Issues with loading GPXs

The new software is going down well with people but it's thrown up some interesting issues with GPX files created by other software, some of which have caused our software some problems but all of which we have now fixed.

This includes:

• Routes with over 2000 route¹ points - I was a bit flabbergasted by this but it seems to be common with some fell running routes

• Software which, when you save a route also saves it as a track² ... sort of. I say "sort of" because the track has the same number of points are the route - so it's very angular - and also has no timing data. When you load one of these you get a track ... with a route pasted over the top of it. For now we're displaying both and leaving the user to decide what to do from there, but I'm considering changing the loading dialogue to say "hey, do you know what you've got there?"

• My particular favourite: a route GPX encoded in UTF-16. For the 99% of you who are saying "what's UTF-16 when it's at home?" GPX files are normally encoded in ASCII so they're one byte per character. In UTF-16 it uses two bytes per character ... which is handy if you want to name routes in Cyrillic or Arabic but of little use to us. We now support UTF-16 encoded GPX files.

Anyway every new issue presents a challenge, and challenges are good.

Oh, and we've also had feedback from a user asking for the ability to reverse a route in a single click which is something we've been asked for before but I've moved it up the list. Do let us know, by posting in this forum or by contacting us directly, if there's anything else that you would like us to add.

1. A route describes where you are intending to go, point by point. For more information click here.
2. A track records where you have been and when you were there. For more information click here.