (which can be used for reading and writing files).

The reason why it works is because the default M-Column CSV Field assignemnt is lon, lat, POI Name and address. Address is already assigned to the 4th column by default.

Just visit the M-Column CSV Field assignment in the Preferences and you will see.

Regards,

Turbo

I hope this will will you very happy. You can now create one big POI for all your country and split them in multiple files by State or Category. Alternatively, you may open many POI files (using the existing Merge Open) and redivide them in States or Category.

**Changes from v4.07 to v4.10**

* Added "Export by State" and "Export by Category". Both will save POIs in multiple GPX, CSV or OV2 files by State or Category. So cool! If you use these functions to export as KML, it will create only one file, but all POI will be regrouped into sub-folders inside the KML file. Just click on the KML file to open in GoogleEarth and see the regrouped POIs. Even cooler!

* Improved field separation with reverse geocoding.

* Corrected 4-Column CSV assignment reading from registry at start-up.

* Discard empty CSV line.

* Better handling of double quotes in CSV files.

That helps. I thought I knew I was working with a 4-column CSV file and that M-column probably meant 5 or more columns so I went straight for the 4-column help and settings. The correct definition may be written someplace but I have not yet seen it.

I have read more of the help file more carefully and still am not sure I understand when the 4-column versus M-column settings are in effect.

It sounds like the selected M-column profile (and one is always selected) is always in effect when opening ANY CSV file. Correct?

It then sounds like the selected 4-column profile (and one is always selected) is in effect when, and only when, saving to "4-Column CSV" file type.
Correct?

And the selected M-column profile is in effect during save when, and only when, saving to "M-Column CSV" file type.
Correct?

And, the default M-column profile processes the 4th column of a 4-column CSV as an address.

So, when editing a simple 4-column CSV using the default M-column profile, the M-column profile maps the 4th column text into the address field which a 4-column profile with col4 set to only the address field then maps back out to CSV column 4 as a single text string when saving as "4-Column CSV" file type.
Correct?

I know, why use EPE instead of text editor for this but just trying to clarify my understanding.

Thanks for your patience and trying to set me straight.

Hi Ken,

yes. M-Column is always used to read CSV.
yes
yes
yes, but you can change that in the M-Column CSV field assignment.
yes

We are getting there! LOL! By reading your last posts, it seems I have created a monster with EPE. No offense. I thought it was kind of simple, but I have to admit I have been playing with it nearly every day for the past year.

Keep in mind that I added the 4-Column CSV profiles to do fency formatting in the 3rd and 4th column. Some people like line breaks and other formatting that normal M-Column CSV profiles cannot reproduce.

I think you got it right. Do not worry about asking questions. I am here to help.

Turbo

EPE seems to default to a blank name when doing
"Save As" after opening a file such as a CSV file.

Many editors will suggest a name for the new file that is the base name of the open file. I think even Microsoft Excel does that.

It is especially handy when there are multiple choices for the format to save to such as in EPE and Excel since it is common to want all the files to have the same base name... just different extensions and formats.

In my case, I am opening CSV files and saving them back as GPX files whose base names I want to be the same as the CSV file. But, I have to look at the EPE title bar to see the exact name of the open file and type that in the name field.

Of course, suggesting a name means the editor becomes obligated to prompt the user with a question like "Replace existing file?" if the user specifies the name and format that is the same as that of an existing file. Only a plain Save overwrites without asking. I think EPE already works that way.

And, of course, I think this only applies when the editor has a named file open.

Hi KenBushaw,

This can be done. I will look into it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Turbo

This POI file has 1430 lines in it.
The last line contains just a double-quote.
EPE does not complain when opening the file but loads only two records.

My text editor asks me when I open the CSV if I want to convert it to DOS line endings. However, I have come across several others that are that way that EPE seems to process OK. (Mac-generated files?)

Can you see what the problem is?

BTW: The file has some pretty-long lines.

Thanks.

The Lowe's file is in Unix format (lines are separated by linefeed (LF) characters)

If the file is opened with Microsoft Excel, there are 1414 rows created from the original 1430 lines.

