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Geocaching notes not being updated

Sonny shared this problem 15 months ago
Solved

In Locus 3 after clicking onto "update Gecocache" within a Cache, my Geocaching.com "Personal cache note" of this Cache are not being updated.

Maybe a problem of Geocaching4Locus ?

Replies (7)

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Hello,

there is no timestamps of last edit in the notes so app doesn't know, which one is the last. Therefore the app prefers the local ones.

If you changed anything on the web, you can update it manually: "Point detail > Top-right menu icon > Notes > Load online" and save.

6a129cbd213e0d601bfdfe2c67ae081b

Regards,


Zdenek, Locus team

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You're right this works for me.

But to be honest, this procedure is not intuitive. If we update our Caches, especially a series of Caches with one click by "update Gecocaches" we expect that each detail of the Cache is being updated: Listing, (corrected) coordinates, Hint, Logs - and of course also the Online Notes.
Right now the Notes sometimes are being updated (if there hasn't been a Note yet because of import via GSAK or PQs) - and sometimes not. Even longtime, regular Geocaching users of Locus app like me and friends didn't know of this "special", "hidden" treatment of Notes until now.

We sometimes modify Notes online at geocaching.com e.g during solving Mystery Caches or if we got new infos regarding the Cache, infos of Geocheckers etc.
So it's a pity if we can't update the Caches within Locus with these latest Online Notes. (Yes we can. But just Cache by cache via click onto "Load", cumbersome for a bunch of caches. And the so loaded Online Notes aren't even displayed in the "BASIC INFO" tab of a Geocache - just the Local note)
So my idea: Please update the "Online Notes" field each time a Geocache is updated. And let users edit or upload the "Local Notes" field. In this case no local Note gets lost/overwritten and the user can decide if he want's to upload his Local note.
In the case of both notes being different: Please display both Notes in the "BASIC INFO" tab of a Geoache!

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Hi Sonny,

I'll answer here instead of Zdeněk cause this is more work for me.

What you suggest may be a kind of solution. Not ideal from my point of view. 1) There may easily be a mess in info whether current "Online notes" are fresh and 2) mainly, the app can't be sure if received data (that comes from various add-ons) are online or local!

The solution I see is to create a history and remember for example last five values of notes. So import will always import the received value, but the user will be able to see also previous value that may be overwritten by accident. What do you think? I may change this problem to an idea and discuss it with other users who use geocaching over Locus Map.

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Hi Menion,

I'm not sure if the history is really needed. Locus actual uses 2 database fields for notes - which is ideal.

The 1st one "ONLINE" should just be read-only and just being written/updated by imports like API-Import by Locus/GC4Locus, "update Gecocaches", or GPX imports.
Like with all other Geocaching data like Listings, Logs etc. the user is responsibile to import the latest data source ;-) And in the case of choosing an outdated source like an old GPX - no problem. The latest Note is still available online at geocaching.com.. The user just has to click "update Gecocaches" gets the latest Online Note. Important: The "LOCAL" field is not overwritten too with this info - so no varying, manual added content in the "LOCAL" field will be overwritten.

The 2nd one "LOCAL" is the only field which can be modified by the user. He should be able to copy the data from "ONLINE" into "LOCAL" by a button if he wants (this step could also be automated for each Cache which consists of an "ONLINE" note like it is done now). And finally the user should be able to upload the info within "LOCAL" to geocaching.com
This is the only step where existing info is going to be overwritten. But that's the will of the user if clicks onto "Upload" - it's the same procedure if he directly changes the Note online at geocaching.com. So no need to introduce a Note's history, geocaching.com offers no Notes' history too.

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Hello Sonny, thanks for the explanation. I finally understand what you mean. "Online" section in the app is only temporary, not persistent. So it is lost the moment you close the dialog. Anyway I like this idea, so I'll try to look at it during the next few days and let you know...

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Hi,

a lot more complicated than I expected. So in the next app version, the app will really keep two versions of notes permanently for every cache, based on your good idea.

Local notes: notes defined by the user, manually or copied from the online notes. They will keep unchanged when you update the cache.

External (online) notes are always updated by import from GPX, Geocaching4Locus, and also import directly in the new Locus Map 4 system etc. Old values are automatically overwritten.

Next Beta version for test, if interested, will be available at the end of the week. Thanks

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Thanks Menion for solving this rather complicated task!

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