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

Turbo,

If possible, please add a new release update notice box/text when you first start any of your products (assuming internet option is active).

I would like to know that a new release is available for download when I start your programs (EPE, TTS, Etc).

Thanks

The 4 column preferences control how a 4 column csv is saved (not loaded) and the M column prefs determine how ANY csv is loaded, as well as when saved as an 'M' column (it could still only be 4 cols if you've only defined 4 in the prefs group).

Subtle but important distinction

Hi TurboCC

On a Danish free POI forum, I sometimes get questions about your programs, and of cause answer them the best I can, but my question is do you have any plans to make translations files for your programs?

I would love to help you with the Danish one, for both help files and programs files. My wife is Translator in English and French, so she can assist me.

I am not sure if you have been asked this before, because there's allot of replays in this thread.

Regards Michael

Yes, I got requests in the past for Chinese and French.

I did it for a while in French, but the tool I was using was asking me to re-translate many of the previous text everytime I was adding new functionality. This was a lot of job. Now, the demo version has expired and I cannot do it anymore.

There are more than 1000 phrases to translate. Even if many of them are the same, it is a big task to do. Sometimes, you also need to know when each phrase will be used to make sure it fits in the right space.

I definitively appreciate the offer, but I do not know how to manage this. First, I need to buy a software that will help me to do that. Second, we need to find a way to maintain it everytime I release something.

If all the text could be in a file that I can submit for translation, that would be great.

I'll keep this in mind. Thanks again for offering.

Thank you!

I'm not sure if this is an IE8 issue, but I keep getting script errors:

An error has occured in the script on this page.

Line: 1
Char: 1
Error: Invalid character
Code: 0
URL: http://maps.gstatic.com/intl/en_us/mapfiles/193c/maps2.api/m...

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?

I respond "Yes" and then get:

Line: 1
Char: 56
Error: 'GMap2' is undefined
Code: 0
URL: file:///C:/Users/sspotts/AppData/Local/Temp/map7B76.tmp

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?

I respond "Yes" and continue, but the map doesn't display. This happens for every POI entry as I move between them.

It looks like the GMap2 variable isn't being created because of the first error. BTW - I saw a way to better handle the second error:

One method of suppressing errors caused by Google objects not being created because their script is inaccessible. This can be done with something like this:

var GMap2;
function isFunction(a) { return typeof a == 'function'; }
function isObject(a) { return (a && typeof a == 'object') ||
isFunction(a); }

if (isObject(GMap2))
{ //we've loaded the map scripts
var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
...

Here, GMap2 is defined, but is not an Object until the Google script makes it one, so if that doesn't work for some reason, GMap2 remains a scalar variable and the map script is not executed.

It looks like you're using VB6... If I recall (it's been a long time) you still have resource files, which is how you would typically handle localization.

All phrases go into the resource file, which is per language. The app references the id of the particular phrase.

Great Program! 2 questions though.
1) I noticed some lines have commas, periods, ect...
Any special meaning to them?

2) Is there a way to test speech?

Thanks for the program and keep up the great work.

So if I am right and correct me if i'm wrong, if I open a .csv file that has the address, zip and phone number in the address column, the program should recognize the zip and phone number and auto extract them to their proper locations right? If so this is not working for me. Is it possible to paste an entire address zip phone and all in the address column and it will break it up? For example, I am trying to make a poi file of ARCO gas stations in northern ca. So I go to the arco site and they have the address with phone numbers there. Can I paste 9215 ELK GROVE-FLORIN RD ELK GROVE 95624 (916) 685-8444 in the address box and it will take out the zip, phone and city and put them in their own columns?

Right but first you have to do the following:

Go to Options, Preferences, and in the Filter area put a check mark in the box in front of "Enable automatic phone number extraction and the box for "Enable automatic state and postcode extraction.

Do these preference changes before you open the csv file.

I did that and I guess its not working then...Do I have to create a csv outside of poi editor and then load it into it or can I create the csv with poi editor save it and then re open it and it will extract it?

My above post cant be the problem either because I created a new csv in excel and loaded it and it still didnt extract the information. I wonder what is up...both options are checked before its loaded.

Open your csv file with notepad and copy/paste one of the lines here.

No, it does not work that way. EPE does the extracting of the phone number etc when it opens a csv file.

If you put that text in the address box of EPE, EPE will assume that is the text you want in the address box. You should put that address string in the fourth field of a line in a csv file and then use EPE to open the csv file. Of course you would need longitude, latitude, and Name in the first three fields of the csv file.

Also you should enclose the entire string of characters in the fourth field of each csv file line in quotation marks

HI TurboCC,

Very nice program. As part of an ongoing little tracking project, I recently tried batch reverse geocoding for the first time and the results were not quite as I expected. I wonder if that was by design or perhaps I was expecting something that was non supported or even a user error? Here's what I tried.

I read in a CSV file with nothing but a bunch of coordinates and then did a "batch reverse geocode". Being the "reverse" of normal geocoding, what I was hoping to get was a nearest address. I did not get a nearest address (street address) but it did correctly return the state, town/city, and zip code.

Would it be unreasonable to ask for nearest address as part of that information sometime in the future?
If not, would you know of any other tools that can do this IN BATCH? I don't want to have to enter them one at a time as can be done at a few websites.

Thanks for reading,
Frank

Frank508,

You are the lucky winner tonight. Your question is simple so I will andser it first. Sorry guys!

No, EPE does not return the address when doing reverse geocoding. It could, but it would be really bad.

In the current implementation, reverse geocoding is used to get city, state and zip, but even that is not aways good. So when the reverse geocoder returns the information, I compare it to the current city, state & zip in the address field (when available) to try to extract the right ones.

If you want it absolutely, I could also add some checkboxes in the Preferences so you could have the address as well. I will put that in my ToDo list.

I am working on something else these days. Not sure when I would do it. I'll see depending how much work I need to put in this.

Tnanks, for the feedback.

Well, it took some tweaking but I finally got it to do what I needed. As a resulting question, is it possible to swap info from one field to another? Say I accidentally have the address in the description field and want it in the address field. Can EPE do this?

I typed up this before I saw that you found a solution but it may be interesting to you if you have not done it this way:

Create a csv file containing lines having data in the following format:

,,Name,"street address,city,state zipcode,phone number"

For example, a line for the Arco station you mentioned:

,,ARCO Station,"9215 ELK GROVE-FLORIN RD, ELK GROVE,CA 95624, (916) 685-8444"

Observe very carefuly where commas and quotation marks are. Notice there is no comma between state and zipcode.

Save the file with a .csv extention for example you may want to name this one Arco.csv (after you put more Arco stations in it.)

Open EPE and go to Options, M-Column CSV fields...

Choose an unused Profile probably #1 if you have not saved any.

Type something like, My Standard CSV Format, in the box labeled Change Selected Profile Name and click on OK

Click on the dropdown list at the Col4 box and scroll way down where you can see Address,City,StatePostcode,Phone
Click on that phrase to put it in the Col4 box. (Notice how this matches the format of the csv created above.)

Click on close.

From now on when you want to open csv files that you have created in the above format, just make sure the profile created above (My Standard CSV Format)is in the Profile selection box. (When you open other csvs not to this format, you can select one of the other profiles.)

Now you can go to File Open and browse to your Arco.csv When the file opens, EPE will complain about an invalid line - this is because there are no coordinates in the file. Check mark the Apply to entire file box, and then click on ignore.

Now EPE should be showing all the stations in your csv file and data should be in the correct boxes. To get the coorinates, double click on each station, click Geocoding and when the location is indicated on the map click on grab.

You could save to the original csv file using the same Profile so the coordinates will be in it and/or save as a gpx file.

I may be late to the party, but I'm really glad that I found this. Thanks a ton for making a POI editor!

Rather than try to edit, I save the file as an M-Col XLS file using the data locations of the existing file. I then create (or modify) that profile to reflect the desired changes.

I'll give it a try

Thanks for the response Turbo.

Yes, I would like to see it some point if possible, even if not always accurate it would be an imense help. But again, only when it's convenient to you don't waste a lot of time and effort if it turns out to be a big deal. I only asked because there a couple of websites that provide that information but I must enter the coordinates one at a time (ouch!).

Regards
Frank

When I click on “M-Column CSV Fields…” in Options, a pop up box titled “Extra_POI_Editor” has this text:

Run-time error ‘383’:
‘Text’ property is read-only

When I click on OK, EPE shuts down.

This has been happening after I made two profiles, each assigning specific EPE fields to 22 csv columns

The dialog box for 4-Column CSV assignment still comes up ok.

