So I am still not happy with my various methods of posting KML files (tracks from my Navionics chartplotter) to the blog while on a cruise. The last method involved using FTP Manager to upload the files from my phone which is a bit clunky and likely to break down in areas of bad internet—which hopefully I encounter lots this summer :-).
Brainstorm
It occurred to me that the Navionics app allowed me to post my tracks to Facebook directly, so there must be a way to leverage that for my WordPress blog. Then I remembered the Post by Email function built into WordPress. What this does is generate a complex email address and any email sent to it automatically posts to the blog. I checked it out again (haven’t looked at it for several versions) and it was vastly improved and no longer needs a specified mail server.
And it allows the use of a great set of shortcodes to provided most of the functionality I normally use.
[category d-autres]
[delay +2 days] [delay +1 hour] [delay 2015-12-01 11:30:00 MST]
[comments on | off]
[status publish | pending | draft | private]
[slug some-url-name]
[title Your post title]
[end] – everything after this shortcode is ignored (i.e. signatures). Make sure it’s on its own line with a blank line above it.
So if I combine my newfound use of Markdown and its shortcuts (previously detailed ) with the email function of the app, I could post directly to my blog with all the text for the blog entry, a thumbnail of the track and a link to the original KML file all in one swoop. Then I could come back later and reset the KML files using the ftp method so they stuck around for posterity.
So, write the blog post in a text-editor using markdown & shortcodes, copy it into the Navionics app on the appropriate Track, and hit send. Simple as pie!
The posts would look like this:
Day 4 Sailing Ho
To day I set sail and sailed the ocean blue in my sailboat powered completely by sails. It was grand!
Track recorded with Navionics App.
View it: http://tinyurl.com/pyp7fsh
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/o863o6f
Now all I need is to get back out on the water…