[OSM-dev] Best way to validate user input

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Ben Supnik wrote:
> - Put validation features into the existing editors (JOSM), etc.  Is 
> there existing infrastructure for this?  For example, I saw that one 
> site culls the whole-earth export for unofficial tags...does JOSM "know" 
> the approved schema and tell users when they haven't done what they 
> should? 

As TomH pointed out, OSM doesn't have strict rules.

Nevertheless, JOSM has some features designed to help those who want to 
use what everyone else uses, and you could use each of these to put JOSM 
into a kind of X-Plane edit mode.

1. The rendering in JOSM is controlled by a style file, and everything 
not recognized by the rules in that file gets some standard "not found" 
symbol. So if you make a special X-Plane style file and someone 
misspells his antenna tag he will immediately notice because it doesn't 
look like the others.

2. Entering of new features in JOSM is simplified by "presets" which are 
also fully controlled by an XML file; you just select the type of object 
you want to enter from the menu and all the tags are set automatically. 
  You could create your own presets file with everything needed to tag 
X-Plane scenery design.

3. There is a plugin called Validator that whill highlight anything it 
finds strange, from overlapping ways to unusual tagging. You could use 
this as a basis to create a special "X-Plane validator" that looks at 
issues which are important to you.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"