Compass is a GPS tracking server I have used for years. However, it has not been updated in some time. Recently, the developer, Aaron Parecki, has indicated he’s thinking of doing a refresh, so I thought it was time to make some suggestions as a user.
Beyond the essentials, which are updating the dependencies and fixing to the current version of IndieAuth and PHP, there are many options.
In 2018, Aaron wrote about wanting to store weather info in Compass at the time location records were created. The same option could be available for reverse geolocation.
But there are different providers out there for that. For the most flexibility, there needs to be a way to switch providers without Compass having to support them all directly.
The same idea applies to the map tiles themselves. All of this behavior could be flexible.
Finally, some way to import a trip, e.g. plane, train, from an external source. Compass technically has this through the API, but the issue here is that you could want this to merge/overwrite/reconcile with your local readings if you didn’t turn off your GPS while on the train.
I also looked at GeoPulse and Dawarich for inspiration. There are some features they have I think are worth adding without making this package too much of a clone.
- GeoFence triggers
- Historic Backfill of the proposed weather/reverse geocoding.
- Improved ability to generate monthly, weekly, daily, yearly stats, even if this is just improved API options for an external stat source.
So, everything is about keeping Compass lean, extending its storage capability, and its ability to trigger or be triggered by external sources.