UserGuide

User Guide for Mobile Trail Explorer
Phase-Support

Updated Feb 4, 2010 by gdjo...@gmail.com

1. Introduction

This is a small user guide for Mobile Trail Explorer application.

2. Requirements

Mobile Trail Explorer requires the following to work:

Mobile phone with Java MIDP-2.0 and CLDC-1.1 support.
Support for Bluetooth connections (JSR 82)
Support for File connection (JSR 75)
External GPS device with Bluetooth support

You can check that you have all of the above APIs using the JavaME API Checker

3. Installation

3.1 Installing over the air

You can install the latest release over-the-air to your phone by downloading the application file from http://www.substanceofcode.com/software/mobile-trail-explorer. Point your phone browser to JAR file using the following URL address: http://www.substanceofcode.com/downloads/midlets/TrailExplorer.jar

3.2 Installing locally from JAR file

Another way to install the application is to download the JAR and JAD files to your local disk and use the phone manufacturer software to upload and install the files to your phone. You can download the latest release here.

4. Setup GPS

4.1 External Bluetooth GPS

After you have installed the software to your phone you can configure the GPS unit like this:

Switch on your GPS device
Start up the application
Bypass the splash screen by pressing any key
Select "Settings" command from the main menu
Select "GPS"
Now the phone should be searching for GPS units
After the search is over you should be able to select your GPS unit from the list
Select "Back" to return to the main view

4.2 Internal GPS (via Jsr179)

If your phone has an internal gps unit, and the java Location API (jsr179), MTE can use that as well. To enable the internal GPS:

Start up the application
Bypass the splash screen by pressing any key
Select "Settings" command from the main menu
Select "Development Menu"
Select "Use Jsr179(if available)"
Press "Back", Select "GPS"
1 Device should be displayed: "JSR179 Location API", select this.
Press back to return to the main view

5. Record your first trail

Now that you have configured the GPS device you are ready to record your first trail.

How to start

Switch on your GPS device
Select "Start/Stop recording" command

Phone might ask for permission to access the bluetooth connection

Now phone should have made a connection to your GPS unit
If your GPS unit has a valid position data available then you are recording the trail

How to stop

Select "Start/Stop recording" command
Now phone might ask for permission to write recorded trail to a memory card (default location is e:/)

6. Key-Pad shorcuts

Function	Primary Key	Secondary Key
Zoom In	1
Zoom Out	3
Pan View Left	Left Key	4
Pan View Right	Right Key	6
Pan View Up	Up Key	2
Pan View Down	Down Key	8
Centre View	Fire Key	5
Change View	0

7. Settings

You can change application settings by selecting a "Settings" menu item from the main screen.

7.1 Settings / GPS

7.2 Settings / Export folder

Export folder is used when trail is exported to a file. Export folder can be located in the phone's memory card or in the internal memory. Some phones allow only specific folders to be used with Java applications.

7.3 Settings / Recording

Recording settings are used for defining what sort of location data is recorded to your trail. There are following options:

Recording interval in seconds

This specifies a time interval when positions are recorded. If time interval is set to 10 seconds then your position is recorded every 10th second.

Create marker every Nth positions

This specifies when extra markers are recorded. Marker contains extra data like time and current speed.

7.4 Settings / Web Recording

Web recording can be used to send current location to a web server. Options are:

Upload position (check box)

If this option is checked then position is posted to a specified URL in specified recording time interval

Upload URL

This specifies the URL address where location is posted. You can use the following tags on the URL that are replaced with correct data:

Tag	Description
@LAT@	Latitude
@LON@	Longitude
@ALT@	Altitude
@TRAILID@	Trail identifier (date stamp)
@HEA@	Heading
@SPD@	Speed

E.g. Following URL 'http://server/record.php?lat=@LAT@&lon=@LON@&alt=@ALT@&id=@TRAILID@&hea=@HEA@&spd=@SPD@'

Would be converted to this: 'http://server/record.php?lat=43.1432&lon=20.124&alt=89&id=200805062130&hea=120&spd=8.12'

Comment by bigbu...@gmail.com, Mar 17, 2008

How can one set a waypoint?

Comment by ManlyJ...@gmail.com, Mar 29, 2008

Select Waypoints from the menu, then Add new waypoint and it will already have the coords in for the current viewing position

Comment by bhanu295...@gmail.com, Apr 22, 2008

can raster image of map is used in place of osm.

Comment by diegorod...@gmail.com, May 14, 2008

Hello. I must be idiot, but I can't find the JAR file anywhere on this site. The link supposedly there to link it sends you to a zip file containing lots of source files I don't know how to handle. Thanks for your help.

Comment by diegorod...@gmail.com, May 14, 2008

Hello again. I found the idiot here. It wasn't me, fortunately. Microsoft Explorer itself changes jar extensions into zip. I may change it back manually, because how to 'force' IE to respect the extension is something you can do in several ways. For today, I simply dropped IE and used Firefox instead. Everything fixed!

Comment by diegorod...@gmail.com, May 14, 2008

Ok, now I could start the application. I granted it full data access, first.

Trying to save the trail into my microSD card, I always get a message asking permission to add and edit data into the memory card. When I say YES, it throws an ugly java/lang/OutOfMemoryError? message. The memory card has 2GB free space... what can it be?

