Trackserver with Osmand problems

Hi,

Your question isn’t entirely clear. In your first sentence, you write “Seems to work fine.”. What exactly works fine?

I assume you are using the Online tracking feature of the GPX plugin for live tracking. Are your location updates appearing in Trackserver? You write “there is no tracks uploaded”, so I assume they are not?

You should check your webserver access and/or error log to see what OsmAnd is sending to the server and why that doesn’t work.

Are you using the Full URL as displayed in your Trackserver profile in the OsmAnd settings, including the ‘username’ and ‘key’ parameters?

Regarding the error that you’re getting with uploading the GPX file, I’m not sure why that happens. I just tried it with a GPX from OsmAnd 3.4.8, and it worked fine. Can you send me one of your GPX files so I can have a look to see what is wrong with it?

To be clear: Trackserver validates the uploaded XML file against the GPX specification (version 1.1 first, version 1.0 second). If this gives an error, there is most likely something wrong with the file. I have seen many many applications that generate non-conforming GPX files, that why the check is there in the first place. It could be anything from self-invented or missing tags, to an inappropriately formatted timestamp field. I can’t say without looking at the actual file.

Best regards,
Martijn.

Hi Martijn,

thanks a lot for your help. Very much appreciated. Sorry for my incomplete problem description. I am not a coding guru anymore.

To answer your questions.

When I say Osmand works I mean it tracks, and saves GPX files.
Yes, the tracks, nor live tracking, are NOT uploaded to Trackserver. I have used GPXViewer on some of the generated GPX files and when I open the GPX files in GPX viewer then I get the message that the GPX files contain EXTENSIONS, but they are displayed there. I can email you a GPX file generated by Osmand if you give me an email address.

Yes, I use the full URL in Osmand. Which in my case is:
https://sailpatience.com/osmand/?lat……….&username=ews&key=a5c1687d…

But most important first. The problem is not with Trackserver. Its the GPX files.

I have used GPSVISUALIZER.COM to “convert” the osmand gpx file which gpxviewer complains about having extensions and created a “plain” gpx file and that file uploads fine into TRACKSERVER and also displays in Trackserver.

So part of the problem clearly is with OSMAND not creating a proper GPX file, or a GPX file with too many extra info which TRACKSERVER can’t digest.
And also that the live tracking doesn’t work.

Let me give you a bit of background what I want to achieve. Maybe you have an idea of what is the best and most simple solution. Maybe I am just trying to use the wrong tools for what I want to do. I don’t think the problem is with Trackserver !!!

– I am sailing with my sailboat on the ocean. Have sailed from Canada to the Philippines now via USA, MX, FP, Cooks, Samoa, Fiji, NZ, Fiji, Vanuatu, PNG, Palau, Philippines. And I have a blog where I report about my journey. Its a WP site SAILPATIENCE.COM.
So far I have been feeding the position map via emailing from offshore via satellite modem (iridium Go) via the weather service I used (Predictwind.com). They offer this tracking page and its fed by simply sending gps coordinates to an email address at predictwind.com. I usually did that in an interval of about 1 h when at sea.

But the weather service and satellite subscription fees are just too expensive($200/mth) for me as an old man with no income and now at see for 3+ years so I have cancelled the weather service and the satellite service.

What I want to achieve is to be able to record a GPX track and upload it to my website and display it there.
And if possible do live tracking by sending coordinates by email in certain intervals via my HF (HAM) setup (Pactor modem), but thats not a priority for now.

I am using an APP (NAVIONIX BOATING) for navigating and that app can also record a track and export the GPX file. But same problem – Trackserver does not parse the extensions. But after converting to “bare GPX it works with Trackserver.

I have also been able to upload and display GPX files from Gaia GPS.

… in addition to above …

just to be clear. I do NOT need further help with the OSMAND to TRACKSERVER for now. I understand its the GPX files generated, or better the extensions delivered along with the GPX files. I can manually deal with that for now and will do more research on what can be done as to live tracking.

If you have a any pointers to workflow/procedures/apps I could use for doing the live tracking, I of course would very much appreciate that.

I feed my blog from OFFSHORE via sending an email to the POSTIE WP PLUGIN either via sat modem or HF (Winlink email). If there is any product/plugin which may offer such service, that would be great.

cheers and thanks again for your help and the Trackserver plugin

Hi Martijn,

I have since downloaded GPXEditor and manually constructed my journey from Canada to the Philippines. Uploaded the GPX file into Trackserver and here is the problem.

At Longtitude 180W/E (around Fiji) Trackserver jumps(draws a line) all around the globe and then keeps drawing correctly from there.

I had that with some navigation sw too when I was in that area that they couldn’t handle the 180E/W longtitude change.
This is an issue in Trackserver. Probably easy to fix for you.

I can provide screenshot and GPX file or you just go to

https://sailpatience.com/location-test/

and see for yourself. The route in the GPX file starts in Canada and keeps going on first to MX, then Fiji, then down to NZ, up to Fiji again and then on West to Vanuatu, up to PNG, Palau and Philippines.

thanks

Hi @ewsatsea,

That’s some incredible journey you’re making.

Regarding the tools you’re using, I’m not quite sure what to advise. It seems you are better informed on satnav applications than I am ?? In general, I can think of two ways to achieve what you want, both of which are supported by Trackserver:

• GPX (or other file format) upload
• Live tracking

For live tracking, you obviously need an internet connection that is mostly available. OsmAnd had never been my favorite for live tracking. It is difficult to configure and it drains my battery in no time at all. OruxMaps and TrackMe are the reliable choices for the Android platform.

GPX files with extension should be handled by Trackserver without problems, as long as they conform to the spec. That means that the extensions should be properly namespaced. You can find more information on validating GPX files here: https://www.topografix.com/gpx_validation.asp

Regarding the ‘jump’ around the globe when crossing from 180E to 180W: this happens because that’s how Leaflet (the JS mapping library) works. Leaflet supports coordinates < -180 and > 180 to accomodate for this. It will then draw the lines on adjacent ‘copies’ of the world. Trackserver does not implement this yet.

So if you cross the boundary in westward direction, like you did, all the longitudes from that point on should be corrected with -360 degrees (so you’d go from -180 to -181).

This can probably be fixed quite easily for tracks that are served from Trackserver’s database. I’m not sure it can be fixed for external GPX / KML files.

Unfortunately, fixing this would require a new release of Trackserver, and I’m in the middle of quite a big code restructuring effort which kind of makes that impossible right now. I’ll see what I can do.

Best regards,
Martijn.

In the mean time, could you send me a GPX export of the track that crosses the 180E/W boundary, so I can use it for testing a fix?

My email is [email protected].

I’m still interested in the buggy GPX from OsmAnd too, if you can share it.

Best regards,
Martijn.