Potential POI File Utiltiy

 

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to the world of POI files, but when I first started loading them into my Garmin I noticed there was a wide range of "accuracy" and standards in the data. I've noticed many typos in data (e.g. New England zip codes missing leading 0's, typos in Canadian zips like using O when 0 was intended, missing states, missing zips, different phone number formats, addresses that are next to impossible to parse, etc.)

In reading through the forum posts it seems there used to be a utility for assisting POI maintainers called POI Verifier (and POI Verifier II), but that seems to be defunct.

I started creating a utility for my own use that's now grown in scope so I'm wondering what the level of interest is in something to replace POI Verifier II and if there was such a utility what features would people like to see in it. I don't have any version of POI Verifier so I don't know exactly what it could do.

If you could name 5 features in a POI Verifier/Formatter what would those be?

Thanks,
//Brian

POI Verifier

There was an application available for several years called POI Verifier (then POI Verifier II) available at a VERY minimal cost from one of our members - Retired Technician (RT). RT had to give up support for this application for a multitude of reasons. It was available for a time without support.
I still own (under license) this application and scan any and ALL files I put on my GPSs before loading to catch a significant number of potential problems.
I also use it before I submit updates, for my 2 files that I maintain, to POI Factory.
It was, and still is for many lucky original subscribers, a very functional and useful application.

As always RT - Thanks for your efforts.

--
MrKenFL- "Money can't buy you happiness .. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery." NUVI 260, Nuvi 1490LMT & Nuvi 2595LMT all with 2014.4 maps !

Re: POI Verifier

Thanks, Ken. I'm aware of POI Verifier/Verifier II and also that is seems to be no longer available. I'm wondering if such a utility is still useful and if so, what features should it have?

As I mentioned, if there is interest I would be willing to create something similar to POI Verifier and donate it to the community.

.

I have an interest. Anything you might do would be very welcome.

Thanks

Many Would Be Interested

I believe that there are many on this forum that will be interested in such a utility. I have never used POI Verifier, either I or II, and do not really know what it did by comparison the Extra POI Editor.

The following thread may be worth reviewing, before you potentially reinvent the wheel.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30311

Generally, I have been very happy with EPE and I make a point of zooming into satellite view as much as possible to make sure that the geocode matches with the actual geographic location. The geocoding uses and algorithm, the same as the GPS and this is subject to the errors and omissions of the municipality that set up the street numbering. I would expect any program would have similar errors.

--
DriveSmart 65, NUVI2555LMT, (NUVI350 is Now Retired)

POI File Utility

I think such a utility is very much needed by our members. I, like MrKenFL, purchased POI Verifier back when Retired Technician was still offering it. It has been an invaluable tool for me. Recently, many of the POI files I download from this site are filled with errors. I downloaded one the other day that had the longitude and latitude columns swapped. If such a utility were made available and most of the users obtained it, I think we'd see a return to higher quality POIs on our favorite website.

Re: POU Verifier

bwanshoom wrote:

As I mentioned, if there is interest I would be willing to create something similar to POI Verifier and donate it to the community.

I'm interested, but I use a Mac. Would †he utility you have in mind be a cross-platform project. I'd like to run POI files through it as a check prior to installing them.

Bill

I know it would not take the

I know it would not take the place of EPE, but if it helps to find errors in the files then I would probably use both.

--
Nuvi 2460LMT.

Mac would be good

Bill McQ wrote:
bwanshoom wrote:

As I mentioned, if there is interest I would be willing to create something similar to POI Verifier and donate it to the community.

I'm interested, but I use a Mac. Would †he utility you have in mind be a cross-platform project. I'd like to run POI files through it as a check prior to installing them.

Bill

I also would be interested if it ran on Mac.

--
NUVI 660, Late 2012 iMac, Macbook 2.1 Fall 2008, iPhone6 , Nuvi 3790, iPad2

Mac Support

The utility I've written so far is in C# (.Net) so there would be a couple options for Mac support. I'm not sure what the state of Mono support is on the Mac, but that's one option. The other would be to convert it to Java, but it would probably then be a command-line only utility as my Java UI skills are lacking.

EPE

pwohlrab wrote:

I know it would not take the place of EPE, but if it helps to find errors in the files then I would probably use both.

