BuddyBeacon API

We have added an API that lets you access your BuddyBeacon live tracking information in different ways.

There are now three ways that you can directly access your BuddyBeacon:

1) Link directly to your BuddyBeacon on the ViewRanger website,
2) Embed the BuddyBeacon map in your website,
3) Use the beta version of our API to create your own maps, apps, and mash-ups.

More details: http://bit.ly/aZ4NC1

You can also set the image that is used to show your current location. We've added a new parameter if you are linking to the BuddyBeacon, or are embedding the BuddyBeacon map in your own webpage.

The "icon" parameter lets you specify the image that is used to show the last position.

There are some built-in icons:
paramotor_red
paramotor_green
paramotor_blue
disk_red
bike_green
bike_red
bike_yellow
cyclist
hiker_yellow (this is the default icon)
hiker_white

Example:
http://www.viewranger.com/portal/new_ptbuddybeacon.php?uid=craig5800&fbwidth=400&pin=1234&icon=paramotor_red

To use your own image as the icon, then include the URL (note that the URL needs to be "in quotes"

Example:
http://www.viewranger.com/portal/new_ptbuddybeacon.php?uid=craig5800&fbwidth=400&pin=1234&icon="http://www.viewranger.com/portal/portalimages/betty-stogs.gif"

Ever lost your tent at a festival?

With festival season fast-approaching, it’s time to pack your wellies and head off to the countryside for weekends of music, mud and mayhem. Now finding your way around festival sites, and back to your tent at the end of a long day’s partying, has never been easier, thanks to ViewRanger.

A friend of ours once spent an hour and a half looking for her tent at Glastonbury. It was four in the morning, she was getting more and more frustrated, and other tent-dwellers were getting quite annoyed with her as well!

Being able to ‘tag’ the exact location of your tent means that you simply follow the on-screen map to find your way to your temporary home. It’s easy to use and means you can worry about the important festival questions instead – like which bands to see and what kind of ethnic food to try.

Even hardened festival-goers complain of the difficulties of finding their way around large and confusion green-field sites. As well as marking the location of your tent, ViewRanger can be used to tag the exact position of the stages, toilets, your favourite food-outlet, and other landmarks, so that finding your way around the site becomes a cinch.

And if you're going as a group of mates, or aiming to hook up with friends when you arrive, then ViewRanger's BuddyBeacon feature can be invaluable as it locates your ViewRanger using friends.

New beta release

A new beta release of ViewRanger is now available. If you would like to try it please email support@viewranger.com.


The main new features include:

Trip view

The trip view displays a range of statistics about your current journey. You can configure which statistics are shown and can choose from several different screen layouts. The statistics include values such as distance, speed, average speed, time moving, estimated time of arrival, altitude and pace.

You can save different combinations and layouts as profiles, and step through the profiles with the arrow keys.


Track and route graphs

For a track you can display graphs of speed, altitude, GPS altitude and distance against time. You can display these individually or superimposed.

For a route you can display a graph of altitude against distance.



Buddy Beacons

You can send your location to the ViewRanger server. If you give friends your details, they can see your location either using their own copy of ViewRanger or using a web page. You can send your location once, or can send it repeatedly.


International support

The international UTM coordinate system is now supported. Tracks can be recorded and POIs can be created worldwide.


Internal GPS

The GPS built-in to the new N95, E90 and 6110 phones is supported.


Routes, Tracks, GPS and GPX

Tracks store the GPS altitude, which can be exported to GPX files.

Tracks are split into segments when the GPS is disconnected then reconnected, or when track recording is switched off and back on.

Selective GPX import and export – you can import just the routes from a GPX file, ignoring the tracks and single points, or can choose to just export tracks.

On 3rd edition phones routes can be made partially transparent.


If you have any questions or would like to use the beta please contact support@viewranger.com or phone 020 7193 7233.