Course Information

[mirth]

oddly enough, doing a zipcode search for grayslake returned lots of hits downstate but nothing North of Champaign.

[Jon Brakel]

oddly enough, doing a zipcode search for grayslake returned lots of hits downstate but nothing North of Champaign.

That thing doesn't seem to work right whether you click, do a state search or zip. Nice try though!

[can't putt]

Jon, nice work.  With the google maps info windows, you can really format any links you want.  Adding a link to the PDGA course directory for a particular course is a piece of cake at this point.  Also, for me to add the rest of the Illinois courses is just a matter of time -- 6-8 hrs. I'm guessing.  I was thinking about adding another sidebar to the right of the map with downstate courses.  If you want to save yourself some steps and collaborate with what I've already done I'm more than willing.

At first, all I wanted to do was what I have done.  Now, however, I've got some enhancements I'd like to add such as user course ratings (nothing like the PDGA course evaluation, just a simple 1 to 5 stars thing).  I'd also like to put the course info into a database like tacimala suggested and use that to generate the course markers and info windows.  I'll be working on that in December.

Mirth, I like your idea of using the PDGA data.  The first step would be to get the database going on my end, and then investigating access to the PDGA database.  There will be some issues to resolve as the PDGA doesn't have GPS data for many listings.  Even for many of the Chicago courses I had to find my own coordinates.  As far as Discontinuum hosting the map, that was my original intention if you were willing.  You would have to get your own google maps API key (free, and about a 30 second process) and modify one line of code with your key.  I can give you more detail, if needed.  At this point, I want to retain ownership of the product including any updates to be made or courses to be added (with Jon's help, if he so chooses).  You can host it as is right now, with the understanding that no updates or modifications will be made without consulting with me.  I'm headed out of town for a week, so don't expect much in the way of communication during that time.

As far as credit goes, I've already gotten more than enough.  Thanks for offering, though.

[can't putt]

Y'all realize that the PDGA site already has this on a Google map (obviously minus the links to the threads).

I think it's the links that really makes the tool useful.  On courses where the information was available I included links to maps, park district web sites, and discontinuum tours.  Check out Bevier for example.  Also, if you zoom in on the basket and choose satellite or hybrid view you can see the basket is located at the first tee location (you have to zoom in all the way for the basket to be accurately located).  That is on courses where I had accurate first tee info.  I noticed the GPS coordinates on the PDGA site for Bevier are wrong.  Mine are right.    (is there a "patting-yourself-on-the-back" emoticon somewhere?) 

Oh, the PDGA map doesn't have shadows under their basket icons either. 

[tacimala]

Would be awesome if there would be some way to get a db dump of the pdga's course directory & use the GPS coords to plot out basket pins.

I wonder if you can contact the PDGA and request that sort of information.

[pickax]

I've made sure that any course that I've been to has GPS coordinates on the PDGA directory. If they weren't there, I used Google Earth to find em and submit them. If you found the coordinates for more courses (or more accurate ones) submit the data to the PDGA through the update course info link so that all can benefit.

There use to be a dump of the databse for the Palm version of the directory, but I'm not sure if it exists still (it was also grossly out of date). The problem is that new courses are constantly being added, updated, etc. and it is hard to keep up.

[tacimala]

I'm thinking there has to be something since discgolf.com has a link off every course page on the PDGA and they would have to be using the same raw data to make sure the links all matched up.

[stpitner]

Y'all realize that the PDGA site already has this on a Google map (obviously minus the links to the threads).

http://www.pdga.com/course/gindex.php

Except this one doesn't work too well.  Unless it just doesn't like me on the 10th day of any month that is also on a Friday. If you try to zoom in it bombs out.

[pickax]

I zoom all the way in and can see the tee pad on my local course (Knoch Knolls). It musn't like you.

[can't putt]

I wasn't trying to start any kind of pissing match about what works better.  I offer a tool that is somewhat different and that some might find useful, nothing more.

[Classic_ROCer]

Nice work!  It would be really sweet if you could click the name of the course on the left and have a talk bubble pop up on the basket on the map.

[pickax]

I don't think it was necessarily meant to be a comparison or a knock on your work. Often I see duplicate work going on w/o some aware of what others are doing. Pat was working on the google maps integration for pdga.com well over a year ago. I'm not sure when it made it onto the official PDGA directory. I've also seen great ideas get started but then never maintained which eventually makes them useless. I think it is a great way to find the local threads (as opposed to discgolf.com messages) about each course. At the same time, the same folk that post here about the courses could post the course messages on discgolf.com, but then you lose that local feel and banter. I don't mean to discourage this effort and I think it will be a great improvement over what is currently on the discontinuum website.

Here's an example of an effort I started, but haven't kept up as it's gotten cold. If you use google calendar you can create public calendars. I created this one (of course google calendar is down right now, but if you use it you can search for discontinuum and find it) for the local leagues and tournaments, but it requires finding out about them and updating the information. Again a maintenance issue. Since there isn't much going on during the winter I'm not too concerned about it, but in the spring I'm going to make a concerted effort at getting it accurate (and adding write access for a couple of other people) for the folks around here to find out about the various leagues going in.

btw discgolf.com has an insider relationship with pdga.com, but I don't recall exactly what it was anymore. That is why it can stay updated and there is a link on pdga.com to discgolf.com.

[can't putt]

Updated

[Jon Brakel]

Updated

That is really cool Kurt. Nice job!

[Tom McManus]

Kurt, 

This is excellent work.  Thanks for taking the time to do this.  The links on right are sweet.

[can't putt]

Thanks again, all.  And you're very welcome!