Comment by Saydujja...@gmail.com, May 18, 2008

how to get source code for download for this nice application and how to get be part of this team if i want be. there is option for SVN but i donlt have svn tools

Comment by ragama...@gmail.com, Aug 27, 2008

Hi! I would like to use this nice midlet with my xda orbit II (=HTC Prophet) with wm6 and Esmertec Java. After install and start there is unfortunatelly no menu at the bottom, the midlet is displayed full screen. So I can't make any settings and therefore not use the program. Have you advice? Thanks Goetz

Comment by manuel.g...@fh-hagenberg.at, Aug 28, 2008

Hello

i want to send the current speed with the webupload-service. Is it possible ?

Comment by i...@cross-connect.se, Sep 26, 2008

Hi, I would like the timestamp sent to web-recording also. Taking the time that it arrives at the server is really a poor substitute. By the way, I have written a server to recieve and show the web-recording data!!! Try it at http://followmytrail.lazy8.nu

Comment by i...@cross-connect.se, Sep 26, 2008

Could you update the GPS setup section. I have a GPS that is built into my nokia 95 telephone and your setup description does not mention that you must enable "jsr 179" in some other sub menu. I was very near to give up installation when I found this by pure luck.

Comment by alvonsiu...@gmail.com, Oct 21, 2008

hi there, I just use this application with my research. And I actually want to send the data via URL with format like this: http://my_server/index.php/report/some_id_of_sender/@LAT@/@LON@/@SPD@/@TRAILID@

and somehow it doesn't even sent to the server. Anybody could give me a hint does my format right or wrong (I use codeIgniter framework as the backend on the server) ... does the parameters only works for URL with query string like "lat=@LAT@" only?

Thanks ...

Comment by alvonsiu...@gmail.com, Oct 22, 2008

Sorry to double post. Maybe I found where is the bug is ... It seems that the web upload won't work whenever the speed is '0' and we want to sent it with @SPD@ ... cmiiw ...

Comment by danny.de...@gmail.com, Dec 6, 2008

hi, this is a very cool application! I noticed that

- the use of a web recording to an ssl/tls server through https://server/... keeps reporting that the server's certificate is untrusted, even though the server's certificate and each of the certificates in its certificate chain is included in the store with trusted certificates... would it be possible to store/flag this certificate in the application's local configuration as trusted? - default access point: would it be possible to specify the default access point that the application can use for its web recording? :)

I would be very happy contributing to it...

Comment by brian.schimmel@gmail.com, Jan 8, 2009

I totally like the ability to import a GPX file, and I'm glad TrailExplorer? can do it. But it is not documented at all, so at first I thought it could not import. Anyway, I tried. I almost thought I'd have to buy one of there Garmin thingies to be able to follow a trail that I had downloaded somewhere. I think you should point this out more clearly as it is one of it's most important features. By the way, there are many J2ME-Applications that can record to GPX, but as far as I know, none of them can actually read GPX files.

Comment by hskiran1...@gmail.com, Apr 9, 2009

I have installed this app on my MOTO ROKR E6 phone and have an external GPS receiver also in the vicinity and switched on. When I start the application, it shows the splash screen and then another screen where it says "STATUS: NOT CONNECTED (0)". There are no menus displayed either. How do I get this app running?

Comment by Mardi...@gmx.de, Aug 19, 2009

MTE crashes on Samsung S8000 Jet while hitting the right menu button on display.

Comment by maps.goo...@schoschi.de, Mar 10, 2010

@Key-Pad shorcuts: They are valid for map view. When altitude view is active, try 7 and 9 for zooming, 1 and 3 to change the scale, 2/4/6/8 to move the view.

Comment by david8bl...@gmail.com, Oct 7, 2010

How do I zoom the map in s60 5th edition that has no keyboard?

Comment by david8bl...@gmail.com, Nov 4, 2010

How do i enable altitude view? The last commenter said one could zoom by pressing 7/9 .In s60 5th edition the virtual keys A/B are mapped to 7/9, but they don't seem to change anything only the colour of the display text. The other info says 1/3 to zoom - these cannot be accessed in s60 5th edition afaik.

Comment by Dr.Juerg...@gmail.com, Apr 30, 2011

Metoo: How to switch the screens with Nokia E7 s60 5th, with keyboard it runs fine. But for which reasons are the B/D/C keys? Key A switchs the color.

BTW I spend a lot of time to get to know that the space key switch the screens. This should go into the UserGuide.

I use mobile-trail-explorer since a year on my E71 before. Thank you, its very nice for OSM Tracking!

Comment by sanjay143u, Nov 10, 2011

i,Using web recoder sending data is quite good.I would like to retrieve data from web server to mobile trail... please suggest me better way.

Comment by jarin.hl...@gmail.com, Apr 6, 2012

I am missing @DATETIME@ stamp in web recording. Each recorded point should have it - it is its unique id.

Comment by seyeagun...@gmail.com, Apr 28, 2012

This software is awesome, i cant begin to explain how much it has helped a geographically challenged person like moi. So simple and yet so useful, more grease to ur elbow dude...u rock!!! By the way, i use it on my Nokia E6, minor glitches but works fine.

► Sign in to add a comment