Feature Request - Online Dive Site Database

[straddle]

I find it rather annoying having to constantly add new dive sites and set their position on a map. Would there be a way to create an online database of dive sites maintained by the users.

We could then add a dive site, mark it's location on a map and specify its depth, bottom type etc.

Other users could then just simply select it when they dive there.

What do you think?

PADI are trying to do something like this with http://www.scubaworld.com but it is very badly designed.

[support]

Thanks for the suggestion. This is certainly something that we have looked at over the past couple of years. It is a bigger job than you might imagine to get something like this "right" (as you point out in your post many existing efforts are less than satisfactory). We have looked over time (and continue to look) at various web sites that already try to aggregate dive site information to try to link in with one of them to leverage the work that they have already done. So far, we have not found anything that matches our needs. Bottom line is that this is something that we are interested in supporting but, right now, we don't have any definitive plans to report. We'll keep looking at it though.

Cheers,

Greg

[straddle]

Have you looked at the Foursquare API? It would save you from developing your own. They have a large database that users can easily add to, and their geolocation works flawlessly. As far as I can tell there are only two draw backs to using their database:

1. They don't currently have a specific 'Dive Site' category, although you could try searching for venues that include "Dive Site" in the name. You also might be able to convince Foursquare to create a 'Dive Site' category if you reach out to them with your plans. While you are at it, persuading them to create a "Dive Center" category would also be good.

2. For dive site locations that are out of reach of internet access (mobile or otherwise) you would need a way to save the GPS coordinates for later lookup. That way, later, when the user is online they can look up (or add a new venue for) the Dive Site on Foursquare. Actually this would be required for any online database be it Foursquare's or another one.

It might be worth considering.

[support]

Thanks, that is certainly a good idea that I hadn't previously thought of. Using an established player that is not likely to go away would be a big advantage. Dive Log already allows you to capture the GPS location of where you are diving while at the site, so it might be possible to use that information (by searching "near" the capture location) to later fill in other details about the site from a service like Foursquare (or another source of dive site information). I will look into the Foursquare API and see if that might be part of the solution.

Cheers,

Greg

[straddle]

I think I have may found something better. I looked at Diveboard a year ago and it wasn't ready.

It is now looking good. You should offer syncing with them. You can also use their API for Divespots.

http://www.diveboard.com/community/news ... sa-B3Ikac8

[support]

I agree that Diveboard.com has come a long way in the last year and that they have a very nice site. They are certainly amongst the providers that we have been looking at for this sort of feature.

Thanks again for your interest and thoughts on this. It is very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Greg

[schneideris]

Here are some feature requests.

1. iPhone to iPad Sync. When traveling I take my iPhone on the boat but not my iPad. I would like to be able to sync between them.

2. Support of DropBox to backup the iPhone and iPad to. This could actually be used to then sync between them if a restore was also capable of being done.

3. For the equipment the Make is stored but it would be nice to have a spot for Model.

[support]

Hi,

Thank you for your thoughts on future features of Dive Log. We really appreciate feedback on what features are of most use to users.

We are currently working on items #1 and #2 on your list. We are pretty far along on adding iCloud support to Dive Log and hope to have it available in the relatively near future. the iCloud feature will allow you to sync directly between devices (this is a manual operation rather than "continuous" like other iCloud services due to the nature of iCloud and the potential for a log of data use with large logbooks) as well as make backups of your logbook directly to iCloud. We plan to add similar support using Dropbox once the iCloud version is available (much of the underlying required support is the same).

What most people do is include the model information in the Equipment item name. For example,

Name: Balance BCD
Manufacturer: Aqualung

or

Name: BCD - Balance Size L
Manufacturer: Aqualung

There is also a Comments section where you can add and specific information that you want about the Equipment item. We certainly could add a separate database field for "Model" in the future. However, we do have to consider the value of adding specific fields (they grow the database size for everyone even if they do not want to use the field) vs the convenience of using the existing fields (it is nice to have specific fields when searches and statistics can take advantage of that field). Database changes do take time to coordinate with the various compatible application developers so any consideration of a Model field will likely be a little ways in the future. Hopefully one of the above options will work in the meantime.

Cheers,

Greg

[schneideris]

Thanks Greg,

Good to hear about the iCloud. Completely agree about a manual process. Once had an app that was doing the automatic thing and it burned through 5Gb in a week, not good.

For the model I have been doing the description thing too. By having the make and model dedicated my thought had been to enable web searches for such things as manuals or such.

That raises another thought. It would be good to have a spot to upload PDF files of the manuals for equipment.

-Peter

[support]

Hi Peter,

I would recommend using iBooks (or other applications that support PDFs) as a location to upload your PDF manuals for your Equipment. I currently do this and have a Category in iBooks for Dive Equipment manuals (I also have categories for other manuals that I have like for my boat's electronics). Even if I did add a location to store PDFs in Dive Log itself, we'd probably still want to hand them off to iBooks or some other reader as they can do a much better job of providing an interface for reading that we'd likely do. I'll have to look and see if there is some sensible way to link Dive Log to a PDF for manuals.

Thanks for the ideas. They are appreciated!

Cheers,

Greg