[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] add optional coordinate epoch to nodes (#3203)

[Andrew Harvey]

> There's really no way to add an additional attribute without bumping the API version to 0.7 along the way. You would have to change pretty much every single component used in the process, including but not limited to the OSM website, CGImap, planet generation, osmdbt for minutely diff generation, and last but not least, every single editing application. Otherwise, there's no way to even fetch the additional attribute in a consistent way. Also, non-supporting editing apps might silently discard your new shiny attribute when re-uploading changed nodes.

Running on the assumption that we do want to add `epoch` support, and we can't expect all editing software to be compatible from launch. Perhaps if the API receives a new node version from an editor, which used to have an epoch, and it's calling 0.7, then on the backend the API will retain the previous epoch. Or we could decide to only retain it if the coordinates didn't change.

That way editing software with no support for `epoch` will keep working, but software which does support it can still add/remove epoch as usual via an 0.8 API.

If you don't bump the API version, then I'm not sure how you'd distinguish between someone removing the epoch, or the editing software just not aware of it.

-- 
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/3203#issuecomment-847439429
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/rails-dev/attachments/20210524/7282b1f8/attachment.htm>