Re: checker for - State Star GeoArt Challenge – Make it a Double! GC5E0YX

https://coord.info/GC5E0YX

in reading the challenge requirements and looking at the various state stars, many were not created by owner "50 State Star". and there are all kinds of variations on the names of the caches in the state stars. BUT I could easily put together x number of bookmark lists, one list for each star. the bookmark lists would have 50, 51 or 52 caches and some states have two stars so there would be Tennessee Star 1 and Tennessee Star 2. To qualify all one would need to find are 49 caches in any of the two bookmark lists. If this is possible and you think thats the way to go let me know and I will create the bookmark lists. or any other kind of list needed to work with the checker.

In theory, that is possible, if you have bookmark lists. It'll require a new script, though, and a lot of upkeep (if a new one gets published, you'd need to make the list and I'd need to update the script, etc.)

Also, I believe that Geocaching.com will limit you to 20 lists (or maybe it's 50...?), so this'll eat into your quota by quite a bit. I might be able to craft a solution that is able to go off a single BM list, but that would be tough.

only do it if it's easy. Its not had a checker since the beginning and keeping track of how many stars you've done is not that hard. so skip my request unless you figure out an easy way to do it.

From a scriptwriting perspective this is much easier than some of the other(s) you've requested, but it'll eat up a lot of BM lists and would require a lot of upkeep. I'm going to leave this thread in this section though, because maybe there's a clever solution.

Not my discussion, not my checker, but it's

Quote
Groundspeak
up to 100 Lists (maximum 1000 caches per List)

https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=7&pgid=283

Figured I'd drop that tidbit off :)

Well, even still... 50 states, some of which have two stars.. could work out to ~70 or ~80 lists. Not sure if DrPflug is willing to give up so many slots.

It might be possible to put all the caches in a big list, and then try to use the state/cache owner to tease the different stars apart. But that's potentially unreliable so I am trying to think of a solution...

so I'm thinking..... of creating a second (non-premium) account and creating the bookmark lists under that account. It might be 30-40 lists. would you be able to just use those lists for the purpose of this checker?

Lists are a PMO feature, if I recall correctly. But if it isn't, yes, it would be possible for me to use those lists.

You are right. I just tried my grandson's account and it says Lists are a premium feature.

Can you try a test? I have one BM List named State Star GeoArts. 51 caches with Texas in the title, 51 with Louisiana in the title, and 51 with Oklahoma in the title. Success would be 49 finds from any of these 3 states. DrPflug would fail. Czechsun would pass. I think I'd end up with 3 BM Lists. For states with two stars, you'd probably have to check for the CO name for those states to differentiate between the two stars.

I uploaded 102 more caches for two Tennessee State Stars. The stars have different CO's. I won't upload any more until you tell me if this approach is workable. For all the state stars, I'd end up with 3 Bookmark Lists.

I did some investigation and I think that this is probably impossible. My somewhat informal reasoning:

- The PGC.GetBookmarkList function, which is provided by Project-GC, only returns the GC codes of the caches in the list. For example, PGC.GetBookmarkList("BMCK9QY") returns ["GC4EK5C", "GC4EK5G", "GC4EK5K", ...].
- There is no function that can "get geocache data".
- The only way to get a geocache's data is if the user happens to have found the particular geocache in question.
- Some cache owners have opted out of third-party data sharing, which means that while we can obtain cache data, the "cache owner" field is "null".
- Putting the above together, we'd have to come up with a way to identify individual state stars, with only the data from the caches the user has found (sometimes incomplete) and no data on the caches the user has not found. I worry that that would be far too fragile to be reliable... if we're too generous, we might accidentally allow players to mix-and-match from different stars; and if we're too strict, some stars might become fractured and impossible to achieve.

On that basis, I'm going to move this thread to the "Archive (Impossible)" section of the forum. However, I'm going to keep a reference to it in my personal tracking system in case future updates to the checker infrastructure make this do-able.

So, apologies that a checker could not be built -- it always annoys me when I see one that doesn't have a checker. But I think the conditions for this one are memorable enough that people will remember the state stars that they've completed.

what about this idea....
a series of Map Compares.
first one looks for finds from State=Texas and Cache Name contains "50 State Star", checks for => 49 finds
second one looks finds from State=Louisiana and Cache Name contains "Louisiana Star", checks for => 49 finds
and so on for each state, with a different Cache Name contains string for each state.

for states with 2 stars, the Map Compare would have to include the Owner Name in the search to differentiate.

Possible?

There'd have to some additional tweaking to get only the cache type that made up the star. there were some events with similar names......

