Re: [Talk-GB] MapThePaths app

[Nick Whitelegg]

... oops, forgot to mention the app is Android only, not iOS - and only 
supports API 23+ (Marshmallow upwards).


There is now a rough guide, based on yesterday's email, available on the 
MapThePaths site. Apologies for the lack of detail on this: I am going away and 
have little time at the moment!


Nick



From: Nick Whitelegg 
Sent: 28 August 2018 18:24:11
To: talk-gb@openstreetmap.org
Subject: [Talk-GB] MapThePaths app



Hi,


A couple of updates on MapThePaths 
(www.mapthepaths.org.uk<http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk>).


First of all, there will be no further updates of the data until the 2nd week 
in September. (Normally I update the data once a week, it was last done 
yesterday)


Secondly, there is now an (experimental, rough round the edges and not 
comprehensively tested) app available.

The app will show OSM data and council ROWs in the current location, in the 
same way as the website does. This is under "View" mode. You have

to download the data explicitly using the menu.


Create/Edit mode allows you to live edit the designation of ways and (with 
caveats - see below) create new data.

Again, you must explicitly download live OSM data via the menu system. You can 
then long-press an OSM way to update the designation tag, a useful way of 
adding or altering designations in the field.


There is also a _very_ experimental feature to auto convert a GPS trace to OSM 
ways in Create/Edit mode.

If you are walking along an unmapped path, you can perform a survey.  Select 
its designation (public footpath, public bridleway etc) and type (grass path, 
dirt path, dirt track) etc and record your route (using the red dot icon under 
'Create/Edit' mode).


When you have finished recording, you can press stop (the black square icon) 
and upload (the cloud icon) and your GPS trace will be simplified and 
autoconverted into OSM ways (with appropriate designation, highway and surface 
tags added), which will be hopefully (see below) auto-joined to the existing 
OSM highway network.


The eventual aim of this feature is to make it easy for OSM newcomers to survey 
paths without having to worry about the details of tagging. It has not yet 
achieved this aim but it does allow established mappers to quickly survey paths 
in the field and upload them.


IT IS CURRENTLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (and the app tells you this) to then use 
JOSM or a similar editor to refine the auto-created ways as they may suffer 
from artefacts due to poor GPS signal, and the app is still a little buggy at 
handling the terminal nodes. Nonetheless it is arguably a useful way of getting 
the designation and highway type recorded in the field without having to note 
them down.


Note that you have to grant location and storage permissions via the device's 
settings; this isn't yet fully done in-app.


It can be downloaded via the link at http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk/; 
<http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk> full URL: 
http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk/downloads/mapthepaths.apk.


It's not quite ready for full release just yet; nonetheless I have made an 
early version available as people might find the "view" mode in particular 
useful if they are out in

the field looking for paths to map during the current path mapping quarterly 
project.


Source repository https://gitlab.com/nickw1/mapthepaths-android.


Nick


<http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk//>



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[Talk-GB] MapThePaths app

[Nick Whitelegg]

Hi,


A couple of updates on MapThePaths 
(www.mapthepaths.org.uk).


First of all, there will be no further updates of the data until the 2nd week 
in September. (Normally I update the data once a week, it was last done 
yesterday)


Secondly, there is now an (experimental, rough round the edges and not 
comprehensively tested) app available.

The app will show OSM data and council ROWs in the current location, in the 
same way as the website does. This is under "View" mode. You have

to download the data explicitly using the menu.


Create/Edit mode allows you to live edit the designation of ways and (with 
caveats - see below) create new data.

Again, you must explicitly download live OSM data via the menu system. You can 
then long-press an OSM way to update the designation tag, a useful way of 
adding or altering designations in the field.


There is also a _very_ experimental feature to auto convert a GPS trace to OSM 
ways in Create/Edit mode.

If you are walking along an unmapped path, you can perform a survey.  Select 
its designation (public footpath, public bridleway etc) and type (grass path, 
dirt path, dirt track) etc and record your route (using the red dot icon under 
'Create/Edit' mode).


When you have finished recording, you can press stop (the black square icon) 
and upload (the cloud icon) and your GPS trace will be simplified and 
autoconverted into OSM ways (with appropriate designation, highway and surface 
tags added), which will be hopefully (see below) auto-joined to the existing 
OSM highway network.


The eventual aim of this feature is to make it easy for OSM newcomers to survey 
paths without having to worry about the details of tagging. It has not yet 
achieved this aim but it does allow established mappers to quickly survey paths 
in the field and upload them.


IT IS CURRENTLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (and the app tells you this) to then use 
JOSM or a similar editor to refine the auto-created ways as they may suffer 
from artefacts due to poor GPS signal, and the app is still a little buggy at 
handling the terminal nodes. Nonetheless it is arguably a useful way of getting 
the designation and highway type recorded in the field without having to note 
them down.


Note that you have to grant location and storage permissions via the device's 
settings; this isn't yet fully done in-app.


It can be downloaded via the link at http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk/; 
 full URL: 
http://www.mapthepaths.org.uk/downloads/mapthepaths.apk.


It's not quite ready for full release just yet; nonetheless I have made an 
early version available as people might find the "view" mode in particular 
useful if they are out in

the field looking for paths to map during the current path mapping quarterly 
project.


Source repository https://gitlab.com/nickw1/mapthepaths-android.


Nick






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