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

Turbo-
Say, while you're "under the hood".. as I was pruning down a large set of pois & removing dupes, I thought it might be a good idea to also show the Date/Time field in the duplicates table listing.

I found that I needed to look at the data in my Excel viewer and sort/delete old records from within Excel to be certain that I kept only the latest entries.

-I almost forgot something else. Are you aware that if you have multiple records with the same locs, that they repeat more than once in the duplicates table? Example:
Poi 1
Poi 2
Poi 3
then later (as I recall)
Poi 2
Poi 1
Poi 3
I may be wrong a bit on the order, but do you get what I mean?

('Ya know that at this "enhancement request" rate you'll NEVER be finished with the prog, right?)

Hey Turboccc!!

This program just keeps getting better and better!

I haven't seen this asked in the thread yet, so I don't think it has been asked. Is there a way to work off line? I installed it on my laptop which wasn't connected to the internet and I constantly got an error message. I realized that the error was it wasn't able to pull up the map.

Not a big deal at all, but I thought it would give me something to do on my upcoming plane ride.

Thanks again for all the hard work!

Chuck

Hi cpjanda,

Good point. I do not check either if internet is present and I do not tell the program to let go if not found. I will see what I can do.

Hi JD4x4,

Yes, it makes sense. I compare each POI to all POI coming after it. It is bounded to create some duplicates.

I will check this. Not very hard to correct, but I hope it woun't slow things down too much.

Turbo

Turbo has done such a great job! A while ago I did make 2 requests, 1 search for doubles by distance, 2 be able to run without internet access. The 1st request turbo made happen. He has made such a great program I am happy with it as is. Thanks Turbo.

...I'm finding it impossible to open OV2 files from a TomTom 920(T) GPS with it, sadly.

Let me know if you'd like a copy of the OV2 file in question, so you can take a look at it...

Thanks Turboccc for all your work, and for sharing with everyone!

Yes please. Post me a link.

**Changes from v3.10 to v3.20**

* Disables maps when internet is not detected (crude but hopefully efficient method)
* Added default map zoom level in Preferences
* Added some other brand CSV output formats in Save As (post feedback).
* Removed extra quotes from 4th column field in CSV files.
* Removed invalid POI from top of OV2 file.
* Added POI address + phone (when available) in OV2 file.
* Added TomTom Terms of Use for OV2 files (copyright stuff)
* Corrected the missing *.KML filter in the File->Merge Open dialog.
* Corrected the Preferences window to appear in the task bar.

turboccc, the new find duplicates parameters are working fantastically.

Hi Turboccc

I downloaded version 3.2 and tested it with my Cracker Barrel gpx file I have been using. Two issues I have found so far:

a) If the internet connection is a bit slow to respond, Maps turn off, and I have to restart Extra Poi editor until I get the maps to display.

b) When I download the ov2 file to my Go720, only the first point displays, and there is no other information. Editing the ov2, I found that the record length displacemnt x'01' contains x'1C' while the data length for the record is actually x'49'. Checking further into the file, it appears that all records contain a length of x'1C' whilst their actual lengths vary.

Hey Turbo, your little tool is looking better all the time.

From the Revision history, I see that V2.99 supported French, but you do not say if 3.20 does. If it's just a question of testing or translating some ressource files, I could gladly do that for you.

French is my native language so I could be of some use. (Although you're from Canada like me, so maybe it's just time you need) Also, my Nuvi 260 is set in French by default (UI, with Felix) so I can even check GUI consistency issues.

Let me know if I can help out.

Simon

The search works fine for me, of course I didn't realize that I was using a very very old version!!!

Turbo_ccc, 3.20 feature about detecting the lack of internet is not working properly and decides on its own that it is not there while I'm otherwise happily browsing around. Please make it an option as it makes this release unusable in some cases.

I'm not sure but it seems that you detect it if the map is slow to download. You should try to detect simply it the local machine is connected at all and not depend on the map loading time, which is quite long at time.

I had also made the suggestion awhile back that you skip intermediate maps calls when the POI's are scrolled over rapidly. This tends to overload the map downloading which (in this new release) ends up with the erroneous detection of "no internet connection".

Hey TurboCCC:

Downloaded V3.20 of Extra_POI_Editor today. I have cable Internet and so is on basically all the time while computer is on. I had a problem when working with poi in that my maps kept being disabled. Could there be a software switch installed so that the user has the option?
I have gone back to V3.10 as it is working the way I want.

but I will give it a try. sounds like a very powerful tool.

jgracey

Hey JG:

I think you'll find Extra_POI_Editor to be quite easy to learn and once you get the hang of it, I don't think you'll want to give it up. I personally think it's the easiest and definitely one of the most powerful tools for building POI's and Tourguides.

