blueDonkey.org

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• Overview
• Downloading
• Using
• Future Plans
• Feedback
• Acknowledgements

Overview

A simple tool that clips the driving directions generated by Yahoo! Maps Driving Directions and presents them one step at a time on the PDA screen. Simply tap the screen after making each turn to see the next one.

Downloading

The early access version of the software is available for download (you may need to hold down the shift key when clicking the link to make sure your browser prompts for where to save the file). Save this file on your system and then use your HotSync tool to install it on your PDA. It occupies just 16K on my PDA including a 62 step route I use for testing.

This version only supports a single route, and while it has been tested on a number of devices using the POSE emulator software, it has only been run on one real Palm device (my Sony Clie N610C). Also, it will need to be run on a device using Palm OS 3.5 or 4.x. As yet, I don't have a version for Palm OS 5.

Using

To use the tool, you need to generate a directions database file (directions.pdb). This is done by passing the URL of the Yahoo! Maps Driving Directions result page to a script here on blueDonkey.org. There are two ways of doing that. If you have JavaScript enabled in your browser, then add this link to your browsers toolbar, bookmarks or context menu:

To add the link, right click over it and select the "Add to favorites..." or "Bookmark This Link" option. If your browser has a personal toolbar or some other quick way of getting to selected bookmarks, you can move this newly added bookmark to that location if you wish.

If you do not have JavaScript enabled, or don't want to add a bookmark for the service, the form here can be used as well:

URL:

When saving the resulting file make sure of the file is going to be saved as directions.pdb - some browsers, most notably Netscape, will try to add a .php extension to the name. Once you have the file saved somewhere, simply use your HotSync tool to install it on your PDA. Note: If you had a route on the PDA, it will be replaced when you install a new one.

Future Plans

My plan for this tool is to generate an enhanced version that will be available for a small payment, but keep the single route version available for free download (and up to date). The enhanced version will include some or all of these extra features:

• Support for multiple routes

• Addition of maps on high resolution (Sony) and high definition (Palm) devices

Both versions should also be available on Palm OS 5 as soon as I get the tools installed and the emulator running (I don't have a Palm OS 5 device, so this will have to be emulator tested only for now).

Additionally, I would like to add some support to the database generation script for other online driving directions services (particularly those for non-US/Canadian locations since they are not currently served by Yahoo! Maps).

Feedback

If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvements to this tool, please add them to the Driving Directions Feedback page. You will need to be a registered user to do this - you may register here if you've not already done so.

Acknowledgements

• The PHP script that generates the database is making use of the PHP-PDB class from http://php-pdb.sourceforge.net

• This is my first Palm OS application, and I found Andrew Howlett's PRC-Tools Tutorial very valuable while getting it to run.

• The tools I used were the latest PRC-Tools installed on a Linux box running the Mandrake 9 distribution.

• I used the POSE emulator (version 3.5) for all the development testing and debugging.

-- JohnGordon - 26 Mar 2003