[OSM-dev] OSM API Performance (Was: OSM Database Infrastructure)

Tom Evans tom_evans_a at yahoo.co.uk
Sun Jan 20 10:17:21 GMT 2008


Christopher Schmidt wrote:
> I'm working on creating interfaces that display OSM data as you 
> drag
 the map around. The interface requests data from OSM 
> "on the fly" -- so every time the map stops moving, the old features 
> are removed, and a new request is sent out. 

I had thought about something similar, but I must admit I hadn't even 
considered sending the requests to the main database API.  Data a 
few days to a week old is adequate, so surely OSMXAPI or even a 
server with pre-tiled static .osm files (if the volume really picks up) 
would be better.  

Scaling read-only requests with multiple servers is easy, but read/write 
much harder.  Better to avoid hitting the core database unless you're 
using an editor and actually need to check the up-to-date data.


Having said that, I agree it does pause a bit sometimes.  But scaling 
the read-only access and keeping the read/write access stable and 
bug-free seems more sensible to me.

Tom






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