Software to Introduce Hypertext Links in OpenCPN Waypoints

[Robert_1]

Originally Posted by yoruk

It was Robert who created MarinePoi, I develop applications only
Michel

I have to thank "Ptitzef" and "Yoruk" who kindly tested early versions of MarinePoi.

[HappySeagull]

I have to thank you all three! I have only good things to say

:I like that it can open other apps,(example: wxtide as a test, but I think many others would work...)
:I like that it can be used almost directly with OpenCPN + GE Plugin running.I start these first and then MarinePOI.Marine POI seems quite happy to share GE with OPCN.

[sinbad7]

Robert.

You mentioned that MarinePoi could also be used for other navigation programs.
I tried using one of the poi.gpx files in another popular,commercial nav. prog.
Fugawi Marine ENC but all I acheived was a series of waypoints without the underlaying information. Fugawi has a special entry point for .GPX files but seems
to treat them as purely waypoints.

See the attached stages of Fugawi's use of the poi file. Any suggestions?

Tore

[sinbad7]

Robert..

Here are the screenshots I mentioned above for Fugawi.
Clicking on the waypoints, i.e. Lillesand,Oslo etc. moves the map to the location
but none of the underlying info is shown or accessable.

Tore

[Robert_1]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Here are the screenshots I mentioned above for Fugawi.
Clicking on the waypoints, i.e. Lillesand,Oslo etc. moves the map to the location
but none of the underlying info is shown or accessable.
Tore

Sinbad,
"gpx" is a standard syntax, but it does not force the software to exploit all the informations included in the "gpx" file. In your case, the Fugawi software used only the positions of the wp.

There are dozens of different types of information that can be incorporated in a "gpx" file. None of them is mandatory, but all can be used according to the purpose of the software. See for exemple : GPX 1.1 Schema Documentation

[HappySeagull]

Robert,I'm enjoying this quite alot!I wrote a "langueEN.txt" file that exploits the "hover for help" feature...(which I think is an excellent way to go!)You'll see that I have changed yours a bit but your english is excellent!.......for instance,instead of "Verify", I have it as "Make the Change!" because verify is "to test a truth" ,not to apply it.Of course,it works well whichever but smoothing these little language quirks can help a new user,I think.Some changes and additions to the "hover help" I made do not appear.I don't know why....I was very careful with spaces and such.

langueEN.zip.doc

I hope others here will try this version (save the original of course) and see if MarinePoi is a little more intuitive in usage with it.

By the way...as I was working at this,MarinePoi told me "There is no internet connection.Continue?"when there was a perfectly good one.I only mention this because it's behaviour you might be unaware of.. not a complaint!I hadn't moved in GE for awhile...It's no problem to get through that and continue,but MarinePOI will ask at every change to a poi,until I move around in Google Earth-until I refresh it's connection,so to speak.

[Robert_1]

Seagull,

thank you. I will add your nice file "languageEN.txt" in the software as soon as I understand why some texts are not displayed.

About the warning "There is no internet connection.Continue?" : This is a generic "bypass" warning that I have introduced in the software to report any anomaly with Google Earth or with the network itself. So I can not say precisely what is happening. May be due to Google Earth or some other reason. The most important is that the "bypass" allows MarinePoi not to crash.

[HappySeagull]

Robert,thanks per the above... a solution that works!Really,i should just jiggle GE to wake it up.Also,it's pretty unusual to have GE running but not used....I bet the GE server is pinging me all the time and I could be blocking it at my computer.(In fact the theory here is,my computer Won't respond to pings! )

Now,I know you said on your webpage " Store all files linked to all POI’s in a « gpx » file in the same folder as the « gpx » file" and this works perfectly.Keeping everything in with the gpx is an excellent workhabit.....but of course,I can only follow directions for a little while
Sooo, it's interesting that I can break that rule IF I never open the gpx in MarinePOI again!
example:
When just made and tested and saved,
<link href="file:///D:/Backup/Beermaking 2.jpg"> works just fine in MarinePOI , and also works well in OpenCPN.

But if I open the gpx again in MarinePOI the above is changed automatically,without any interaction with me to:

<link href="file://D:\MAPS\GPX\OpenCPNLINKS\Beermaking 2.jpg">
where the gpx also is..the gpx's" home directory" I guess it could be called?... and of course, it no longer works as a link!

So,I'm here advertising what I think is a trick to link something outside the gpx's folder -like a program...or anything too cumbersome for the Gpx's folder.

[Robert_1]

Why do I store the linked files in the same directory as the "gpx" file ?

This is the prerequisite for creating databases of POIs that can be shared with other users. Users exchanging POIs databases will not have the same directory structure in their PC, therefore breaking the links to files. The only way to overcome this problem is to put the linked files in the same directory as the "gpx" file.

MarinePoi manages this question and "translates" automatically the file links into the new path in the new hosting PC receiving the POIs database.

For exemple:

In your PC's everything (gpx and all other files) is in the folder "d:/my_folder/" and a link to the file "my_file.jpg" will be "d:/my_folder/my_file.jpg"

In the new host PC's receiving your database, everything is unzipped in the folder "d:/his_folder/" and a link to a file "my_file.jpg" will be "d:/his_folder/my_file.jpg"

MarinePoi manages automatically the translation of the link path to the new hosting PC.

[sinbad7]

Robert..

Could you make an option to also save the poi files, i.e. BRAZIL-POIS.gpx in the 'layers' directory of OCPN. As the file structure of OCPN .ini file varies from system to system,the path should be set by the user. OCPN automatically imports all the .gpx files in the 'layers' directory upon startup so it would be convenient and save us having to manually copy the .gpx files from the MarinePoi directory.

Tore

[Robert_1]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Could you make an option to also save the poi files, i.e. BRAZIL-POIS.gpx in the 'layers' directory of OCPN.
Tore

Conversely, when you load or create a "gpx" file with MarinePoi (a click on ">>>") you can choose the directory of the layers of OpenCPN and your "gpx" file will be in the directory you wish.

It does not seem necessary to create an option to do this ?

[sinbad7]

Robert..

I must have misunderstood.. I thought all the .gpx files created HAD to be located in the MarinePoi directory. When you SAVE there is no option,so I presumed it always saved to the MarinePoi directory.

So you are saying I can keep ALL my .gpx files now in the 'layers' directory of OCPN?

Thanks

Tore

[Robert_1]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

I thought all the .gpx files created HAD to be located in the MarinePoi directory. When you SAVE there is no option,so I presumed it always saved to the MarinePoi directory.

The "gpx" files can be located anywhere in your PC, but if you link files (images or so ...) to your Pois, these files should be in the same directory as the "gpx" file itself. Otherwise if the directory structure of your PC changes, the links to files are brocken.

Originally Posted by sinbad7

So you are saying I can keep ALL my .gpx files now in the 'layers' directory of OCPN?

Yes, you can, ..!

[sinbad7]

Robert..
Another interesting feature is that you can convert the poi.gpx to a poi.kmz file.
Clicking the poi.kmz file shows all your poi's in Google Earth in the right positions,with s small 'i'.
However,clicking the 'i' only links to the first item in the list of pois. Any way to make GE show them all?

If not,see my example at 'Hummelsund' near Bergen. This link opens a menu which can have as many items as you need.

Tore

[Robert_1]

"kmz" is a zipped "kml" file, which is particular "xml" file owned by Google. The content of a "xml" file designed for OpenCPN is different from those designed for Google.

MarinePoi shows also all Pois of a gpx file when the file is loaded.