Well, as of today, the caching functionality of Keyori should be pretty much spot-on. I'm encouraging those of you who come by the site to toy with it, add bogus caches, play with searching, play with the Explorer, and use the Forums to post bugs. The data that is currently contained in Keyori is mostly invalid, with the exception of a couple caches posted by others, but again -- this system is only in a beta stage right now, so don't be sheepish about adding data (be it real or bogus).

Sometime after most of the major bugs have been sorted out, we'll nuke the database. Completely clear it out. User accounts, caches, log entries, etc. I'd like to have a solid repetoire of valid caches to import back into Keyori at this point, but realistically, I don't see this happening. Keyori has blipped up on the network radar a couple times, but only very minimally (which is good, given it's only very minimal functionality at the time), but I feel the project is now ready for a somewhat broader audience. The one real missing key for now is the ability to upload GPX files as a mechanism to create caches (and further, as a mechanism for generic spatial data transfer), but that (in my opinion) is not a real impediment to Keyori becoming live, but might well be an impediment to Keyori becoming used.

One other issue I see with Keyori becoming a bit more wide-spread in the realm of usage is the availability of the XML-RPC and other data-sharing resources on the To-Do list. Frankly, unless Keyori has users in the first place, there won't be anything there to share, so the various APIs would go unused. So they'll stay idle, for now.

The crux of the problem is less technical, and more physical, however. Keyori is currently a dual-proc 666MHz P3, with a gig of RAMBUS memory, so it's...capable. But as the database grows, and Explorer usage (and layers) grow, it'll show it's age pretty readily. (For that matter, my preliminary tests with the Explorer interface shows that anything beyond it's current functionality will rapidly cripple system performance) Bandwidth is also a rare commodity around these parts, but this is less of an issue for now, as the system is at least usable even without the bandwidth, as most browsers will cache the larger graphical components, meaning that, aside from the Explorer interface, most transfers should only require about 1k or 2k of HTML data.

But that's all for now. Bang on the system! BEAT ON IT! And make some use of the forums.

Cheers!

I'm sure Amber's getting irritated by my immersion in the development of this system by now, but we're making progress. Of particular note, I have a link to the forums up now, so you'll always have easy access, and that the Explorer is more or less usable at this point. The functionality of the drag box is ponderous, and still a tad squirrely, but it more or less works. Only two query layers have been implemented, I'll get a couple more working in the near future, and there's headway being made towards 'Generic' pseudo spatial layers, a general functionality where users can create data groups, and add generic data to those groups (including points, lines, and polygons) for use in their own mapping, or shared publically for all to see. There'll be more on that when we get there, but for now, a brief bit on the usage of the Explorer..!

- Zoom In. Click and drag a box on the map to zoom in on that region.

- Click on the map, and zoom a step back, recentering the map on the point clicked.

- Recenter the current map at the location clicked on, without changing scale.

- Drag a box around a region, and a results page will pop up with links back to specific pages for each point within the box. Only queries the layer selected in the 'Query Layer' dropdown on the right of the map header. Uses JavaScript to open up a new browser window with query results, so if you have popup blocking enabled you might have to add an exception for this page.

- Not implemented yet. Will regenerate the current map, in a printable form.

To the right of the print icon is the 'Query Layer' dropdown box. This controls they type of data searched when using the Query tool.

Underneath the map is a series of checkboxes next to things like 'Geocaches' and 'Roads' (if you aren't logged in), and things like 'Your Caches', 'Found Caches', and 'Reference Points' if you are logged in. These boxes control the various types of data you see on the map. Checking 'Roads' will turn on line drawings of major roads throughout the world (though you will need to zoom in quite a bit before they'll start appearing), checking 'Reference Points' will turn on display of all of your personal Reference Points.

As things mature and progress, the types of data available on the map (and the map itself) will change and grow, and the sorts of things you can query, and where the results page will take you, will also grow. Keep your eyes open for new features! And keep an eye on the forums for updates, discussions, and to make any suggestions you might have to help Keyori achieve it's goal of becoming the ultimage tool for the geospatial playground.
Cheers!