I can log into a different user on the computer and the M-Column CSV assignment dialog box comes up ok but the field-col assignments are the default ones (as I would expect when logged is as a different user.)

I have not been able to find where the M-Column CSV field-col assignments are stored so I can’t see if whatever file it is in is read-only and change the attributes.

Computer is Vista HomePremium 32 bit
I have tried EPE 4.49, 4.48, and 4.02

You have the file already open in Excel and EPE cant write to it. Close the Excel file and it will work. I make the same mistake more times than i like to admit.

will try it

Thanks, but I did not have any excel files open (nor have I been using any excel files for working with EPE.) Also there were no other files (csv or gpx etc)open.

Also I was not trying to write to any file at the time - was just trying to open the M-Column assignment dialog box.

For those that use Excel, or those that have quite a few 'messy' POI files to fix (such as only some POIs needing geocoding, reverse geocoding, tricky column parsing, etc), have a look at my Excel add-in at http://gpspois.wikispaces.com/

I was writing it at the time Turbo was in the early stages of writing EPE, and I built in some macros attached to an add-in menu that (I think) compliments editors like EPE and GeePeeEx.

It really just 'flattens' a gpx waypoint input file to 23 csv columns that I find easier to 'tweak' in a spreadsheet format, but I also have a configuration option to launch the csv in the editor of your choice. In the case of EPE as the editor, you can also specify which M column profile set you launch with.

Not a replacement at all for a gpx editor, but like I said I use it for 'tricky' edits where I find Excel functions help speed things up.

Turbo (I think) already knows how much I thank him for making changes & additions to EPE while I was building the thing.. But Thanks! again Turbo!!

Awesome. I hope it's as good as it sounds.

oops.

I just upgraded my EPE and I'm now finding that my Launch menu item stopped working with EPE someplace between EPE v4.12 and 4.21.

EPE v4.12 was the one I had been using up until now since it & my add-in did what I needed. SO .. I guess it's up to you to decide if it's worth reverting back to v4.12 or not. Sorry.

I am not quite sure why this happened, but it looks like the fields assignment that were saved in the registry are incompatible with the current version of EPE you are using.

The simplest way to get rid of the problem is to open the registry and delete the entire key TurboCCC. To do this, type "regedit" in the "Start"-"Run" dialog. Make a search (ctrl-F) for "TurboCCC" and hit the delete key when found. Then, quit the regedit application. You should be good to go.

Notes:
1- the search will take a few minutes. Be patient.
2- do not put the quotes ("") in the search box.

The problem occured when I was trying to open the M-Column dialog box useing the same EPE version that I had saved the two profiles with.(4.48)

Below is what is in the two profiles I defined:

Key Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TurboCCC\Extra_POI_Editor\CSV_Fields\CSV Profile 2
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 1/18/2010 - 7:44 AM
Value 0
Name: Col1
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Longitude

Value 1
Name: Col2
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Latitude

Value 2
Name: Col3
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Elevation

Value 3
Name: Col4
Type: REG_SZ
Data: POI Name

Value 4
Name: Col5
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Comment

Value 5
Name: Col6
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Description

Value 6
Name: Col7
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Address

Value 7
Name: Col8
Type: REG_SZ
Data: City

Value 8
Name: Col9
Type: REG_SZ
Data: State

Value 9
Name: Col10
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Country

Value 10
Name: Col11
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Post Code

Value 11
Name: Col12
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Phone

Value 12
Name: Col13
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Phone2

Value 13
Name: Col14
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Fax

Value 14
Name: Col15
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Email

Value 15
Name: Col16
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Symbol

Value 16
Name: Col17
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Display

Value 17
Name: Col18
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Category

Value 18
Name: Col19
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Proximity

Value 19
Name: Col20
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Speed

Value 20
Name: Col21
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Link

Value 21
Name: Col22
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Time

Value 22
Name: Col23
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (not used)

Value 23
Name: Col24
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (not used)

------------------------------------------------------------
Key Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TurboCCC\Extra_POI_Editor\CSV_Fields\CSV Profile 3
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 1/18/2010 - 6:25 AM
Value 0
Name: Col1
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Longitude

Value 1
Name: Col2
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Latitude

Value 2
Name: Col3
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Elevation

Value 3
Name: Col4
Type: REG_SZ
Data: POI Name

Value 4
Name: Col5
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Comment

Value 5
Name: Col6
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Address

Value 6
Name: Col7
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (not used)

