Lil Devil's Geocaching Pages

This script enhances the geocaching.com Google map page by increasing the map size, reducing white space, hiding disabled caches, and stopping the automatic refresh. And there's more!

Install or update the script

What complaints do you have with the geocaching.com Google Map?

I don't want the map to refresh as I'm panning around.

No problem. Just un-check the "Automatically" checkbox that appears next to the "Refresh Map" link, and then you can pan and zoom the map to your heart's content, without having to wait while it loads geocaches at each step. Once you get to the location of interest, just click on "Refresh Map" to see any geocaches in the area.

The map is too short. There is too much wasted space above and below the map.

This script hides the header and footer sections of the page, reduces the margins, and automatically resizes the map to be the full height of the screen. If you subsequently resize your browser window, the map resizes with it.

The map is too narrow.

Install the Hide Navigation Bars script to hide the navigation bar on the left. That function is in a separate script so it can work on all pages of the geocaching.com website. This matches the functionality already provided for the information panel on the right-hand side of the map.

The geocache list on the right is too tall/short. It should be the same height as the map.

This script makes several adjustments to the information panel on the right-hand side of the map to reduce white space, which allows for more caches to appear in the table. Then it resizes the table to take up the entire remaining height of the window. No more scrolling, and no more white space.

When looking at the map, it's hard to tell which caches are disabled.

Disabled caches now show with a big red X over them to make them more distinctive. If you still can't see them maybe you need better glasses. You can disable this option from the Monkey Menu. See the "Configuration" section below.

I'd rather hide the disabled caches completely.

There is a new filter added to the Premium Member Filters section that will hide the disabled caches. They will no longer appear on the map, nor in the table. Best of all, you don't have to be a Premium Member to use this filter – that's just the most logical place to locate the checkbox.

I don't like those white ovals that are around each cache icon.

Neither do I. That's why this script adds a "Hide Ovals" checkbox to the Filters section. In most cases the map looks much cleaner without them.

Now that you've added these new filters, the Filters section takes up too much space.

Just click the little "–" icon in the upper-right corner to minimize it. The geocache table below will automatically expand to fill the available space. Click on the "+" to restore Filters section.

I would rather see the cache names or GC codes instead of a meaningless number next to each cache icon.

Next to the checkbox to turn on the labels, there is now a menu where you can choose what to put in those labels. Choices are GC Codes, cache names, or the original numbers that match the caches up with the table. See the image at right for examples.

I'd like to click a link to open the current view in Google Maps or Google Earth.

Look above the map. Those links are there now. Links for both are added to the bar above the map. Note that the link for Google Earth will only work if you have Google Earth and the Google Earth Geocache Viewer installed.

These links, as well as the original "MyTopo.com" and "Link to this page" links, can be shown or hidden from the Options panel. See the Configuration section below.

And I'd like to do all this in Opera and Chrome as well as Firefox.

The script has been tested and confirmed to work in Firefox 3.6.3 and Opera 10.50. I'm working to add Chrome compatibility to a future version.

Configuration

There are a few options that you probably don't need to change very often, such as hiding the links at the top, or making disabled caches more distinctive. To configure these options, right-click on the Greasemonkey icon in the status bar of your browser, select "User Script Commands..." then "Map Enhancements." Changes to each option take effect immediately.

Version History

1.3 - 2011/2/5

• Changed to accommodate website update.
  • Removed what little support there was for the new beta maps. This code fixed a oversight in the "return to old maps" link which has now been fixed on the website.

1.2 - 2010/12/26

• Added code to remember state of all filters.
• Added a duplicate "Refresh Map" link to the top bar.
• Added option to show GC Codes without the "GC" in front of them.
• Added option to enable or disable continuous smooth zooming.
• Added option to hide the "new Maps Beta" link.
• Fixed initialization problem with the "new Maps Beta" link.
• Fixed the "Return to original maps" link on the new Maps Beta page to return to the same geographic location.
• Changed to accommodate website update.
  • Removed code that fixed the two website bugs in the new deferred update function, that have since been fixed on the website.
• Better compatibility with the GCVote user script.
• Better compatibility with the FastGCUserMenu user script.
• Better compatibility with the Opera browser. May not be perfect. Please let me know of any issues.

1.1 - 2010/04/14 - This is primarily a bugfix update since the script was broken by the last website and Greasemonkey updates.

• Changed to accommodate website update.
  • Removed code that fixed a website bug that has since been fixed on the website.
  • Removed code that deferred map updates, as that functionality is now included natively on the website.
  • Added code to fix two bugs in the new deferred update functionality.
• Added support for Greasemonkey 0.8.6. Still backwards compatible with other 0.8.x versions.
  • Most changes are now applied before the map is drawn, making for a smoother initialization.
• Enabled continuous smooth zooming for supported browsers.
• Fixed bug that prevented Hide Found Caches and Hide Disabled Caches from working well together.
• Added additional filter to Hide Unfound Caches.

1.0 - 2010/03/26 - Initial release.