RouteSlip.com Updates

Auto-Routing is now available on RouteSlip.com, but there are a few “gotchas” that you should keep in mind when using it. I hope this short list helps, and hopefully users will contribute their own thoughts on the subject as their experience dictates.

1. To enable “auto-routing”, check the “Auto-Route” checkbox above the map. You can check and uncheck this option at any point while you’re creating the route.
2. Routing is based on Driving directions
• The API will take you from Point A to Point N along the shortest route. It’s possible that the directions will take you on freeways and on other less desirable routes.
• When routing, choose waypoints that you know won’t take you on freeways.
• The Auto-Routing feature will not work on bike trails. For these segments of your route, you’ll have to rely on the “old” way of creating your route. Once you’ve jumped back on the road, you can enable routing again.
• Be cognizant of one-way roads: auto-routing will obey the road rules.
3. Consider the SIDE of the road that you click on
• If you click on the “wrong” side of the road while you’re in auto-route mode, the route will likely take you to the next intersection past that point, then make you “U-turn” to get on that side of the street.
• Auto-Route works best if you’re at low zoom levels.
4. Mistakes happen
• If you mistakenly click the opposite side of the road, or the route takes a “wrong” turn, you can “undo” the auto-route operation.

Google released the API to their driving directions last week and I couldn’t help myself. Automatic routing is what I’ve called “The Holy Grail” to an application like RouteSlip.com and I’ve spoken about the future availability of it like people probably used to talk about traveling to the moon (ok, maybe an exaggeration).

Regardless, despite it being Finals Week, I managed to peel myself away and work on implementing auto-routing on RouteSlip.com.

I think Auto-Routing will improve RouteSlip.com users’ experience immeasurably! Not only can you click on “Point A” and then “Point Z” and have it trace your route for you, it also pulls in the turn-by-turn directions that are LACKING in so many users’ routes.
I’ll follow this post up with helpful hints about using the auto-routing feature.

How to Use Auto-Routing

By default, Auto-routing is off. In order to enable it, just check the “Auto-route” checkbox at the top of the map. To switch it off (even in the middle of a route) just uncheck the checkbox.

have fun!

Hi all. I wanted to let everyone know that I’m making every attempt to increase my involvement in the development and maintenance of RouteSlip.com. Along with that are some plans I have for making this more financially viable and worthwhile.

That being said, none of the events in my life have changed to a considerable degree, so new features, support, etc. will still be slow — but it’s better than total cold turkey.

A couple comments about support:

First: I’ll do my best to fix site-wide issues that affect all users, and those that affect all users of a certain browser class (i.e. IE6 or IE 7 or FireFox 2.0, etc). I won’t be able to address issues that individual users are having, like:

• Routes won’t display for me
• I can’t create a route
• I can’t log in
• …

The site does work. However, it’s always possible (and likely in some cases) that I’ll introduce a bug that breaks something else in the application. As soon as I become aware of the bug, I’ll begin to look into the issue. A good example are the recent issues where users saw database error messages on the “My Routes” page (I’m still looking into that one).

Second: The RouteSlip.com community has grown huge by all expectations I had and the Community Discussion Forum can be a huge benefit to users that are having “one off” problems with the site. I’ll open it up completely so that all users can post to it and request help from the rest of the community.
Lastly, I’m working on an advertising program to help support my efforts on the site. Part of that will include a referral program that pays contributors for advertisers that they bring in to the site. More information will be coming soon, but for those of you that have asked about ways to help support the site, this is it.