OFCAWS
OFCAWS is a browser-based mapping application that uses maps from various providers: Ordnance Survey, Google, Open Street and others.
OFCAWS was made publicly available in August 2020 and is written by Ray Crowther.
OFCAWS is available to subscribing users and most proceeds are donated to charity.
Register for a Free Trial.
Contact Email: feedback@ofcaws.ity.me.uk
History & Features
The core of the application has been used for 8 years in the Table-Top Rallying website.
As a private, standalone mapping tool it has been used for route planning, rallying and geocaching. This public version was released in August 2020 and most subscription fees are being donated to charity.
In July 2020 Ordnance Survey rolled out its new digital map series (OS Data Hub), and OFCAWS was
one of first applications to use this technology.
OFCAWS has access to the full set of current UK OS 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps,
as well as map layers that zoom into street and building detail.
Map sets from other providers are also included such as Google Road,
Google Satellite, Open Street and specialist maps for cyclists, railways and history.
Features within OFCAWS include the ability to search for place names, postcodes and
points of interest, and EV charging points; find locations from map references, latitude/longitude and what3words;
add markers to the maps; use Google street view; the import and display of files
containing routes and geocaches;
saving and printing map extracts; a magnifying window to examine map details (Spy); and
a measuring tool (Roamer).
The application will be a valuable tool for anyone that uses UK or World maps on a regular basis.
For geocachers, geocaches can be imported from GPX, GSAK and Pocket Query files.
Cache-type markers are placed on the displayed map, which when clicked will display the cache details and logs.
Screen and printed reports from the cache list are also available. There is a also a co-ordinate conversion tool. Linkage with
a geocaching.com account allows the extraction of personal notes and corrected coordinates for display, which can be
added to an updated GPX for download to your GPSr.
Direct access is available to geocaching.com when searching for caches or
adventure labs in an area or close
to an OFCAWS designed route. Such caches may be added to a geocaching.com List.
The OFCAWS Help File provides greater detail.
A FREE 24-hour trial is available by clicking OFCAWS. Thereafter a subscription for a year is £25 (minimum). Just £5 goes to maintaining and enhancing OFCAWS, BUT, the remainder is donated to charity directly by the subscriber.
Your donation will add to the £39,000+ that has been donated to Cancer Research, Alzheimer's Society, Multiple Sclerosis Society, MacMillan Cancer Support, Motor Neurone Disease Association, NHS Charities Together and others since 2004.
Version History
Statistics
Total Income for Charity: £2427.55
Total Active Subscriptions: 62
Total User Sessions: 17594
Technical
The OFCAWS client is written in Javascript with libraries from Leaflet, Ordnance Survey, Google, What3Words and others.
Host processing is via PHP using MySQL Databases.
Author
Ray Crowther was born in London and now lives in Tiptree, Essex.
He read Cybernetics and Mathematics at Reading University and then developed computer systems in England and Germany before starting his own company specializing in human resources software.
During his systems career he had technical papers published and wrote more reference manuals than he can remember.
He maintains that the exacting discipline of technical authoring prepared him well for a creative change into fiction writing.
Ray has had four novels published: The Nearest FarAway Place, Panglossian, Schoolfrenz and Thalamorph. Details can be found at his Author's Web Site.
When he is not writing software or novels, Ray can be found walking and jogging his local lanes and footpaths,
cycling, geocaching (under the pseudonym of "Mr Crow"), competing in motor rallies ("Crow"), and organizing table-top rallies.