About SPOT Trip Manager

How do I setup the SPOT XML Interface?

After setting up your account, you need to add one or more devices by clicking the My Devices link. If you're a SPOT user, you will need to activate the SPOT XML Interface to complete your device setup and begin feeding messages into STM. For more information on how to setup the XML interface, see:

How do I setup the SPOT XML Interface?

The SPOT XML Interface is the only interface for getting location data into STM. For more information on setting up these interfaces, see:

How do I setup the SPOT XML Interface?

Regarding trips specifically, each trip can be password protected and/or prevented from ever being displayed to the general public via search results like that performed on the STM home page. Between these two options, your privacy is in your hands.

The best way to protect your trips is to give each one a password and prevent it from being part of any search results.

Both of these options are set when updating a trip.

To download your trip in KML, login to STM and click the My Trips link. Find the trip and click the KML link in the Actions column.

To allow the general public to download your trip in KML, edit your trip and check the appropriate option. You can always remove this option, if needed.

When you delete a trip, the trip goes away along with the view statistics for the trip. Once the trip is deleted, there is no way to undo it. However, since the locations are never removed you can always create another trip with the same or similar date range.

The first step is to copy the embed HTML. To do this, click the "My Trips" link in the upper right corner of the page. Each trip listed on the page has an Embed Link text box. Click inside the text box to highlight the content. Copy the text to the clipboard by right-clicking the text and selecting Copy or press Control-C.

Now that you have the embed HTML copied to the clipboard, you can paste it into a webpage or blog post. Depending on the interface you're using to edit the webpage, ensure you paste the embed HTML as HTML rather than plain text. When you view the page, you will see the fully-functional map of your trip.

When you look at the HTML code, you will see a number of parameters whose values you can control. They are:

• id - You probably don't want to change this one. It's your trip's identifier. If you want to embed a different trip, copy that trip's embed HTML rather than trying to change this value. Of course, if you know what you're doing, go for it.
• width - This value controls the width of the map image itself. Valid values are between 200 and 1600 pixels. Note that the <iframe> element has a width parameter too whose value should probably be at least equal to the width of the map. I've found that the <iframe>'s width should be 20 pixels bigger than the map for the best results. You play with it, though. This value defaults to 400.
• height - This value controls the height of the map image itself. Valid values are between 200 and 1200 pixels. Note that the <iframe> element has a height parameter too whose value should probably be at least equal to the height of the map. I've found that the <iframe>'s height should be 20 pixels bigger than the map for the best results. Again, you play with it. This value defaults to 400.
• scale - When set to on, the default, the map will contain a scale control. When set to anything else or omitted altogether, the map will not contain a scale control.

Riders must explicitly join a location page. Because a rider's location is regarded as personal/private information, I will never auto-join a rider to a location page. The prerequisites for joining a page are:

• You must have an STM account. For more information see How do I setup an STM account?
• You must activate the SPOT XML interface. For more information see How do I get location data into STM?

Once the prerequisites are satisfied, follow these steps to join a page:

1. Login to your STM account.
2. In the upper right menu click the My Profile link.
3. Set your default location ID to your initials or some other identifier like a rally number. This ID will be used to mark your icon on each location page you choose to join. This is merely the default ID. You will have the opportunity to use different IDs for each page.
4. Click the Save button.
5. From the home page, ensure you're in Simple Search mode. If you don't see the Show me the listbox toward the top of the page, then click the Simple Search button.
6. Select "Location Pages" from the Show me the listbox and click the Go button. This will display a list of all active location pages.
7. Find the page you wish to join.
8. To the right of that page in the Action column, click the Add Me link.
9. On the next screen you can change the location ID used to mark your icon on this location page as well as the device STM will monitor for new locations. If the page has a join password, you will be prompted for the password as well. Enter the required information and click the Join button.
10. Your location won't appear on the page until you SPOT yourself so go for a ride or run outside and SPOT yourself.

To remove yourself from a page, follow the steps above and in step 8 a Remove Me link appears rather than the Add Me link. Click the Remove Me link. You may add/remove yourself from a page at will. To change your location ID or the device used, you will need to remove and then add yourself again to the page. Your current ID and device will appear in parentheses.

To setup a shared page for use as the STM/SPOT XML feed, follow these steps...

1. Login to your SPOT account.
2. Click on the Share tab.
3. Under the SPOT Shared Pages section, click the Create Shared Page link.
4. Name the page something like SPOT/STM Feed.
5. Select the messenger (i.e. SPOT device) for the shared page. If you only have one, it will be selected automatically. If you have more than one device, you must select the device for which you're creating a feed to STM. Do not select multiple devices! If you have more than one device, you will need to create a shared page for each device to setup the XML Interface.
6. Check all message types to share on this page. If you're creating a shared page for a Generation I device, you will see three message types - Check-in, Help and Track. If you're creating a shared page for a Generation II device, you will see a fourth message type - Custom. Be sure and check all message types.
7. In the Share GPS locations from the last list, select an appropriate number of days. Personally, I wouldn't select anything over 2 days.
8. This is important... For the Share message detail setting, please select Yes. This allows STM to pull the custom messages that you've setup for Ok and Help messages. Additionally, when the new message formats come out for the SPOT 2 devices, this will allow STM to pull those too.
9. Password protection is not currently supported. Ensure the page is public.
10. Don't email the link to STM! Select the Send the shared page myself option.
11. Click the Create Now! button.
12. At the bottom of the page just below the Create Now! button you'll find the link to your newly created shared page. Copy the link to the clipboard or otherwise save it somewhere. You're going to need it in step 16 below.
13. Now login to STM.
14. Click the My Devices link in the upper-right of the screen.
15. If you've already created the device for this feed, click the Update button for the device. Otherwise, click the New button to create a new device and provide a description and serial number for this new device.
16. Paste the shared page link from step 12 into the shared page field.
17. Click the Save button.

That's it. You're ready to rock. Your shared page and the XML feed will not start accumulating locations until you get up off your duff and send some locations. I encourage you to test all message types - OK, Help and, if you have the tracking service, tracking messages. Currently, STM pulls locations from SPOT at 20-minute intervals. So it could take 20 to 40 minute before your locations appear, but if everything is setup correctly, rest assured they will appear.