Discussion: Route Gadget Mystery

What do I have to do to fix this problem?
When I go to the Canadian Route Gadget site to look at a map and draw my route I see only a red X in the top left hand corner. No map appears. This is happening not only for the recent NAOC and Barebones events but also for events where I've already entered my course (including two of the 2010 NAOC events).
This is not a problem for me at other Route Gadget sites such as Quantico's but it is a problem for both my computers going to rg.orienteering.ca

I really do not know. But I have run into the exact same thing on our Route Gadget site for OCIN. I messed with it for some time and found it cleared up when I reduced the map resolution to a lower dpi. This is done by the administrator unfortunately. So you probably can't fix it. The options given by OCAD when I export the map to a JPG are 150, 200, and 300 dpi. For very large maps I have to use 150 dpi or I and many others see the red X as you did. I presume there is some kind of bandwidth crash with the Perl script that Route Gadget uses, the JPG file size, and JAVA, that sends the screen to your computer. But I am just guessing. I looked at rg.orienteering.ca. I could see the map just fine. But I did notice it is larger than I typically have success with.

I may be barking up the wromg tree. But reducing the size has worked for me.

There is some discussion in the archives on this, but too lazy to search it out on the teeny phone window. I know the one thing which works for me when this happens is to not have any other tabs open. So, copy the site URL, close the browser, open a fresh browser, paste in the URL, and see what happens.

Thanks but neither of those are the problem or the solution. I was wondering if the fact that so few routes from NAOC and Barebones hve been put on rg.orienteering.ca means others are having the same problem but just using the FIDO solution???

Here's another funny thing. I know for certain that I entered my routes for the NAOC long and middle and I got my usual thanks message. However my routes do not appear amongst the list of routes entered? Is it possible to get 'black balled' from Route Gadget?

looks to me like you've pissed off the RG Gods ;-)

Ask Jagge, he wrote route-gadget

Re-install java. http://www.java.com/en/download/download_the_lates...
Usually that fixes it. You may have updated your browser or something after your last java install. That may break something. Has happenned to me with Firefox. And new IE version isn't even supposed to work with old java versions.

You can get the route saved message without route actually getting saved if network fails at one point (or if some files at server are write protected). Never bothered to fix that issue.

Thanks for the help Jagge. I wish I could say it fixed the problem but alas after I downloaded the latest Java and Sun told me it was the right one I even rebooted the computer to make sure it was fresh. The only thing that has changed is now I get a message: Error. Click for details. That should help but there is nowhere to click. Random clicking makes no difference.
No map; no chance to enter route.

If you're on a windows box, try emptying your java cache http://www.java.com/en/download/help/plugin_cache....

While you're in the java control panel, click on the java tab, and make sure there is only one version of java enabled.

Is should show you details no matter where you click with your mouse. Maybe you have some sort of pop up blocker and it blocks those details.

Remove and re-install java (and maybe browser too) is all one can say if you don't tell what kind of OS and browser you are using and and if you can't dig out those details.

I've also been having that exact same problem that gordhun talks about. I tried emptying the Java cache with no luck but I didn't try reinstalling Java.

Then I remembered that I was able to access Routegadget for the Barebones events by using the link on the results page for the event. I checked and it still works that way but not when I try to link from the Routegadget website. It turns out the links used are slightly different:

from Barebones website (Day 1 at Lost Lake):
http://orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&i...

from Routegadget website (Day 1 at Lost Lake):
http://rg.orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=ma...

So all I had to do to get Routegadget to work for these events is to remove the "rg." from the URL and it works fine. This goes for the North American Champs events as well.

I guess there is old URL at routegadget.net for the Canadian RG site. I guess someone (AZ?) has forgotten to change it when the site moved. And the old site isn't even supposed to work - there is even redirect at http://rg.orienteering.ca

I'll ask DaveG to look at it.
Thanks for figuring this out.

Thank you Bill and thank you Jagge and all who gave up their time and made their best efforts to help.

I changed the URL at routgadget.net yesterday, so thats ok now, but there may be rg.orienteering.ca links elsewhere.

Hey Jagge: If it's Apache webserver and ModRewrite is possible (pretty common?), you could do a redirect with a Document Root .htaccess file addition:

RewriteEngine On
rewritecond %{http_host} ^orienteering.ca
rewriteRule ^(.*) http://orienteering.ca/$1 [R=301,L]

There are other ways to do this too (for IIS, etc), so those links in other places still work!

I know. You should tell that to someone who runs that orienteering.ca site. I have nothing to do with it.

Ah, doh! Thanks Jagge. Tried to email webmaster@orienteering.ca and received a bounce ... anyone know the webmaster?

The RG technical guy at orienteering.ca is Dave Graupner. I think he is checking this thread. I know he's been working on the redirect ever since we changed the orienteering.ca host.

Hugh - thanks for the redirect script. I've sent you a private email with some questions as we already have a .htaccess file with some rewrite rules. Also fixed up the webmaster email address.

Replied! Good stuff Dave, hope one of my two options works for you.

Above is close, but needs rg.orienteering.ca instead of just orienteering.ca (creates a loop otherwise!) in the rewritecond line ... OR (.*)\.orienteering.ca to redirect ANY hostname.orienteering.ca to orienteering.ca.

The problem that Bill refers to above has been fixed. Thanks to Hugh for some additional help in getting the redirects to work properly.

Gord - let us know if this resolves your issues.

Dave,
Somewhere around July 22 the discussion got way too technical for my level of understanding. However the problem has been resolved and I am once again a happy camper. The maps are now loading as before.
Now, how do we get more of the 400+ participants to enter their routes on to this marvelous site?
Thank you all.

Prizes?

Assign everyone a GPS tracking device which is downloaded at the same time as you download the SI stick and automatically uploads to the RG site! Better yet add a radio transmitter and have live tracking on a big display and website!