[OSM-talk] building metadata questions

[Martijn van Oosterhout]

On 9/21/07, Jussi Kukkonen <jhkukkon at cc.hut.fi> wrote:
> One of the goals is to be able to link e.g. from a web event calendar to
> a map centered on a specific building using the very cool namefinder.
> This means there needs to be searchable data attached to the buildings.
> Setting the name of the building is obviously possible, but I'd also
> like to add information on the "contents" of the buildings, like
> "Department of Architecture". Is it appropriate to use the description
> tag for this (or am I just seeing nails because I have a hammer in
> hand)? Would the namefinder use the description text?

I suggest you investiage the name finder, to see what fields it uses
to find things.

> A related problem: the buildings in question are rather large, so we'd
> like to be able to pinpoint specific entrances -- not necessarily
> visible on the map, but something you could search for and mark with the
> pin. There does not seem to be a feature/tag for this. Can I just invent
> one (I'd naturally write a feature proposal to the wiki)?

Note that not everything has to be in the OSM database. You can easily
build up a text file with the locations of all the building entrances
and descriptions, and add it as a seperate layer. There's an example
on the OpenLayers site (the textfile one IIRC). It's not searchable
then but it might be easier in the short term.

Hope this helps,
-- 
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog at gmail.com> http://svana.org/kleptog/