If the file is converted to Windows format (lines are separated by carriage return (CR) and linefeed (LF) characters) EPE loads all 1414 entries.

The following 8 stores have two extra lines, so that the entire file totals 1420 lines (1414+16=1430):

Lowe's of E. Lincoln County, NC, #2636
Lowe's of E. San Jose, CA, #2790
Lowe's of E. Santa Clarita, CA #1932
Lowe's of Hampton Township, NJ, #1976
Lowes of Jefferson City, TN #2709
Lowe's of Marysville, OH, #2944
Lowe's of Mt. Pleasant #1802
Lowe's of N. Dothan, AL, #2884

I use a text editor called UltraEdit that is a top-of-the line editor and has never failed me on converting between DOS & Unix line endings.

I just now let it convert the Lowes POI file to DOS format and saved it.

When I try to open that file with EPE I get exactly one record which happens to be the
Corporate Offices - East, #1997
record (the first one in the file).

Even in the converted file, the double-quote that I think should be the last character of the previous line is still the only character on the last line.

EDIT: OOPS!
My editor did not fail me... I failed it.
I let it convert it to DOS for display/work but forgot to tell it to save it as DOS so I got the Unix encoding back.
And, now EPE does load 1414 records.

What is the correct practice for EPE for opening POI files that have Unix line endings?

When open with 4.10 the Lowe's file only shows two POI instead of the 1414 Excel lists. As WAASup mentioned, it is related to the encoding of the end of line. The Garmin reads the whole file. Is it possible to make the Extra_POI_Editor interpret the file the same way?

I need help finding GPS Coordinates for: Ghost Towns: Revolutionary and Civil War Battle sites, Battle Routes taken and abandoned mines here in the carolinas. Can someone help me please?
Thank you so very much.
Rodney Boyette

You probably need to start your own thread instead of posting here in this thread.

I'll take care of this tonight. I will have a look. I know about unix-type file, but I never tested with them.

I've just discovered why EPE was only displaying two records...

line 754 (Lowe's of Mountain Home) is terminated by CR/LF (which is Windows line end format). So EPE only sees two lines - the very first one and Lowe's of Mt. Dora.

Since all the other lines are terminated by LF (Unix line end format), EPE treats them as if they were a multi-line column. That column gets truncated, as you can see in the "More" screen for the two POI records.

Turbo, since Excel uses the LF character as a separator for multi-line columns, my suggestion would be for the owner of the Loews file to save it in regular Windows format instead of having EPE support Unix-style files. Just my $0.02 worth...

Western Sizzlin
Whole Foods
Del Taco
Fuddruckers
Krystal
Olive Garden
Marriott Brands
Red Roof Inn
Autozone
Home Depot
Lowes
Prime Outlets
Tanger Outlets
Target
Walgreens

All but the Lowes one seemed to open OK in EPE.
Emphasis on "seemed to."
I did not verify no errors.

I love that it's able to pull existing categories!

I have commented elsewhere about a lack of guidelines for submitting POI files.
I realize this may not be the best topic for saying this but it is something EPE users should keep in mind.

Even a few simple guidelines would go a long way toward minimizing problems and getting standard content.
For example, what file format(s) and resources to provide (and why) and the kind of information to provide and how. Everyone seems to keep trying to invent new ways to pack information into column 4 (me included).

There was a very long discussion on this about a year ago which Miss POI finally ended. We weren't getting anywhere and it was turning into an argument over trivial points. While everyone could agree the file had to contain the lat and lon, we couldn't agree on what went into the other two columns for a simple CSV file. The problem is the structure is so loose as to allow virtually anything in those two fields. And this is probably about all Miss Poi will allow to be stated on the subject.

I am in the process of writing something up and will have it posted by the end of next week.
We have some new tools that need to be introduced.

Miss POI

Miss POI - this has been said before but you and John should really get together with turboccc. I don't doubt for a second that he could create some really spectacular tools for this site.

@KenBushaw:

What makes you think that those files are Unix format? I sampled three of the files (Western Sizzlin, Walgreens and Olive Garden), and they are all Windows files.

The first two files were created in Excel format and have column four with LF as the multi-line separator. The Olive Garden file was created with a text editor and has column four with CR/LF as the multi-line separator.

