New Route Map (Premium Members)

[timg]

The all new route map lets you plug in a start point and a destination and it will show you all the courses along the way. If your trip is over 350 miles you can use the slider to adjust the search zone for courses (indicated by an orange outline). You will also get driving directions which you can expand below the map.

In addition, you can add courses as stops and the route and driving directions will update to reflect the stops you add.

As always, please let me know if you find any bugs although it seems pretty solid.

Now that I have a handle on the directions thing, I will try to incorporate it on some level on the Browse Map when I have time. Another future plan is to allow you guys to create and save road trips in your dashboards. I've been working on this feature for quite a while and pretty much all weekend (2 days of rain is good for productivity!) and I think I'm going to get a little rest now :)

Almost forgot, if you're a premium member you'll see the Route Map tab on the various course directory pages and in the Course Directory drop-down menu.

[tamahawk]

Very cool feature Tim, nice addition, thank you!

[Greg Layton]

You know what? I've been putting off becoming a premium member for too long. Just sold some stuff on ebay, so I'm going to go for it.

Thanks for all you do, Tim!

[timg]

Thanks Greg, I appreciate the support! :)

[Geoffro]

Man, Tim, it's getting harder and harder not to do this...throw in a PP360 scorecard and I'm in.

[timg]

PP360 would be free if I do it. The route map has a ton of calculation involved to figure out which courses are along side the road which is why I made it a premium thing.

[zenbot]

Oh damn! I'll have to ask my wife for an allowance now! =)

[HolySchnell]

Ah I want to go Premium so badly!

Alright that's it, next $25 I get is going to DGCR.

[sillybizz]

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so awesome, great job Tim.

[srm_520]

Very nicely done Tim. Does it ever boggle your mind to think about how this site looked when you started and what it has become? Pretty impressive stuff.

[DGtourist]

That is pretty freaking cool!

[TalbotTrojan]

Now you are making me want to win any of the birthday prizes that include the premium membership. This feature sounds amazing especially as I am planning a trip begining a week from today.

[srm_520]

You may have to give a tutorial because - as always us idiots in the bunch are having issues making it work well. Also - the map is very touchy when trying to move it around when zoomed in. One click and drag and I magically went from Houston to Newfoundland - no joke. This only seems to occur before the route zips are entered in. After you hit go - it doesn't seem to be jumpy.

[solomon.trenton]

Very cool feature Tim, nice addition, thank you!

i agree. im so excited i cant wait to use it.

[timg]

You may have to give a tutorial because - as always us idiots in the bunch are having issues making it work well. Also - the map is very touchy when trying to move it around when zoomed in. One click and drag and I magically went from Houston to Newfoundland - no joke. This only seems to occur before the route zips are entered in. After you hit go - it doesn't seem to be jumpy.

Seems ok here.. I haven't tested much in IE but I know it draws the map a little slower so maybe that's it. Also, you can enter your actual address and the destination address, you don't have to stick to zip codes.

[t i m]

wicked cool, Tim... been hoping for this for a long time. Thanks.

[Greg Layton]

Can't wait to see the ability to be able to save these trips. I've had a lot of fun playing with it this morning. One thing I'd like to see is the ability to enter more than one destination. For instance, let's say I'm driving from Grand Rapids, MI to Richmond, VA... obviously that route is going to look a lot different if I decide to drive to Nashville and then to Richmond instead of just taking the shortest route there.

Oh, and the remove played courses option is worth the $25. I'm ecstatic about that feature.

[timg]

That would be possible but I'd have to figure out how to let you choose where you'd want to insert courses between the various stops.. that's the hard part. In your case, you'd just have to do the Grand Rapids -> Nashville leg first, and then do Nashville -> Richmond. A little extra work but the same results in the end.

It is version 1.0.. I'm sure I'll figure out ways to improve it in the future :)

[solomon.trenton]

what about making multiple stops? i mean like getting directions where you can enter in multiple stops?

[timg]

what about making multiple stops? i mean like getting directions where you can enter in multiple stops?
That is exactly what Greg was talking about..

[srm_520]

How does something like Google maps do it? You can input up to around 25 spots to plan a detailed trip.

[gottafixit]

I love this feature exactly what I needed for my roadtrip to CT in three days, and I agree the eliminate played courses is a gem. However is there a limit on the number of courses you can add to the route, as long as the route doesn't go over 350 miles? I'll likely just break it down but just wondering the cut off points?

[timg]

You can add as many courses as you like (as far as I know), there's no mileage limit. The 350 mile limit is for the search area. You can add a course, use the sliders to move the search area to the next leg of the route, add some courses there, move it again, etc.

[solomon.trenton]

That is exactly what Greg was talking about..

ok i guess i skipped over that posts.

[gottafixit]

You can add as many courses as you like (as far as I know), there's no mileage limit. The 350 mile limit is for the search area. You can add a course, use the sliders to move the search area to the next leg of the route, add some courses there, move it again, etc.

I routed a drive from vienna va to manchester ct, and once a added 8 courses it wouldn't let me add another it would just do nothing when I clicked on the add to route button. Plus could you make the directions show in a printer friendly version, I got the first page only when i tried to print them. still a great feature i'm sure the bugs will get worked out.

[timg]

What browser are you using? I didn't have an issue printing a whole bunch of directions. I also just added 12 points to a route without issue.

[jdggna]

Tim...I think I love you...
But seriously, that's freaking sweet. I was already planning on getting a membership soon, but now I'll have to buy one quick...this will just be too awesome.

[timg]

I tweaked the printing for the route map. It should behave in all browsers now.

[gottafixit]

What browser are you using? I didn't have an issue printing a whole bunch of directions. I also just added 12 points to a route without issue.

it might have just been one course, seemed to not work with that one but with others immediately after, check out browns point/buzzy's creek in NJ.

[skottyb]

Wow that is awesome.... good work.

[skottyb]

Also, how do you sign up for a premium membership, having trouble locating this.

[solomon.trenton]

Also, how do you sign up for a premium membership, having trouble locating this.

you purchase it in the store, located on the home page.

[timg]

it might have just been one course, seemed to not work with that one but with others immediately after, check out browns point/buzzy's creek in NJ.

Fixed the bug. The apostrophe in the course name was throwing things off.

[timg]

Also, how do you sign up for a premium membership, having trouble locating this.

Here is the thread with the info. I need to make a more prominent, easier to find area for it and add it to the store, etc. I do have links sprinkled throughout the site but nowhere blatantly obvious.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2751

[humchris85]

This is way cool :cool: !!! I may finaly have a good reason to get the premium membership.

[gcoghill]

Very, very cool Tim!

[solomon.trenton]

Here is the thread with the info. I need to make a more prominent, easier to find area for it and add it to the store, etc. I do have links sprinkled throughout the site but nowhere blatantly obvious.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2751

what about a banner like for the birthday giveaway?

[fifteen]

Just signed up for Premium Membership, route map was the first thing I checked out. VERY COOL!! I think it'll inspire me to take more road trips this summer.

[timg]

Awesome. Glad you like it and thank you for the support!

[tomschillin]

is there any way we can save routes? to the dashboard or the profile somewhere?

[timg]

That's something I plan to add sometime in the future.

[gottafixit]

timg, Can you delete courses from the route after you have added them, I can't seem to figure that out if you can?

[gottafixit]

Can't wait to see the ability to be able to save these trips. I've had a lot of fun playing with it this morning. One thing I'd like to see is the ability to enter more than one destination. For instance, let's say I'm driving from Grand Rapids, MI to Richmond, VA... obviously that route is going to look a lot different if I decide to drive to Nashville and then to Richmond instead of just taking the shortest route there.

Oh, and the remove played courses option is worth the $25. I'm ecstatic about that feature.

If you enter your start point to and the destination of you first stop, then add the courses near that stop, then change the end location and hit go again and it will keep you current added courses and update for the new end location.

[timg]

timg, Can you delete courses from the route after you have added them, I can't seem to figure that out if you can?
No, that can't be done just yet. The adding of courses to the route was actually a last minute addition that I threw in there once the route map was pretty much complete. So it's not as well thought out as it could be yet :)

[srm_520]

Thread bump.

Tim, have you ever taken a second look at adding multiple destinations to the route map? Point A & B are cool, but I like to see it being able to set multiple points.

Thanks!

[timg]

I haven't looked at the route map much since finishing it. I am hoping to get back to it soon to try to work some upgrades into it.

[srm_520]

Gotcha, thanks.

Well, then when you do get around to it - my humble requests is that you give it the ability to do multiple locations.

It would also be cool if you could have the entire range instead of 324 miles at a time. Plus having course stats (something similar to what you would see when you do a "browse courses" search.

This would just limit your search to the route you have selected, and if you could select the entire route under this search - then the sweet part would being able to sort your search by whatever perimeters i.e. rating, # of holes, # of reviews etc.

[timg]

The reason for the range limit is because the way to figure out courses on the route is pretty intense and I try to limit the data set to keep things snappy. I could possibly bump the range up a little but there has to be a range.. especially if someone were to put in a cross country trip or something like that.

[Donovan]

I just tested this out for a couple of future trips I am planning on, IE 7 and it works great there.

[srm_520]

I'm running Firefox with Windows 7 64 and it uploads everything immediately, so I have no complaints in that department. Maybe you could up it to 500 miles at least.

What about my other suggestion about giving search information on the courses in your route?

[timg]

what do you mean by that?

[srm_520]

When you do a search in the Course Directory to "Browse Courses." Then once you pull up the search, it'll show # of holes, type of holes, rating, location, etc... It would be cool to have that option with the route map.

