GPXTrackMap Quickstart

Here's a very quick and basic run through the steps you need to show your GPX tracks on your site:

  1. Download the latest version of the plugin (from here).
  2. Install the plugin on your site (Extensions/Extension Manager)
  3. Enable the plugin (Extensions/Plug-in Manager: look for "Content - GPXTrackMap". If there's a red dot next to it: click it. It should turn green.)
  4. Select a GPX file root folder in the plugin Options. For now, leave all the settings as they are.
  5. Create the GPX root folder on your server, if it's not there yet: /images/gpxtracks.
  6. Upload your GPX file to the GPX root folder on your server (e.g. with FTP), name the file "track.gpx".
  7. Create an article to show the track map in (or edit an existing one)
  8. Copy the following code into your article text: { gpxtrackmap}track.gpx{/gpxtrackmap}
  9. Remove the blank space after the first curly brace in the code you just copied! (*)
  10. Save the article and look at it in the Front-End of your site.

(*) i had to include this blank space here, because the plugin is active on my site - without the blank, it would kick in and show the map (and you wouldn't be able to see the code)...

You should now see your gpx track, nicely zoomed in to its extents on an OpenStreetMap map, on your site -

Congratulations!

Now you can go back to the Plugin options, and "play around": get to know all the settings you can make there and choose your preferences.

If you don't see a map, but you see the above code instead:

Make sure that there are NO HTML tags or blank spaces between the first opening brace and the last closing brace in the code in your article text. This is best checked by turning OFF your content editor (like TinyMCE, JCE) and looking at the "naked" HTML code. If you find HTML tags or blanks in the code, remove them, and save your article again. Go back to your Front End and refresh/reload the page.

If you see the map "box", but no map and no track:

The plugin can not find your GPX file. Make sure it is in the GPX root folder (as set up in steps 4 and 5 above), the filename is spelled correctly (including capitalization!), and the access rights of your folder are set correctly for public access (that's why it defaults to /images/gpxtracks - the permissions in that folder should be fine).

Make sure you have Javascript enabled in your browser

How to do this depends on your browser, and what version of it you're using - you should find this information quickly with Google™, Bing™ or whatever search site you prefer.

If it still doesn't work:

Double-check the previous three things. Really do. Those are the most likely reasons it could fail (and about the only ones i can think of at the moment). If you have (really, really!) done this and you still have no success, go to the Troubleshooting section in the Documentation. Make sure to eliminate all possible causes for malfunction described there.