Sharing Trips

How Argo knows about your trips

The point of Argo is to analyze and present a collection of trips. To do that, Argo reads the trip data from Excel Spreadsheets that are located in a folder selected by the user.

So, the trick to loading Argo with your own trips is to:

1. Share them

2. Export them as Excel files (.xlsx)

3. Put them into a folder with other trips

4. Launch Argo and select the folder of the trips you want to see.

Sharing Trip Data

There are a couple ways to share trip data with fellow travelers. Each has its benefits and issues.

• In RVLIFE Trip Wizard you can use Trip Tools (gear icon), then select Export Trip, then Excel Export to create a .xlsx file in your downloads folder. Then either put that trip into a folder so that you can load it into Argo, or send the excel file to a friend and they can add it to a folder they are maintaining and loading into Argo.

• In RVLIFE Trip Wizard you can use Trip Tools (gear icon), then Share Trip, then Share Trip with another Trip Wizard User to Send a copy of this trip to another user's account. Then the user you shared with will find a copy of your trip in their Tentative Trips tab within Trip Wizard. Note that this is different than Share Trip > Visitor View that will make a link that you can share to let others view your trip in Trip Wizard. A Visitor View can not be exported to an Excel file.

Things to think about

Sharing your trip data is your responsibility and your risk

Don't share your trip data if you don't trust the people you are sharing with. If you don't want other people to know where you plan to be, then sharing is not for you. The developer of the Argo app takes no responsibility for how your trip data is used by you or others. 

Changes are not automatic

After you share a copy of your trip with another Trip Wizard user, any changes that you make to your trip will not automatically update the copy that you shared. So, if you want others to have your updated plans, you have to share it again.

Coordinating Shared Trips

Since people tend to update their trips whenever anything changes in their planning, it is likely that the trip data you have from another user is already out of date. 

The Shared Folder Approach

One approach to coordinating group trips (such as caravans) is for someone to create a shared folder in iCloud and give access to all the people in a sharing group. Then each member of that group can post their trip data to the shared folder and replace it when their plans change.

Trip Wizard file names are essentially just dates.

When you export a trip from Trip Wizard it puts a file in your downloads folder that looks something like this, trip-26-05-15-14-38-2.xlsx. So, it will be helpful to rename the file something you'll recognize when you put it in a folder with other trips.