[OSM-dev] "Map Features" in XML?

[Robert Vollmert]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 12:28, Knut Arne Bjørndal wrote:
> "Chris Browet" <cbro at semperpax.com> writes:
>> In the future, I plan to implement a "wizard mode" for tagging in  
>> Merkaartor,
>> as I think that the openness of tagging might be frightening for  
>> newbies.
>> This wizard would be dynamic based upon the "recommended" tagging  
>> practises in
>> the "Map Features" wiki pages.
>>
>> Therefore, I would need an XML representation of the page (although  
>> I actually
>> think the XML should be the base and the wiki page created from it).
>>
>> Do you know if such an XML file exists somewwhere?
>
> I hardly think migrating Map Features to have the master copy as an
> XML file will help getting people to maintain it.

I agree that the map features should be wiki-editable. Also that  
Map_Features as it stands is hard to process automatically. I rather  
like the direction things are taking with dedicated articles per key  
(like Key:highway [1]) and Template:KeyDescription [2]. As it stands,  
this doesn't replace Map Features, but we've been experimenting with  
Semantic MediaWiki [3], which would allow to automatically create  
Map_Features-like lists from such separate articles. SMW also allows  
exporting structured data as RDF or similar.

As an example, the article Key:surface might contain properties

[[status::approved]] (it's on Map Features)
[[has value::paved]], [[has value::unpaved]], [[has value::cobblestone]]
[[description::Describes the surface of a road]]
[[applies to::way]]

These could go anywhere in the article, but might be in part be  
automatically created from a modified Template:KeyDescription.

It's then possible to generate a table of all approved keys that apply  
to ways using wiki text like

{{#ask [[Category:En:Keys]] [[status::approved]] [[applies to::way]]
|?
|?has value
|?description
}}

Cheers
Robert

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Key%3ahighway
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Template%3aKeyDescription
[3] http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki