OpenStreetMap
Keeping OSM updated and in sync with the real (changing) world is in my opinion one of the key challenges for OSM. Adding new roads and POIs is fun - keeping them up to date is less so!
Have you ever come across POIs or roads and made a mental note to yourself to check later in e.g. JOSM if they are on OSM and tagged correctly? I have, and unless I document in detail what I am seeing with photos, there is a good probability that I miss some essential details. Also with photos, I often have lots of photos recording stuff that is already correctly tagged in OSM. Thus the hit/miss ratio is becoming smaller and this will continue as OSM mature.
To help myself spotting differences between the OSM database and the real world I wrote a small Android app that can display OSM data for nearby objects. With this its easy and efficient to be on the lookout for OSM updates.
The app looks like this:
and it can be found on google Play: OSMfocus
I’m hoping this will be useful for others and that it will results in more OSM updates.
דיון
תגובה מאת nlehuby על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 10:18
Great app ! Thanks ! I was using the Layers > Map Data checkbox on the official OSM website for this purpose, but it’s not very usable on mobile phone…
תגובה מאת Takuto על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 11:24
Very nice! now this app needs ability to add notes in some format, field mapping will be piece a cake then. I think user should be able tap on one of those “tag tables”, then add some note, which can be saved in OSM iNotes, or, if its too hard to program - in *.gpx file, like Favourites in Osmand (which I use for field mapping with meduim success).
תגובה מאת stephan75 על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 12:22
Not bad … will try it later when enough time.
This app needs an own article in the OSM wiki!
Many users will benefit from creating a new page there for your app.
תגובה מאת RobJN על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 14:32
Sounds great. Is it possible to download data prior to going out surveying (that is, an offline data mode)? I’ve tweeted this at https://twitter.com/mappamercia/status/518770161021886464
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 14:47
Currently there is no support for ‘offline’ mode, but if there is sufficient interest I might add this.
Currently I think some way of taking notes is the most urgent feature that needs adding - maybe by adding the capability of taking pictures.
תגובה מאת Sanderd17 על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 16:33
If you want it to make notes, it could be good to couple it to OSM Tracker.
Via a big “note” button, you launch the OSM Tracker intent (either integrated or installed separately), where you can have all kinds of notes: photo, plain text, presets, audio, …
But it’s a great app so far.
תגובה מאת DTHG על 5 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 19:28
Is OSMfocus open source? If it is where can I view or download the source code?
תגובה מאת DaCor על 6 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 01:20
This is brilliant.
For future development something I would recommend from a personal point of view would be:
תגובה מאת stragu על 6 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 04:07
Great, looking forward to trying it. Woud it be possible to add it to the F-Droid repos (if it is open source) ?
Cheers!
תגובה מאת Lindroid על 6 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 05:38
Great idea! Thanks a lot!
תגובה מאת mhenson על 6 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 16:44
Great Idea, I like to see all the tags, I already found some tag mistakes. Could you show map (browse map) with out requiring a GPS lock? I like that I can browse the map after a GPS lock. I would like to see tags of a restaurant real quick while waiting for food. If there are tags missing, I would want to edit tags or create an OSM note. Taking a photo and placing it where the cross hairs are would be nice (great for taking a picture of Open Hours). I then could use the picture and location of picture on the map for later editing in JOSM.
תגובה מאת HannesHH על 7 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 21:33
Any chance to get this for Android 2.3? It looks fantastic.
תגובה מאת Klumbumbus על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 10:22
Great App. Thanks.
תגובה מאת Klumbumbus על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 10:46
I noticed that addr:postcode and addr:country are not displayed. Is this by design? Are there more key which are not displayed?
תגובה מאת kay_D על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 11:18
Fantastic app, easy and on the spot. Just became my favourite “is this shop still open?” app :)
Only sucks a little bit when values are lengthy (as sometimes the case with opening hours) as boxes become too wide. Apparently there is no limit to box width and no text line breaking.
I love it so much, if it could easily edit (add+modify) tags+values for existing geometry, it would be a perfect lightweight POI editor. At least for people like us knowing the tagging scheme good enough.
תגובה מאת Klumbumbus על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 13:58
OK, I just read the description in the play store. Can we use the description text in the play store to create a osm wiki page?
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 16:36
Yes, you can definitely use the text for the OSM wiki. Any volunteers for creating a wikipage… please go ahead.
There will be an update soon which implements a limitation on legend-box size and wrapping of long lines.
Wrt. support for Android 2.3 - I dont think that will happen. The current implementation use features from Android API level 14, and although I might be able to decrease the required API level, I probably will not get down to Android 2.3.
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 17:37
A new version with the changes below has just gone out to beta-testers. I expect to promote it to production in a day or two.
Limitations on legend box size implemented. Legend boxes no longer can fill the entire screen. Long lines are wrapped as indicated by a curved arrow and excess lines are indicated by an arrow ‘going below a line’.
Use of most recent location instead of waiting for GPS fix. This will make it possible to use OSMfocus while waiting for the GPS.
