Do local searches on the data

LonelyPixel · June 20, 2010, 11:30am

The map is nice, but it’s only a picture, nothing I could really work with.

I’d like to be able to do a search on local stuff like supermarkets, post offices, recycling bins, cellular antennas etc. and read their attached data like opening hours, recycling types or network operator. Now I could open a map, zoom in far enough and load the map data tab, but it doesn’t really work well (inconsistent/unresponsive UI), needless to say that it’s inefficient as hell.

Is there any way to do such a search? Preferably on mobile devices (Android OS) or the web? I’ve been browsing the OSM Wiki but couldn’t find such a thing on a prominent place (like FAQ or beginner’s guide).

If not, what would I need to know and do to set up such a service? (Install PostGIS, regularly load the world data, implement my own search logic and UI… maybe have a super-fast server?)

amm · June 20, 2010, 2:20pm

As an example:

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/browser/applications/utils/export/osm2pgsql/gazetteer/README.txt

LonelyPixel · June 20, 2010, 2:26pm

Nominatim cannot search tags, only city names. First match for “recycling” was ~200 km away, second in Italy, third in the UK.

The other thing looks like build steps for some data conversion tool. I assume this was already meant for the DIY part of my question.

Lambertus · June 20, 2010, 5:18pm

How about XAPI?

SK53 · June 21, 2010, 11:38am

LonelyPixel:

The map is nice, but it’s only a picture, nothing I could really work with.

I’d like to be able to do a search on local stuff like supermarkets, post offices, recycling bins, cellular antennas etc. and read their attached data like opening hours, recycling types or network operator. Now I could open a map, zoom in far enough and load the map data tab, but it doesn’t really work well (inconsistent/unresponsive UI), needless to say that it’s inefficient as hell.

Is there any way to do such a search? Preferably on mobile devices (Android OS) or the web? I’ve been browsing the OSM Wiki but couldn’t find such a thing on a prominent place (like FAQ or beginner’s guide).

If not, what would I need to know and do to set up such a service? (Install PostGIS, regularly load the world data, implement my own search logic and UI… maybe have a super-fast server?)

I suggest that you look at OpenStreetbrowser: http://www.openstreetbrowser.org/?zoom=12&lat=49.59657&lon=10.98385&layers=B000FFFFFFFFFFTT (centred on Erlangen).

This is perhaps not exactly what you ask for, but it certainly demonstrates the same type of functionality.

stephan75 · June 21, 2010, 5:31pm

also have a look at gosmore! This app has an incredibly fast search option about the objects that are even displayed as vector graphics.

LonelyPixel · June 21, 2010, 6:22pm

gosmore crashed the moment I started it (Windows XP).

XAPI looks promising, at least for the DIY part. At least it has an easy API and returns usable data in not-so-bad time. There are requests that take forever, but if you cancel and retry after a few seconds it should work fine. I could overlay the data over the standard map and cobble together a nice Android app I think…