[nounours]

OSM data is changed all the time – some little changes, and also more important ones, all over the world.
To keep a map up to date is a tough work, and involes a lot of processing time, and of course a lot of download bandwidth.
So I completly understand that it’s not done too often by GeoMagik.
But, especially for the ones of us contributing to OSM, a bit more frequent updates would really be important!
Officially, it was stated that there is a monthly update, but yes, it’s now three month since the last update …
I think one month would be cool, two acceptable … but more … ?? I must admit I lately have hit the update button quite often and hoped for …
cheers, nounours

[nounours]

Dear Dima,

To render Public Transport correctly is a tough one, especially since there are still a lot of tagging errors. It’s important that we user support PocketEarth in improving on this.

I took a quick look at your three examples. I do not really see what is your problem. Do you have the latest data update?

1) For Nussdorfer Strasse: I see only one stop (on the northbound track = Sibenhirten => Florisdorf) on OSM. But I don’t see the stop on the other track (Florisdorf => Siebenhirten) in OSM. But you tagged them both exactly the same way … strange. But on PE, both stops are there.

2) Währinger Strasse: dito on OSM, but correct on PE?

3) For Michelbeuern, I see two stops, one on each direction, which look absolut correct. (on PE and OSM)

Do you have any idea why 1) and 2) are not rendered on one track in OSM???

=> on the other hand, I see only one stop on “Jägerstrasse”, both on OSM and PE. => This seems due to the tagging railway=platform instead of railway=station. I corrected this one, let’s see if this will be corrected in PE after the next data update … (in OSM, I now see the station, at least on zoomlevel 17)

PublicTransport is a very intersting subject 🙂

Cheers, nounours

[nounours]

Dear Paul,

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “farmers market”. This could be different taggings in OSM, so best is you post the node number, or a link to OSM.

To understand what’s behind: OSM is a very free-format database. Every renderer – like openstreetmap.org or PE – will have to make a choice what is shown and what not. PE generally shows a lot more than openstreetmap.org (due to the possibility to switch on/off map layers, to keep the map readable).

So, if you refer to

shop=farm (as in example http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2698586971): This is shown in openstreetmap.org as a dot, but it’s not shown in PE. (I already requested the feature to show ALL shop=xxx with a generic shop icon if xxx is not known to PE.)

amenity=marketplace (as in example http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2198762188): This NOT shown in openstreetmap.org NOR in PE.

What is your example?

=> In general, if a feature is important to you, request it here to be shown (by specifying the OSM-tagging scheme and giving some examples).. Sometimes, this is taken into account by the developpers, at least as a “Minor POI” (e.g. a POI having no proper icon.).

Good luck, nounours

[nounours]

+1!!!!

I did not go that far (and it’s maybe too far for an average user), but I also asked for some shortcuts (I suggest up to four user customziable shortcuts) for the most used functions.
I’m pretty sure every user has some functions he/she is using a lot. (E.g. for me: the nearby search – a pitty the long hold on the menu button to come back vanished AND switching on/off some map layers, as jsgblom suggested.).

The more complex PE gets, the more I feel the urge to go fast to the stuff I’m using all day long. Maybe difficult to implement, but adding shortcuts to the already existing buttons, and using the long hold seems are very smart way for this!

Thanks for considering!

Nounours

[nounours]

Dear Joe 🙂

No, sorry, this is a forum for beta-testers only. We mainly discuss there issues on the beta versions, so no really for interest for Joe Public.
Anyway, we all read here and try to answer/comment on issues raised here as well.

cheers, nounours

[nounours]

Dear Kasper,

This is known bug in the rendering of PE. Geomagik promised to look into it when he finds time. I will cross-reference this thread to the beta-tester forum where we discussed this, so your example will hopefully been taken into account at the same time.

Thanks for reporting,

nounours

[nounours]

yes. But until now I always had the opinion that a .csv is normally separated with “;”, but “,” is equally valid.
It looks strange to me not to accept a semicolon …

n.

[nounours]

Hi there!

