Garmin .gpx files

If you search the forums for the word "dialable" you should find some info.

Here's a start.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1667

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2282

You could go to google and enter "GPX editor for garmin" ... or see my signature

OMG. Thanks for your help. I would never have thought to search the term "dialable". I could kiss you right now!

The tool is great. I will definately fork over the 10 bucks.

Cheers.

A wonderful program. You got my dollars.

Phil:

Regarding your program: How should I configure address information in column 4 so that when opened in GeePeeX the address populates the correct fields? I have tried Line Breaks and commas, but the address info only appears in the Street Address field. I can find no information in the program or on your site regarding this issue.

BTW, phone numbers work great, Thanks!

I've been trying to figure that one out too.

When trying to parse existing csv files, the issue is, that there is no agreed standard for their layout. GeePeeEx currently doesn't try to split the data up (which is not to say that it couldn't...) - I'm open to suggestions, but it hasn't been raised until now.

They were relatively easy to detect...

Perhaps a little background is in order. This pertains to the C5xx and Zumo series (because as I'm finding out, there are several different behaviours present in different groups of Garmin products).

When using csv files as input, POI Loader places the whole of the 4th column in the 'comment' field. This is equivalent to the <cmt> and/or <desc> fields in a gpx file. POI Loader places no data in the address/phone fields.
The C5xx/Zumo firmware has the concept of two pages of output data. The first page displays the phone/address data and the second page the description and a link to associated images etc. When it encounters no address data, it decides to use the 'comment' data instead - and this is acceptable to most people. They think they are putting address details into column 4 and sure enough they get them on the first screen, where they expect them. But it's also the reason that you can't dial the phone numbers.
Oddly no html markup can be used on 'Page 1', but it can on 'Page 2' So, if you can live with having to press the "MORE" button, the best way to tackle your problem is to let GeePeeEx put the csv 4th column data into the <desc> field, and let it perform its trickery (with the dummy jpeg file) to force the output of the "MORE" button. With the data on Page 2, you can now use <br> and the rest of the html reportoire to format it any which way you like.

As I mentioned earlier, this gets complicated by the different behaviours of different Garmin units. I've just bought a Nüvi 310 and discovered that the concept of 2 Pages is missing (though it is present in the Nüvi 6xx series!). On the 310, everything goes on the one page and it displays the 'comment' field first. Data from the address fields is captioned Contact and appears lower down. So, using csv files, that caption never appears. Just for good measure, it truncates the 'comment' at about 250 characters! -- the only workaround I've got for that issue so far, is to exchange the 'email' and 'comment' fields, so the description now appears at the bottom of the screen.

Quite why Garmin restricted the 'comment' field and placed no restrictions on the email field is an interesting question. Equally interesting, is whether any of this was intentional, and if they intend rationalising things in future. Otherwise, gpx (intended to tbe the standard for moving GPS data between devices), will not even be a standard between different Garmins!

When I started writing GeePeeEx, I thought it would be a trivial task: take the fields from the gpx file, put them on screen, gather up the changes and write them back. Easy - a day's work.

The other seven weeks have been taken up figuring out the cause and effect on the various units!

I think I'd better stop typing now - I don't want to overflow any limits in the forum software :-)

JPBranigan also wrote a macro for converting files from Excel into .gpx files. See: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2714

Hornbyp,
Been playing around with your GeePeeEx editor. Seems really nice & simple. Sure I'll have more questions after I get a chance to build some files with it.

Anyway, just a note to let you know I just sent a payment for your editor. Thanks for putting it out there for us. And for all the good info about how it looks at/handles the files. It's fun to know how/why it works.

Good luck with figuring out why Garmin does what they do with their software!

I pretty much use only GeePeeEx to create poi files. If I download a file and the entire address is on only the address line. I just cut and paste into the correct fields. Very simple.

It's easy make a small file out of a large one, or merge several small ones to make a single file.

I like the ability to use html code in the desc box. Being able to change colors and font sizes enhances the file.

The best part is having the phone numbers auto dialable.

Great job Phil.

yall are reading my mind