Value 7
Name: Col8
Type: REG_SZ
Data: City

Value 8
Name: Col9
Type: REG_SZ
Data: State

Value 9
Name: Col10
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Country

Value 10
Name: Col11
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Post Code

Value 11
Name: Col12
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Phone

Value 12
Name: Col13
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Phone2

Value 13
Name: Col14
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Fax

Value 14
Name: Col15
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Email

Value 15
Name: Col16
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Symbol

Value 16
Name: Col17
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Display

Value 17
Name: Col18
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Category

Value 18
Name: Col19
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Proximity

Value 19
Name: Col20
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Speed

Value 20
Name: Col21
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Link

Value 21
Name: Col22
Type: REG_SZ
Data: Time

Value 22
Name: Col23
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (not used)

Value 23
Name: Col24
Type: REG_SZ
Data: (not used)

I did the following and now I can open the M-column assignment dialog box and see both profiles (2 and 3)with all the values I had set in them.

Exported the TuroboCCC key
Deleted the TurboCCC key
Double clicked on the saved TurboCCC.reg file (thus restoring the key to the registry)

You did that and it solved the problem? Mmm! I cannot explain why it solved the problem, but I am glad it did.

Hi Turbo.

First, let me admit that I have been out of pocket for a while, so it is entirely possible that you may have fixed this in a version newer than EPE 4.47.

Second, I believe I mentioned that I was getting data format errors when I tried to upload my RainforestCafe.csv file to my device using POI Loader. Well, I think I may have a clue as to why that happened.

I used Notepad to open the CSV file I created with EPE. I noticed that the 4th column data in some of the lines started with a line feed, most likely because I didn't have a street address for that particular location. When I removed that leading linefeed, the file loaded fine with no errors.

Example Line:
29.046537,41.177229,Rainforest Cafe Istanbul,"(lf)Istanbul Turkey(lf)90.212.345.6262"

Removing the leading (lf) (which represents the line feed character) from this line seems to have solved the problem.

Thanks.

Hi beagle.fan,

Good catch. I will add this to my list of bugs. I will correct it for the next release.

Turbo

I've tinkered with earlier versions of EPE and created one small GPX file to learn how it works. So far, so good. I just installed version 4.49 and am picking up my learning where I left off.

I do have some questions. I maintain the CSV file for Target Stores here and so far it has only been in CSV format. I was successful in opening this file with EPE using the phone number and state/postal code filters. It extracted the state, post code & phone correctly and populated the correct GPX fields. I loaded the resulting GPX file on my 660 and tested the Bluetooth functionality. It worked fine so I know I am on the right path.

Here are my questions:

1. Is there a functional limitation why you could not also extract the City name and populate the GPX City field?

2. In the Display Preferences section of the POI Edit window, there is the ability to add (for MapSource purposes) a Symbol and Display preference for each POI. Since in this case I am dealing with a store chain, the symbol and display would be the same for every POI (1740). Is there a way to "batch" populate these fields for all 1740 POIs?

3. Same question as #2 above for the Country field in the Contact Info section and the Proximity, Speed and Link fields in the TourGuide Info section?

Thanks!

I am still trying to figure out (need to spend more time reading the Help File) exactly how the fields in the TourGuide Section work, so I may have more questions later.

Yes, thanks. I use the Find Duplicates feature on each POI I create. Keep up the good work.

Gary,

You can extract city data from CSV file using EPE. CSV files are comma delimited. Open EPE, select options and setup multi-column CSV fields to match the fields in you CSV file. Close EPE, then reopen EPE, open your CSV file and your field data should be correct. You can then save as a GPX file.

For global changes, select "Edit", "Replace Field".

The Edit & Replace Field worked - thanks for that. Guess I didn't realize that menu item was there or I didn't understand what it did or how it worked. Now I do.

As for extracting the City, the current Target CSV file is in the "normal" 4-column Garmin format - lon,lat,name,"comment"

The 4th column gets brought into the Address field in EPE. In my file, that 4th column contains street city state zip phone information. The information is not in separate columns. If they were, your solution would work. EPE correctly finds and extracts the state and zip from this 4th column/field. I'm wondering if that extracting capability can be extended to include the city.

Hi GaryA,

To complete the field extraction, you can use the reverse batch geocoding feature. It will ask the reverse geocoder all the information and search the address field. If it finds a match, some more information will be extracted.

