Using PhoneTrack on Android

[ashleyross]

Like #118, I've been trying out alternative logging apps.

PhoneTrack supports logging to any backend using Custom Log Jobs, which we can use with Dawarich's OwnTracks API endpoint.

Simply create a new Custom Log Job in PhoneTrack with the following details:

• Target address: https://<your-dawarich-instance>/api/v1/owntracks/points?api_key=<your-api-key>&_type=location&acc=%ACC&alt=%ALT&batt=%BATT&bs=0&cog=%DIR&lat=%LAT&lon=%LON&tst=%TIMESTAMP&vel=%SPD
• Use POST method: ☑︎ Yes
• Send JSON payload instead of key/value pairs: ☐ No
• HTTP login: (blank)
• HTTP password: (blank)

Note that we have to disable Send JSON payload because it also moves api_key into the JSON entity, which Dawarich does not accept. Fortunately, Dawarich happens to support accepting the data as querystring parameters.

The data sent includes vel (velocity) in meters per second, defined in the OwnTracks JSON format in kilometers per hour. This works so long as we don't include a topic thanks to Dawarich's special handling documented in https://github.com/Freika/dawarich/releases/tag/0.24.0

It also includes cog (Course over ground) as a float, defined in the OwnTracks JSON format as an integer, although this is not currently used by Dawarich.

PhoneTrack offers two more datapoints that don't seem to have a direct mapping to the OwnTracks JSON format:

• %SAT : the number of satellites used to get the position (integer)
• %UA : user agent, something like PhoneTrack/v0.0.1

Personally, I include %SAT as part of an OwnTracks tag like &tag=satellites/%SAT, although this is not currently used by Dawarich.

[Freika]

I'll add this doc on the website, thank you!