[OSM-dev] mapnik image export failures (and fixes?)

[Frederik Ramm]

Mikel,

Mikel Maron wrote:
> Since the export function is linked from the main site, imo we should 
> consider it a core service that should be available at some service 
> level. Personally, we use this feature often through Map Kibera.

The Mapnik image export works by custom rendering your image, whereas 
the Osmarender image export, and also anything you do via 
openstreetmap.gryph.de/bigmap.cgi, works by stitching together 
individual tiles. If any of these work for you then they will be more 
reliable than the image export (the bigmap service will let you create a 
Perl script which you can then run at any time to update the image).

Generally, "scraping" tiles is frowned upon, but downloading 20 or 30 
pre-rendered tiles will certainly put less load on the tile server than 
requesting a custom render.

Bye
Frederik