Seems like my internet detection is not working great. This is not totally unexpected. I will try to make the proper adjustments. At worst, it will be a switch in the Preferences (just let the program know if you have internet or not!).

Jale,

I remember your request about a delayed map request to avoid overloading the internet. Still in the pipe. I just did not spend time on this. On my computer, it does not really slow things down that much.

I am not at home today. All this may have to wait to tomorrow. Maybe I can work remotely on this...

added v3.21 which removes the internet detection and corrects the broken OV2 record length in v3.20

This is the best I could do while waiting at the airport.

Turbo

Wish you were more responsive to us..........lol

Very helpful.

I am new to trying to add poi I have not visited and want to download. So short & sweet I own a sony nv-u83t That from what I have found out is the system saves p.o.i in the .xml format. Will your program convert to this format?

Hi Turbo,

Not sure where to send this, but on my machine, every time I load a file, I get an IE message Script error on page...

I run Vista Ultimate SP1 Franch Canadian Dell OEM, with IE7 (upgraded to IE8 to try to fix it, no success)

Tell me if it's the right forum for this and I'll walk through all the steps I took.

Simon

Hi Turbo

Maps Load every time now, but the record length is still broken. Actually its still exactly the same as before.

Thanks for the quick response

P8t4rx7,

A GPX file is also an XML file. Just rename the GPX file to XML and tell me if there is a issue.

Turbo

yes, you can post here. It seems to me your lon/lat are wrong or contain funny characters. This would explain the script error.

zierk0310,

?????????

It looks good to me. Can you double check again? Maybe you used an old file done with 3.20.

The only thing that seems missing is the last POI record. I added it for next release.

I at first also thought so, but then I created a new file, and got the same result.

I have installed this on a fresh machine and I created just a 2 pois. They save fine on GPX, but when I create the ov2 file it just contains x'0d0a'. When I try to reload it into EPE I get "runtime error 9 subscript out of range" Not supprising since the file is empty.

Have I done something wrong on the install of 321? On my regular machine I simply unzipped it into the directory where 250 was installed. On the fresh machine I installed 250 and then overlayed it with 321.

Thank you Turbo for being so quick to respond. No more disabled map now so I can use the other benefits of your new version.

No complaints or requests, just wanted to say a BIG thanks for all the hard work and being so quick and willing to respond to issues.

Paul

Yes Turbo, I think you're having way to much fun . . .
Thanks for the fixes. Have a Great Easter.

its nice when someone has the knowledge and know how and shares that. thank you
mike

All your "thank you" are very appreciated. Thank you for being part of this project with me. It takes lots of energy from me, but your satisfaction is my prime concern and it encourages me to go forward. I hope I can continue improving the program and add more cool features for you.

Happy Easter to all of you.

Turbo

Hi Turbo.

I had some time to test this, and here is what I found out.

I looked at a file giving me problem and the coordinates looked like this:

wpt lat ="45.557332" lon ="-73.584256"


I manually edited the file to remove the space between lat lon and the = sign and then the file loaded without a hitch.

So here's the problem: the file with the spaces is the current.gpx file I pulled directly from my Nüvi 260. I checked and all the versions of this file I have backed up are like that.

Am I the only one with this issue? Is this file supposed to be structured like that, or it's related to my device settings?

I can search and replace manually in all my files, but if it's part of the standard file, would it be hard for you to detect that while loading?

eOtherwise tha app works great with other files, like the ones I uploaded to the site. Thanks for a great app.

Simon

Hi tremblsi,

Do you have problem loading Current.gpx into Extra_POI_editor or do you have problem loading it into your GPS after saving it with Extra_POI_Editor?

In the first case, post me your file and I will check. Otherwise, post me an example of Current.gpx befiore you remove the space. The space is there in my Current.gpx

Check your previous post. All the syntax is pretty much unreadable. The < and > are gone.

Would not install on my Windows XP Pro IBM quad core PC.

Tried original and the install option in troubleshooting.

What message do you get?

Hello turboccc,

Like tremblsi, I'm seeing two Internet Explorer script errors opening current.gpx files. The errors are caused by a space between all the lat/lon keywords and the equals signs. In my case, they're from nuvi 650 and 680 units. For example:

      <wpt lat ="43.636408" lon ="-79.399739">

With the current.gpx file from my nuvi 760, there is no space after any of the lat/lon keywords.

