[Imports] TMC LCL - help needed

[marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com]

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 10:56:27 -0700, Sam Vekemans
<acrosscanadatrails at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> in the next week, i'll update the wiki 'importing government (bulk
> provider) data' and list the 3-step approach.

I'm looking forward to it.
But please don't limit your self too much to shape-files.

> If i get through on the conference call today, i'll try to explain it,
> and maybe someone else who is a better wikipedian can fix it. :-)

Sorry. I'll not be on any of the conference-calls at all.
(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Import_Support_Working_Group)

> Step 1: Data conversion
> -using eithor 'shp-to-osm.jar' or 'shp2osm.py' or 'mp2osm' or 'other'
> we make a conversion script
> -1 person is in charge of editing this script (as users will submit
> errors) (just as for other programs)

Yes, my parser for the common interchange-format of LCLs for TMC-services
exists for a while now. No known errors, well structured and commented
(code quality is very important to me).


> Step 2: data sharing
> -the person that is running the conversion script would make these
> .osm files available to the community so people can see it.

Well. Guess what I did quite a few days ago. ;)

> 
> 3 -data import
> eithor a.1 use josm and copy the features over

That's what we do for everything that cannot be automatically imported.
I had to add even more warnings as despite quite a lot of fat warnings
people DID upload some of these reference .osm -files directly.

>          3.2 use bulk_import.pl for direct api load (for large areas,
> if given permission to access the API at non-peak hours, and on que)

"que"?

>          3.3 use a postGIS database and use OpenJUMP Automatch to
> compare datasets.

Never heard of that but the LCL-map if extremely simplified. I don't think
the complex matching needed can be done by a generic tool.

> The facts that remain are;
> 1 -the available data is constantly changing

Not much changes to LCLs expected here. But many other countries with
lots of TMC-providers may follow. That's why I took so much care my tools
are well written and easy to understand for a developer.

> utility tool, and having the 'tag matching list' be maintained by 1
> person, will make it easier for everyone to work with the data.

What do you mean by 'tag matching list'?

> By making it available, we can let the users decide what they want to
> add, or omit. and put the emphasis on simply making all available data
> available to use when and if we want.

Sounds less like hints for people doing an import then general advice
for people offering datasets to import.

Marcus