So they seem to be Windows and "standard" according to the Garmin CSV file format FAQ:
     http://www.poi-factory.com/garmin-csv-file-format

EDIT: Oopsie, I missed Miss POI's (and others) posts while being distracted in Wii Sports Resort

Looking forward to seeing the new guidelines

Sorry, somewhat. My editor was reporting the files as being non-DOS due to the presence of the mid-record LF's when in fact there are also CRLF line endings.

However, the FAQ you reference says multi-line should be achieved by enclosing the entire field in quotes and using carriage return (press Enter) which means CRLF. Technically, using standalone LF characters in the DOS world is asking for problems.

In the DOS/teletype world,
Carriage Return (CR) really means what it says: return the presentation carriage to the left margin whereas Line Feed (LF) really means what it says: go down one line but maintain the same carriage position. So, CR without LF sets up an overstrike/underline situation.

Am I misunderstanding the FAQ?

The FAQ discusses creating files with a text editor, but does not cover Microsoft Excel.

The Alt-Enter key combination is used to create multi-line fields (cells) with Excel. Alt-Enter generates a LF character as the multi-line separator.

Carriage return (CRLF) would be used in most editors to build multi-line fields (unless the text editor supported hex editing or meta-characters such as \r and \n).

Microsoft Excel 2007 will recognize both LF and CRLF as a multi-line separator in CSV files.

Sorry all. I am just starting to look at this thread. I had an issue with hotmail that is now resolved. I'll have a look at Lowe's POI file. I am pretty sure I can make it work even if the line breaks are LF (0x10) only or CR (0x0D) only, but this may have to way until tomorrow.

Edit: Which Lowe's file is this? Link please.

The link for Lowe's that I used was
http://www.poi-factory.com/poifile/download/csv?node=276

LF (0x10) is incorrect, it's 0X0A

Got it. Thanks.

yes, LF = 0x0A (oups!)

I am trying to rush this tonight. Probably a bad move.

Ok. The file in the link above seems to have CRLF on each line except a couple lines which have some LF in the 4th column. All seems to load fine in EPE.

Somebody can tell me again what I should look for? Has the file been updated?

I don't think you would ever come across a lone CR character so I would not bother with that at all.

I expect you to find a fair bit of difficulty supporting a mix of CRLF and LF in the same file.

In true Unix files, there would be no CRLF pairs: just LF's instead of CRLF's everywhere.

Excel is exporting LF's within fields in CRLF-delimited records so they are not literally DOS line/record endings. So, if the file contains ANY CRLF pairs, the LF's would have to be interpreted only within the field where they occur and you would have to decide what they mean. I guess you would assume whatever Excel means by them since it is the defacto spreadsheet editor people are using.

And nothing so far addresses writing them back out.

So, now may be a good time to bail out.
Seriously....

BTW: I cannot find the full Lowe's POI file online right now. The only Lowe's POIs search finds right now locates a GPX file for Canadian stores only.

The link provided by WAASup still works, but it has been updated with CRLF.

I have made a file with LF only using my hex editor. EPE reads it as a single line with a huge amount of columns on the same line. If somebody had tried to import it with more than 4 columns, you would have seen the next line in columns 5+.

I can probably update my parser to split the lines correctly although my VB6 program reads it as a single line. It is just a matter of parsing until there is a LF between 2 fields and not comma separated ot double quote enclosed. Not a big deal.

I probaly should do it in case a similar problem arises again.

@Turbo: I get "Access denied" when I try to access the Lowe's USA that I originally downloaded the file from:
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/276

the file from the download link has been updated - long/lat changed from two decimal places to six, and LF changed to CRLF (except for the multi-line LFs, which were left intact). The file name changed from Lowes_USA.csv (84.7KB) to Lowes.csv (91.7KB)

http://www.poi-factory.com/poifile/download/csv?node=276

I know what I need to know. I can workout a fix now. Thanks.

Edit: I made the proper change to EPE v4.11 which I should release soon. Now, it handles perfectly CSV files with LF only as end of line character. Thanks for raising the issue.

What do you do for LF characters in a field? Are they mapped to break tags when importing and writing to gpx? Nothing yet?