The IE script errors are caused when Extra POI Editor (V3.10 and V3.22) generates the temp file with bad JavaScript for the "space-y" keywords, for example:

      map.setCenter(new GLatLng( =, =), 13);
      var point = new GLatLng( =, =);

When the space is removed, there is JavaScript joy:

      map.setCenter(new GLatLng(43.636408, -79.399739), 13);
      var point = new GLatLng(43.636408, -79.399739);
 
 
I think it's a "feature" of certain Garmin units to create a space between lat/lon keywords and the equals signs in favourites (current.gpx).

One possible workaround would be to have your program correct this "feature" in current.gpx files.

EDIT: Mapsource has no problem reading these files.

Ahhh! Got it now. I could not see where the space was. Ok Corrected and posted in v3.23.

I just looked at the current.gpx from my 200W and it also has the space preceding "=" in the lat and lon, and it also gives the IE error when loaded into EPE (Extra POI Editor).

The current.gpx in my 765T does NOT have the space, and does NOT give the IE error.

I used EPE 3.10 and 3.22 for the tests.

Geez.. you fixed it in the time I composed my post!

Just tried 3.23 and it works fine with both 200W and 765T current.gpx files.

EPE 3.23 displays 650 and 680 favourites correctly.

**Changes from v3.24 to v3.25

* Corrected Geocoding error (zoom level not defined)
* Removed duplicated "duplicates" in "Find Duplicates"... LOL!

**Changes from v3.23 to v3.24

* Remember (it's about time!) last open directory when using File->Open or File->Merge.
* Corrected bad map loading in POI Edit page after fast clicking a new POI.

**Changes from v3.22 to v3.23

* Corrected problem reading lon/lat in some Current.gpx.
* Added contextual help and Help Index (written by rufree4t)

Turboccc,

Thanks for the update in V3.3 it fixed the OV2 problems.

Once again thanks for the fast responses, this is a great product

Darn, now that this works so great, I have no excuses not to upload more POI files...

Thanks Turbo, you fixed my issue with the current.gpx file. Sorry I could not get back to you earlier with a more accurate description of the issue, but it looks like I was not the only one with the problem and the community came through again.

Thanks again

Simon

The current.gpx file in the gps garmin folder contains (a copy of?) the favorites and a copy of the tracks plus probably a few other things. As previously noted, if you open it with the Extra_POI_Editor, you can edit your favorites and (most of the time) they will appear as duplicates on your device, with a 1 added at the end of the name. This is still very useful for adding an address or adjusting a favorite exact location.

However, I noticed that when you save the file, its size is considerably reduced and the track information is removed. This does not actually remove the information from the device, just from that file. This may be important to know if you have copied the current.gpx file on your PC for backup as you will actually lose the track information if you edit it with the editor.

Turboccc, this is not a real problem but you may want to take a look at the possibility to not modify/erase that part of the file wth the editor.

yes it contains, among other things, the track log information. As you said, this information is saved elsewhere on the GPS and Current.gpx is updated with that information at the next power-up. You cannot really lose that information unless you erase the log directly using the GPS.

I will have a look. It is not difficult to do, but it will take more memory to keep the information. I'll see.

Speaking of memory... For now, I have a hidden menu that allows to load all your gpx/csv/... file on your computer. Lately, I loaded over 40000 POI from different files. I want to allow load/edit/save of POIs and save back to your computer. This will allow you to simulate all extra POIs as on the GPS. You can make search across the file boundaries and sort them by location. Once the edit is done, you can save back to the original file structure. To be useful, I need to figure how many POI I should allow. 40000 seems not enough. Maybe 100000... Then I need to add an extra window (or two) to provide high level management of the POI files... Still some thinking to do...

Having problems with symbols to work properly when defined in the drop down box. They show up as dots. I've made sure that they are the common ones used by the nauvi. I have tried every combination in the display with no luck. If I create a bmp and place it in the folder with the gpx file it works as it should.

I'm having the same issue also

The symbols will only show up on a Garmin map when you put the .gpx file itself into the gpx folder on your unit, and then the POI's are added to your Favorites.

POILoader (or the unit itself..I'm not sure which!) doesn't use the symbol names/symbols from the .gpx file when they are compiled into a .gpi file and put into the POI folder on the unit. In order to have an icon for the POI's in a .gpi file you need to do as bilson writes, and include a bmp of the same name in the folder with the gpx file to be compiled using POILoader.

Clear as mud, yeah?