This turned into a shit show. I mean, this is what Szapp.Com is about: documenting the amount of time wasted on stuff that just does not work as specified.
The Maps Marker Pro plugin for WordPress (which I expect to purchase after getting to know it better during the free 30-day trial) is the most beautiful and comprehensive mapping plugin for WordPress. While most mapping plugins have a singular bias toward Google Maps the Maps Marker Pro (a.k.a. “Leaflet Maps Marker”) allows mapping from OpenSourceMaps, Bing. MapQuest, and others. It’s a quality product but not without its timesucking documentation perils.
Drawn by the promise of importing GPS tracks directly from KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files I spent ludicrous amounts of time searching and clicking and hunting and pecking for where this support was to be found. I could not for the life of me figure out where the option to import KML files existed. All I could find is support for the GPX, CSV, XLS, and XLSX formats, though the FAQ clearly stated “Can I import markers via CSV or KML? Yes, this feature is available since Maps Marker Pro v1.4″ (The plugin is now at version 1.6). I opened a support ticket and looked forward to a reply, whilst clicking and searching and hunting for this feature. It was 5am in the country where the software is developed so I didn’t expect an immediate reply.
A reply did come quickly enough, though, and to the credit of its author the claim that KML files can be imported directly into Maps Marker Pro has been removed from the web site’s FAQ. I was also offered a 20% discount should I choose to purchase the plugin. I think that adds up to about eight bucks, or about one dollar for every hour I spent staring at this.
Whilst waiting the above reply response I found myself in mental limbo, questioning my general intelligence in trying to get KML converted to CSV or anything else natively supported by Maps Marker Pro.
Simply opening the KML file in Excel and saving it as CSV should have solved the problem, but for some reason Maps Marker Pro complained that the column headings either did not exist or were invalid.
The next likeliest route should have been GPSBabel, a software I remember downloading years ago but which I can’t recall successfully using. The first times I attempted to convert from KML to GPX I was treated to insouciant error messages that I wish I could remember. I forgot to note them but I think they ended with “error Message 1” or “error condition 1”. After a reboot GPSBabel was able to convert KML to GPX but it only showed start and end points, failing to illustrate tracks (as shown in the successful result below).
Another promising piece of software — the KMLCSV converter — failed to start after complaining that I had no JRE (Java Runtime Environment) installed in its path.
KMLCSV Java Runtime Environment must be available
Of course I have a current version of the JRE installed, but KMLCSV for some reason wants it installed in its own directory. Older version of Java are available for download (KMLCSV wanted version 1.6 or newer, suggesting it does not work with the most modern versions) but those legacy Java platforms are notoriously bad news.
Sticking with a modern version of Java I copied over the “jre7” folder from the Java directory, renamed it to “jre” and got a new complaint:
Failed to load the .INI shared library jvm.dll
I thought this KMLCSV Converter might simply have required a reboot (it did not work after reboot, which I did not perform until the next day) but in lieu of that I looked for solutions in a text-parsing language I could trust: Perl. Ultimately this worked but, of course, it was not without its perils — I was unable to install the DateTime::Format::HTTP module on my preferred dedicated server, so I had to do it on another. Nevertheless, from one ONO HIROKI’s web pages comes a blessedly simple script to convert KML to CSV. This rant is not meant to pronounce that Perl is a preferred route for this task (though text-strangling such as this is precisely where the Practical Extraction and Reporting Language shines) but to document the time wasted staring at erroneously documented plugins and software applications that seem to work for everyone but me.
Now I am up and running with maps, maps, maps to come. Here is a first one showing my 7.71 mile walk through Queens.
