Web-Based GPS Tracking
 

Hi,

I decided to write a web-based application that would talk to my Blackberry and receive its GPS coordinates. Then you can see on a map on your computer the exact position of the phone. It also does some cool stuff such as letting you see a predefined interval of GPS coordinates(i.e if you want to see the phone's path on a map for the day before, or certain hours, etc,.). I just wrote it yesterday but I'd like to have some people help me test it out, so if anyone is interested just PM me.

Basically the process for getting it set up goes like this:

Go to the web site and sign up and create a username/password.
Download the OTA application on your phone and the login with same username/password.
The application will begin sending GPS data to the web application.
Login to the site from anywhere to see the map data.

Here are a couple screenshots of the web interface:

http://themoos.net/deviceinfo.png
http://themoos.net/liveimage.png


Any comments/suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

P.S Just before posting this thread I saw a post with 'bbtracker' in the title...I guess I need to pick a new name ;)

This would be good if your BB got stolen. LOL

Well, I think that might have been my doing ;-) It's very hard to find a name that's not taken.

After I've choosen bbTracker, I've found out that there are is at least one other tool out there that is already called BB Tracker, but since it is a.) for another platform and b.) for an entirely different purpose (BBTracker at BBTracker :: Palm Software Organized is used for tracking information about baseball teams, it seems) I figured the chances for those two getting confused are pretty slim.

Agreed ;)

I just set up the web application on one of my servers so if anyone is interested in trying it out/testing it for me I would appreciate it.

The link for the site is http://bb.tech9computers.com. You can start by registering an account here.

Admit it, you're just wanting people to try this application for you so that you know where they are and then are going to sneak in at night and steal their BBs while they sleep. ;-)

Damn, you've figured me out.

This application is just what I have been looking for! A couple of things tho:

1. What O/S does your app support?
2. Can you set up a read only login so others can see your location without changing the account settings?
3. Your server seems to be down this morning.

cool app, can i host your application internally?

Right now I only compiled it for 4.2 but I will compile it for 4.1 too later today. The server should be back up soon, I was working on it earlier.

As for read only I'll try to add some more flexibility in configuring your account.

Hosting internally would probably work, the back-end application is written in Python with the Django framework and MySQL.

xoclipse did a great job getting a version to work with 4.1. I had over 1500 hits when I looked at my history tonight. A few things I'd like to see:

• The ability to set the polling time
• The ability to set "landmarks"
• The ability to have a read only log in so friends can see where I am
• An icon for the desktop on my BB

This program really has some potential and I hope it sticks around for a while. If anybody would like to see the results PIN me and I'll let you long into my account.

Mike

Okay I just added some new features:

• Tracking History
• User Info
• User Search
• Allow your friends to see your location(you can configure permissions)
• Private Messages

Let me know...

xoclipse,

I've tried to register two accounts on your site, but I didn't get an email either time. The registration went through, at least to the extent that the usernames I selected are now taken, but I couldn't activate either one because I never got an email. Can you please look into this? Thanks so much.

***** actually, I just check the spam folders on my gmail accounts and found you site's emails. Sorry for the confusion.

Yeah I need to fix something on my mail server so that when it sends out the email it isn't flagged as spam for some people.

Ill work on fixing it.

I cant run the application on my phone get an error

Error starting BBtracker: Error loading module 'BBtracker' OutofMemory error

This is nice. Almost the same as the web-based program that I used for my Pocket PC PDA Phone which is called Reperion.com. With Reperion, it reports how fast you're going on the fly, as well as an exported KML that reports back to the server so when you use Google Earth, it will auto refresh in Google Earth by depending on your setting of refresh. Its nice to use if you have teenagers and if they are going over the speed limit, you can set it to alert you. All web-based, public and free.

I was, for my BlackBerry 8800, using Mologogo. Not as close as Reperion or this bbtracker program.

bbtracker is a good start, I completely uninstall Mologogo since what I'm looking for is a live tracker that automatically refreshes, rather than the user clicking on the refresh button on their browser.

I'd like to add some of those features for Google Earth, that's on my to-do list. I also will add how fast you are going, that is easy to implement. Now that the framework is done it will be easy to add new features, I'll try to keep people up to date here with the new stuff I add.

I'd just like to say that this is a great app and have just signed up for an account. I'll give you what feedback i can over the next week or so.

This sounds great, I sent you a PM

I'm guessing this app isn't going to be working on the VZW Blackberries since they disabled theGPS?

So the program is very nice. Maybe the changes could be.

Set the Time for Data to be sent - Reason being is, if I were to go for a long trip and there is only GPRS connection, no EDGE, then maybe it would timeout too much? Slower rate the better and maybe it won't drain too much battery.

Could you have the program to remember my username and password on the blackberry itself so when I click on exit, I don't waste the battery or don't want to be track, I could go back to it by just running the software?

Other than that, it's great.