Extra_POI_Editor - A tool to View/Edit/Convert POI/TourGuides (Part 2)

I am curious as to why it matters when you do it.

Assuming you can do it time-delayed,
I would have thought the code that does it would not know nor care how/when/why it got called.

Plus, you could always disable temp saves for more complicated situations (forever or until you got around to implementing it).

It's an ongoing issue that was partially fixed. There are multiple subtle code bugs I think, and Turbo has had a tough time getting his head around all of them.

Maybe you can explain it better than I have so far.

Well ... up until yesterday EPE had the problem I described in my quote above. Today, after just finishing the WIN7, SP1 upgrade I read JD4x4's request and went to document the steps to reproducing the problem. The problem is GONE, it does not exist today. Saving and re-opening TourGuides Proximity values is working 100% correct in meters or feet. I'm really confused. There were 3 other WINDOWS optional upgrades that I also did.

So all I can say is that for the last 2-3 months I've had the above problem that disappeared today, after doing the Windows upgrades. It sounds like this is just going to confuse things more. No wonder TurboCCC can't figure it out, his has always worked. I'm happy now that it works ... but ... but ... really confused as to why!

(Error - the value in my previous quote should be 3.28)

Oh man! Not that problem again... LOL! I feel my head spinning again just by thinking about this issue...

@bear007,

Are you using EPE v5.xx? If so, it may explain why the problem is gone. The @speed now uses the same units as the CSV read/write units. If everything is set right, that may explain why it works.

Well, everything is possible. It is just more work. Let's see one scenario of incremental backup:

You edit a POI name. EPE should backup the modified POI. Well which one exactly? Ok. The one with the coordinates of the POI name you modified (assuming they are unique). Can't use the POI name since it has changed. Then, edit those coordinates. EPE needs to save. This time, let's use an internal POI number. Oh now you want to delete one POI in the list. Hum, how do I save that again? What about the previous POI number I already saved? Yes, there are ways. Then, let's merge a new file. Oh and why not sort by Category or State....

You see, saving incremental is not that easy. This is why I implemented the time-delayed global save for now. The big drawback with a full file save is the time it takes when the file gets really big. This is why I will add a programmable delay at some point. For now, you may just lose your last 10 minutes of work. It is not that bad and it took me a few minutes to do.

I did it last week for you. You can try this with this version if you want:

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

Turbo

TurboCCC,
Nope, still using v4.88 w/Win7. I didn't see v5.xx last time I went to your site. I didn't experiment today with the csv read/write but just checked and they are both set to metric. I think they might have been set to Imperial/US the other day. I'll check it out.

BINGO!
With all 3, Editor, Read & Write all set to Imperial/US the problem is there. As I understand it, the GPX file "Proximity" variable is always in meters. When I save the file with with the above settings, since it is in feet, it should be converted to meters when written into the gpx save file but it is being saved directly, without conversion. So my 1000 feet in EPE is being saved as 1000 meters inside the gpx file. When I open the file the next time it is properly converting the 1000 metrer to 3280 feet.

It looks like all combinations of options for the Editor & CSV Read work correctly. I put 1000 meters in the GPX file to read, no matter the setting on CSV Read the proper 1000 meters or 3280 feet displayed in the Editor.

So it looks like a single problem, when the Editor & CSV Save options are set to Imperial/US, EPE is missing the conversion from feet to meters during the save to GPX file. I think it is actually just the CSV Save when set to Imperial isn't doing its conversion.

BYW ... love the program, thanks

@bear007,

Try the link I posted above. The Proximity field should be ok and the @Speed unit will match the one from the CSV read/save options in the Preferences. I think it should work for you.

Could someone help out a challenged one? Could someone list out step by step how one takes a save to favorites and loads it on the garmin?

If you do a save to favorites on the Garmin, the location is stored in the unit.

Have you downloaded the User Manual for either of your units from Garmin?

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/nuvi_1100_1200_1300_1400_O...

A description on how to edit favorites starts on page 12.

If you are asking about saving them to your computer, editing them there and then sending them back to the unit. Mapsource is probably the easiest way to get started. Extra POI Editor does a much better job and there are many discussion threads in editing and saving favorites in the forum.

Box Car, thanks.

