Trail locations

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:02 pm

Is there any way that we can add a map with pins on the site that perhaps when clicked displays a tab with information about the ride and perhaps a link to a forum thread? I understand that would take some technical skill with some program, but it would be extremely helpful.
even a map with numbers for various locations of rides so that people have an easier time meeting up?

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:46 pm

I'm not sure if you are familiar with our ride calendar and it's not very active right now with the weather being what it is in the Northeast. But when it's active there is a link on the starting location of each ride and that link takes you to a Google Map with the starting location centered. So that's a start.

The starting locations and their links, as well as descriptive information are stored in a MYSQL (database) table on the site. So once one of the ride calendar admins (there are about a dozen in the club) picks a starting location from a list the other information is automatically "pulled" from the database and appears on the ride calendar.

It would not be too difficult to develop a master map with all the starting locations on it. It would be somewhat more difficult to arrange that so you could zoom in or out to a useful level of detail. And it would be another step entirely to have actual maps and turn lists associated with each ride and also available in some kind of indexed, easily findable form on the web page.

We recently posted some links to routeslip.com that does provide a searchable ride map facility. You could take a look there for ideas. Last time I looked the author of that site had some work to do to make the ride maps and turnlists more easily editable. On the other hand, it would not make sense for us to try to duplicate his work here.

Personally, I'm "booked up" on adding new features to the site. I'm sitting out the winter in Southern California and riding and working on a project with a half dozen software developers from throughout the world to improve and debug the "base" software which this page is built on. I probably spend 4 to 6 hours a day on this and I'm not taking on any new projects until it's done. And even then I have a backlog of projects for this page ... like developing the MHCC membership part so you can use Paypal to join the club or renew your membership.

If anyone want to volunteer please feel free to post here or email me.

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:29 pm

Thanks, that was quite informative, I only just signed up on the forums today, I did take a quick look at the calender, but only one trip was set up. still I should have looked into it farther.
Routslip.com sounds like a wonderful resource. Good luck working on the base software. Hopefully it is an enjoyable challenge for you. I personally cannot wait to see what new developments arrise in the future of the site.
Enjoy your time in Ca.

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:44 pm

Because it may not be obvious, I just wanted to point out that you can look at last year's rides in the ride calendar by going in and setting the dates to point to, say, a month from last year. Then in the start location area the location name will be "clickable" and you will be able to see the appropriate Google map in a new window.

Most of the changes we are doing for the site are kind of "behind the scenes" stuff. This software, PHPnuke, is riddled with literally thousands of bugs and HTML "compliance" standards issues. Your browser software works around most of them but it won't have to nearly as much when we get this release done. There will also be some additional themes (affect the layout and presentation of the page) and that's one area I've been working on.

Taking care of these bugs will make the system more efficient and you might see better response time also as a result. But the proof will be in the pudding.

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:51 pm

Capitol Forest is where I used to ride, and they had this set up, unfairly they get a lot of money for volunteering in the forest from DNR, so they get funding for the website. I guess I just really liked the TOPO map style.
If any of you ever travel to Olympia WA and have some free time. check out Capitol forest. It has some 150-300 miles of Bike trails. Sweet single track. because of the tight location of capitol forest, they only need a couple of high resolution topo maps. but our trails span across the state, and then some here so it seems that doing this may take too much space? it seems to me that a TOPO map of some of the places would be useful for planning trips.

http://www.capitolforest.com/mtbrideguidepageNEW.html

http://www.capitolforest.com/ridemimashortloop.html

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:41 pm

Those links are very interesting, thanks. "Space" in the sense of computer disk space is not really an issue. But I've been trying to steer people away from desktop mapping programs and towards things like Google Maps for a while now. I'm a long time user of Delorme and even did a demo last Winter of how to make routes with Delorme software. But it seems to me that desktop mapping is a dead end versus Internet based mapping. Why? Because no one that I know of in desktop mapping has solved the problem of keeping the files updated. It's a perennial problem with Delorme which is discussed at nauseam in their forums. Also, when half the users are still running monstrosities like Windows Me and then you talk about updating their Desktop software, well lo and behold their operating system is no longer supported.

Routeslip is based on Google Maps I believe and there is more to come. Again, if anyone wants to work on a project with maps for the site they just need to let me know. I will do what I can to enable it as long as it makes sense and as long as we aren't trying to go in a couple directions at once.

Cycling Friend Joined: Nov 15, 2005 Posts: 18

This post is in response to BikingFool's initial query. Are you looking for "trails" information as in MTB/off-road cycling, or are you looking for Road-riding routes?

If you are looking for actual "trails" as in MTB information, then please go to www.capitalMTB.org, and you will find exactly what you are asking about with an interactive google map with "push-pins" and an option to switch to a topo map with roads superimposed.

If you were actually looking for routes to ride your road bike, then Frank has certainly answered your question.

Ride ON!

--Chris