I finally managed to do import!!!! Two things that were wrong:

1) I added the degree (°) sign after the coordinates (as in the export .csv), but it was obviously differently encoded. Removing it helped!

2) Due to my regional settings, the .csv files are exported using semicolon (;), instead of comma (,) which seems to be required.

Fixing these two things helped.

thanks, nounours

[nounours]

Thorsten: good to hear that it works …

BuckyE, thanks for your help.
Yes, the import file has to respect to conventions of PE, ifnot, it will not understand.

I’m sorry, I’m travelling, and don’t have my files with me … I will update if I’m back …

nounours

[nounours]

Thorsten: good to hear that it works …

BuckyE, thanks for your help.
Yes, the import file has to respect to conventions of PE, ifnot, it will not understand.

I’m sorry, I’m travelling, and don’t have my files with me … I will update if I’m back …

nounours

[nounours]

Wow!!! Good news!!!

Anybody interested in creating a club “iPhone-users-because-PocketEarth-not-available-on-Android” ???? 🙂

[nounours]

I worked for me once, some time ago.
Currently, I’m having the same issue. Maybe the format changed?

=> what we will have to do: export to .csv file some markers, and make sure the file we want to import respects the same conventions (well, I already did, and could not yet find an error, but I will do it more carefully. If I don’t find, well, …. then I might ask if it’s a new bug?)

so, let’s go to work …

nounours

[nounours]

This is probably due to the way the coordinates are formatted in the wikipedia article. If you want it to be fixed fast, just go to the articles which are not shown on PE, and copy the source of the coordinates and post it here. The, geomagik can integrate it into the next data treatment.

nounours

Example ( I did not check if this articles are shown in PE or not)

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuven
{{Coor title dms|50|52|39|N|4|42|16|E|region:BE_type:city(89910)}}

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam
{{Coor title dms|52|22|0|N|4|54|0|E|type:city(743027)_region:NL}}

[nounours]

Just in short:

Yes! Yes, yes, yes. Except that, the Map Layers as they exist have no sub-categories. I’ll elaborate as we go on, but, just as an example, there has never been, and I’m sure there will, in my use of PE, never be, a time when I want to see all the POIs for the Map Layer “Driving.”

Again, completely agree. Geomagik and me (and probably someone else) have been discussing this a lot. Obviously, map layers should have subcategories (and they probably will soon), and probably the two systems (in map layers and in search) should be structured the same way. Geomagik promised to implement this, but as far as I see, for historical reasons, this is not so simple.
(If they have the same structure, why keep them seperarate you ask) … and so on 🙂

[nounours]

@Bucky

Thanks very much for your long and carefully worked out answer.

Hmmmmm. You make me think.

Maybe you’re right.

But only, IF searches are sticky!!! If there is only one search result, and then another, it does not work. But if there are several (infinite) search results that exist in parallel, yes, … so the current maplayers are nothing else then as a predefined search result (e.g. the “accomodation” layer is just the search “hotel or hostel or apartement or …”). Conceptually, this might be a good way both to make it more easy and understandable, and adding the flexibility we want from the map layout.

Im hearing Abe saying: it’s not possible, and I understand: Search does not have a zoom layer in yet – if I search for restaurants, I want to see them. With map layers, every item has also a zoom level where it will start (or stop) to show.
And a search is (currently) limited in radius, where as map layers are not. I think there might be a performenc issue behind this …

Anyway, I think we should mark your post as instructive think-it-over for future developpement with PE.

thanks a lot for it!!

Nounours

[nounours]

@Bucky

Thanks very much for your long and carefully worked out answer.

Hmmmmm. You make me think.

Maybe you’re right.

But only, IF searches are sticky!!! If there is only one search result, and then another, it does not work. But if there are several (infinite) search results that exist in parallel, yes, … so the current maplayers are nothing else then as a predefined search result (e.g. the “accomodation” layer is just the search “hotel or hostel or apartement or …”). Conceptually, this might be a good way both to make it more easy and understandable, and adding the flexibility we want from the map layout.

