What it does

Search for geocaches and letterboxes near you.

FAQ

What is this about?

Geocaches are objects that have been hidden in the real world; the game of geocaching is finding these objects around you.

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

Need more help? Join our discussion group!

How do I get started?

You'll need an account on http://geocaching.com. You can start with a free membership, but to really get the most out of GeoBeagle you'll need a premium membership.

How do I load coordinates into GeoBeagle?

BCaching.com

The best way to load caches into GeoBeagle is to use BCaching.com. You'll need a premium account on geocaching.com.

1. Create an account on http://bcaching.com
2. Build pocket queries on geocaching.com. (There's a very through guide here to setting up pocket queries.)
3. Set up the Pocket Queries to email to your BCaching.com address. Take the email address listed at http://www.bcaching.com/MyProfile.aspx ("Your personal email address for uploading Pocket Query .ZIP files:") and put it on the "Output To:" section of the Pocket Query page.
4. Schedule the Pocket Query to run immediately.
5. Check that the Pocket Query has been sent to bcaching.com--you should see it at http://www.bcaching.com/Upload.aspx.
6. In GeoBeagle settings, enter your BCaching user name and password.
7. From the GeoBeagle cache list page, click menu/sync.

It's important that your pocket queries include caches that are archived and unavailable, so that BCaching.com can notify GeoBeagle if any caches that you've synced have recently become archived.

Injecting a Link

If you don't have a premium account, 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.

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.

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.

More Information about BCaching

Q. Will GeoBeagle download all my caches from BCaching.com every time I do a sync?

A. Short answer: No--GeoBeagle will only download caches with updated information.

Long answer: A cache should only be updated if it has changed in some way (e.g. a new log) and BCaching.com knows about that change. Since BCaching.com uses data that users upload from their gpx files, it will only know of the change if you or another user has uploaded a gpx file with that cache. Although this isn't as good as live updates, it's better than using Pocket Queries directly: it's less information to download (since it's only updated caches), and it's (potentially) more up-to-date information, since it includes updates from other users.

Q. I am no longer interested in the caches in a particular Pocket Query, how do I stop getting updates from those caches?

A. GeoBeagle has no way of examining the Pocket Query page on Geocaching.com to see which queries are "active." But if the Pocket Query hasn't been refreshed within the last 7 days, GeoBeagle will no longer download the caches from that page. This means that if you have a Pocket Query set to update weekly, it will always be updated from GeoBeagle. For example, if you go vacation caching, set up a Pocket Query, and GeoBeagle will deliver updates for the next 7 days. If your vacation will last more than seven days, remember to re-trigger the pocket query before the 7 days has elapsed.

Q. How do I delete the caches from a Pocket Query?

A. Pocket Queries which haven't been updated in the last 7 days will be deleted from GeoBeagle. (This feature is not yet implemented; until then, caches need to be deleted manually.)

Q. I don't want to use BCaching.com syncing any more, how do I turn it off?

A. Just remove your BCaching username in the GeoBeagle settings dialog. GeoBeagle will stop checking BCaching for updates.

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. :-(

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 .