Jump to content

Release Notes - June 18, 2014


Recommended Posts

Read the previous release notes

 

Release Notes:

 

Premium Member Pocket Queries make a leap forward in two words: More and Easier.

 

  • More: Now Premium Members will be able to download twice as many Pocket Queries a day, from 5 to 10 PQ's a day.
  • Easier: All PQ's deliver a new custom email with a direct link to download the PQ in one click. Users must be logged into Geocaching.com to download the file directly.

With this update we're retiring the older system of including attachments for PQ's with 500 or fewer results. We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

This release also increased performance to a new email system.

Link to comment

Sure hope there is a matching GSAK update for this (or a massive update coming at GCHQ that provides users with even more filtering and ability to store own child waypoints for caches in the cloud)

 

Why not just select "Geocaching.com access... > Download pocket queries..." in GSAK?

Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

Link to comment

With this update we're retiring the older system of including attachments for PQ's with 500 or fewer results. We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

This release also increased performance to a new email system.

Sure hope there is a matching GSAK update for this (or a massive update coming at GCHQ that provides users with even more filtering and ability to store own child waypoints for caches in the cloud)

I'm confused about why GSAK would need to update. Which part of the quote are you referring to?

-No longer including attachments? No effect on GSAK.

-Reverting the type name? It's back to what it's always been, which GSAK has been handling for many, many years.

-Performance improvements? Definitely not GSAK-related.

 

This is a pretty significant update. I'll have to take a look at the new PQ emails tonight. I typically only use 2 PQs for my scheduled thrice-weekly PQs, so the increase won't really affect me there, but it will help with some updating of lists I do monthly and when I'm about to travel and might have a bunch of CaaR PQs to run. I'll miss the attachments, because it was a good way to have an archive of old cache listings. An example of where this has come in handy is when I recently revisited a cache I DNFed several years ago. When I brought up the listing, it said it was a micro, but I could have sworn it used to be larger. Sure enough, I dug out an old PQ email, opened up the GPX, and confirmed that it used to be larger. I haven't had to do this very often, though, so I can live without it.

Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

 

Can you check and see what web server you are on (http://www.geocaching.com/whoami)? I was informed that some of the web servers had to be manually restarted in order for the change to take.

Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

 

Can you check and see what web server you are on (http://www.geocaching.com/whoami)? I was informed that some of the web servers had to be manually restarted in order for the change to take.

On WEB05 Build: Tucson.Main.release-20140616.Release_129 about 4 minutes ago, I still got a "Mystery". Based on the build date, I expect at least that server hasn't been updated yet.

Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

 

Can you check and see what web server you are on (http://www.geocaching.com/whoami)? I was informed that some of the web servers had to be manually restarted in order for the change to take.

On WEB05 Build: Tucson.Main.release-20140616.Release_129 about 4 minutes ago, I still got a "Mystery". Based on the build date, I expect at least that server hasn't been updated yet.

Same on WEB15.

 

Another thing, links in emails have double slashes (geocaching.com//seek & geocaching.com//pocket). Links do work with double and single slashes. :)

Edited by Shokas
Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

 

Can you check and see what web server you are on (http://www.geocaching.com/whoami)? I was informed that some of the web servers had to be manually restarted in order for the change to take.

WEB06 (and it is still sending Mystery rather than Unknown as of 5:20 PM MDT)

Link to comment

We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

When will this take effect? I downloaded a few puzzle cache GPXs and I'm still seeing "Mystery" in the GPX files.

 

Can you check and see what web server you are on (http://www.geocaching.com/whoami)? I was informed that some of the web servers had to be manually restarted in order for the change to take.

 

GC41H9N

 

<sym>Geocache</sym>

<type>Geocache|Mystery Cache</type>

 

 

I am: WEB01

You are: 67.xxx.xx.xx

Link to comment

Is it supposed to say "Build: Tucson.Main.release-20140616.Release_129" in there? All I got was:

 

I am: WEB14

You are: ###.##.##.###

Call me old school. I bring up the source code for a page and scroll to the bottom to see which server I'm on, and it shows the build there too. This is how you had to do it before they made the whoami URL, and I just haven't broken the habit.

