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> The API returns only nodes entirely within an area, rather than everything intersecting a given area. The osm.org API is meant for editing. It's not a map re
by Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
> The API returns only nodes entirely within an area, rather than everything intersecting a given area.
The osm.org API is meant for editing. It's not a map rendering and querying API. There are lots of alternatives for that.
> There was free building data available for areas I was interested in, but I was told to copy them by hand.
OSM is open to imported data. It just has to be done carefully because "with great power comes great responsibility" - add millions of items to the OSM database and you can royally screw it up (there is an argument to say that most of OSM's problems in the US stem from this). But there's a well documented imports process and lots of people with experience in importing buildings to help you through it.
- laaph 9y agoCan you clarify which API I should be using for data access? My last project involved determining locations parks and rivers, and I ran in to a lot of the same problems. But, if I just want GPS coordinates, I'm not sure where else to go. Mapbox is find for rendering but less so if I want the raw data and use it myself (for a phone application for example).
- Doctor_Fegg 9y agoThe Overpass API should be the first call. Alternatively, you can download OSM data and feed it into your own database, which gives you much more flexibility to write the queries you want (http://download.geofabrik.de/ http://download.geofabrik.de/ is a good place to download the data for the area you want; osm2pgsql and Osmosis are the two standard tools for loading OSM into a database, usually Postgres/PostGIS, though there are others).
- Piskvorrr 9y agoOverpass?