I should have been clearer. I was talking of after using Extra POI Editor (EPE), how does one take that file that was saved as a "save to favorites" from EPE and put it on the garmin. I could put the custom POI on my garmin, open it and then save it to favorites. If that were the case, there would not be a need to have the capability in EPE.

So the question is that the file generated by EPE is on my computer and how do I get it into the "favorites" section on the garmin directly.

I know how to load the custom POIs, just not how to load the "favorite".

1.Open the file on computer in Extra Poi Editor.
2.Under file for EPE select Save To Garmin Favorites and re-boot gps.
Note if you have the same favorite or favorites already in gps you may get duplicate favorites that you will need to manually delete from gps.

@TurboCCC,

Example of a good GPX file save with Editor set to Imperial/US and CSV Save set to Metric.
Set a single POI Proximity to 1000 feet in Editor and it is saved in the GPX file as 304.8 meters.

If CSV Save is changed to Imperial/US the same 1000 feet is saved INCORRECTLY in the GPX file as 1000 meters. So CSV Save should be disregarded during a GPX save operation and the value always saved as meters.

Hope this helps!

For the time being when working with GPX files and TourGuides, leave CSV Save option set to Metric, regardless of any other settings, and everything will work fine.

I did not test @speed units yet. I am at work and got to get back to ... ahhh ... work.

Charles, thanks a lot. This seems to indicate that the EPE automatically communicates with the garmin when the garmin is rebooted?

Ok. That should not be a complicated issue.

Once you load your copy of Current.GPX into EPE, modify it and then save it back to the unit, the unit reads the file from EPE written with a different name and merges that with the favorites file it has stored in its protected memory.

That's why you end up with duplicates. You can't delete the entries in current.gpx because the file you have access to is only a copy of what the unit has. You have to delete the originals from the unit screen.

appreciate your help.

For those having issues with the installation (missing OCX libraries), make sure to read this:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor#Extra_POI_Ed...

Install using the latest installer. On Win 7, ignore any errors that may appear. Once installation is done, you can overwrite the .exe with the latest one that is posted.

This is not really related to .gpi file creation, so I posted here.

I added a "Delete" button for the Category list in the POI edit page. If you select one Category and click Delete, it will delete it. See v520a link below:

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

I downloaded the KOA Campground US and Canada csv file (http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1498) and was going to create a GPX version. When opening the csv file with EPE (v 5.20) with the preferences set to extract phone numbers, etc it doesnt seem to be able to grab and populate the "city" field from the address field in the csv.

Am I doing something wrong in my EPE setup or is there a formatting issue in the csv version? I can and will go through each record and manually edit the "city" field in the GPX version if I have to but wanted to be sure I wasn't missing a faster way to get it done.

Thanks

I created the file. Maybe I have to do something different??? I am using EPE 4.8.3 My file is set up as follows:

The following is located in the Address Box.
123 any street
Flagstaff, Az 86004
Res (800)562-3524

If I tell EPE (place a checkmark) in "Enable automatic phone number extraction" and in " enable automatic state and postcode extraction" it pulls out the phone number and state and zip and puts them in the proper location. It leaves the rest of the info in the address box.

i am getting, it correctly populates the state, zip and phone entries but doesn't populate the city field.

It may be how I am trying to populate the data, my assumption is the address box should only contain the street number and name since the other boxes are there for the other parts of an address.

I wonder if the GPX format has a "street number" and "street name" extension and i am trying to use the address field incorrectly in EPE.

"<"gpxx:Address>
"<"gpxx:StreetAddress>400 Route 15 (Haynes Street)"<"/gpxx:StreetAddress>
"<"gpxx:City>Sturbridge,"<"/gpxx:City>
"<"gpxx:State>MA"<"/gpxx:State>
"<"gpxx:PostalCode>01566"<"/gpxx:PostalCode>
"<"/gpxx:Address>
"<"gpxx:PhoneNumber>(508) 347-9104"<"/gpxx:PhoneNumber>
"<"/gpxx:WaypointExtension>

So no, the street address includes the number and the street.

it is due to a formatting issue in the original csv file. Can someone download the KOA file and open it with EPE, then open a single record and see if it populates the city field or not. Mine does not and I cant seem to figure out how to make it do that or identify a formatting issue with the base csv file.

