Re: New checker for GC1D0WE, GC1CZXB, GC1CYAR Potomac Trailmasters Series

Hi,

I just acquired a set of 3 caches that are in a series called the Potomac Trailmasters series, and I would love to find a way to have an automated checker.

This cache was created in 2008, so it should meet grandfather criteria as it uses GC codes and points.

All 3 in the series use the same exact list of GC codes and points, and each GC code has a point amount that applies if the cacher has found that geocache.

They are then able to find and log the geocache once they have met the point criteria for the cache. In the series, the first one is 50 points minimum, the second is 100, and the third is 150.

So the checkers would check if the user has found the caches listed (including any of the archived ones), and then count up the points associated, and return that it is successful if they exceed the minimum points for that cache in the series (50, 100, 150).

Since I just acquired this, I updated some of the caches to the archived list that have been archived since the previous cacher last updated it. At some point soon I'll also want to add some new caches as the active cache list is growing smaller.

So I was wondering if this is possible for this cache, and thank you kindly for your time and help. This is a well-renowned series among hikers in the Northern Virginia area, and manually checking each GC code is time-consuming. I think a challenge checker from project-gc would increase people's willingness to work towards the challenges.

Working on a quick script.

Okay, script is ready. I'm going to need 4 public bookmark lists, one for each of the points ranges, ie. a bookmark list of all the caches worth 1 points (archived or not), another for 2 points, another for 5 points and another for 10 points. Will cater for the special overrides in the configuration, so no need to include these in your lists:

2 50 Potomac Trailmasters 50 (GC1CYAR) for 100 and 150 trailmaster count only
5 100 Potomac Trailmasters 100 (GC1CZXB) for 150 trailmaster count only

And then I can provide you with checkers. This way you can adjust your lists without having to constantly adjust the checkers to match.

There is still a small problem, the caches are not recognized as challenges yet.

They will needs acceptance on the challenge exceptions list unless you change the title and add the word challenge

Ok, thank you! Changed the title to Challenge on all three.

Working on the list as we speak and will send those later today.

4 public bookmark lists:
Potomac Trailmasters Challenge (1 Point) https://coord.info/BM64KED
Potomac Trailmasters Challenge (2 Point) https://coord.info/BM64KF0
Potomac Trailmasters Challenge (5 Point) https://coord.info/BM64KFY
Potomac Trailmasters Challenge (10 Point) https://coord.info/BM64KGG

You're amazing! Thank you so much.

I need to find the guid of these bookmark lists. They need to be set as public and shared to be able to do that.

I can get those for you, and I'll change the settings. One moment.

Ok, I updated them all to shareable and public. Apologies as I was confused about the share part.

I am not seeing a guid, but I do see List IDs when I hover over the links. But not sure how to get a guid.

1 point - 5267876
2 point - 5267894
5 point - 5267923
10 point - 5267941

Not those, but I managed to get the guid's of all the lists after you set them as public. Here's your checkers:

50: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1CYAR/40097
100: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1CZXB/40096
150: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1D0WE/40095

I'm currently showing the matched caches in two formats. I'm leaning towards the bottom option. Let me know what you think?

Love it! I think the bottom output would be better IMHO.

Or, do you think it would be a good idea to show the ones they do AND don't have in the output? That way they can look up the ones they don't have yet? I trust your judgement.

Okay, let me play around. Will let you know once I've come up with something.

Try it now? Yes, the missing ones won't have cache names since the scripting system can't do lookups on caches that you haven't found. But the GC codes are all clickable so you can find the details on the caches that way. Unfortunately it'll also show archived caches in this list for the same reason. Not sure what to do about this.

This is great!!

Since we can't do a lookup for the names, and its showing archived caches, then I think your earlier solution would be best. (The second one you had on the first round that shows the ones achieved with the names).

So not showing the caches that you can find to earn more points? Maybe we need to split up the bookmark lists into ones that are archived and ones that are still active? In other words, we'll need 8 bookmark lists in total. That way I can only show the caches that are still deemed active to assist people to qualify?

I realized that the bookmark lists let them see all the caches and whether they are active or not and if they've been found or not. So I can just put the links to the bookmark lists in the listing so they can look them up there. Then you don't have to worry about doing all that in the actual checker. Does that work? I gave you credit on the page for the checker and put on the embed code. This is really incredible to help revive this old cache. I can't thank you enough for your help.

Having a bookmark list is a good start but not enough to serve as a checker. I've added the name lookup as suggested by sumbloke (not sure how I forgot about that function, thanks sumbloke), but it would still be good to split the bookmark lists into active and archived ones, ie. eight lists in total. That way I can have proper responses for people using the checker and only show the active caches in the bottom section as suggestions for further points and/or maybe show the archived ones as a separate third option.

