Shipping JOSM configuration plugin

I’ve updated and shipped the Task configuration plugin, previously written about on this diary post. With JOSM-configuration, you can load imagery, set filters, apply mappaint styles, and set a changeset comment, with one mouse click. This update makes it much easier to access configuration files.

Originally, the JOSM configuration plugin only loaded configuration files from a gist link. Now, the plugin has a default set of configuration files, which are available from a drop down menu.

The plugin keeps the list of default configurations on GitHub. Make a pull request if you come up with another useful configuration. You can also still create your own configurations, and load with Load task from gist. Configuration files use this JSON structure.

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While working on complex mapping projects like the highway realignment in Japan as part of the Mapbox data team, I realized there was various steps involved in getting JOSM configured for a particular project. This involved setting up a custom map paint style to highlight fresh data, data filters, plugins, scripts, special shortcuts, imagery, changeset and source comment.

The HOT tasking manager currently takes care of the imagery and changeset comments using remote control, but not much else. This was my main motivation to create a remote control plugin to that can help setup JOSM with everything a mapper requires to work a specific project that has special instructions. This allows mappers to directly concentrate on mapping rather than following setup instructions.

By remotely passing a task configuration JSON to JOSM, the plugin should be able to set the right options for the task. In this example, two imagery layers, filters, source and changeset comments, filters and a map paint style are defined.

The first step in creating a JOSM plugin is to register it by following the developer’s guide to creating JOSM plugins. You can change the name, version and other such plugin specific information by editing the build.xml file.

Working

The plugin currently works by passing a Github gist URL to a specific task configuration file. The gist API is then used to load the JSON from the URL and customise JOSM.

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