Thread: AMP v1.0 Worklog

there is also this if you plan on using it strait up:
New Mac GPS to Google Earth Program

Did I release the version of AMP with the internet detection light? (the green/red light)?

If not, I can upload a new version soon with that light, the colored signal detection bars in wardriver, and QuickMenu..... but not tomorrow My "dream girl" from school is coming over tomorrow cause I'm throwing her dog a birthday party.. Growing up is so.. gay.. lol

Originally Posted by Jirka Jirout

How do you check for internet availability? Ping to some pre-defined host?

Well, I had tried a few different ways at first. The first way I tried was using:

Code:

if(system("ping -c 1 -t 3 www.google.com")) return NO; else return YES;

However, I had problems with this. If the internet was available, it would be ok. Then with the app still running, if I removed internet access it would show the internet not being accessible (everything seems ok so far.) But then when I re-enable the internet (and give it time, like I can load google.com in Safari), when this method runs it says "cant resolve host google.com".. Odd!

So I looked on developer.apple.com, and saw they suggested using this:

Code:

#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
#include <SystemConfiguration/SCNetworkReachability.h>

- (BOOL)wirelessHasInternet
{
   SCNetworkReachabilityRef netreach;
   SCNetworkConnectionFlags flags;
   netreach = SCNetworkReachabilityCreateWithName (
kCFAllocatorSystemDefault, "www.google.com" )
AVAILABLE_MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_3_AND_LATER;
   SCNetworkReachabilityGetFlags ( netreach, &flags )
AVAILABLE_MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_3_AND_LATER;

   BOOL reachable = (kSCNetworkFlagsReachable & flags);
   if (reachable) return YES; else return NO;
}

However.. This didn't work. I use Airport and connect to a network
that I can access the internet on, and it says it can't access the
internet. And if I try it on a network that I can't access the
internet on, it still says it can't access it.

So, then I toyed around and looked through more docs and came up with this:

Code:

if ([[preferencesDictionary valueForKey:@"CHECK_FOR_INTERNET"] isEqualToString:@"YES"])
	{
		NSURLRequest *theRequest=[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.google.com/"] cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:3.0];
		NSURLConnection *theConnection=[[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:theRequest delegate:self];
		if (theConnection) {}
	} 

And implement its' delegate methods:

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response
{
	[self setInternetAccess:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForImageResource:@"internet_ok.png"]];
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
	[self setInternetAccess:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForImageResource:@"internet_bad.png"]];
}

That's what I use now. For me, it works. When testing, I had to make sure to disable my ethernet connection, and only enable my wireless. The if (connection) {} line is a placeholder.

The problems with what I'm using now is:

1. If there is internet, it shows it's connected. But if you connect to one of those pay WiFi hot-spots, like in airports or hotels, it still shows you are connected, because the hotspot routes all requests to the same place. However, dave (gnat) told me how to fix that, by comparing Googles, (or Apple.com's) header of the request to what it should be (hopefully it doesnt change), and then that would let me know better if there is actual "internet" access. Perhaps the light could be orange if it was a pay internet site. But.. I haven't done this yet

2. Someone said it may pop-up a dialup-internet setting if you have one, as it tries to access the net.. My response is "who the hell would be using a dialup internet connection on their Mini?"

Besides that,, it works flawlessly! And, I like this method because of how the delegate methods handle the actual interpretation of the result. And I have the first two lines just in a timer that fires every 5 seconds or so. (that may be a bit too frequent..)

Originally Posted by LightningMac

the version out has the indicator light, but doesn't have the colored signal detection bar in the wardrive section....

woof woof! (happy birthday in dog talk)

I took your advice on the colored bars Also, the "dark" bars look better now. I had meant to fix that before I released.. Now it looks pretty cool man.

Originally Posted by aychamo

Well, I did a little investigation with GoogleEarth. It doesn't support the ability to allow external programs to control it's window position. It allows commands to tell it where to go (like I can have AMP zoom in on a lat/lon @ a distance), but I can't change the window size.. I may be able to just have a window stick on top of it at all times, but that would hide the bottom part of GE's window..

Also.. Don't you ahve to have an internet connection for GE to be able to zoom in and get the zoomed in graphics?

I vote for using Google Earth because it's free. If you can get internet access, you can use it for route planning. In the next few years, that will be trivial. Otherwise, you can plan a route and save it. The caching is a pain, but again, it's FREE.

You don't need to code anything in AMP at all for this solution to work. Just tell users to install GPSd, the daemon that serves GPS info to multiple programs (this is important because if you use GPSd, AMP can query the GPSd server and get stuff like speed, location, altitude, without interfering with the nav on GE).

Then, people can use GPS2GE as their source for running the GE map -OR- you can build that functionality into AMP so it's integrated. Basically, use AMP to control GE.

To display it in AMP, I'd come up with a special NAV window that is either just a partial window and allows GE to show through underneath, or go with an AMP window that is basically transparent.

That would solve two problems easily for you. 1) It makes AMP work with Google Earth and you have a FREE nav solution. 2) You don't have to futz around with making AMP detect all kinds of different GPS'. Oh, and 3) It gets GPS data right into AMP so you can do some stuff like GPSrouteX does.

Here's a screenshot of the GPSrouteX running over GE. You can see that it's got great info BUT it needs to be displayed so you can read it and stuff!

Originally Posted by Jirka Jirout

Almost everyone who is using some kind of mobile connection (GPRS, Edge, UMTS...). Most of them are PPP-based.

Hmm. But in that case it shouldn't be a problem because it's already connected, right? If they don't want to connect, they can just turn off the internet checking option.