 

FYI, WEB01 as of this post is still a "Mystery".

Link to comment

Due to a variety of issues, we have rolled back this release. The dev team is continuing to investigate. In the meantime, we have a separate fix for GPX files/Mystery Caches that will be deployed tomorrow (Thursday).

 

Thank you for your patience, everyone.

Link to comment
Where have the Milestones gone? Regardless of locked or unlocked, they are not being shown. Am I missing something here?
Are you blocking JavaScript from cloudflare.com ? I use the NoScript plugin, and after the recent upgrade, I had to whitelist cloudflare.com to see my milestones.
Link to comment
Where have the Milestones gone? Regardless of locked or unlocked, they are not being shown. Am I missing something here?
Are you blocking JavaScript from cloudflare.com ? I use the NoScript plugin, and after the recent upgrade, I had to whitelist cloudflare.com to see my milestones.

Hi niraD, Im not blocking anything. Still dont understand why Im not seeing anything. Doesnt matter. Thanks.

Link to comment

 

Easier: All PQ's deliver a new custom email with a direct link to download the PQ in one click. Users must be logged into Geocaching.com to download the file directly.

 

This is quite disappointment and in fact this new feature is not easier for me. It requires user action to actually get data.

 

Please can you keep the old system still alive? It works pretty well to me.

Edited by semik75
Link to comment

Pretty bad, GPX in emails was very useful way to get my data without direct user interaction. Another example how GS listens to (PM )users :-(

Would a small, standalone application that automatically downloads PQ results to your computer work? I can't write it (no access to the API) but it shouldn't be difficult to write.

Link to comment

PQs in email attachment are very useful. Grounspeak should ask first paying customers (premium members) before starting such a big change.

Agreed. I usually receive the emails containing the PQs on my Smartphone, save the PQ and then fire up my Geocaching app to update caches from the ZIP file. I'm usually not logged on to geocaching.com on my Smartphone as it doesn't make much sense on the small screen.

 

Would be nice if premium members could at least choose between email attachment or download link.

Link to comment

Read the previous release notes

 

Release Notes:

 

Premium Member Pocket Queries make a leap forward in two words: More and Easier.

 

  • More: Now Premium Members will be able to download twice as many Pocket Queries a day, from 5 to 10 PQ's a day.
  • Easier: All PQ's deliver a new custom email with a direct link to download the PQ in one click. Users must be logged into Geocaching.com to download the file directly.

With this update we're retiring the older system of including attachments for PQ's with 500 or fewer results. We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

This release also increased performance to a new email system.

Easier? In which direction it should be easier for me? For me is most easy get email with data. I pay quite much money to GS and I´m awaiting for new tools and upgrades, not deleting existing tools, which I (and many of us) usually use. I don´t need many PQs and more caches in it, I wanna still get it in emails, because its a smart way for me. Please, keep emails for us to future.

Edited by hauskaa
Link to comment

I'm confused by all the complaints about the PQ emails. How is the new system any less easy? With the old way, you'd have to either single-click or double-click (depending on the email client) to open the attachment. With the new system, you single-click on a link. It's different, but is it really any more difficult?

 

Think carefully, are you opposed to the change because it has reduced functionality (which I suspect it hasn't for most people), or just because things have changed?

 

I'm sure the main reason behind this change is bandwidth. Sending thousands of several-MB emails every day would be a big hit on performance and bandwidth-usage. I'll admit that I often had scheduled-weekly-PQs emailed to me that I didn't really need, which meant wasted bandwidth for Groundspeak. The new system is on-demand, so only those people actually wanting to use a PQ will use bandwidth.

Link to comment

Due to a variety of issues, we have rolled back this release. The dev team is continuing to investigate. In the meantime, we have a separate fix for GPX files/Mystery Caches that will be deployed tomorrow (Thursday).

 

Thank you for your patience, everyone.

