Unifying the vector tiles API

[leonardehrenfried]

The Vector Tiles API was originally added for HSL but has enormously grown in popularity ever since. OTP-RR and Stadtnavi are also extensive users and have contributed their own layers.

The API is very configurable which seems great at first but in practise it has led to subtly incompatible clients, that expect a layer name which can only be achieved with custom configuration.

On top of it, the correct layer name to choose is hard to discover and debugging a vector tiles client is very hard.

Goals

To achieve a unified API which all clients can develop against without having to configure the layers individually.

Specifically the name and mapper fields will not be configurable anymore.

Migration plan

In order to have a smooth migration plan, I suggest the following:

• the current API endpoints stays as it is
• a new endpoint is added which has a fixed, unconfigurable set of layers which are all enabled at all times
• defining a custom mapper for a layer is not possible anymore
• custom mappers are replaced with new layers, so for example there are going to be two layers: vehicleParking and stadtnaviVehicleParking

Stakeholders

I would like to gather feedback from @miles-grant-ibigroup, @hbruch, @optionsome and @fpurcell if they see this plan as worthwhile and if I have overlooked an aspect of this.

[miles-grant-ibigroup]

I would love this! Huge +1 from OTP-RR

[fpurcell]

Sounds good, Leonard. I don't have any feedback just now, and will defer to Miles, who has done a lot in this space.

[leonardehrenfried]

@hbruch has indicated privately that he also supports this.

@optionsome what do you think about this?

[optionsome]

I'm ok with this but preferable we should do it sooner than later.

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