Settings

Profiles

You are quite likely to want to use different settings for local logging, remote logging and accuracy for different activity types, e.g. hiking, cycling or driving. Profiles allow you to maintain these separately and switch more easily between them using the iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.

The other settings are less likely to change based on activity type and are therefore not associated with a profile.

To create a new profile, press the profile name currently displayed in the Profiles section of the Settings page. This displays a list of the current profiles.

Press the add button (plus icon) to create a new profile. A blank row is added to the end of the list where you enter the profile name. The current settings for local logging, remote logging and accuracy, from the previously selected profile, will be associated with the new profile. One profile should always have a checkmark displayed. When you navigate back to the Settings screen, this checkmarked profile will become the active one. When you make changes to the associated settings, the changes are applied to the currently active profile.

A short left-swipe shows options for editing and deleting the profile. Pressing the Edit button allows you to re-order and delete profiles. Press Done to finished editing.

Local Logging

This section configures the frequency of recording locations to a local database. There is a switch to enable or disable the service.

Period

This sections allows configuring the time and distance frequency of local logging.

Choose the minimum period between recording locations to the local database. E.g. Choosing 15 seconds ensures locations will not be saved more frequently than every 15 seconds.

Distance

The minimum distance that the device has appeared to travel before a new location will be recorded. A location will not be recorded until the device appears to have moved the specified distance. There is a tolerance of about 10 percent, e.g. if the distance is configured as every 100 metres, if the distance moved is greater than 90 metres it will be recorded.

Setting this value is recommended as it appears to reduce GPS usage. Choose a distance that is appropriate for the speed you are likely to be travelling at and the frequency you wish to log at. E.g. If you are walking at about 4 kph and logging every 10 seconds, a distance of 10 metres would be appropriate.

Before a location will be recorded, both the minimum time and distance parameters must have been exceeded.

Remote Logging

This sections allows the frequency of remote logging in terms of time and distance travelled to be specified. There is a switch to enable or disable the service.

Period

Choose the minimum period between reporting locations to the remote server. E.g. Choosing 10 minutes ensures locations will not be sent more frequently than every 10 minutes.

Whilst the system allows you to choose lower intervals, it is recommended not to use an interval below 3 seconds as when communications are intermittent, a backlog of locations to transmit can build up, which may adversely impact the operation of the system and also put an undue load on the remote server. Even then, for remote logging, once a minute should be sufficiently frequent in most situations.

Distance

Setting this value is recommended as it appears to reduce GPS usage. Choose a distance that is appropriate for the speed you are likely to be travelling at and the frequency you wish to log at. E.g. If you are walking at about 4 kph and logging every 15 minutes, a distance of less than 1 km would be appropriate.

Accuracy

These settings influence the accuracy of locations logged to the remote server. The values chosen also affect battery usage. You configure a combination of;

• the desired accuracy of the GPS
• the minimum estimated accuracy or Horizontal Dilution of Precision (HDOP) in metres
• the maximum time to spend attempting to achieve that level of estimated accuracy

Where fairly frequent location reporting is not required, but a reasonable level of accuracy is desired, the Desired accuracy can be set to 3 kilometres and the Minimum HDOP set to say 30 metres. Wi-Fi and mobile phone networks are then used to ascertain locations and the GPS is turned off. When the app receives a location update that is greater than the Minimum HDOP, the app temporarily changes the Desired accuracy to one that is sufficient based on the Minimum HDOP setting, in this case it would be 10 metres.

The app then monitors location updates received from the GPS up to the maximum time specified by the Seek time period. If a location is received that matches or is better than the Minimum HDOP it will be logged to the remote server. If the Seek time is exceeded the most accurate location is logged to the remote server unless Strict HDOP compliance has been switched on, in which case the location is ignored.

As it is expected that local logging is performed at a much higher level of frequency than remote logging, if Strict HDOP compliance is not enabled and twice the time interval has passed since the last locally recorded location but the minimum HDOP has still not been met, the location will be recorded, except where the specified minimum distance has not been travelled. This is to avoid big gaps in the local track log where GPS coverage may be poor, e.g. in a forest, canyon or building.

If a sufficiently accurate location is achieved within the seek time, it will be recorded. After the seek time has expired, the most accurate location will also be recorded as long as it differs from the most recent.

Desired accuracy

This option influences which hardware is enabled to provide location information.

When the 3 kilometres, 1 kilometre or 100 metres options are chosen, Wi-Fi and the mobile network are used to provide location updates. In this scenario the GPS is not usually turned on, reducing battery usage. Any other options turn on the GPS, increasing battery usage. Using the 10 metres option may use the GPS less frequently than Best and Best for navigation options.

When the Best for navigation option is used, the GPS will be turned on when logging is active and the device potentially uses additional hardware such as the accelerometer and barometer to improve the location accuracy. In order to maintain battery efficiency, it is not recommended to use this option.

It is recommended to use Best for most situations, except where you do not wish to log particularly frequently. E.g. to monitor a long journey by car or train you might using a setting of 1 kilometre or more. If your journey is through built up areas where there are likely to be plenty of Wi-Fi points, setting desired accuracy to 100 metres may prove quite effective.

Minimum HDOP

Horizontal Dilution of Precision) (HDOP) is an estimated accuracy in metres that the GPS reports in relation to a location fix.