The 'Explorer' link on the left will lead you to an alpha-but-usable rendition of the Explorer-interface. I should rename it something other than Explorer lest MS sue me, but for now it will suffice. The zoom-box is a little off-kilter, and the query functionality isn't there yet, and the UI has a little room to grow, but at least you can play with it. The interface from the screenshots is around as well, but it's become necessary to more or less reimplement the whole thing from scratch, as that interface was not designed to interface with anything other than itself it seems. But, we're making progress. :)
Cheers!

Well, since we can't get make the explorer completely available (yet), as it's not quite done (yet), here's a few screenshots.

• Screen 1 - First thing you see in the Explorer. Disregard the maps and icons of California, it's one of the little details yet to be cleaned up...
• Screen 2 - The Explorer with the 'Countour Lines' layer enabled. It's no substitute for a real, honest, USGS Topo Map, but until the Topo Maps arrive, it's what you get.
• Screen 3 - Using the Query tool (by selecting the 'i' button on the toolbar, and dragging a box around a group of waypoints), to get a list of links back to Keyori Cache pages. Notice the latitude and longitude numbers are rounded off...again, minor annoyance, tiny detail needing resolution...

Hope y'all enjoy those, and hopefully we can get this thing rolling in the near future!

Cheers!

So, it's been a long time. Mainly because I was having trouble finding ways of making Keyori do what I really, really wanted Keyori to do. Turns out I was barking up the wrong avenue, and had no idea that what I was actually trying to build a GIS. Once I figured that part out, things started coming together. The other problem we've had, was hardware. The old Sparc5 clone just didn't have the horsepower to run this beast, and I came into possession of a new, far more suitable box, so the upgrade commenced.

Keyori is now running on a Dual proc, P3 666MHz box, with 1GB of high-speed RAMBUS memory. I hate RAMBUS, but you have to admit...it's fast. The box also has a SCSI interface, and I'll be moving the database and GIS data onto a RAID as soon as I get a chance, which should further improve performance.

The machine move meant I lost a lot of time, and I lost the forums (ok, that was more laziness than anything), and I'm pretty sure the user accounts aren't working quite right, so if you can't login to Keyori, send me an email and I'll see what I can do, but hey...that's all part of the Beta process, eh?

The REALLY big news (if you've been paying attention), is the beginnings of the 'Keyori Explorer' interface. I'll post screenshots relatively soon, but the basic story is that the explorer is an interactive map. You can zoom in, out, pan around, and query for details on all points in a given area of a given type. Currently, the only type supported is 'Geocaches' -- but that'll change, and as time passes, the interface will gain more complexity -- ability to toggle road maps, topo maps, and maybe others in as base maps, the ability to view and query for geo-located photos, hiking trails, etc., narrowing searches by cache type, number of finds a cache has had, whether or not you've found or own the cache, etc. The possibilities are nearly endless, but as the interface is just now coming into maturity, it'll be a little while before it starts becoming feature-filled.

Cheers!

Unfortunately, the alpha/beta/go-live schedule is a little off. Progress is being made, however, but more testing needs to be done...feel free to bang around, and check the forums at http://keyori.optera.net/phpBB2/ -- good place for bug reports and the like. Cheers!

Status: Keyori is currently available for testing in a sort of Alpha state. That is to say, most functionality is in place, but there will probably be obvious errors, and missing bits. Please, use the system, and report anything that appears to be broken or missing. Sometime around December 14th we're hoping to transition into a Beta state, where all functionality should exist and work, but there may still be lingering bugs. After two weeks of abuse in Beta, we're planning on going live on January 1st, 2004. When this happens, the database will be wiped clean, so please don't add any real caches until then, and certainly don't try and actually find a cache from Keyori before then. However, it's encouraged to log caches in the system (even though you obviously didn't go out and succeed or fail to find them)

Keyori was designed to meet three simple goals:

This all adds up to a Geocaching system designed with Cachers in mind. Find your waypoints on the go, download them to your GPS using EasyGPS (PC/Windows), SimpleGPS (Mac OS/X), or any of a number of other readily available, free applications.

There's more to it than just downloading cache descriptions and locactions, however; for instance, there's the Geocache namespace extension for the Topografix GPX format, which developers can use to construct their own applications for handling Keyori's Geocache data, and our soon-to-be-available XML-RPC API which you can use to integrate Keyori right into your own website!