Edit: Actually, I guess I have a couple other questions. Are LF line endings then permanently converted to CRLF when saving the opened files?
If not, do you provide a way to enter an LF in EPE fields so users can update an Excel-generated multi-line cell and save it back out as CSV?
Just curious... not actually requesting functionality at this time.

Hi KenBushaw,

In-Field line breaks are detected and preserved as line breaks. Whatever I do when reading the file is not important anymore with EPE because I added a Preference which tells EPE how to write back line breaks in GPS and CSV output files.

So, in-field LF can be converted to LF, CRLF or | (pipe) when writing back to CSV or GPX.

If you have to enter multi-line information, you will see that EPE provides multi-line field for comment, description and address. Any line break you put there will be converted as mentioned above.

Let me know if you see a problem.

Turbo

Thanks. I completely overlooked the default LF line-break settings for writing gpx and csv files that is already in 4.10.

And, "line break" really means in-field, not record endings like we have been talking about which you just added.

And, you see no need to provide a way to directly enter an LF from the keyboard, right? Just enter a pipe or whatever and set them to be converted to LF on output.

Actually, I probably need to spend some more time with the POI editor window. I am curious how you store in-field line breaks (like for the address field) after importing LF line breaks. Are they CRLF or break tag or ????

I am experimenting with a TomTom Go 740 and came across a TomTom FAQ page at
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6661

It references poiedit for converting files to ov2 for TomTom. Shouldn't EPE also be referenced now?

Is anything more than open CSV and save as OV2 (using the default settings) necessary for most cases?

Yes, EPE can be used to read/write TomTom OV2 file.

I guess EPE is not in the FAQ because the FAQ has been written long ago and EPE has been supporting OV2 only since March 2009.

Yes. Open as CSV or GPX and save as OV2. OV2 only contains lon, lat and POI Name. So far, I am only exporting the POI Name in the POI Name of the OV2 file. In a near future, the 4 column CSV field assignment will be usable to format the POI Name field in the OV2 file. This will allow more complex formatting than a simple POI Name. I am waiting for requests on this. The POI Name can only be 127 characters in the TomTom OV2. I am not sure TT supports line breaks either.

About line breaks... Internally, I convert everything to <br> but when it is time to write to a file, I convert the line breaks to the specified line break. In the POI edit window, I convert <br> to CRLF and after edit, I convert CRLF back to <br> because this used to be my preferred notation for GPX file. Totally arbitrary choice.

**Changes from v4.10 to v4.11**

* Fixed the aspect ratio display of picture in the Image window (requested by dave726).

* Added support for CSV file with LF instead of CRLF as the end of line (reported by WAASup and KenBushaw).

* Added a default file name in "Save As" dialog (user request).

* Corrected a unit problem when reading from CSV (reported by LMorton)

Not done yet: Correct the scrolling issue that happens sometimes when you play with the mouse click on the scroll bar in the main window. I have sub-classed the mouse click, but I have found no way to correct this problem. Sorry dave726.

edit: I wanted to remove the filename selection when exporting by categories. I want the POI file name to be only the category names without a file prefix. Anybody agrees or disagrees with this?

Is it correct that TomTom OV2 can only be a single line of text? The 127-character limit is interesting because I just saw an older TomTom FAQ item stating it was 63. Maybe they doubled it?
That same FAQ mentioned the use of right-angle bracket preceding phone numbers so I imagine that is on your list.

I see a TomTom GO 740 POI display only shows a place for a telephone number... nothing else I could see.

Are you planning to post a strawman OV2 enhancement before you do it?

I forgot to mention the Phone field in the previous post. My TT OV2 implementation already supports automatic phone number extracttion with the > character. I also put it back after the POI Name when I write to an OV2 file.

I have seen 63 as a limit, but I have a note that says 127, but I do not remember where it comes from.

What do you mean by "Are you planning to post a strawman OV2 enhancement before you do it?" ? A preview window? I do not have a TT, so it is very difficult to me to know how the TT displays the information.

If anybody wants to share information, I am interested. How do you see 63 characters or more on a display with only a single line? Scren shots would be great.