 

Now I'm confused....

http://forums.Ground...dpost&p=5392930

 

The PQ generators can be released separately from the web site and were updated yesterday to revert "Mystery" to "Unknown". Other changes, however, had to be rolled back due to a variety of unexpected issues. One of the changes was the update from "Mystery" to "Unknown" in single cache GPX downloads and Send to GPS files. This change will be re-released later today.

Link to comment

PQs in email attachment are very useful. Grounspeak should ask first paying customers (premium members) before starting such a big change.

 

Where this really hits me is on my Mac. The only "API approved" app is iCaching, which I don't like.

Anything else and I am manually downloading each PQ one at a time. I could tolerate the (re)closed API (since 2013) because I could use Applescript to direct PQ emails to certain apps. Now that is going away so I'm forced over to GSAK in a Windows VM. The automation script I had for GSAK - I have a Parallels VM that starts, auto starts GSAK, auto downloads PQs from Email so I can click a button, come back in 20 min and then hit the "load GPS" button. With no PQ Zips now I have to wait for the VM to boot, wait for GSAK to start and go trigger the downloads myself. It is a small thing but it adds cognitive load and thus becomes an annoyance. The other side of the coin is where was the "hey we're changing things next month" so I could at least see this coming versus having to change my workflow at the last second.

 

I wish GCHQ would either open the API back up to more developers (aka I could write my own) or fully commit to providing a cloud service where I can just store all my corrected coordinates and any additional waypoints I want to tag to a cache listing (say, solved parking coordinates for a puzzle). In this scenario I get rid of GSAK, stop complaining about API or PQ downloads and just run a single (hopefully upgraded to 2500 caches) PQ to load my GPS without any software in the middle.

What this sounds like is that you made a poor choice on computer platforms. I don't wish to have these improvements put off just because you made poor choices. What is proposed looks just fine to me.

Link to comment

PQs in email attachment are very useful. Grounspeak should ask first paying customers (premium members) before starting such a big change.

I haven't used the attachment for several years now. The only use they have been is to add bulk to my trash can.

Link to comment

Due to a variety of issues, we have rolled back this release. The dev team is continuing to investigate. In the meantime, we have a separate fix for GPX files/Mystery Caches that will be deployed tomorrow (Thursday).

 

Thank you for your patience, everyone.

And when you get this all fixed, please don't forget about the PQ improvements. That was really a nice addition.

Link to comment

I'm confused by all the complaints about the PQ emails. How is the new system any less easy?

 

I've been using GSAK's API download since it was available, so I'm merely speculating here.

 

If you don't have an API compliant application to download PQs, the easy method is go log in to your email (through POP, a well defined interface) and download those attachments. So you can have some degree of automation, though you are restricted to only 500 results per PQ.

 

You do have a good point - many people resist external changes because they are changes. I'm guilty of it as well, so I make it a habit to always stop and ask myself why I'm against a change.

 

Count me as another user who would gladly give up a feature I don't use for doubling the number of PQs a day. Yes, I know their concerns, and I acknowledge it is legitimate, but I think it is only fair I make my preference known as well.

Link to comment

I'm on the 'cool with the change' bandwagon as well. I've not used the email attachment in ages. Shoot, I never even see the emails! I kick off my PQs when I want them, wait a few minutes, then use GSAK to pull them down. The only time I would be interested in an email is if I have any PQs in the queue and the PQ servers were down or, if they had been down, when they are back up.

Link to comment

Count me as another user who would gladly give up a feature I don't use for doubling the number of PQs a day. Yes, I know their concerns, and I acknowledge it is legitimate, but I think it is only fair I make my preference known as well.

Agreed. The use of email attachments for getting PQ data seems very antiquated given the power of the API. Count me as someone who will not that "feature" and I applaud Groundspeak for moving forward in this way.

Link to comment

Read the previous release notes

 

Release Notes:

 

Premium Member Pocket Queries make a leap forward in two words: More and Easier.