I can go in and manually populate the city field and remove the extra data from the address field above it (except the st number and name) and all is good.

Thanks

The street address portion of the file has line breaks. You need to tell EPE what the line break character is.

Normally, here's what I would do. See below an example of one POI in the KOA file:

-117.6597977,53.35198584,KOA - Hinton / Jasper AB,"50409 B Highway 16
Hinton, AB T7V 1X3
Res- (888) 562-4714

Note the "Res- " in front of the Phone. Edit the .csv file and replace the "Res- " by nothing. Use the Find and Replace function in Excel or Wordpad. Here's how it looks after replacement:

-117.6597977,53.35198584,KOA - Hinton / Jasper AB,"50409 B Highway 16
Hinton, AB T7V 1X3
(888) 562-4714

Then configure the 4th column in the M-Column assignment to be "Address | City, State PostCode | Phone". The | character indicates a line break.

Because all the address information is not uniformly written, EPE cannot just use the 4th column assignment. Set Preferences for automatic Phone, State and PostCode extraction.

File Open the modified KOA file and you will see that some POIs will be extracted correctly and not others.

I didn't realize the 'pipe' character setting in EPE did that.

Yes, the | does that for the field extraction.

You posted too fast. I lost the correction to my post... Hang on... It does not work exactly as written.

The 4th column assignment "Address | City State PostCode | Phone" does not work for all POIs because all the POIs are not written exactly with the same syntax. It works for the first POI, but not the second.

Here's plan B:

Set the 4th column to "Address" in the M-Column assignment. Set the Preferences for automatic Phone, State & PostCode extraction. Set the Reverse Geocoding Field Prefix to "" (nothing) instead of *. Start EPE and open the modifed KOA file.

You will notice most things are extracted correctly, but not the City. It is still in the Address field. Start the Batch Reverse Geocoding from Tools and let it run. This will put back the City in the right fields.

Yes, there are still some bugs: some PostCodes have O's instead of zeros. EPE can't do anything about this: you will have to edit the original file and make the required changes.

It does not seems to be perfect. I would re-save the file after processing in EPE back to a CSV with all the columns (probably 8 columns). Then, I would check the columns with missing data and I would try to either move the data manually or correct the issues in the address field. Then, I would re-open the modified CSV and let EPE redo automatic phone, State and PostCode extraction. Maybe a second Reverse Batch Geocoding. Then re-save again as CSV and make the final adjustments manually.

Good luck.

I created the KOA file and with all of this going on, my concern is that I did not do it correctly using EPE. Is this something I should be concerned about? I do want to do it correctly. My procedure is to copy and paste the full address and phone # in to the address location and then save as a 4 column csv.

Paul

From my understanding of many hours with EPE as a user is that what you paste into a field becomes identified with that field. Because you pasted all the data into a single field, EPE will treat that as a single data element. If the street address had been in the address field, city in the city field and so on, the CSV would still have been written but someone coming after you and trying to use EPE to take your CSV and create a GPX would run into the problem of not being able to extract the individual elements.

Drop me a PM and I'll ship you an XLS of the file with the fields broken out.

I will give the suggestions a try tonight. Thanks for all of the help.

Sorry pwohlrab for the trouble on the KOA file, mostly my fault for not fulling understanding how to use EPE and csv file formatting.

Thanks for the file.

Thanks, that took care of most of them. What's left wont take long to correct and have a clean gpx version of the file.

Glad to hear that Gastx.

How do I prevent the text of the of the coordinates that are embedded in the JPEG files from my camera from being imported into the Post Code field?

The actual numerical coordinates are properly in their fields, but the text version of the coordinates is also in the Post Code field (e.g. N39.9232300 W83.1029550 is in the Post Code field).

I'm using v5.21

Hi AJ500,

You can't. I implemented this in EPE because Paranomio was doing something similar. I thought it was interesting to get the lon/lat coordinates visible when looking at the POI on your GPS.

Workaround:

If you are only importing only JPG files, you could always use the Replace Fields function under the Edit menu to blank all Postcodes in EPE. warning: this is a global replacement. It affects all the POIs in EPE.

If you import only a few, the best is to edit manually each POI and erase the Postcode field content.

