The Spot GPS is a device for "checking in" in the wilderness. It works where cellphones don't. It is used primarily as a safety device, alerting local search and rescue as well as anybody else that you wish to notify. It even has the option to share locations to Twitter, Facebook, or a "shared map" (basically an embedded Google Map that doesn't work in Firefox nor Chrome).
Since the Spot website is horrendous, doesn't support my favorite browsers, and only is able to display the last 7 days of data, I decided to rewrite my own version which I am able to embed in a blog. I ping the public API of my GPS locations, looking for new data. When a new location is found, I save it locally. I also serve up all of this information to my own API, which I consume in javascript, creating a customized Google Map of my locations. I am able to associate GPS locations with individual trips and am able to save more than 7 days(!).
Originally, I scraped the Twitter API. Then Twitter implemented mandatory OAuth, causing much frustration on my end. I decided to scrap Twitter completely and use the Spot API. It is easier, despite some weird naming conventions. I'm also able to access all types of messages, rather than just the "OK" messages that Twitter was privy to.
As a disclaimer, Spot started allowing users to save longer "trips" through a proprietary "Adventures" website (which only works in IE and Safari). It still is less customizable and less accessable than my solution.
The base URL is pleskac.org:8080 for my instance because port 80 is being used by Wordpress. Eventually I'd like to write my own blogging software in Go and phase out Wordpress.
/api/trip/list Returns a list of Trip objects. This is used for the dropdown select box. Does not return coordinates of every trip to keep the data to a minimum.
/api/trip/currentTrip Returns a Trip object of the current trip. Returns an empty trip if there are no current trips.
/api/trip/id/{int} Returns a trip object matching the id (key in the database). Returns an empty trip if it is not found in the database.
/api/trip/name/{string}Returns a single trip object of the same name. It does string matching and returns the first trip found if multiple trips match the string. Not sure what this will be used for. The list of trip objects could be used for searching and selecting. The id can be used to get for a specific trip. This is basically for fun and/or testing.
/api/trip/add/{PASSWORD}/{string} Adds a new trip and sets it to the current trip. The password is checked against the database. It's not very secure, more a deterrant to people abusing this API. All checkins after creating the new trip will go to this new current trip.
/api/gps/add/{PASSWORD}/{double}/{double} Adds a new GPS location with the passed in coordinates. Automatically set to the timestamp of the call to the API and added to the current trip. Also the message type is TRACK and the details say that this check-in came from my iPhone, not the SPOT GPS.
/api/gps/add/{PASSWORD}/{double}/{double}/{string} Adds a new GPS location with the passed in coordinates. Automatically set to the timestamp of the call to the API and added to the current trip. The message type is the last parameter. If the message type is not OK or TRACK then it is set to TRACK. This doesn't make much sense now that I'm writing this description. In the future I may allow other message types, but I want to keep the types consistent with the SPOT API.
Still need to code, then documentation will come
- Account config
- Server setup
- HTML usage
main.go
Main function. Calls spot.go to get new locations. Sends them to mysql.go to save them. Keeps track of the latest location, persisted in MySQL.
spot.go
Deals with the Spot API. Returns a list of messages. Gets around a weird case of having 1 message vs multiple messages in json.
endpoint.go
Serves my custom API. See the API section for URIs this handles
dblayer/generics.go
Makes the database connection and returns a DB object. Has all of the external types that may be returned (like Trip)
dblayer/kvp.go
Accesses the Key Value Pair table. This is basically a settings file. Right now this stores the latest SPOT id and my password. In the future it can be used to store other current ids of other systems.
dblayer/trips.go
Saving and retrieving trip and gps information. Formats the outputs to nice objects (maybe too much formatting).
loadMap.json
Consumes my custom API, creating a Google Map which is easily put into any <div> named map_canvas. Also populates an optional select box that allows selection of all trips which then refreshes the map. If there is no select box, an input parameter named id is used in the URL to denote which trip to display. If neither the parameter nor the select box exist, then the current trip is displayed. The current trip is denoted by "(Current)" in the select box if it exists.
map.html
This displays the map and select box wrapped up in html. The json file makes this work. A little CSS formatting included. I have this so I can embed it in an iframe in my blog. If I don't do this, the WordPress theme's CSS will make Google Map's CSS all funky.
singlemap.html
This displays a map for a specific trip and does not include the select box. The JSON takes an input parameter in the URL to desplay a specific trip.
add.html
Two simple forms. One adds and starts a new trip. The other adds a GPS location to the current trip. This uses my API and is password protected (kinda). I can use this in Tierra del Fuego if I have WiFi and my SPOT doesn't work to manually add points.
- Sort dots by time - fixes jagged line issue
- Save timestamps in the timezone they were created
- TESTS!!!
- Move spot.go to new package to allow for reuse
- Add Foursquare integration
- Make configureable with config files