Elevation Profile digital resource

[fiery.pilgrim]

Hi there,

I was wondering if there was a resource that had the elevation profile in digital form? I am creating an app and this would be very helpful. I already have the GPS info thanks to some resources, and I know there are some elevation printouts there that I can use to eyeball the data, but for accurate results a printout would be great.

Ideally it'd be a list of elevations at a given interval, and some way to define where a town is, e.g.

[200,204,204,200] Town1 [203,204, etc.]

Any help would be great, thanks!

 

[Kanga]

The Wise Pilgrim app already has an elevation profile.

 

[fiery.pilgrim]

The Wise Pilgrim app already has an elevation profile.

Thanks! I am familiar with the Wise Pilgrim app, but my question still stands. I'm planning on adding a lot more things.

 

[stratophile]

A simple way to start is to use a KML file / Google Earth. Import your GPS coordinates for the trail and that will give you the elevation profile automatically. You can add POIs for towns, etc., as needed. There are lots of apps available that you can use to do more refined work, manipulate GPS tracks, and so on. Google Earth will be enough to get you started though.

Good luck with your project.

 

[fiery.pilgrim]

I'm wrapping up on user research to see what features people want, if you'd like to contribute please complete this (2-4 minute) survey. Initial user interviews and prototype sessions have been promising, on the top of my list is a more modern UI, an advanced route planner/editor, bookmarkable albergues, and ability to easily export/share your route to others with the app. Along with many other features I'm brainstorming. I think what people are going to notice first is a more user-friendly interface, however.

Additionally, the fee structure will be a free (ad-supported) tier with the option to upgrade to no-ads and offline mode, because I believe that cost should not be a factor in using this app, especially to try it with all basic functionality.

 

[fiery.pilgrim]

A simple way to start is to use a KML file / Google Earth. Import your GPS coordinates for the trail and that will give you the elevation profile automatically. You can add POIs for towns, etc., as needed. There are lots of apps available that you can use to do more refined work, manipulate GPS tracks, and so on. Google Earth will be enough to get you started though.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks! I didn't even think of using Google Maps to get the elevation profile. Hopefully they have a way of extracting the elevations into a list, will look into this.

In the mean time, if anyone else has any leads let me know!

 

[fiery.pilgrim]

Just an update on this for anyone who's curious in the future. With a gps route, you can use the google API https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/intro to get an elevation chart. Thanks @stratophile for reminding me that Google exists!

Now on to albergue information. Does anyone know where I can access an up to date albergue directory?

 

[stratophile]

I'm not aware of any albergue directory (especially an up-to-date one) that is legally in the public domain for you to use in a commercial app. You need to do the hard work of contacting albergues and getting / confirming their details. I track over 800 albergues in TrailSmart. All of my information comes from the albergues directly, from first-hand research on the trails done by myself or members of my team, and from fellow pilgrims sending me info from their walk. All of the reputable app publishers that I am aware of do the same.

Note that many of the informal lists you'll find floating around the Internet are usually gathered from sources informally (such as from Eroski, Gronze, and other websites) but almost certainly don't have any legal right to the data. For non-commercial usage that probably isn't a big deal. If you use it in your commercial app, though, you could find yourself in hot water.

I recommend you look into the legal status of any sources you use if you aren't gathering it first-hand – you don't want your app pulled from the stores over IP claims. If in doubt, it would be worth the expense to discuss it with a lawyer.

 

[fiery.pilgrim]

I'm not aware of any albergue directory (especially an up-to-date one) that is legally in the public domain for you to use in a commercial app. You need to do the hard work of contacting albergues and getting / confirming their details. I track over 800 albergues in TrailSmart. All of my information comes from the albergues directly, from first-hand research on the trails done by myself or members of my team, and from fellow pilgrims sending me info from their walk. All of the reputable app publishers that I am aware of do the same.

Note that many of the informal lists you'll find floating around the Internet are usually gathered from sources informally (such as from Eroski, Gronze, and other websites) but almost certainly don't have any legal right to the data. For non-commercial usage that probably isn't a big deal. If you use it in your commercial app, though, you could find yourself in hot water.

I recommend you look into the legal status of any sources you use if you aren't gathering it first-hand – you don't want your app pulled from the stores over IP claims. If in doubt, it would be worth the expense to discuss it with a lawyer.

Getting the info directly from the albergue is not a problem, these days most of them have some public web presence. It's the initial information for their site that would be helpful. I also plan to do the trails again myself to because using it personally is one of the main reasons I'm doing it.

Thanks for the legal reminder, we have legal resources.

 

[Prentiss Riddle]

Side note: I (a non-lawyer) half-remembered something about the IP of basic facts, as in a directory, so I looked it up. Naturally it’s more complicated than what I thought I had understood. In particular the EU version makes my head hurt. I guess you do need a lawyer - maybe two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_in_compilation

And another side note: the Google Places API would let you look up words like “albergue,” “hostal,” etc. The results would include latitude/longitude info. I have no idea what the TOS says about re-use. You could perhaps use the API to generate a “candidate” list which you validate independently. Again, I don’t know what the lawyers would say about that.

https://developers.google.com/places/web-service/search#PlaceSearchRequests