[OSM-dev] JSON/GeoJSON output format for 0.6 api

[Andy Allan]

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 12:33 AM, Jeffrey Warren <warren at mit.edu> wrote:
> I'm adding GeoJSON and also structured OSM JSON output formats to a rails
> port 0.6 API I'm running; are these changes I could potentially commit, so
> such formats could be offered by OSM proper, or are they too specific a
> need? I'll be posting the changes online regardless.

The question you should ask yourself is are these formats to enable
editing of the database? If not, i.e. if you have read-only
applications in mind, then I would say it's more appropriate to add
them to a data-distribution server (c.f. trapi, xapi et al). Ideally
the load on the main API should be for editing-related purposes only.

If it is indeed for editing, then this could open a cavalcade of
similar requests for other languages/formats. Most importantly, every
single one of them will need to have full test suite coverage (OK, the
existing stuff doesn't yet, but there's no need to make a bad
situation worse) and adds to the complexity of the code, future
reorganisation cost etc. So we need to be cautious when weighing up
cost/benefits.

If it's just a translation from one format to another then maybe
implementation as an abstraction layer that's independent of the main
code? Might lead to divergence, I guess.

Cheers,
Andy