SpotterNetwork tracking widget

[Bill Hark]

I rechecked my personal Spotternetwork tracking widget and it just shows a map of the world and doesn't function. It worked last year. I get the same results on IE and Chrome. I have friends that have had similar results. I like to have the widget for my friends to track me without having to sort through all the icons. Anyone have this same problem or know how to get it to function?

Here is the link to my now non-functioning widget.

http://www.harkphoto.com/tracking.html

Bill Hark

 

[Jim Parsons]

I'm having the same problem and have no idea how to fix it....I'll be watching this thread
for ideas

 

[ericjkelly]

From what I heard the widget is discontinued. Not sure if there is another way to get it done!

 

[Kevin Franz]

I have been wondering what the issue was with this as well as I was unable to get it to work as well. Are we sure this has been discontinued? If so I wonder how difficult it is to create something similar...

 

[ericjkelly]

stormchase.com was where I originally set this up but it doesn't work there anymore

 

[John Wetter]

Has anyone attempted contacting someone at stormchase.com, who runs the widget?

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I wonder if this has something to do with SpotterNetwork's TOS, which has imposed limits on what can be done with the data they provide?

 

[Tyler Allison]

Not a TOS limitation. As far as I know that website has gone dark.

-Tyler

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Tyler offers great information on how to setup your own Google map and an XML file so you too can put your own map on your page. I was using that for most of 2010. Those of you that are using ChaserTV/imap can just embed an imap into your page which will also show your location and video stream.

 

[Dave Lewison]

Here's my page with the StormChase.com free widget: http://www.facethewind.com/chase2012/
The widget is obviously functioning in some fashion because it works on my Android phone, and on Firefox (on my home computer only). Very weird how it works in some select places, but not in most.

 

[Chris Kridler]

Tyler offers great information on how to setup your own Google map and an XML file so you too can put your own map on your page. I was using that for most of 2010. Those of you that are using ChaserTV/imap can just embed an imap into your page which will also show your location and video stream.

Where can I find the Google Map instructions? What I found on the Spotter Network was this:
[url]http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/howto-gm.php

[/URL]I could use a little more explanation, if you have it... thanks!

 

[Dan Robinson]

If I'm not mistaken, the custom SpotterNetwork map requires setting up a cron job on your server. A Cron job is simply a command line task you set up on the server to do something at regular intervals, in this case update an XML file with your GPS position from SN. To do this you either need Unix/Linux shell access or the proper permissions on your host (via Cpanel, Plesk, etc), probably which many users don't have.

 

[Dan Robinson]

For the server gurus: Is there any reason that the XML file couldn't be set up, and called directly from, the Spotter Network server directly into the Google Map? That is, eliminating the step of transferring the data to a local XML file on your server? I haven't done much with custom Google maps - is there some type of restriction of pulling in data from a third party server?

In other words, making this:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/../gm.php

This:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/....../tracker.xml

And then replacing this line in the Google Maps embed code:

request.open("GET", "tracker.xml", true);

With this:

request.open("GET", "http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/..../tracker.xml", true);

 

[Bill Hark]

Thanks for all the responses as I see many folks have the same problem. Hopefully, it will be fixed at some point. I wish I had the programming skills.

Bill Hark

 

[Tyler Allison]

For the server gurus: Is there any reason that the XML file couldn't be set up, and called directly from, the Spotter Network server directly into the Google Map? That is, eliminating the step of transferring the data to a local XML file on your server? I haven't done much with custom Google maps - is there some type of restriction of pulling in data from a third party server?

In other words, making this:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/xxxxxxx/gm.php

This:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/xxxxxxx/tracker.xml

And then replacing this line in the Google Maps embed code:

request.open("GET", "tracker.xml", true);

With this:

request.open("GET", "http://www.spotternetwork.org/pro/feed/xxxxxx/tracker.xml", true);

Because you just gave away your private key (xxxxxxx) and now anybody can submit a storm report as you, send in fake GPS positions and all sorts of bad stuff.

Also, I do not believe the google maps API allows you to request data from domains outside your own.

And lastly. That's not permitted...the SN servers can't handle thousands and thousands of queries from all over the internet.