Digital FX 2.0 Transparent Released

**JohnWPB** · 03-20-2007, 02:07 PM

This is a stand alone app that will work completely outside of Road Runner actually. It is just a matter of putting the code on a button in Road Runner to run it.

The application to convert the coordinates (screen captured above) is meant to be run on the home/office PC. That parses the info, and saves it to an ini file. Then its just a matter of how you want to get it to the CarPC (More on that in a minute). Once on the CarPC, there is a 2nd part to the process, a script that reads the ini file and manipulates iGuidance, and sends the codes to it.

As for getting the info to the CarPC, there are many creative posibilities. You can have the ini in a synced folder on the desktop, that when you bott the CarPC, grabs it automatically over a wireless network. You could email the ini file, and save it in the car to the correct folder. You can use a thumb drive, and when the app is run, save the info to the thumb drive, and an auto run file on the thumb drive, when inserted to the CarPC will automatically copy it ect ect... There are many creative ways to do this I probably have not even though of yet.

As there seems to be more interest in this than I though, I will include it with the skin as intended, but will also release it in the plugin's section, with instructions on how to use it with any skin.

**kbreeden** · 03-20-2007, 02:49 PM

John,

I'm a little surprised that you wouldn't be able to just do it on the carputer. The greatest utility would be to be able to bring up the address in the web browser and then hit a "nav" button that would have IG navigate to that location. Or maybe there would be a button that says "Save" and it would save the information to the ini file on the carputer. Your application could then give you the option to navigate to it, map it, or whatever.

Maybe I'm the exception, but I never do any trip planning on my desktop and can't see it being useful if I have to save the information to a file on my desktop and then port it to my carputer in some manner. As you know, I'm not a programmer so maybe the ideal is simply not doable.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 03-20-2007, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by kbreeden

John,

I'm a little surprised that you wouldn't be able to just do it on the carputer. The greatest utility would be to be able to bring up the address in the web browser and then hit a "nav" button that would have IG navigate to that location. Or maybe there would be a button that says "Save" and it would save the information to the ini file on the carputer. Your application could then give you the option to navigate to it, map it, or whatever.

Maybe I'm the exception, but I never do any trip planning on my desktop and can't see it being useful if I have to save the information to a file on my desktop and then port it to my carputer in some manner. As you know, I'm not a programmer so maybe the ideal is simply not doable.

if this script doesnt evole into that type of solution i could easily write a "launcher" script that would do just what ur asking.

**SangreDeThor** · 03-20-2007, 03:48 PM

Some of us have to park hundreds of yards away from our place of living so most of my planning is on a desktop.

**kbreeden** · 03-20-2007, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

if this script doesnt evole into that type of solution i could easily write a "launcher" script that would do just what ur asking.

That would be great, Sonic!

**kbreeden** · 03-20-2007, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by SangreDeThor

Some of us have to park hundreds of yards away from our place of living so most of my planning is on a desktop.

I was seeing this a little differently then. In addition to trip planning, I see it as a substitute for IG's crappy POI database. For example, If I was out and about and wanted to find a Walmart I could type "Walmart" in Google Maps, find the one I want and hit nav on John's plug to take me there.

Of course, a difficulty would be knowing which is the closest to where you are, especially if you're in an unfamiliar area. Google maps does accept zip codes, so if I were in the 21043 zip code area I could type "Walmart 21043" and it would produce a list of the closest Walmarts with the closest being at the top of the list. I could then use John's plug to navigate to the one of my choosing. I do believe that the gas plug displays current zip code based on GPS readings, so finding your current zip code should be doable. Maybe a button could be included somewhere either in John's plug or RR that says "Get Current Zip." Then you would just type in what you're looking for with the current zip and you would be able to easily navigate to it using John's plug.

Again, I'm not a coder so I don't know if any of this is possible. It does seem, though, that one of the biggest weaknesses of iGuidance is its POI database. Though not as elegant as a strong POI database, this might be a satisfactory workaround - plus Google maps will probably always be very current.

**kbreeden** · 03-20-2007, 06:30 PM

John (or anybody),

Pardon my ignorance, but I have been messing around with Google Maps and haven't been able to figure out how to get a URL for a specific location. The URL in the browser address bar doesn't change when I click on different locations. What am I missing?

**JohnWPB** · 03-20-2007, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by kbreeden

John,

I'm a little surprised that you wouldn't be able to just do it on the carputer. The greatest utility would be to be able to bring up the address in the web browser and then hit a "nav" button that would have IG navigate to that location. Or maybe there would be a button that says "Save" and it would save the information to the ini file on the carputer. Your application could then give you the option to navigate to it, map it, or whatever.

Ummmm Thats exactly what it does right now. If you look at the screen capture a few posts back, and the description of it, the center button says "Navigate in iGuidance". This skips the external file all together, and sends the coordinates directly to iG.

As for the "WalMart analogy", Sonic is working on adding code to take advantage of the rest of the information that is already in the GPS gas database. This includes zip code, city, state & county. So, that information could be readily available. This being the case, it would not be to hard to put an extra button on the browser screen, that when you find a location, and it is showing in the browsers address bar, to copy that information, send it to the script to parse out the coordinates, and pass it on to iG to navigate to it, all with a single click.

As for getting the information from Google maps:

You have to search for what you want, and double click the map to center it on that area. Then you have to click the "Link to this page" link in the top right of the map. That changes the browsers address bar to show that exact location when loaded. It is from that URL that I am parsing out the coordinates.

I have, unfortunately, found a major snag in getting this to work 100% of the time

It's iGuidance itself. If there is no address close to the coordinates specified, iG will say "Unknown" for the coordinates entered. This is just PLAIN stupid! Using coordinates should take you ANYWHERE! So for instance, you enter coordinates that are a hundred yards or so off of a road in iG, iG will not recognize it! Just plain stupid, but there is nothing I can do about it unfortunately.

**kbreeden** · 03-20-2007, 07:46 PM

Thanks, John. This sounds great and will take RR to a whole new level if the obstacles can be overcome. I guess I got confused with your post about transferring the file to the carputer.

**JohnWPB** · 03-20-2007, 08:10 PM

Yea, I mentioned that way of doing things, as personally all of my planning is done right here on the desktop using a full sized computer screen, keyboard and monitor. For me it is easier than sitting in the car with a chicklet keyboard, and 7" screen

I simply take the thumbdrive to the car, plug it in and go.