Im hearing Abe saying: it’s not possible, and I understand: Search does not have a zoom layer in yet – if I search for restaurants, I want to see them. With map layers, every item has also a zoom level where it will start (or stop) to show.
And a search is (currently) limited in radius, where as map layers are not. I think there might be a performenc issue behind this …

Anyway, I think we should mark your post as instructive think-it-over for future developpement with PE.

thanks a lot for it!!

Nounours

[nounours]

I wrote somewhere else about a similar idea, which is complementary to “filtering according to open/closed”, is “showing the open/closed state” in the icon:

Feature request: if opening_hours are present on the POI, it would be nice if PE would calculate from opening hours using iPhone time if a facility is open or closed. Indicate it in the info screen. “now closed”, and maybe even in the icon, putting a green/red dot in the top corner if it’s open or closed … (maybe parts of the scripts of this http://openingh.openstreetmap.de/evaluation_tool/ can be used?)

@addon Feature request opening hours:

Just arrived in copenhagen this saturday evening. With 4 starving kids. Had to get some food from a shop. The first we went to just closed. The second was already closed. Which one to take next? Me getting intelligent, selecting all the shops in the surroundings, and going to the infoscreen to think hard and figure out if the shop is open.
=> it would have bee soooooo cool to see the ten shops on the map, which each of them a red or green dot in the map icon to tell me if it’s open or closed ….

nounours

[nounours]

Yes, you are right.
Public transport information in OSM still needs a lot of work.
There is a group working on that, but progress is very slow: https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-transit

In OSM, there should be:
* stops and stations and related infos
* lines and routes and related information

Not in OSM:
* time tables
* real time schedule infos.

=> this should be on the gtfs-exchange site: http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com

Links to websites of public transport companies and/or pdf-timetables may or maynot be included in OSM. I sometimes do if I feel that the data is otherwise not accessible (e.g. for small buses in the mountains which are not on the main timetable sites), but do not so by default, because it will be too difficult to keep that all updated.

All that said, Public transport has a long way to go. In a ideal world, PE would use the OSM data for stops and lines, and connect it to time table and real time schedule information from other sources. I think Geomagik is sharing this view, and PE will surely evole in this direction, in parallel with data avaiblity on the gtfs site.

I currently have a project with a regional public transport operator in Switzerland, which wants to help to make this data avaible, and I hope others will do the same. I think this is the most efficent way to progress: make public transport companies make aware of the importance of sharing their data with the OpenData Community.

As a short time fix maybe it would be an idea to download pdf’s associated with a busstop or a busline? There is currently no official tagging for that, but I could easily suggest one to the PublicTransport group, like “timetable=pdf-url”.

@Geomagik: you much work would it be to follow these links, download them, and show the pdf offline? Maybe to much data-bandwith and data-storing consuming?

n.

[nounours]

🙂
sorry to disagree.
Map Layers are necessary, and different than searching.
Map Layers is how the map looks. Search is for looking for something specifc.
I do not want to see everything.
If I see everything, the map gets unreadable. If I see all the buslines in a city, nothing else will be visible anymore.
If you show all the lines, nobody will understand anymore where the bus stops. That’s why the public transporters are making schematic drawings, not maps.

Why?
I’m sitting in a restaurant, getting drunk, and start to wonder how far the next bus station is – I do not want to fiddle with my map settings. They are normally constant. (yes, better several name set of preferences, but that’s another story …).

Apparently, you don’t think this way. There are some others that do like you (there was a post recently), but I think most people are very much in line with the concept of map layers (OsmAnd e.g. on Android is just the same …).

cheers, nounours

[nounours]

p.s.: Another very good starting point is crisis mapping. http://hot.openstreetmap.org. It’s very easy, and you can save lifes. When the taifun was hitting the Philipins last year, we mapped the whole region touched in a day and greatly supported the rescue teams.

Currently, there is a crisis mapping in Guniea on the Ebola virus going on. In the hour spent discssuing this zebra in Nice, you can map several villages and roads in between and possible save lifes!

so please: start here: http://tasks.hotosm.org/project/568

n.

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