Similar initiative

[laem]

Hi,

First, thank you for your work. Osmapp is the best Web interface to OSM, along with Qwant Maps (sadly not developed anymore).

I started implementing my own map app last month, and I figured out later that I've chosen ~ the same technologies to do that : OSM (of course), maplibre, next, styled-components but also Photon. What a pleasure to be able to catch up quickly on some features (I added 3D terrain easily thanks to your work).

First I thought : why not join forces ? But my objective is not to develop a world wide map, rather just a map for French people that handles our local particularities. That's already quite a challenge ! Also, and maybe more importantly, while I'm at the moment working on a "generic base map" that resembles osmapp, my aim is to work on ecological (first focusing on climate impact) travel, and particularly local travel.

The idea comes from the simulators provided (in french only) on futur.eco. You can simulate the climate impact of your plane trip, your ferry trip, compute the € that your car trip costs. After this first step, I figured out that we need a generic interface to handle all this, à la Google Maps. And guide the user towards more ecological travel on the map, with footprint numbers as color tips, and routing algorithms that go way further than now in terms of intermodality : in France, combining train + (< 20 km) bicycle lets your reach 80 % of the inhabited and touristic places.

My approach is hence exploratory. I'm ok with implementing dirty features, that work only in some regions of France (I'm focusing on Brittany right now), just to be able to test them quickly. The map component is a big mess of useEffects, that I'm starting to export in new files progressively. I have no test yet. The repo has no issue talking about the map part, called "voyage", yet (I keep all my notes in a draft list).

The second reason why I think it would be too early for me to contribute to OSMapp instead, is that you can pick anything you want in my codebase :) Both projects share a GPL license and lots of code blocks are just plug and play.

For instance, I've implemented a query to Wikimedia Commons to have images on POI ; you can also display images on the map (buggy feature). Another example would be the integration of itineraries (bike, walk), and the stop times of buses, thanks to the GTFS data made available by the french regions and federated by a national law. Something else that could be interesting for OSMApp : I've found that giving the user the choice to search locally via a tick box is a good UX that makes Photo more powerfull.

I have ~ no users right now, so no about page to cite osmapp, except for the first blog entry. But [I try to cite](https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Alaem%2Ffutureco osmapp&type=code) your app when some code blocks are imported or source of inspiration.

Everything is open source but on this subsection of a bigger repo : https://github.com/laem/futureco/tree/master/app/voyage

Well, I also just wanted to say hi, thanks and start a discussion :)

[laem]

Oh, forgot the deployed link : https://futur.eco/voyage.

[pietervdvn]

@laem It seems like I'm doing something similar with https://mapcomplete.org, except that I'm further along the road and already have most of the features ;)

Feel free to help out! Have a look at https://github.com/pietervdvn/MapComplete/

[laem]

Hi @pietervdvn, yes I know and sometimes use mapcomplete. I see it as a great way to edit OSM, but my aim is not at all to provide edition to the end-user. Just (just ^^) an alternative to Google/Apple maps.

[zbycz]

Hi @laem!

Thanks for very kind words! ❤️ My dream was always to create an integrated googlemaps-like experience on OSM data, and I enjoy every minute of that 🙂 I am quite surprised that i didnt come acros Qwant Maps - it looks perfect. I am not sure if I developed OsmAPP had I seen Qwant Maps before.. so maybe lucky i didn't 😃 I will make sure to take some inspiration from their open source.

Congrats on choosing the best stack™️ for Voyage! 😃 I am super glad that we can share code, and I would also like to take some parts from you - eg. fly on click is very cool, i should also persist tilt as you do and directions is my lowest priority but wanted feature 🙂

ad sharing forces) I agree it is pehaps better to develop two projects. I do it mainly because I enjoy working on it, I am (sadly?) not that focused on changing the world. If someone finds OsmAPP useful, i am glad. But similarly to OSM i don't have objectives/plans/budget... as they say "we will get there eventually" 🙂 And also there is the famous proverb "One developer does a task in one month. Two devs together make the same task in two months." 😅 #communicationIsHard Still we can perhaps share some backend in future.

ad futur.eco) Wow, thats a very good idea. Our cities are on the peak of cars it can take. Myself I love biking throughout the city, but it has its particularities. Good luck with your impactful project though 🤞

ad dirty features) That makes sense. I am a freak for readable code, but eg. integrating iD-editor-schema fields on features was a really tough job, it still has room for improvement.

ad Wikimedia Commons) I already have that as well - see eg. https://osmapp.org/relation/3312247 .. but maybe you use a different query.

I will gladly use the itineraries. I have to check what API do you have and how hard it is to implement it 👍

ad local search) That kind of solves the issue with Photon, that it doesnt search well. But i don't like the UX of this, i think the user shouldn't need to select what he is searching for. I was considering making two queries - one local and one global, but it doesn't feel right for autocomplete. 🤔

ad users) I don't even measure the users, i think it could tempt me to get more.. But server logs say around 300 requests per day. I would be glad to link your app for FR users, once you think it is ready. Also thanks for the inspiration about future.eco - I think OsmAPP would be a good place to inform users about these impacts/alternative green route. Tough everyone should decide up their own will.

Thanks also for the citations :-)

[laem]

Thanks ! Let's continue watching each project and discuss about it.

For wikimedia commons, I implemented two systems to get photos.

• one on click on the map, you get local photos under the cursor

• one on click on the quick search links, you get photos for the whole bbox

As you can see, I have bugs ^^ Thumbnails fail for the first (I know why, easy to correct).

For the second, all photos are concentrated in the most touristic coordinates. I have to find a way to let this focus on density, but also give images from the surroundings. And handle the caching, when the user zooms and pans.

Lots of things to correct, but displaying Wikimedia Commons makes your map incredibly more lively :)

Also, I'll integrate panoramax.fr when I have time. If you haven't heard of it, it's an open source decentralized mapillary funded by the French gov, in collaboration with OSM-fr :)

[pietervdvn]

It would be great if a panoramx-library was made which allows ppl to upload, I would use that!