True, I am not looking to replace or compete with EPE, but I haven't seen where EPE has much in the way of data validation. Maybe at some point my stuff could be integrated with TurboCCC's.

POI Verifier replacement

I'm not sure what the POI checker available on this site for the General Maintainers to check their files does or checks. It might be a place to start, or it might even be what a replacement for POI Verifier if it could be made available to check all files.

I too saw a need for a

I too saw a need for a utility to manage and clean up a lot of the POI files on this site.
My most recent incarnation is
http://www.bradkent.com/?page=geo

It does a few things..
it parses the description string and splits it into address, city, state, zip, phone.
It displays the POIs in a sortable table (sortable by any column)
alongside the table it shows the POIs on a google map
POIs can be edited.. and their location can be dragged on the map to move them.
the POI list can be saved as gpx, csv, or ov2

I think having the data tabled out like that along with the map makes it satisfies both sides of the brain and makes it pretty easy to verify the data.
POI in the middle of the Pacific ocean... but has an Indiana address? I'm not going to name names.

I've tried to keep it simple with only useful bells and whistles.. But please give me feedback

Needs more work

bkdotcom wrote:

I too saw a need for a utility to manage and clean up a lot of the POI files on this site.
My most recent incarnation is
http://www.bradkent.com/?page=geo

It does a few things..
it parses the description string and splits it into address, city, state, zip, phone.
It displays the POIs in a sortable table (sortable by any column)
alongside the table it shows the POIs on a google map
POIs can be edited.. and their location can be dragged on the map to move them.
the POI list can be saved as gpx, csv, or ov2

I think having the data tabled out like that along with the map makes it satisfies both sides of the brain and makes it pretty easy to verify the data.
POI in the middle of the Pacific ocean... but has an Indiana address? I'm not going to name names.

I've tried to keep it simple with only useful bells and whistles.. But please give me feedback

Would be nice to have a verifier, unfortunately it needs more work. I tried it on one of my files and it shifted some fields around and also removed some data on others, so had I "trusted" it, it would have destroyed my poi file.

--
Nuvi 2460LMT.

Re: Verifier

pwohlrab wrote:

Would be nice to have a verifier, unfortunately it needs more work. I tried it on one of my files and it shifted some fields around and also removed some data on others, so had I "trusted" it, it would have destroyed my poi file.

Could you send me the file where it removed data? That definitely sounds like a bug.

What are you looking for in a verifier? Something that confirms that the given geocode is correct for the given address?

tried your toy

bkdotcom wrote:

I too saw a need for a utility to manage and clean up a lot of the POI files on this site.
My most recent incarnation is
http://www.bradkent.com/?page=geo

It does a few things..
it parses the description string and splits it into address, city, state, zip, phone.
It displays the POIs in a sortable table (sortable by any column)
alongside the table it shows the POIs on a google map
POIs can be edited.. and their location can be dragged on the map to move them.
the POI list can be saved as gpx, csv, or ov2

I think having the data tabled out like that along with the map makes it satisfies both sides of the brain and makes it pretty easy to verify the data.
POI in the middle of the Pacific ocean... but has an Indiana address? I'm not going to name names.

I've tried to keep it simple with only useful bells and whistles.. But please give me feedback

My experience was not good.

Tried the Costco GPX file from this site and you just hung. I then tried the Boston Market CSV file from my HD. You loaded it and displayed locations but couldn't write it as a GPX to my unit. Communicator barfed with a message about a metadata tag.

When I tried to output the Boston Market file as a GPX,EPE (v5.08) wouldn't accept your output.

I'm on XP Media Edition, latest Firefox.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

.

bkdotcom wrote:
pwohlrab wrote:

Would be nice to have a verifier, unfortunately it needs more work. I tried it on one of my files and it shifted some fields around and also removed some data on others, so had I "trusted" it, it would have destroyed my poi file.

Could you send me the file where it removed data? That definitely sounds like a bug.

What are you looking for in a verifier? Something that confirms that the given geocode is correct for the given address?

I used my Best Buy poi file I maintain. I did not get creative like Boxcar. I only looked at it on line, didn't like what I saw, and quite.

--
Nuvi 2460LMT.

Appreciate the feedback

I appreciate the feedback
I'll make the address parsing optional
And I'll check on the send-to-gps feature.