Seek time

Specifies the time after which the app gives up looking for a location to match the minimum HDOP.

Strict HDOP compliance

If this switch is turned on, if a location has not been received that matches or is better than the required HDOP value during the seek time period no locations are reported.

If this switch is off, the most accurate location received during the seek time is reported even if it exceeds the minimum HDOP value.

Behaviour

Show activity bar

This feature is only available for devices running iOS 11 or greater. Additionally, the Location Monitoring Background Indicator will only be hidden when the Always permission for the Allow Location Access option is enabled under the device settings, Settings > Trip Logger > Locations.

When switched on, as a reminder, it shows a notification in the status bar of the device when TripLogger is actively monitoring locations and also running in the background. Exactly how this is displayed is a feature of the operating system and varies from device to device. It is strongly recommended to enable this feature as a reminder and only disable it if you find it unacceptably annoying.

Maximum activity history

The maximum number of events to show in the activity log before clearing the oldest entries.

Should your device report a low-memory condition to the app, the app will clear the log leaving just a few entries to reduce memory usage as much as possible. The log is also cleared when the app is not recording locations and is subsequently closed after a period of idleness.

Notifications

TripLogger Remote version 1.2.0 adds the below notifications which can be individually controlled from the app's settings. They are also generally enabled and disabled via the device's notification settings, the latter overriding any of the app settings.

• Success or failure notification after requesting sending of a single location, with or without a note.

• When the iPhone or iPad battery level is lower or higher than configurable values whilst discharging or charging respectively. Battery level notifications are only sent whilst remote logging is enabled and running.

These notifications are primarily intended for use with an Apple Watch, especially in situations where it may be inconvenient to access the iPhone or iPad, such as when being carried in a backpack.

Please note that notification messages, sounds and haptics are not triggered in some circumstances, such as when the TripLogger app is in the foreground and the iPhone or iPad is unlocked, or when the TripLogger app is in the foreground on the Apple Watch and the watch is awake.

Battery notifications are only sent whilst logging is active (either local or remote) on the iPhone or iPad. Battery notifications are not used on the Apple Watch as it already relatively simple to monitor it's battery level. Once a battery alert notification is sent, no further notifications will be sent unless the setting is changed for the specific notification or logging is restarted.

Low battery level

Set to Off to disable notifications when the device is discharging. Otherwise select a specific percentage value to raise a notification when the battery is at or below the chosen value whilst the battery is discharging.

High battery level

Set to Off to disable notifications when the device is charging. Otherwise select a specific percentage value to raise a notification when the battery is at or above the chosen value whilst the batter is charging.

Send note

This option enables or disables sending a notification after succeeding or failing to send a single location with a note.

Send single location

This option enables or disables sending a notification after succeeding or failing to send a single location.

Note suggestions

A note can be created, associated with your current location and sent to the remote server, as described in the Location Logging section. This may be useful to record notes about the route your are following, for the information of others monitoring your progress or for future reference. This setting allows you to maintain a list of common note suggestions to use directly or as a template.

Press the action icon (a box with an upwards arrow) to export the list of notes as a text file. A text file can also be copied to the app using the iOS/iPadOS share functionality. When the app imports the text file, you can choose to replace the current list of note suggestions or append the list of notes to the existing list. A new note is created for each line in the text file.

Remote Host

These settings are quite technical in nature and you are likely to need information from the provider of the remote logging server to set them correctly.

Use HTTPS (secure)

Whether to use HTTP or HTTPS to remotely log locations. For security, this should always be on except in testing environments. Insecure HTTP requests may be blocked by the iOS operating system.

If in doubt, this setting should be on.

Use POST (secure)

Whether locations will be logged to the remote server using the GET or POST) HTTP request mechanisms.

The POST mechanism is more secure than GET and should be used if supported by the remote host.

If in doubt, this setting should be on.

JSON body

If this option is enabled, the body of the HTTP POST request will be formatted as a JSON object, otherwise it will be submitted as Form-Data (multipart/form-data mime type).

If in doubt, try with this setting off first. TripServer will accept either format. Form-Data may use slightly less data.

Host address

The Internet address of the host handling remote location logging. This can be either a name or an IP address. Only enter the name or IP address. Don't prefix it with the protocol (e.g. HTTP or HTTPS). e.g. just www.example.com not https://www.example.com/.

Host port

A numeric value indicating a port address).

This should normally be blank and only needs specifying if the remote server is using a non-standard value. When blank, the system will automatically use the standard values of port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS.

Host path

For use with TripServer, normally this must be set to /trip/rest/log_point.

User identifier

A value provided by the remote logging service to uniquely identify you to the remote system.

Exporting and Importing Settings

Settings can be exported or shared by pressing the Action icon (a box with an upwards arrow). To keep the settings as a backup you could choose the option to save it as a file, ideally in an iCloud folder.

The file format of the exported file is a human-readable pure text file structured in the YAML format. There is a summary of YAML on Wikipedia should you wish to understand its contents.

Settings can be re-imported using any of the standard iOS/iPadOS sharing mechanisms. E.g. Long-pressing the filename in the Files app gives the option to Share the file. Choose the Copy to TripLogger option. TripLogger will launch and ask you for confirmation to replace all your current settings. The Settings page is displayed after the import completes.