You can look up the cache name (using Gccode2CacheName), but can't get other details on unfound caches.

I have added checkers for each of these caches

These checkers have nothing to do with the challenge?!

Unsure of your response

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1D0WE/20395 - shows if the cacher qualifies for the challenge

Your checker show if the person has logged a find on these 3 caches. It doesn't show whether a person qualifies for these 3 challenges.

I apologize, I am getting confused, as pieterix was coding the checker but then vpjd posted directly on my cache pages that checkers were ready??

What checkers should I be sharing on my cache page? What questions, pietrix, do you still have for me on this as I think it wasn't complete yet from your standpoint, so should I remove those checkers on the cache page?

And based on prior messages, do I even need the bookmark lists anymore? If not, I'll just make one bookmark list I use for the caches, as you mentioned you weren't able to automate it off the bookmark list?

Thank you for your help in getting this all set up. I'm super grateful!!!

Pieterix and I (VPDJ) have been working separately on different approaches to come up with checkers for these caches.

I did not know he was working on it - and he did not know I had already completed my checkers while he was working on his checkers. I already had a checker on the 150 challenge and merely copied it for the 50 and 100 challenges. I had noticed notes on the cache pages where people wanted a checker so I made these checkers.

My 3 checkers work for these challenges - it counts the number of points based upon the finds and checks the total points against the cache total. It is not the most elegant but it works. It does not matter if the cache has been archived or not.

I have used this approach for several other similar challenge caches and it does show the caches in the list that have been found and the points earned as a result.

The main difference between the two checker approaches is the maintenance method when a cache is added to the list. The addition of caches to the list is a rare occurrence once the challenge cache has been set up - maybe once every other year at most based upon similar caches in the area.

My checkers would need to be changed to add a line for each new cache and associated point value.

Pietrix's approach would require no checker changes unless a new point value is added - the CO would have to add the cache to the appropriate bookmark list. In addition, the CO would have to determine when a cache on the list is archived and move the cache from one bookmark list to another.

It is up to the CO to choose which of the 2 checker approaches to utilize on the cache page.

Here is some of the output from my checker:

vpdj has earned 212 points.
10 GC1BKY1
10 GCKEEJ
10 GC44R6C
10 GC55MJQ
10 GCEBD8
10 GCVPC4
5 GCVNK1

My approach works on bookmark lists, which means the CO can modify the lists whenever they want, thereby requiring no maintenance to the checker ever. My last suggestion was to provide eight bookmark lists, one set for 1, 2, 5 and 10 points for active caches and another set for the archived caches. That way my checker can make suggestions as to which caches people can still find to qualify for the challenges. This also means that you can move caches between the active/archived lists whenever a cache is archived, thereby retaining the points for it, but no longer suggesting it as an option for people to find. Anyway, let me know which approach you prefer.

Ok, I am no longer confused and I will get those split bookmark lists to you later today! :)

Trying to convince the powers-that-be to return the archive flag when fetching the bookmark details, so hold off on this for a little while. In other words, maybe you don't need to split out the archived caches.

I just finished the bookmarks. But if you need me to merge them back together, that's fine too.

1 Point - Active - https://coord.info/BM64KED
1 Point - Archived - https://coord.info/BM64WA0
2 Point - Active - https://coord.info/BM64KF0
2 Point - Archived - https://coord.info/BM64WAG
5 Point - Active - https://coord.info/BM64KFY
5 Point - Archived - https://coord.info/BM64WB9
10 Point - Active - https://coord.info/BM64WFE
10 Point - Archived - https://coord.info/BM64KGG

Thank you both for your solutions. I would prefer to go with the bookmark solution, because that will allow me to maintain without having to request a change to the checkers when stuff goes archived or new caches come online along the river.

Thanks!

The bookmark lists must be public and shared. Otherwise the checker system can't access them.

This is odd, because everytime I create a new one, I set those settings initially and they don't stick, and I have to go back in and do it a second time for it to take. I'll report that to the site admins.

I went back in and updated them again. Try now.

Script enhanced and checkers updated. Give them a try and let me know what you think:

50: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1CYAR/40097
100: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1CZXB/40096
150: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC1D0WE/40095

They are perfect! And the output is fantastic.

I added caches to the bookmark lists today. I'm not seeing them show up in the output of the checker when I run it. An example, I added Potomac View GC83DAC to the 10 point bookmark list, but it is not showing up in the output.
https://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?code=BM64WFE