[OSM-dev] Yahoo! imagery in josm

Frederik Ramm frederik at remote.org
Fri Jan 12 12:33:17 GMT 2007


Hi Mikel & all,

> That kind of ntegration in JOSM, through the Yahoo API, sounds fine.
> And yes, it's only the aerial imagery we have permission to use.

Well then here we go.

This is a very early development release and not for the faint at  
heart (probably never will be) but I've gone to some lengths to  
document the process in the accompanying HOWTO and source code.

At

http://www.remote.org/frederik/projects/software/osm/ywms-0.1.tgz

you can download a Perl script that will accept requests from the  
josm "wmsplugin", set up a virtual framebuffer X server (Xvfb), start  
a browser instance to display the requested Yahoo! satellite image on  
the (invisible) X display, then grab the image off that display when  
it's rendered, do some magic with it and return it to the plugin.  
Sounds crazy but works like a charm; the images I have tried in josm  
were all spot-on.

You will need Linux and you will probably have to install a bit of  
software to get everything working (all in the HOWTO). Image  
acquisition takes about 15 seconds per image which, granted, is a  
long time but in my eyes that is a price worth paying for having  
access to Yahoo! satellite images in josm.

Any feedback is highly encouraged. In fact, I'd count it as a success  
if anyone except myself got it running at all.

The mode of operation is quite cumbersome but it is 100% adhering to  
Yahoo's API which is a good thing. Vast performance improvements can  
probably be achieved by re-using an already running browser/X server  
combo instead of starting them both for each request.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'






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