[Potlatch-dev] P2, snapshot-server, imports, vector layers and more

[Andy Allan]

On 15 November 2012 08:37, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net> wrote:

> For 1; we could continue with vectors.xml, and also provide a way to provide
> a URL in the embedding page/query string (much as you can with background
> imagery).

Recently I've been looking at the tilejson spec, which the Mapbox guys
developed for map layers. It's a way of describing what tiles are
available, the extent of the map, the attribution and so on in a json
document.

https://github.com/mapbox/tilejson-spec
http://c.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/examples.map-4l7djmvo.json

I think we could make imagery.xml more lightweight if we encourage
sources (e.g. our ooc maps) to provide a tilejson document - then our
imagery list can be just a list of URLs to the tilejson documents. It
will also then simplify the experience for a user adding their own
imagery, since all the extents, zoom levels etc are figured out
automatically.

I'm therefore also wondering if we can come up with a similar json doc
for vector background layers, that applications (p2/josm) can use to
figure out all the information they need. At the moment
snapshot-server displays the xml for you to copy and paste into
vectors.xml, but Paul has highlighted the need for users to add their
own snapshot layers to whichever instance of p2 they are running.
Pasting a json-endpoint URL is perhaps much simpler than building a
dialog to paste in xml snippets.

Thoughts?

> (It might be possible to do what JOSM does by putting the sources on a wiki
> page, rather than relying on a commit to the P2 repository, but I'm always a
> bit wary of people adding Google imagery etc. without us noticing. Any
> thoughts?)

Eugh, no. Let's stick to keeping things specified in the repository -
with github's web-based file editing, it's as easy to contribute to as
a wiki, but with enforced review during the pull requests.

> For 2; we could add a new menu like the 'Background' one showing data layers
> in the current area.

I'd like to see something like this.

Cheers,
Andy