What it does

Search for geocaches and letterboxes near you.

ReleaseNotes

OtherPagesWhichHaveMentionedGeoBeagle

ImprovedRadar

NextVersionMockUps

FAQ

What is this about?

Geocaches and letterboxes are objects that have been hidden in the real world; the game of geocaching/letterboxing is finding these objects around you. (GeoBeagle has stronger support for geocaching because it's a more popular sport, but if you're into letterboxing, we want to hear from you too!)

Brian Thomas wrote a great tutorial here: http://www.cacheopedia.com/wiki/GeoBeagle.

Jacob Paulsen did a YouTube video featuring GeoBeagle here: http://androidsocialmedia.com/apps/geobeagle-geocaching-android-style.

And you can find a Czech review of GeoBeagle here: http://androidaplikace.cz/index.php/2009/02/android-a-geocaching/.

Need more help? Join our discussion group at http://groups.google.com/group/geobeagle!

How do I get started?

You'll need an account on either http://geocaching.com or http://atlasquest.com. Both of these sites will let you sign up for free, and also sell premium memberships.

How do I load coordinates into GeoBeagle?

Injecting a Link

This is the easiest way to get started. You can inject the coordinates into GeoBeagle by clicking on a link on the cache/letterbox's web page.

For geocaching.com:

1. On the cache page, look for the group of links that starts with "For online maps..." The first two links are "Geocaching.com Google Map" and "MyTopo Maps". Click on the third link: "Google Maps". (Note that this link exists only on the page that says "View Cache Details" at the top.) It's the orange link in this picture:
2. Android will ask you what app you want to open the link with. Click on "GeoBeagle". The coordinates should now be loaded into GeoBeagle. Click on "Radar" to navigate to the cache.

For atlasquest.com:

1. On the letterbox page, click on the link labeled "Google Maps".
2. Android will ask you what app you want to open the link with. Click on "GeoBeagle". The coordinates should now be loaded into GeoBeagle. Click on "Radar" to navigate to the cache.

LOC files

You can download several LOC files at once from the geocaching.com cache list page, and they include the cache name in addition to the id.

1. Download LOC files from Geocaching.com, from the cache list page or the cache details page. See the Summary section below for tips/limitations.
2. Copy the files to the /sdcard/download folder on your phone, either by mounting your phone through a USB cable, or by emailing the files to yourself.
3. In GeoBeagle, click on the "Offline List" button to get to the cache list page. Click the menu button, then select "Sync /sdcard/download." GeoBeagle will import all caches from every file ending in ".LOC".

Note that this is a "sync", not an "import". If you delete the original file in /sdcard/download, GeoBeagle will delete the caches from its database. This gives you an easy way to manage your cache list.

Pocket Queries

Pocket Queries (GPX files) provide the most information--id, name, cache details, hint, and logs. But they are only available to premium Geocaching.com members.

1. Build your pocket query here: http://www.geocaching.com/pocket/. Choose the "GPX" format, and select the option to have the file compressed to zip format.
2. Download the query after it has been emailed to you. There is an issue with downloading attachments in the android gmail program, so you should access your email from the web browser instead. Make sure the attachment goes to the /sdcard/download directory.
3. In GeoBeagle, click on the "Offline List" button to get to the cache list page. Click the menu button, then select "Sync GPX files from /sdcard/download." GeoBeagle will import all caches from every file ending ".gpx" or ".zip".

As with LOC files, GeoBeagle is smart enough to only load new cache files on subsequent loads, and if you delete a gpx file from /sdcard/download, GeoBeagle will delete all caches loaded from that gpx.

Summary

Here's a summary of the import methods and what you get:

Please keep in mind:

• There is a bug in the Android browser which prevents you from downloading LOC and GPX files directly from Geocaching.com (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1780). You need to either download them on your desktop computer, or email them to your Android phone.
• As far as we know, there is no way to download zip or gpx file attachments using the Android Email or Gmail applications (but the web-based gmail.com client works fine for this).
• We are legally prohibited from doing any page scraping, so don't ask us to do it. :-(

The radar is too small!

Click on the radar, and a full-screen radar should appear. (You need to have the radar app from the Marketplace installed).

I get an application crash/force close.

Please report any force close problems as bugs! We'll do our best to fix them promptly.

How do I edit cache coordinates?

Click Menu/Edit on the main cache page.

What does 'fwgb' mean?

"Found With GeoBeagle"

What does 'dnfwgb' mean?

"Did Not Find With GeoBeagle"

GeoBeagle rocks! What can I do to thank you for your work?

Glad you asked :-). Here are a few ways:

• Join our community at http://groups.google.com/group/geobeagle. Here you can get (and give!) help with GeoBeagle, report problems, make suggestions, and even help design and build the next version.
• Add "FWGB" (Found With GeoBeagle) to your cache logs to help spread the word.
• Leave some stars and nice feedback for us in the MarketPlace! (No need to leave negative feedback for our competition.)

Other Questions / Problems?

Please file a bug report, email geobeagleteam@gmail.com, or join our discussion group at http://groups.google.com/group/geobeagle.

Posted a question/comment on the MarketPlace? Responses are here: MarketPlaceQuestions .