Using caveDB

Documentation

caveDB is currently in beta and under active development. Some features may differ between the documentation and the app and features are subject to change at any time although all data will be preserved

User interface

Main screen desktop

Title bar controls

	Open main menu	Access tools and settings
	Import media	Contribute photos, videos, survey and other files Go to docs
	Show recent changes	See the latest updates to the database Go to docs

Search bar

The search bar allows to you to search by place name or id or to go to a given set of coordinates. Geo coordinates can be in many formats, for instance :-

40.123, -74.123
40.123° N 74.123° W
40° 7´ 22.8” N 74° 7´ 22.8” W
…

Full list of supported geo coordinate formats

Map controls

	Zoom in	Zoom the map in
	Zoom out	Zoom the map out
	Track current location	Zooms map to your current location and tracks as you move
	Change map type	Select between satellite and terrain maps
	Zoom to filter	Zoom the map to show all sites visible with the current filter
	Measure distance on the map	Click to enable and select points on the map to measure between. You can add multiple points. Click again to stop measuring

Filtering

By default caveDB will filter out many areas that may interest you. You can see how many it could potentially show you by the Showing X of Y text under the search bar. This will also be filtered by any text that you have in the search bar. To edit the filter click the Edit filter button to open the filter editor.

Here you can adjust the filter to drill down into the sites that you are interested in. To reset back to your default filter click Reset Filter. To save the current filter as your default filter click Save as default. The Show button will display how many sites your current filter will show and on clicking will apply the filter and return to the map. Click the Close button to exit without applying any changes.

Site information

Click the map marker to view details about that site.

Commands

	Open the media gallery
	View survey data
	Start navigation see navigation
Show on Map	Go to the site location on the map
Map app	Open the device map application and start navigating
Edit	Only visible if you have permission to edit the site
Add trip report	Add a trip report to the site including rating

Displayed properties

Type	The type of this feature see feature types
Elevation	Height above sea level
Location	Location in decimal degrees using the WGS84 datum
Reference	Arbitrary reference. Commonly a karst index
Vertical access	You will require ropes or ladders to enter this site. Seek proper training beforehand.
Goes to water	Does this cave lead to fresh water
Dive rating	The dive ratings you must have to dive this site. The site may have multiple rating so make sure you check the site details and only access areas your training allows see site ratings
Exploration	How much exploration potential does this site has
Disabled access	How much potential this site has to allow disabled access of some kind
Water temp	Temperature range of the water

Dive ratings

Basic cave	Cavern region only
Cave	Penetration with no restrictions that you cannot pass side by side whilst air sharing
Advanced cave	Penetration with restrictions. Each site will need to be researched individually as they may contain tight restrictions and heavy silt

Feature types

Unknown	Needs on ground investigation
Not found	Could not be found at the location
Landmark	General non cave feature landmark
Destroyed	A feature that previously existed has been destroyed
Depression	A depression may be quite large and does not have any visible entrances
Cave	A cave is a natural underground chamber in a hillside or cliff or a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter
Sinkhole	A hole in the ground that forms when water dissolves surface rock, especially limestone, and causes the ground above to collapse. Sinkholes can vary in size and depth, and can be natural or human-made
Solution tube	A geological solution tube is a vertical cylindrical hole in limestone or other soluble rock, formed by the dissolution of the rock by water. It is a type of karst feature that can be found in regions with humid climates and abundant rainfall. Solution tubes can vary in diameter and depth, and may contain sediments, fossils, or cave formations
Mine	Disused mine, likely flooded

Account

Creating an account allows to contribute to the database as well other features.

Creating an account

Click the button at the top left of the screen to open the main menu
Click the Sign up button under Cloud settings

You will be prompted for your email address and a password.

Your password must be at least 8 characters long

When you have enter the information click the Sign up button. You will be emailed a verification code to your email address that you will need to verify your email address.

Enter the verification code and click verify to complete creating your account and login.

Forgotten password

Click the button at the top left of the screen to open the main menu.
Click the Forgot password button under Cloud settings
Enter your email address you signed up with to receive a reset code
Enter your email address, reset code and the new password to use

Tools

Tools are available by clicking at the top left of the screen.

Go to location

Center the map on a set of geo coordinates give in decimal degrees, DMS or text string

go to location dialog

Create a new place

Contribute a new place to the database. This can also be open by long clicking on the map where you want to create the place.

go to location dialog

Selected location	Use the location of the long click on the map
My location	Add a place at your current GPS location
Map center	Add a place at the current map center location
Coordinates	Add a place at a specific set of geo coordinates in decimal degrees, degrees/minutes/seconds and text formats Supported text formats

Export to GPX

Exports the currently filtered places to GPS format so you can import it to your handheld GPS tracker. It currently supports the following GPX export file types.

