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Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:19 am Post subject: Is there a webpage anywhere which documents ALL POI formats?
I've been developing POIs for around a year now. I started off making POIs for TomTom. I couldn't find anything on TomTom's website saying how to make them. A bit of Google searching turned up the page http://www.tomtom.com/support/ce/support/nav_poi.php, which includes the "makeov2" tool that you need to convert the text ASC file into a binary OV2 file to load onto the device. However, that doesn't tell you that you can put a "greater than" (right pointy bracket) in the description column and put a phone number afterwards (curly brackets enclosing the data):
(apologies - I've had to put a question mark in instead of the greater-than sign, as the forum thinks that it is HTML)
Trial & error also taught me that the phone number needs to be in international format (i.e. "44 1234 567890"). I understand this to be "ASC" format, which you then run through their makeov2 tool before putting it on your device. I also found that TomToms truncate the descriptions text if the description (including phone number bit and '>' character) is over 62 characters long.
I then moved on to Garmins. Their format is effectively the same, but allows an second description column:
Again, nice and straightforward. There appeared to be no limit to the text length, which was better than TomTom. This is the format I know as CSV. No thanks to Garmin for defining 'CSV' format as their 3 or 4 fields in a CSV file!
Recently, I've moved onto Navman devices. Their tools support loading CSV files, but PocketGPSWorld.com's instructions say how to load ASC files! This is where my questions arise (as I don't have a device to test all this on)... is anyone able to help?:
[1] Do Navmans support the greater-than sign for the phone number in the description of an 'ASC' format?
[2] Do Navmans support 2 descriptions in the Garmin 'CSV' format, or just one?
Navman support were about as helpful as a chocolate teapot, telling me that their devices support both 'CSV' and 'ASC'
What would be great is if there could be a webpage which describes all the formats that all the different devices use, and the limitations & capabilities of each format and device.
Joined: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 15388 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject: Re: Is there a webpage anywhere which documents ALL POI form
AlexPresland wrote:
[1] Do Navmans support the greater-than sign for the phone number in the description of an 'ASC' format?
a) the plural of Navman is Navmen - i asked them once!!
b) as far as i am aware only the 'greater than' symbol for telephone is a tomtom-only thing
c) an 'ASC' format is basically a file that is made up ASCII characters only. an ASC file can be anything really and is not limited to POIs etc. the description of an ASC format' that you mention is actually a 'description of the format that you need in order for makeov2 to use' rather than a description of an ASC file
AlexPresland wrote:
[2] Do Navmans support 2 descriptions in the Garmin 'CSV' format, or just one?
a) Navmen
b) as far as i'm aware they will only 'read' the 1st 3 columns (lon,lat,name)
AlexPresland wrote:
What would be great is if there could be a webpage which describes all the formats that all the different devices use, and the limitations & capabilities of each format and device.
Thanks in advance for your help.
there are that many devices and new ones being brought to market that frequently that this would be a massive task to both set up and keep on track of... it'd be an interesting resource though eg select your manufacturer and view a page displaying the required format and an example...
if i get time then i may make a start and see how much work will end up being involved
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- i asked them once!!