Unfortunately the Challenge Checker system can't call out to the Map Compare tool. The script will receive a list of the user's finds, and the script is responsible for everything from there.

Well, maybe not Map Compare. But like this Challenge. https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4P9D7/7378
It gets a list of all caches I've found beginning with the letter L. and gives me a total of 873. all I'd want to do is change it to search for caches that contain (as opposed to begin with) the string "50 State Star" (in Texas) and "Louisiana Star" (in Louisiana). seems like it should be possible.

and this challenge is even closer. https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC2KXCC/2395 searches for string anywhere in the title.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2023 12:05AM by DrPflug. (view changes)

I would worry that that is error-prone/"hackable", ie. someone could just hide a cache with the name and have it "count". And if there are any issues with spacing/capitalization in any of the titles, we'd have to make the title search more generous, potentially opening up more false positives.

Also, that would almost certainly require me to update the script (rather than just the tag) every time a new star is created/cache is added/etc. That is a long-term commitment that I am not certain I will be able to keep up.

I would much prefer the bookmark list, since (1) that would give a specific list of GC codes that are acceptable, so that we avoid false positives, and (2) you'd be able to update it "remotely" just by adding new caches to the list. But then we get back to the issue of the bookmark list not containing enough information:

- I could test for "49 finds matching GC#s in the bookmark list, and only ones in Texas" to try and determine if the user has completed the Texas star, but in states with more than one star, that would fail.
- I could try to look at the CO, but if they've opted out or there are multiple COs that'll fail.
- I could try to look at the county but some stars likely stretch across county boundaries so that'll fail.
- I could try to look at the placed date, but if any caches have been replaced/re-done that'll fail.
- I could try to look at the posted latitude/longitude to see which are "close" but that's somewhat poorly defined (and also won't work for Basic Members, I believe).

So it's a delicate balance: if I select too few of the aforementioned properties to search by, there might be false positives where irrelevant caches/caches from different stars get selected. If I select too many, I might accidentally fracture a star in two making it impossible to qualify with that star.

Anyways, I'll keep playing with it to see if I can come up with something reliable...

I am still thinking......
question: this would be possible if we could have one bookmark list per star, right? You would just have to determine if the user had 49+ finds on each list.

Now here is a checker for one of my challenges, where you need to have found 70% of the caches on a bookmark list.

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC5HP0V/48885

I am looking at the code and can't tell what bookmark list it's using. Is it my bookmark list named "Enduring Austin-Area Caches" I don't see that name appearing anywhere in the source code so I think not. Or is it possible it's a Project-GC maintained list that the checker creator copied over from my list ??? If yes, then perhaps there's a way to just have these needed Star bookmark lists created by project-gc and not myself??

On the checker page, beside "Tag config" there is a button labelled "Show". Click that, and you will see the BM-code (BM2M1RF -- coord.info/BM2M1RF) of your bookmark list.

However you've reminded me of a better solution: Project-GC maintained lists. Well, not really. What I can do is this: I can use the same database that stores the polygons for your other checkers, and instead store GC#s. And since you are in the Discord server (I assume DrPflug#7223 is you) it will be easy for you to send updates to the admin team when necessary.

well I'm glad I helped. Let me know where to send the info for the state lists. If I just created BM lists, could you pull it from there?

Actually, yes. Let's do that, and I'll build the initial dataset from what you provide. I'll make sure I give you a copy of the data, so if an update is needed and I'm not around (very possible) you can contact any of the admins and describe to them what you want.

If you're able to make individual bookmark lists for each star (which you can delete after I'm done), that would be perfect.

ok, I'll do that tomorrow

44 Public Bookmarks created. there are 39 states with Stars and 5 of them have 2 stars (Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Tennessee and Virginia). The names of these Bookmark Lists all start with "50 State Star".

Wonderful. I will get started.

Checker is ready at:

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC5E0YX/80229

For now, the GC codes are hard-coded in the source, but at some point this week or next week I will move them into a JSON data blob so that they can be updated easily without needing my support.

Super, I see _ILMOP_ has completed 7 Stars! Holy Moley!

One typo, on the success line for Louisiana, there is a space after "Louisiana" and before the comma

You've found 50 caches in the group 50 State Star - Louisiana , out of 49 required.

Other than that it's ready for production! Thanks, and that was fast!

I assume I can delete my Bookmark Lists now, right ??????

Whoops, will fix!

And yes, you can delete the bookmark lists now. Thanks for putting those together for me, it made my job a whole lot easier.

this one is complete.