If I have a 500 mile route that has 150 courses on it - that would be a great way to sort them in helping a person decide what they wanted to play.

(This is different that just applying a filter IMO, in case that is going to be where your headed.)

[timg]

So you're saying you want a list instead of clicking on the basket icons to see that info?

[kpc2004]

how much does premium membership cost again? and can i pay with paypal as always? i think im gonna hafta ebay some discs just for this feature alone

[timg]

Here is the premium info:

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5680

Paypal is the preferred method but if people don't have it they can PM me and I can give them the snail mail info.

[kpc2004]

awesome, thanks tim! 25 bucks aint too bad, and shouldnt be too hard to get on ebay in the near future

[solomon.trenton]

So you're saying you want a list instead of clicking on the basket icons to see that info?

i think he wants to see the map and a list if i understand correctly

[srm_520]

So you're saying you want a list instead of clicking on the basket icons to see that info?

Solomon has that correct. It would be nice to have the map as the default, but then has the list in addition to the map.

Because the map is cool to be able to give you the visual and what everyone checks first, but its the lists that people use when they what to get down to the nitty gritty about making course selections.

[juanbond]

I would agree with the last poster, having a list of the courses along with the route map would be great. Deleting courses from the map is another desired feature. It would be nice to have delete links/buttons on both the map popup and whatever list there might be.

Great work thus far all across this site!

[harr0140]

Solomon has that correct. It would be nice to have the map as the default, but then has the list in addition to the map.

Because the map is cool to be able to give you the visual and what everyone checks first, but its the lists that people use when they what to get down to the nitty gritty about making course selections.

It would be nice if the list could also have an option to display with the address or GPS coordinates too because wheny ou print a map of 40 courses in hopes of hitting a bunch it would be nice to not even have to print the course info page just for the coordinates.

[justin]

I second that. Almost like a Trip Summary which could be as simple as course name, city/state, and coordinates.

[timg]

I just finished up a ton of work on the route map. If you go check it out (maybe do a ctrl-f5 to reload things but you shouldn't have to) you'll notice a lot of changes.

First off, there is now a "Route Stops" box where you can see all the courses you've added to your route. You can add/remove courses from your route in addition to rearranging them so that you can put them in the order that makes the most sense. There is also a new "Total Distance" label near the Directions link that will update automatically as you do your route, add/remove courses, etc. so you can use that to help you arrange your stops.

Also, if you see "OOR" as the distance from the route , that means "Out of Range". If you have a long trip and mark some courses in the beginning and move your search area to the next leg of the trip, the distance for those earlier courses won't be calculated as it's outside of the highlighted search area. They will still be in the lower course area if you've marked them as stops.

If you have any questions or run into any problems let me know. I did a ton of testing so hopefully no major bugs slipped through the cracks. Also, I will look into the trip summary thing mentioned when I get a chance.

[bcr123psu]

That would have come in handy a month ago. So I guess I need to take another road trip to kick the tires on this utility ;)

Awesome feature! THANKS timg!

[AdamH]

Sweet! I'm going on a couple road trips this summer and this will really come in handy. Thanks Tim!

[srm_520]

*shrugs*

Someday I'll sneak 25$ past my wife and get back on board. :)

[solomon.trenton]

road trip time baby!!!!

[AdamH]

I'm really loving the route map feature and am using it more and more. As I've been using it I noticed two features google maps already uses that could make the route map even better.


Is it possible to alter the route by clicking and dragging it like you can on google maps? The shortest way through lots of small towns isn't always better than the highway and it's nice to be able to choose.
Another feature google maps has is when you go to print the map, you have the option to see a small map for every turn you need to make. Since a lot of courses are out in the country where roads are marked by a name on the ground and a number on the map, having the option to see every turn can sometimes be very useful.

I understand if these are too much work to incorporate into the site or are closely guarded google secrets, but it can't hurt to ask. Either way the route map is fantastic and a great addition to the site.

[timg]

I'm pretty sure neither of those are doable using the current maps API.

[timg]

Just added the ability to add notes to your road trips as well as the ability to make a trip private so only you can see it. If you make a trip private, it will have a "[P]" after the trip name in the drop-down box.

[AdamH]

That's cool, I appreciate you looking into it Timg!

[solomon.trenton]

Just added the ability to add notes to your road trips as well as the ability to make a trip private so only you can see it. If you make a trip private, it will have a "[P]" after the trip name in the drop-down box.

cool, even more reasons to use route map!

[sgamerp]

Nice! not really sure why you would want them to be private but cool enough!

[shinypickle]

Nice! not really sure why you would want them to be private but cool enough!

It's becuse you have your route map start by you house and if you don't want people to know what city/town you live in then you make it private.

[Miller]

What about an option for deleting and/or renaming trips.

[timg]

View a trip and then click the delete tab to get rid of it. To rename it, click edit and just enter a new name in the box there.

[Miller]

Thanks, just didn't look close enough.