Permanent fix:

If you hate it, I can always remove this functionality. I am not sure so many people are using EPE to import geotagging JPG.

Let me know.

Turbo

Thanks for your rapid reply and a great program!

Either of the workarounds is fine with me. I wouldn't encourage you to remove the functionality. Perhaps there could be a preference.

AJ

Turboccc,

I seem to have a issue with BNatch reverse. I run it and it looks like its working but nothing is writen in. It did work a few days ago but now, nothing..

Is there anything I can do to test this more?

Thanks.

Bob

Bug confirmed. I got nothing either. I will check.

Server responded to EPE with:

"The deprecated servers are currently overloaded with requests please use the api domain."

I will have to see if this is temporary or permanent.

I wanted to upload a new version of my offbeat but need that info before I can upload.

I use it very much mostly for the zip codes and such.

I hope it is a temp issue. again.. thanks for your very hard work and I sure would be lost without this software your you created so well..

thanks very much.

I cant wait to upload my new vewr of the offbeat since there is more than 100 new places and a lot of corrections..

Thanks!!

Bob

I contacted the admin. It seems it is a permanent issue, but it is not hopeless. Still, you may have to register on the site first and enter your username in EPE. This way, you will not be limited to the EPE quota, but only by your own usage. I should fix this by Sunday.

I just released EPE v5.23 which fixes the Batch Reverse Geocoding issue where nothing was getting added in the City, State and PostCode fields.

I opened a default account for EPE on Geonames.org to use the free service. If not all EPE users are using Reverse Geocoding at the same time, it should be fine. There are hourly and daily quotas to respect.

EPE users can also register their own username at Geonames.org and put the username in the Preferences to have their own personal quota.

Getting your own username is somewhat optional. How to get a username is described on top of this page:
http://www.geonames.org/export/web-services.html

Got to tell you all that I am a little suprised that I am the only one that said something to this great programmer.. and he took care of it asap.

I am thinking that I am the only one that takes advanage of this great feature,

Anyways, to Turboccc, Thawnks you for your quick response.. I have not yet tried the new version but will be very soon. I love your work and made mine so much easyer to do. I belive many folks like my offbeat acctractions and want to keep it up. It would be very hard to deo if your program was not around. I do count on it very much. So many thanks to your hard work and time devoted to this project. I am sure it keeps you busy and you still work on it with full decation. y hat is off to you sir! Job WELL done!

Got to tell you all that I am a little suprised that I am the only one that said something to this great programmer about the issue at hand.. and he took care of it asap.

I am thinking that I am the only one that takes advanage of this great feature, the Batch revirse

Anyways, to Turboccc, Thank you for your quick response.. I have not yet tried the new version but will be very soon. I love your work and made mine so much easyer to do. I belive many folks like my offbeat acctractions and want to keep it up. It would be very hard to do if your program was not around. I do count on it very much. So many thanks to your hard work and time devoted to this project. I am sure it keeps you busy and you still work on it with full decation. my hat is off to you sir! Job WELL done!

I put my name in the website but I can not find whyere I can set it up in your program. I went to the Prefence area but nothing I can see to add my own name, etc... Where Do I set this up?

Thanks in advance.... oh yes, I went to your web site and downloaded the new beta version of your great software

Hope to hear from you soon.

Bob

There is a field in Prefences called "Geonames Username" where you can change to your own name i EPE V5.23.

Correct! The current default name is "EPE_demo". If you register to geonames, put your own username there.

Hi Bobkz,

Thank you for those kind words. I am glad you like EPE. After all, I made it especially for people like you that maintains POI files. You are helping the community a lot by doing so.

Do not worry about people not always thanking me. I receive a lot of good words from here and there. It is always appreciated. I am happy I can help. I would certainly like to do more, but the nice summer days are very tempting. I guess I'll make a come back this Fall.

Cheers!

Such a cool program!! Thanks!!

turboccc, any progress on a mac version for EPE? thanks

Sorry my friend! No MAC version coming. A few months ago, I bought a new PC computer which allows me to run MAC OS, but I screwed up my Win partition while installing the MAC OS. So I deleted the MAC partition. I am back to square one with no MAC computer and no tool to develop on it. If I buy a new computer for the kids, I'll try again.