GPSLog Labs Blog (tasks)

Updates for March 11th

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 05:51:00 GMT

A few little changes to note while I'm busy working on something big and pretty cool:

The minimum split time between checkpoints on a route has been changed from 5 minutes to 1 minute, so you can now record splits as short as laps around an oval, assuming you're not too fast that is.
Distances and times are now displayed with full precision in the splits detail table.
The mobile page now has a "Recent Uploads" list, so you can check them quickly when uploading from a phone.
Route "average" distances are now only shown if the logs are similar in length, otherwise the range of distances is displayed.
I've added columns showing the last logged date and scheduled count for routes when selecting them for goal tasks.
The next scheduled task for a goal is displayed in the goals table and on the summary page for quick reference.
The goal tasks graph now has a link to zoom it in to a view of this week.

Updates for February 21st

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:16:00 GMT

I've just added a really useful feature to GPSLog Labs: The "Comparisons" tab for an activity page now actually shows some useful comparisons in a "dashboard" format.

For each of the "standard split" distances (5 km, 5 miles, 10 km, etc.) the speed/pace and time for this log are displayed and compared to that for the other activity on the same route and/or sharing the same tags using a box plot.

The above screenshot shows the speeds for that particular run using solid dots on the box plot, and indicates it was the fastest for that route when stops are removed, but that there was a long stop somewhere between the 8 and 10 km splits that made it the slowest over those distances (the smallest value is on the left of the graphs, so rightmost is best for speed and leftmost is best for pace.)

Comparing it to all the activity tagged with Run, not just along that particular route shows it was in the top 25% (after taking out the stop):

The route comparison shows two extra splits that are not available when comparing to the tag, the total distance (10.6 km in this case) and the half-way point (5.3 km). These assume that all activity on the route is about the same length, so aren't meaningful for a tag and may also not be very useful if you have a route which varies a lot in length.

Some other recent updates to the site:

Pages with many tabs will have some of the tabs hidden to save space. Click the "more >>" button to show the rest.
The unknown routes page now lets you filter by tag.
When setting up a task for a goal, you can now filter the possible routes by place. This means that you can quickly find a route of the desired distance to complete the task and aren't overwhelmed by routes from places you don't need.
There are a couple of QR Codes on the site now to help get the urls into your mobile device. Scan the following QR code to go to the mobile version of GPSLog Labs, for example.
There is also a QR code for the unique upload email address for your device on it's detail page.
When adding tasks from a training program to a goal, or creating a new goal from a training program, you can now see a preview graph of the tasks involved:
The tag detail page has a new Splits Graph tab that shows a graph of all the activity speeds/times at standard split distances, together with lines indicating the distribution (10th, 50th, 90th percentiles).
The standard split distances now extend from 50km to 300km (50mi to 200mi) to make them more useful to cyclists and longer distance activities.

As always, please send feedback and suggestions to feedback forum.

Updates for December 22nd

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:27:41 GMT

The "This week's activity" table on the home page of GPSLog Labs now allows you to scroll back and forward through your uploaded activity using "« Previous|This week|Next »" links. The old "Earlier activity" link has been removed as it's no longer needed.
The Trends report has been optimized and now runs much faster.
When editing an automatically created place, a list of suggested "Nearby places" is displayed to make it easier to correct logs where your logger didn't lock on at a place:
When editing an unmatched place, nearby places are now shown as markers on the map too. Clicking them will select the place from the drop-down list.
The activity detail page heading has been reformatted to make it easier to read:
The libraries of icons you can select from for your tags and places have been expanded and refined. They should be better looking and more useful now. Edit your tags or places to change them to one of the new icons:
Tag icons:

Place icons:

You can still upload your own icons if you want to, for best results they should be 16x16 pixels, in GIF or PNG format with transparent backgrounds.
You can now add goals based on the built in training programs. Click the Add Goal from Training Program link on the Goals page, select the program, put in your goal finish date (race/event day), select the tag you'll use to track your training logs and you're ready to go.
Two new training programs have been added too:

Beginner Half Marathon Program
A training schedule for beginning runners who want to start racing the half marathon race distance.
Intermediate Marathon Program
A training schedule for intermediate runners who want to improve performance in the marathon race distance.

Adding tasks to goals has been made faster and easier too, and a bug was fixed that was preventing adding fractions of kilometers as the target distances (i.e. you could only enter whole numbers, not 6.5km for example.)

As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome and I hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

Updates for October 4th

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:54:12 GMT

Plenty of things on GPSLog Labs have been slowly improving and it's about time that I mentioned a few of them:

The device format detection process has been made much more robust and accurate and now has a new layout:

Once the file(s) has been analysed, a summary of the results is displayed:

Maps and graphs can be displayed if this isn't enough:

Once a working format has been found, you can continue using the site:
Once a log is processed, there are now some illustrations on the forms to indicate the purpose of the actions:
Merge two adjacent log segments by removing the "cut" between them

Remove a stop at a place and merge the adjacent segments into a single segment
The /uploads/ pages have had their urls redesigned to make the "next log file", "previous log file" and "mark as done" links work much more reliably on the different tabs. This means you can stay on the "unedited uploads only" view as you edit and tag your uploads.
You can now see a list of your shared activity using the mobile version of the site, also, map thumbnails have been added to the mobile view pages and there is a more obvious "view activity on map" button.
Goals now support planning of your future activity. You can create tasks to plan out your training program and export these in iCalendar format so you can keep track of what your plans are from MS Exchange, Google Calendar, iCal or your phone.
In addition to tasks, I've also added in a couple of training program templates that you can use to get started training for a marathon, half-marathon or a long distance cycling event such as the Around the Bay in a Day.

As always, I'd love to know what you think and hope you enjoy the site.