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Posting a new route

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9 comments

  • Sofa Jockey

    The GPX map app 'AllTrails' does not appear to be compatible (at least it wasn't for me).

    I picked up an OS maps sub and that uploaded fine, though please note that it appears to currently matter in which direction you run the route between the two location markers.

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  • Slow Ways Support

    Hi Sofa - We think this is our fault. The system has been wrongly coded so that new routes need to be a specific way around. We're fixing this today so hopefully that will help.

    Apologies and more soon!

    - Dan

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  • Slow Ways Support

    We'll be adding the ability to add more photos soon, but are you still having issues with your GPX file uploads? We've made some improvements so hopefully not!

    - Dan

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  • John Smith

    I've also encountered an issue uploading my first new route.  Very frustrating that after spending 2 hours entering a route description, uploading photographs and the GPX track, I get an error message of "413 Request Entity Too Large".  Have I wasted my time?

    In going through the process I also discovered that most of the photos were not allowed as they were over 5MB.  It might be worth flagging this fact at the front page of adding a new route.  That aside, I did upload about 15 smaller photos, about a page of descriptive narrative plus the GPX file, the latter being acknowledged as correct in terms of start & finish points.

    What am I missing here?

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  • John Smith

    I've been thinking some more on the topic of adding a new route.

    The website suggests that you click the link to the "How to add a new route" webpage and read the content before submitting a new route.  I did this prior to adding a new route but there was no guidance on what to actually write.

    When adding the route I assumed "Description" would mean a quick summary of the route followed by a reasonably detailed description of the walk - where to turn etc as well as possibly pointing out items of interest.  

    Adding a photo seemed obvious but there was no advance warning that size was limited to 5MB and that despite it allowing me to upload 15 smaller photos, the end result was there were too many.  Initial guidance would be useful to save wasting time.

    The GPX upload request was straightforward and I note the need to start and finish in the correct place but how accurate do you need to be?  Do you need to be standing in the What3Words exact 3x3m square?  Is it plus or minus 50m or something else?

    In summary, I'm suggesting you add more detailed guidance of what you'd like to see and what the limitations are, added to the "How to add a new route" webpage.

     

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  • John Smith

    Just tried to re-submit a HavCla alternative again but this time with just text, 4 photos (5MB or less) and a GPX file.  Once again the "413 Request Entity Too Large" message!

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  • Lin

    Hi, I echo the comment by John Smith about needing more guidance on what to include in the Description when uploading a new route. I didn't actually realise my route would be uploaded straightaway and assumed the Description message was for whoever would be reviewing my suggestion. So I didn't actually write what I would have done if I'd realised it was for potential walkers!! 

    In addition to more guidance, perhaps also a way to edit the description afterwards? 

     

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  • Cristie Moore

    Hi,

    There was an issue around file sizes which I believe is now fixed.  Please let us know if you encounter other problems with it.

    Thank you for your suggestions around making the guidance clearer.  I'll feed them all back so we can improve things.

     

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  • Clive Miller

    413 Error message is still alive and kicking!

    I am tearing my hair out trying to load an alternative route. Only after a number of failed attempts to load my route did I find this really useful thread. I hadn't realised there was a size limit for of 5 Mbs per photo (or did I get this wrong and its 5Mb in total?) so I cropped the one photo that exceeded the size limit but still the final loading of the route failed.

    What must I change to avoid my final upload being rejected?

    Like others in this thread I would have also benefited from more detailed help in preparing and loading files. My prompts, and suggestions for website improvement include:

    Creating a GPX route file

    * Correctly locating the start and finish points of the route - I used Google Maps in 'walk' mode (click the 'walk icon) but had not relaised that if I pinned the start or finish of the route at a point that was 50m or more away from the start or finish point the route would be rejected. An easy way to avoid this error is to click on the 'What3Words' link for the start or finish point (see the instructions at the start of the page on the Slow Ways website that alllows you to load your route details), this will load Google Maps and provide a precise location of the start or finish point in the directions panel. Copy this direction and paste it into the Google Map on which you are plotting your alternative route.

    * Creating a gpx file - I googled how to do this and seemed to find it was possible to convert a Google Maps formatted file to gpx format using Google Maps, however I completely failed to work out how to do this. My work around was to:

        * click the share button on my Google Map and copy the url that is then displayed for the route.

        * search for the free app Maps to GPX (no need to download or log in) and paste the url in the box        provided.  The website will then automatically produce and download the gpx file to your device.

    Loading photographs

    * Photo file size - please post a note at the top of this section explaining the 5 Mb limit on the size of(is it an individual or the set) photos to be posted.

    * The file loading process - it wasn't until I found that I had failed to load a set of photos that I realised that loading an indvidual photo involved two stages:

       * Preview - the first time you load a photo the image is displayed but the file is not loaded

       * Confirm choice and load photo - to load the previewed photo it is necessary to click the       load file button for that photo a second time. This can become tedious when loading a         large set of photos.  Could the website be altered to shortcut this process?

    Temporarily saving loaded information

    Documenting a route rightly requires a significant amount of information to be loaded. However, if the final upload of all of the information fails, it is irksome to ahve to start reloading of the information again from scratch.  Perhaps I have missed the facility on the website to temporarily save loaded information prior to upload, if so please could the instructions on how to do so be posted at the beginning of the section on uploading alternative routes.

     

     

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