Improved internal vector rendering, especially related to multi-polygon rendering.
תגובה מאת Klumbumbus על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 18:47
New osm wiki page is here: osm.wiki/OSMfocus
@MichaelVL: Can you upload the icon and a screenshot to commons, which can be used in the wiki?
תגובה מאת Klumbumbus על 8 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 18:59
I collected some improvement suggestions which were mentioned here at the osm wiki talk page
תגובה מאת nidi0 על 11 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 00:18
This is looking very interesting! I’d appreciate a lot if it’s released as free software. This allows to release the app on the F-Droid market (many privacy aware people don’t use Google Play) and generally encourages contribution.
תגובה מאת Zian Choy על 13 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 05:07
This is fabulous!
I love the user interface and the clever way you handled the overwhelming amount of information that even a single point can have.
I’d like to echo the call for offline data and suggest a possible solution. There is already an offline OpenStreetMap program called “OsmAnd” and they have set up a fairly solid system for offering regular up-to-date downloads of the entire world, broken down in chunks by country or province. Perhaps you could take advantage of the OsmAnd OBF files in 2 ways:
תגובה מאת Zian Choy על 13 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 05:08
Correction:
“Provide a way to create offline OsmNotes” should be its own item (as “#3”). And, you can probably copy & paste the existing OsmAnd code that implements that feature already.
תגובה מאת AgusQui על 18 באוקטובר 2014 בשעה 00:10
would be nice to be opened what is being viewed on the Vespucci application and to correct at the time, that can also leave notes.
תגובה מאת Joško Horvat על 8 בנובמבר 2014 בשעה 10:55
Well done. Keep on.
תגובה מאת 0x1fff על 10 בספטמבר 2015 בשעה 20:02
Is OSMFocus aplication open source (any github link)? Are you planing to add edit tags function, or other functions which mentioned DaCor on 6 october 2014 at 01:20?
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 12 בספטמבר 2015 בשעה 05:31
It is my intention to make OSMfocus open-source eventually. I was reworking it when I got caught up in other OSM-related projects (more on that soon) and it has kind of been on the backburned since then. Rest assured that its not forgotten…
תגובה מאת 0x1fff על 12 בספטמבר 2015 בשעה 06:56
@MichaelVL - ok :). When it will be OpenSource just send info to FDroid repos :). I would love to see some tag edit options in OSMFocus. The interface is very nice, and i think it would be very easy to edit tags even for non technical users. If it will be available on mobile you can edit this stuff when you waiting for something.
For me it would be perfect to edit opening hours in restaurants that I use, update/set number of floors in building which I’m passing by (number of floors will be used to create 3D representation of building), adding a website address for interesting places, names of companies which are located in building (most places are mapped correctly, but there are no such specific information).
I don’t know any of the OSM product with that kind of functionality on the mobile (Android) - maybe you know what should I use to be able to edit only tags in simple way?
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 13 בספטמבר 2015 בשעה 05:51
I have put my OSM Analytic Difference Engine on github. In short its a backend for a live service providing realtime insight into edits within a region of interest. Special focus has been made to analyse the changesets and provide a concise description of what has changed.
Some of purposes of this engine:
Find it here:
[OSM Analytic Difference Engine for Denmark] http://osm.expandable.dk [OSM Analytic Difference Engine on github] https://github.com/MichaelVL/osm-analytic-tracker
תגובה מאת RobJN על 23 בינואר 2018 בשעה 00:02
I love the OSMfocus app. Did you get anywhere with the open source release?
תגובה מאת RobJN על 8 ביולי 2018 בשעה 21:26
The OSMfocus app has stopped working on my phone. I now says “Could not download area!”. Great shame as this was a wonderful app.
@MichaelVL: Do you still have the source code for this? Any chance of a fix/open sourcing it?
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 9 ביולי 2018 בשעה 18:22
The source for OSMfocus is now available on github:
https://github.com/MichaelVL/osm-focus
תגובה מאת Bexhill-OSM על 13 ביולי 2018 בשעה 00:36
I think you just need to update your api connections to use https.
תגובה מאת Bexhill-OSM על 13 ביולי 2018 בשעה 00:40
This line: https://github.com/MichaelVL/osm-focus/blob/5b781c989acd7cda5a58fb7e6174bf52a8ac78e9/src/dk/network42/osmfocus/OsmServer.java#L22
Hopefully you can update the Google Play Store version :)
תגובה מאת dikkeknodel על 19 ביולי 2018 בשעה 09:07
Yes, it would be great if the app is back on working. I used it quite frequently while being out in the wild. Unfortunately I do not have any programming experience.
תגובה מאת RobJN על 23 ביולי 2018 בשעה 18:16
Hi Michael, Are you thinking of pushing an update now the error has been identified? If not, then I can help search for alternate maintainer.
תגובה מאת MichaelVL על 27 ביולי 2018 בשעה 05:24
I am not able to give OSMFocus any priority soon. Alternative maintainers are welcome :-)