Standard	Single large GPX file
Garmin	This exports in a format that garmin devices can use. Garmin import is limited to 500 place marks so this will output multiple files if necessary
Strava	Single large GPX file for Strava

Settings

Click the button at the top left of the screen to open the main menu and scroll to User settings

Display name	This is the name other users will see your contributions as.
Navigation sensitivity	Degrees of deviation from the site direction to show as straight ahead
Show compass	Show the compass on the main map
Enable tile cache	Enable reading and writing map tiles to a local cache. You will need to enable this when out of mobile signal. Currently is has a performance impact so is not enabled by default
Logging level	Set logging to the developer console. Generally do not change unless asked to assist in debugging. You must reload the page for it take effect
Units	Set display units to imperial or metric

Navigator

To help find a site on the ground you can use the built in navigation. To enable navigation open the place and click . This will start navigation mode and you will now see a compass at the bottom of the screen. To exit navigation click the Exit navigation button at the top right of the screen.

This shows you the current distance to the location and the bearing from your current orientation. The arrows to the left and right direct you as to which way to turn and will show two arrows pointing forward when you are heading in the correct direction. Best results can be achieved by calibrating your phone compass on site.

Survey

Survey data can be added to any place using the media upload feature. This allows you to upload KML, GPX and GeoJSON files that will be displayed on the map.

Using offline

caveDB is built to work when you are in the field and out of mobile or internet connection. All contributions to places made when you are offline will automatically synchronized when you are back in signal. Unlike place information you need to explicitly download maps and place media so you can use them when offline.

While the data is downloading the app must be open. It will restart if you close the app but it can take a significant amount of time to download large amounts of map tiles

Caching map tiles

Zoom the map to the area of the map that you want to download map tiles for
Click the button at the top left of the screen to open the main menu
Click Going offline under tools
Select the Viewport tab
Choose which map type you want to download and the maximum zoom level
Click Cache tiles

The higher the zoom level the more space it will need and you will hit maximum download limits (currently 4GB). If you see a warning the the current settings exceed the cache size limit you need to either reduce the max zoom level or close the dialog and zoom in on the map further.

Caching place media

This will download all photos, videos and survey data so you can view it while offline.

Zoom the map to the area of the map that you want to download map tiles for
Click the button at the top left of the screen to open the main menu
Click Going offline under tools
Select the Place media tab
Click Cache place media

Contributing

Contribute a new place to the database. This can also be open by long clicking on the map where you want to create the place.

go to location dialog

Selected location	Use the location of the long click on the map
My location	Add a place at your current GPS location
Map center	Add a place at the current map center location
Coordinates	Add a place at a specific set of geo coordinates in decimal degrees, degrees/minutes/seconds and text formats Supported text formats

Media import

Unless you are an editor the media will be queued until it has been check for relevance and approved.

Each place has associated media that users can contribute to which includes photos, videos, survey data, documents and YouTube videos.

You can open the media import by clicking on the right of the title bar. This opens a drawer that allows to you import multiple items at once. For photos it will read any GPS data attached to the photo to guess the place it is related.

Selecting files to import

Click Browse for files
Select files to import

Selecting the place for an item

Click Select place
Select the place on the map
Click Accept to add the item to the place
Click Discard to remove the item from the import

Adding directly to a site

Go the place on the map
Click it to open the place details view
Click Add media to open the media importer
Select media to import
Review and upload or discard.

Adding YouTube videos to a site

You will need the link to the

Go the place on the map
Click it to open the place details view
Click edit to open the place editor
Click Add YouTube link at the top of the edit screen.
Enter URL to YouTube video
Click Accept
Click Save

Supported file types


SVG	`.svg`	These are preferred where possible over image formats
Images	`.png`, `.jpg`, `.gif`	Photos and other images. Must be under 8mb
Videos	`.mp4`	Videos. Must be under 50mb
GeoJSON	`.json`	Survey data in GeoJSON format
KML	`.kml`	Survey data in KML format
YouTube	`url`	Url from YouTube share dialog e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KImaj-zfgE4

Appendix

Supported geocoords formats

40.123, -74.123
40.123° N 74.123° W
40° 7´ 22.8” N 74° 7´ 22.8” W
40° 7.38’ , -74° 7.38’
N40°7’22.8, W74°7’22.8”
40°7’22.8”N, 74°7’22.8”W
40 7 22.8, -74 7 22.8
40.123 -74.123
40.123°,-74.123°
144442800, -266842800
40.123N74.123W
4007.38N7407.38W
40°7’22.8”N, 74°7’22.8”W
400722.8N740722.8W
N 40 7.38 W 74 7.38
40:7:23N,74:7:23W
40:7:22.8N 74:7:22.8W
40°7’23”N 74°7’23”W
40°7’23” -74°7’23”
40d 7’ 23” N 74d 7’ 23” W
40.123N 74.123W
40° 7.38, -74° 7.38

JSON schema for bulk importing

The JSON schema for the database can be downloaded here

place-schema.json

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