Mapnoter

Mapnoter
Authors:	harg&#32,(on osm)
Status:	Broken
Programming language:	JavaScript
Unpublished tool to assist editing

Mapnoter is a program originally developed for Firefox OS phones by harg (on osm) many years ago when there wasn’t a map app for that phone.

It is not released and is only intended to be appropriate for the author's own personal use. When Mapnoter was used while mapping, the changeset credits the tool in the source tag like source=mapnoter+gps.

Purpose

Mapnoter helps its author to travel on foot and by public transport, especially while mapping, and to make notes useful for subsequently adding to OSM.

• it superimposes TFL bus stops and stations as clickable objects and displays live arrival predictions from TFL's API
• highlights selected objects such as house numbers and park furniture, enabling them to be seen legibly at lower zoom levels than standard OSM tiles.
• displays clickable markers linking to OSM notes to allow investigation of nearby reports
• can create offline objects to represent frequently encountered mappable features, such as park furniture and house numbers, and to make unstructured notes
• displays and saves GPS traces while in use, to assist travel and the author's subsequent offline review of the collected data

Migration

FirefoxOS apps were defined almost entirely in JavaScript. Consequently when Mozilla discontinued Firefox OS, it continued to be usable (with a few alterations and many limitations) in Firefox browsers running under LineageOS and on the Windows 10 desktop. It therefore continues to be used by its author for OSM mapping on a regular basis.

Implementation

• Mapnoter uses OSM tiles (via leaflet.js) supplemented by vector information obtained from overpass turbo, OSM Notes and TFL APIs.
• it does not directly add anything to OSM. Instead, it creates objects offline in an OSM-compatible format. These are temporarily stored in the phone itself. A timer then periodically uploads those objects to the author's personal web server for subsequent investigation
• each object is subsequently reviewed in an OSM editor on a desktop computer to improve positioning accuracy
• Potlatch was originally used for that purpose until Adobe announced discontinuing Flash
• JOSM was then found to be more suitable replacement and is currently used for that purpose, hence the changesets have a source=JOSM/...
• Minor changes are occasionally made, but mostly only to the extent of fixing bugs and essential maintenance.
• More recent apps such as StreetComplete and Vespucci provide features better suited to general purpose editing. Consequently the author does not consider it to be feasible to enhance Mapnoter in a manner that could make it suitable for others to use.