[OSM-talk] Attribute Editor update

Tue Dec 5 00:53:28 GMT 2006

Christopher Schmidt wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 04, 2006 at 05:31:52PM +0000, Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:
>> SteveC wrote:
>>> is the code and instructions available?
>> Surely the instructions are still the same:
>> * Go to http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/
>> * Browse the map and go visit somewhere you know (shift drag to make a
>> zoom box)
>> * If you see a road that doesn't have a name, click on it, and you are
>> given the option to edit.
>>
>>> * @ 04/12/06 02:08:31 PM crschmidt at metacarta.com wrote:
>>>> With feedback from rjmunro, attribute editor has received some updates:
>>>>  * always add a 'name' tag, even if one didn't exist before.
>>>>  * make 'highway' selection a dropdown, and make it available if 
>>>>    it wasn't before.
>>>>
>>>> You can see the changes at
>>>> http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/osm_edit.cgi?way=3996601 , where 3996601
>>>> is the ID of the way you wish to edit. And of course, edits are in your
>>>> own name, now that you're required to type a username/password for the
>>>> edits.
>>>>
>>>> If you have any feedback as to how you would like to see the mini-client
>>>> proceed, please feel free to send it along.
>> Once again fantastic work from crschmidt - we need to get his work on
>> the main home page. Some more ideas from me:
>>
>> Finding roads to edit
>> =====================
>> * Don't search unless you are zoomed in quite a lot
> 
> Is there a zoom level you have in mind? I removed that limitation for
> debugging, but it's a single line of code to bring it back. I've set it
> to zoom 10 for now.

Not really. Trying to determine one, I quickly realised that it depends.
For example:
http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/?lat=6718891.9424&lon=-136064.34336&zoom=9&layers=B00

That's fine to select the large roads around the outside at that scale,
but for selecting roads in the middle of town, that's useless. Maybe if
I click 'near' more than 5 roads, it should say "too many roads, zoom in
and try again" or something like that - kind of combine this and the
next suggestion.

>> * Don't show multiple results - just show the one nearest the click. If
>> two are very near, then give an error, let the person click again.
>> Giving a list of search results of unknown roads is no use at all
>> (unless you can do the next thing)
>> * Ideally, highlight the road being edited with a PNG overlay or something.
> 
> I probably can't do a png overlay, and vectors in OL are still in
> development. The problem with only returning a single result is that way
> too often, a rail line creeps into the results for reasons I don't
> understand. 
> 
>> General Stuff
>> =============
>> * Populate your Mapnik database automatically when an update is made as
>> well as the master backend, and then do your "don't use cached" thing to
>> make the changes instant.
> 
> Yep, that's on my todo list for next weekend.
> 
>> * Remember this is the interface for people who live there and don't
>> have any technical skills, or a GPS or anything. Hide all but the name
>> and highway tags unless the user clicks on advanced or something. Don't
>> baffle the user with thing like "Way id 2130940892439842". You and me
>> know what that means. To the average user it means "This is too
>> technical for me - I can't possibly put the name of my street here - it
>> might break".
> 
> For the 'normal user', should it show the existing tags, but not the
> interface to create new ones? Or should it only show name/highway tags?

Definitely don't show all the tags. But maybe have a list of tags you do
 show, e.g. show railway when it's a railway, or perhaps put railways in
the drop down somehow - I'm quite new to OSM, so I am not yet familiar
with many tags myself. Name and Highway might not be the only 2 - You
could have a couple more inputs and drop downs, as long as it is obvious
what they mean. Maybe ref, as long as it is obvious to a user what the
difference between ref and name is (perhaps call it road number or
something).

Part of the problem is that the tags are not very well structured IMHO.
I think every non-area way should have a basic "type" tag that says one
of road, rail, footpath, border, or other. Anything else should be
rejected at the backend. Other tags would provide more detail.

An area way should always have an "area_type" tag that says one of an
equally restricted list. Perhaps something like water (e.g. a lake or
reservoir), natural (e.g. a forest), human (town, park, etc.), property
(shopping area, university campus etc.), building, other.

Any renderer or converter should be able to tell instantly if it's an
area or a straight line feature, and even if it knows nothing else make
a reasonable stab at a rendering. By translating just the above values,
people looking at the data from anywhere in the world would understand.

It's really important that other values get rejected at the back end,
preferably right in the database with integrity constraints.

Robert (Jamie) Munro

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