GeoCaching + Waze bookmarklet

[davipt]

Hello all,

As a Wazer and Geocacher, I felt the need for some kind of integration between the two, so I could pick up a cache and tell Waze to go there.

What I got so far works on iOS and with the official Geocaching client, but I'm willing to help other cases.

- open safari and open any webpage
- add the page as a bookmark, call it something ("Waze"?). At this point one can't change the location.
- open the bookmarks list, edit the bookmark, and change the location to the following text:

Code: Select all

javascript:l=document.location.href;l=l.replace(/.*?(@|%40|%2540)/,"");l=l.replace(/.*?(-?[0-9.]*,-?[0-9.]*).*/,"$1");alert(l);document.location.href='waze://?ll='+l;

Then what I do is the following:
- on the Geocaching client, pick the cache I want to drive to, and click on the "open on external map", which will open Safari and maps.google.com
- click on safari bookmarks and the waze bookmark
- an alert will show the "lat,lon", just in case, to ensure the value was parsed correctly (waze crashes if this value is incorrect btw)
- waze will open with a marker at the cache's coordinate. click on the marker and drive there. Or manually pick a road nearby in case it's a cache with no access by car

Feedback is welcomed.

[seriousarsonist]

That works brilliantly! thanks very much

Would be nice if Waze would integrate waypoint additions from external sources, or even the geocaching api... we'll just have to keep asking...

Thanks again
Pip

(purplecoat on geocaching.com)

[kieranrawley]

I tried to get Waze to link to geocaching 3 years ago so well done for taking the bull by the horns and getting it to work!


It's a bit better/worse (delete as required) again today

[davipt]

I tried to get Waze to link to geocaching 3 years ago so well done for taking the bull by the horns and getting it to work!

It's a bit better/worse (delete as required) again today

I don't think linking Waze with geocaching should be a priority at all. Integration like Foursquare makes a lot of sense because 4SQ has a lot of searchable POIs to drive into, but Geocaching doesn't quite fall into the same concept.

[seriousarsonist]

I would have to agree, linking waze with geocaching is pretty low priority, but I'd also say linking it with FourSquare is also pretty low priority, a lot of the foursquare georeferences are hopelessly inaccurate. Adding the ability to import GPX files would be a far better use of coding time as it could be used for far more than our little treasure hunting days, it is after all, just like the add a stop feature which will be implemented shortly, you're just adding a lot of stops at once...

[davipt]

... but I'd also say linking it with FourSquare is also pretty low priority, a lot of the foursquare georeferences are hopelessly inaccurate. ...

Not quite that "hopelessly inaccurate" over here, but I'm also a SU2 at Foursquare

Now more seriously, what is really missing from Waze (and a lot other apps), is accepting coordinates on the search field, and be smart with the parsing of different coordinate formats. Only Google does it right. Even worse because waze does know about the coordinates via the waze:// uri.

[khaytsus]

I used to be able to directly navigate from the Android app Locus, but now I just get a search for the cache name and not the coordinates :-\

Still not sure which app is doing it, but Google navigation works so I'm thinking it must be Waze.

[gerben]

... but I'd also say linking it with FourSquare is also pretty low priority, a lot of the foursquare georeferences are hopelessly inaccurate. ...

Not quite that "hopelessly inaccurate" over here, but I'm also a SU2 at Foursquare

Now more seriously, what is really missing from Waze (and a lot other apps), is accepting coordinates on the search field, and be smart with the parsing of different coordinate formats. Only Google does it right. Even worse because waze does know about the coordinates via the waze:// uri.

IIRC, wazing to coordinates is possible, but Waze uses a different format than most other applications. Try switching the lat and lon, it should work!

[davipt]

... but I'd also say linking it with FourSquare is also pretty low priority, a lot of the foursquare georeferences are hopelessly inaccurate. ...

Not quite that "hopelessly inaccurate" over here, but I'm also a SU2 at Foursquare

Now more seriously, what is really missing from Waze (and a lot other apps), is accepting coordinates on the search field, and be smart with the parsing of different coordinate formats. Only Google does it right. Even worse because waze does know about the coordinates via the waze:// uri.

IIRC, wazing to coordinates is possible, but Waze uses a different format than most other applications. Try switching the lat and lon, it should work!

To hard to do with copy/paste on the iPhone, forget it