I mentioned using Tapiriik to batch download my entire Garmin Connect history–over 1,000 separate .GPX files. I found several tools to convert .GPX to shapefiles that worked but none seemed to recognize my heart rate data.

The trick is Garmin extends the GPX specification to incorporate the heart rate:

<span style="color: #333333;">xmlns:gpxtpx="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrackPointExtension/v1"</span>

Each track point looks like this:

Since the first few exiting GPX converters failed to meet my needs, I decided to make my own, at least partially.

I used Joel Lawhead of GeospatialPython.com‘s pyshp library to handle writing the shapefile. I added some basic loop and I stuck a template.prj in the workspace that gets copied once for each shapefile.

Otherwise, nothing too fancy going on.  The code can be downloaded from Github.

import glob, os
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import shapefile
import shutil

theNS = "{http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1}".lower()
theNS2 = "{http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrackPointExtension/v1}".lower()
templatePRJfile = "template.prj"

def elementIs(inElement,inTag):
    item1 = inTag.lower()
    item2 = elementName(inElement)
    return (inTag.lower() == elementName(inElement).lower())

def elementName(inElement):
    item1= inElement.tag.lower().replace(theNS,"").replace(theNS2,"")
    return item1

def convertTimeToSeconds(inTime):
    theSeconds = -1

    if (inTime.count(":")) == 2:
        try:
            inHour = inTime.split(":")[0]
            inMin = inTime.split(":")[1]
            inSec = inTime.split(":")[2]

            totalSec = float(inSec)
            totalSec += (float(inMin) * 60)
            totalSec += (float(inHour) * 3600)
            theSeconds = totalSec
        except:
            pass

    return theSeconds


def writeSHP(inSourceFile,inTrkList):
    w = shapefile.Writer(shapefile.POINT)
    w.field("file")
    w.field("segment","N","8",0)
    w.field("vertex","N","8",0)
    w.field("datetime","C",30)
    w.field("date","C","10",0)
    w.field("time","C","8",0)
    w.field("sec","N","8",0)
    w.field("isec","N","8",0)
    w.field("totsec","N","8",0)
    w.field("elev","N","24",14)
    w.field("hr","N","8",0)
    w.field("last","N","1",0)
    w.field("lat","N","24",16)
    w.field("lon","N","24",16)

    iTrkSegIndex = 0
    startSec =-1
    prevSec = -1
    for iTrkSeg in inTrkList:
        iTrkPtIndex = 0
        for iTrkPtDict in iTrkSeg:
            thisLine = "{0},{1},{2},*time*,*ele*,*hr*,*lat*,*lon*".format(inSourceFile,iTrkSegIndex,iTrkPtIndex)

            theLat = None
            if (iTrkPtDict.has_key('lat')):
                try:
                    theLat = float(iTrkPtDict['lat'])
                except:
                    pass

            theLon = None

            if (iTrkPtDict.has_key('lon')):
                try:
                    theLon = float(iTrkPtDict['lon'])
                except:
                    pass

            theDate = None
            theTime = None
            theSeconds = -1
            segSeconds = -1
            totSeconds = -1

            if (iTrkPtDict.has_key('time')):
                theDateTime = iTrkPtDict['time']
                if ("T" in theDateTime):
                    theDate = theDateTime.split("T")[0]
                    theTimePlue = theDateTime.split("T")[1]
                    if ("+" in theTimePlue):
                        theTime = theTimePlue.split("+")[0]
                        theSeconds = convertTimeToSeconds(theTime)

                        if (prevSec < 0):
                            prevSec = theSeconds
                        if (startSec < 0):
                            startSec = theSeconds

                        segSeconds = theSeconds - prevSec
                        prevSec = theSeconds
                        totSeconds = theSeconds - startSec
            else:
                theDateTime = None

            if (iTrkPtDict.has_key('ele')):
                theElev = iTrkPtDict['ele']
            else:
                theElev = None

            if (iTrkPtDict.has_key('hr')):
                theHR = iTrkPtDict['hr']
            else:
                theHR = None

            if (iTrkPtIndex == len(iTrkSeg) - 1):
                theLast = 1
            else:
                theLast = 0

            w.point(theLon, theLat)
            try:
                                  w.record(inSourceFile.replace(".gpx",""),iTrkSegIndex,iTrkPtIndex,theDateTime,theDate,theTime,theSeconds,segSeconds,totSeconds,theElev,theHR,theLast,theLat,theLon)

            except:
                print "############## ERROR ####################"
            iTrkPtIndex+=1

        iTrkSegIndex+=1


    w.save(inSourceFile.lower().replace(".gpx",""))
    w = None
    if (os.path.exists(templatePRJfile)):
        newPRJFN = inSourceFile.lower().replace(".gpx",".prj")
        shutil.copyfile(templatePRJfile,newPRJFN)

def mainLoop():
    for iFile in glob.glob("*.gpx"):
        print iFile
        tree = ET.parse(iFile)
        root=tree.getroot()

        theTrkList = []

        for iRoot in root:
            if elementIs(iRoot,"trk"): #"http://www.topografix.com/gpx/1/1}trk" in iRoot.tag.lower():
                for iTrkSeg in iRoot:
                    if not elementIs(iTrkSeg,"trkseg"):
                        continue
                    thisTrk = []

                    pntIndex = 0
                    for iTrkPt in iTrkSeg:
                        if not elementIs(iTrkPt,"trkpt"):
                            continue
                        trkPntDict = dict()
                        trkPntDict["pntIndex"] = pntIndex
                        trkPntDict['lat'] = iTrkPt.get('lat')
                        trkPntDict['lon'] = iTrkPt.get('lon')

                        pntIndex+=1
                        for iElem in iTrkPt:
                            if elementIs(iElem,"extensions"):
                                for iSubElem in iElem:
                                    if (elementIs(iSubElem,"TrackPointExtension")):
                                        for iExtensionElem in iSubElem:
                                            if elementIs(iExtensionElem,"hr"):
                                                trkPntDict[elementName(iExtensionElem)] = iExtensionElem.text
                            else:
                                trkPntDict[elementName(iElem)] = iElem.text

                        #print trkPntDict
                        thisTrk.append(trkPntDict)

                    theTrkList.append(thisTrk)
        writeSHP(iFile.lower(), theTrkList)


theLineList = mainLoop()