 

  • More: Now Premium Members will be able to download twice as many Pocket Queries a day, from 5 to 10 PQ's a day.
  • Easier: All PQ's deliver a new custom email with a direct link to download the PQ in one click. Users must be logged into Geocaching.com to download the file directly.

With this update we're retiring the older system of including attachments for PQ's with 500 or fewer results. We've also reverted the change from "Unknown" to "Mystery" in GPX files, meaning that "?" caches will display and filter properly in those applications and devices that could not handle the terminology change.

This release also increased performance to a new email system.

 

I hope work will continue on PQ's... Like if one goes to "Hide & Seek" you have MANY search options including things like "Cache starts with..." the problem is the results cannot be filtered by things like "I have not found", "Is Enabled" etc. and to make it completely worthless it cannot be saved as a GPX file (you would think that premium members would have that option). So the solution, as I see it, is to copy all the great search parameter choices from "Hide & Seek" to "Create a PQ". But to make it even better allow multiple parameter use (EX: "Cache Starts with" + "Hidden by Username" Of course, keep all the current filter options as well!

 

Today (because I cannot do the above) I decided to just go with a Route Query but alas the Create Route function appears to be broken (does not respond to mouse clicks to set route start / end). So I have no choice but to add each cache to a bookmark list ONE AT A TIME Grrrrr. Even this could be improved with a suggestion that I submitted a couple years ago --- support "drag box" and / "multi-select" on maps to add to a bookmark list.

 

Hey - completely unrelated to this but a huge THANKS for your work on trail maps Moun10Bike!

Link to comment

I'm confused by all the complaints about the PQ emails. How is the new system any less easy? With the old way, you'd have to either single-click or double-click (depending on the email client) to open the attachment. With the new system, you single-click on a link. It's different, but is it really any more difficult?

 

Well not everybody uses a pointy-clicky OS, some of us have our Emails delivered to an Email client, which automatically extracts the attachements, so no clicks required up to now.

 

Perhaps it just now needs a couple of lines adding to the script to extract the URL from the mail, and then visit that URL to download the GPX (which will be no big deal) but I haven't looked yet.

 

On the other hand if the change means that I now DO have to go clicking on any links then I too will be seriously unimpressed.

 

Edit: I've now looked and no clicking required, so at least I'm a happy chappy :P

Edited by MartyBartfast
Link to comment

If the whole concern is bandwidth, GS please be so kind and stop sending me notifications about caches which I've found. I am not interested. This will be very appreciated and I am asking this for several years. If I am mistaken and this option already exist, I apologize and would like to know how to set this thing up. Thx.

Link to comment

If the whole concern is bandwidth, GS please be so kind and stop sending me notifications about caches which I've found. I am not interested. This will be very appreciated and I am asking this for several years. If I am mistaken and this option already exist, I apologize and would like to know how to set this thing up. Thx.

 

Strange, I never get notifications on caches I found. Do you have those caches on a watch list?

Link to comment

After this update, emails sent through the website to other users (EDIT: apparently this affects all emails, including PQ emails ... argh!) are now received in my mailbox as HTML-only, which is rather annoying. Previously there was a text/plain option that my email client displayed without problems. Now my mails look like this:

 

gc_html_email.png

 

It would be most appreciated if this could be fixed.

Edited by Yellow ants
Link to comment

If the whole concern is bandwidth, GS please be so kind and stop sending me notifications about caches which I've found. I am not interested. This will be very appreciated and I am asking this for several years. If I am mistaken and this option already exist, I apologize and would like to know how to set this thing up. Thx.

 

Strange, I never get notifications on caches I found. Do you have those caches on a watch list?

 

No, I have nothing on the watch list. One of my notifications is for Traditional caches - published, enabled, disabled. That's it. I.e. GS is spamming me about enabled listing of the cache I've found 2 years ago. Why??? I don't want this.

Link to comment

 

No, I have nothing on the watch list. One of my notifications is for Traditional caches - published, enabled, disabled. That's it. I.e. GS is spamming me about enabled listing of the cache I've found 2 years ago. Why??? I don't want this.

 

Then turn that notification off.

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...