To replace the link field (or any other field) with a global value, use the "Replace Field" feature under the edit menu. Specify the field you want to replace and the field information and it will replace this field for all POI in the field.

I hope this helps.

Turbo

Jake88 had actually pointed this out to me a couple of posts earlier. The "Replace Field" function worked great.

The Reverse Batch Geocoding works as you described and also explained in the Help file (once I read it ). I'm using my CSV file as my "master" file and trying to automate the making of a GPX file off of it. I start with the store locator information from the Target website and use it to build the CSV file. When I ran the Reverse Batch Geocoding in EPE on it, I came up with a few oddball results.

For example, Target store #2319 is listed on their website as Signal Hill CA 90755. The reverse geocoding finds the city to be Long Beach, not Signal Hill. So the city of Signal Hill gets left in the Address field and the City field shows *Long Beach. Reading the Help file explained what the * means, so I understand that.

I'm just not sure what I want to do with the POIs when the city geocodes different. It would require some amount of manual cleanup. I'll have to think about it. I don't want to publish 2 Target POI files with some of the cities being different. I really want to stick with whatever Target has on their website for consistency.

Out of the 1740 records in the file, 159 turned out this way.

Yes, reverse geocoding is not perfect. Sometimes, it returns more than one result. I know I searching a few entries to find it. If there is not a match, there sould be another problem.

I'll try to D/L the Target CSV and see what I can do.

About the *, you can remove it in the Preferences, but I find it useful to find the problems you pointed out.

I looked at one example (#114). You file says "Colma" and the map too, but the reverse geocoder says "San Mateo", "Daly City", ... , but no "Colma".

There is nothing much I can do about it.

Still, there is a much better solution for you that will work 100%. I noticed you did a good job by making all the POI fields consistant.

Go in the M-Column CSV Fields panel, and set col1 as lon, col2, as lat, col3 as POI Name and col 4 as "Address | City State Postcode | Phone".

Then open the Target file again. You will see that all fields are separated correctly!

Enjoy!

I changed the M-column CSV field panel as you instructed and BAM, got just what I wanted, like you said. I'm a happy camper!

Thanks, Turbo - you da man!

(I'll get the hang of your program, yet)

I would like to take my offbeat file and convert it to a GPX file agaqin.. I know that you did this for me before but would like to know if it can be done with your program.

What I also want is for the city, state, and zip to be removed from the address (since it is all one in the CSV file) and be placed in the proper areas in the GPX file.. Can this be done?

Sounds like you are trying to do exactly what I asked Turbo, about my Target Store file. In his reply to me, he said, in part:

I followed his instructions and the city, state, zip & phone numbers were extracted from the 4th column of the CSV file and put into the correct GPX fields.

Worked like a charm!

I tried it buit nothing changed.. I must be doing something wrong... agggggg

I downloaded your Offbeat file and looked at it with Notepad. I see the problem. Your formatting in the 4th column doesn't quite match any of the M-column pre-defined formats.

Its explained better in the EPE Help section:

If the CSV or XLS column data format does not exactly match any of these special handling column assignments, improper parsing of that column may occur and the data may not be processed into the correct fields.

The "State PostCode" solves the problem of a post code starting with a 0 (ex. 08423) which gets removed in a CSV or XLS file (ex. 8423)

Your 4th column is formatted:

Address,City State PostCode

It looks like you will need to reformat your entries to match one of the above supported formats.

If Turbo did it for you once before, I don't know what he did to get it to work.

Bobkz,
I've been changing the formatting of some of your csv points to make the gpx conversion work easily. Rather than use the reverse converter that changes the city name, I've been adding missing comma delimiters in the csv comment field and a few other inconsistencies that end shifting fields when I import into EPE.

I saw you prefer the address be removed from the comments field. I prefer to have it in both the Garmin address fields AND the comment field. I know this displays the address twice in the GPS info page, but when I open the gpx in MapSource, I want to see the address in there when I'm routing a trip.

Send me a private message with your email address and I'll send my results to you in a few days.

I worked on pulling out the NY city McDonald's and puting them in gpx format. I did not read this post so I moved every address and phone manually. I just did another one with your directions and it did it perfectly for me. Would have saved a lot of time if I had read your post first. Will search for help the next time.
Thanks for all the work from everyone on this post!!!

Edit Look I am the 1000 reply to this post!!!