POI Loader transfers .csv files but not .gpx files

If you load all files at the same time from the same folder, and the files are good files, POI loader will combine them in the poi.gpi file that it creates. They will all show up under Extras>>Custom-POIs. If you are loading in manual mode, it should be asking you about alerts for each individual POI file that it is including.

Loader says the folder is empty when the folder has .gpx files in it only.

AHA! When I downloaded my POI files previously, I used Safari as my browser. My download manager asked me how I wanted them saved. I had the choice of a Safari document or All Files. Now I'm using Explorer as my browser and it's recognizing my .gpx files.

Check for double extensions and misspellings. You said in the previous post that you had a mixture of csv and gpx files -- what happened?

Turn off the "feature" that hides file extensions for know file types. Look in the folder again and see what the file names really are. I really expect that this is the problem, as if the files really are named correctly then POI loader will load both types.

You may think that you have "fixed" the problem by using a different browser, but unless you understand the problem and correct it properly by disabling this stupid "feature" of Windows, then it will come back and get you more times in the future until you fix it.

I did that. The files downloaded using Safari had like a .gpx.xml extention (or some such) The .xml extension wasn't there when I used Explorer.

The XML files are some form of web pages, apparently the save was done one step too early and you saved the web page that presented the POI file instead of the POI file itself. You didn't realize that this is what you had done until you turned off the "feature" to hide known file types, since xml is known to Windows and thus it thought it should hide the xml extension from you.

Downloading the .xml (or in many cases .html or just .htm) files isn't n unheard of mistake, I've done it more than once myself. Many times web pages make it look like you have reached the file that you want, but in reality they are going to send you through another page or two of mark-up language before you really get to it. The important thing to take from all of this is to turn off the awful extension hiding, and then look at what you download to be sure that it is what you expect, and if it is instead xml or html go back and click on the link that you just tried to download and see if the actual file that you want is there.

That "feature" to hide file extensions has been the default on every Windows system I've seen. Presumably, it was done that way to not confuse the user. In most instances, the hidden file extension often is the source of confusion. I always set it to display file extensions. This also comes into play if someone you think you know sent you an email with an attachment such as document.pdf. If extensions are hidden, you might not realize that the real file name was document.pdf.exe What happens after you try to open what you thought was a document might not be what you really want to happen to your system. By all means, don't let your system hide file extensions for you. It's good that you figured out where your .gpx files were hiding and found a simple fix for your problem.

Here's a question from my simple mind. Could I have just deleted the .xml extension and had a working file?

Probably. It sounds like Safari just saved the gpx file with an xml extension.

NO. Any file that your browser downloads or saves that has an xml extension will in fact be an xml file, in this case likely a small file to download the actual POI file, but certainly not the POI file itself.

What is GPX?

GPX (the GPS Exchange Format) is a light-weight XML data format for the interchange of GPS data (waypoints, routes, and tracks) between applications and Web services on the Internet.

I also suspect that changing the extension back to .gpx would have made the file usable. I have not used safari but in my experience, when most browsers save files they do not change the internal format of the file regardless of what extension is placed on that file.

You need to look at a gpx file with a text editor before giving advice. gpx files ARE XML. The OP's file very well could be the POI file itself!

Yes, gpx is a form of XML (eXtended Markup Language). But the xml files that trek2300 downloaded are NOT the gpx files that he wanted, they are only links to them. Think about it this way: No browser examines a file when it is downloaded and decides from the content what the name should be, which would be required for the mistake that you think has been made to occur. They can't work that way, the browser already has to have the name to request the file in the first place. Normally most of the files that the browser downloads are html or xml files and it displays them. In this case Safari was clearly given a link to an actual xml file intended to download the gpx file, if it was given the real gpx file it would have had a name that ended in gpx (and in that case most browsers would ask what to do with it, save it or open it with some other application, they wouldn't try to parse and display it even though the content was a form of xml.)

The proof of this rests back with trek2300. Rather than wonder about it and ask and get conflicting answers, I suggest that he should duplicate his actions and download one of those filename.gpx.xml files again, and then look at both the content and the size. I'm certain that it will not be the same contents as the actual gpx file that he now knows how to download properly, and I very much expect that the file will be significantly smaller than the actual gpx file (assuming that he is downloading a large POI such as the National Walmart list, obviously there could be some tiny gpx files out there, but still the size will not match exactly between the filname.gpx and the filename.gpx.xml files).

I just joined today. Using a Mac with Safari. I have the same issue as the original poster. GPX/XML, same thing? Guess not. At least not as far as Safari is concerned. I don't know what it's doing (yet), but when I use Fireox instead of Safari, the files are saved as GPX files and they work. Removing the xml portion of the filename that Safari saved does not. I haven't tried to compare file sizes (again, yet). Seems like Safari is a bit hosed on this one.

Jim

OK, maybe I'm hosed on this! I just diffed the files (Safari xml and Firefox gpx) and they're exactly the same. I swear the first time I simply changed the name it didn't show up when I tried to download the file to my Nuvi 880. Maybe I'm just losing it. I'd think it'd have to be identical. Still not sure why Safari is saving the files as .xml.

So, given that diff says the files are identical I had to try again. I simply renamed the .xml file (removing .xml from the file name) CORRECTLY, this time, and it worked fine. I don't know what caused me to incorrectly rename the file the first time - but it remained .xml, hence did not load on my GPS. So, bottom line is that Safari is downloading the same file, but it's appending .xml to the filename. That one I haven't figured out just yet. I'll try to stop responding to my own posts now.

MAC/Safari Users: use the GET INFO (double finger click on file name) to remove the .XML from the Name & Extension. (Click on the triangle, curser to .xml and delete.) Also delete the .XML extension from the file name listed in FINDER. Run POI loader.