FoxtrotGPS

Notes on FoxtrotGPS, the usual Wildsong page -- I write until I have a basic understanding, then leave you hanging.

User guide

File:Foxtrot screenshot.png

Sidebar

there are 7 buttons on the left sidebar

Show info - toggle a panel on the right side on/off

Fullscreen

Zoom in

Zoom out

Autocenter - Keeps the map centered on the current GPS position.

Next - Selects the next map source - the list of map sources is set in the Configuration panel

Prev - Selects the previous map source

Map

Context menu

this point

show friends

show POIs

show photos

ways & routes >

POIS >

photos >

my position >

map download

map detail >

Right panel

Toggled on/off with the i button.

Arrows at top rotate through 4 panels:

1 Trip Meter

2 Friends

3 Tracks

4 Configuration

Friends

Looks like you can register at a central web server, and send updates on your position at a selectable interval (default 5 minutes). You can set a status ("What are you doing")

Peeking at the code, it looks like it's using "curl" to send messsges to a Web server.

The projects list at FoxtrotGps.org suggests that standards would be better and that a couple possibilities are XMPP (Jabber) and YouLoc.net

I am looking at GeoRSS and wondering if it's applicable. GeoRSS supports drawing shapes (not just points) on a map, so for example the extent of a flood could be transmitted as a polygon.

I am also wondering how to fit APRS into the picture. I'd like to have APRS stations appear on my FoxtrotGPS map.

The bits and bobs

FoxtrotGPS builds on a rich foundation of open source components.

Building on Ubuntu 10.04

Prequisites

Taken straight from the source

• pkg-config <http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/>
• GLib 2.x <http://www.gtk.org/>
• GTK+ 2.x <http://www.gtk.org/>
• libglade 2.x <http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/libglade/2.6/>
• GConf 2.x <http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/>
• libcurl <http://curl.haxx.se/>
• SQLite 3 <http://www.sqlite.org/>
• libexif <http://libexif.sourceforge.net/>
• libxml2 <http://xmlsoft.org/>
• libgps >= 2.90 <http://gpsd.berlios.de/>

What I had to install

Starting with a machine that's been used to compile and build projects, I still had to install some stuff.

I downloaded and built curl and gpsd from source, Ubuntu version is outdated.

sudo apt-get install libgconf2-dev libglade2-dev curl sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev \
  libxml2-dev libexif-dev libcurl3
sudo apt-get install bzr
sudo apt-get install autoconf intltool libtool

bzr branch  http://www.foxtrotgps.org/branches/foxtrotgps-dev/

cd foxtrotgps-dev/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install
foxtrotgps

It runs!

Contributing changes

1. Create a branch
2. Make your one change on the branch (to keep the ChangeLog sensible)
3. Commit the files that changed
4. Josh will evaluate your change and hopefully merge them into the trunk
5. Update your source code