**Fla** @fla · 2018-07-03T07:03:19Z

Fla @fla

THIS IS IT! My company is finally switching from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap!

This is challenging: we need maps, but also Geocoding and reverse, Directions, addresses autocomplete… https://switch2osm.org lists some libs, but I’d love to hear from real devs. Do you have resources and tips to share? Feedback on how to configure the different libs? E.g. nominatim often doesn’t find addresses, but I’m sure it can be tweaked.

#osm #openstreetmap #google #gfree #googlemap #gmap #nominatim

Jul 03, 2018, 07:03 · Web · 28 · 28

**🦄 Thomas Citharel** @tcit@social.tcit.fr · Jul 03, 2018, 07:04

**🦄 Thomas Citharel** @tcit@social.tcit.fr · Jul 03, 2018, 07:04

@fla I've got just a few links that might help https://framagit.org/tcit/eventos/wikis/home#geocoding

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 07:05

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 07:05

Remember, this is for professional projects so we need rock solid libraries. We surely can adapt / improve them a bit if they are open source, but can’t spend weeks on that. That's why I'm looking for tutorials and feedback about all the problems you encountered and how you solved them. I'm working for a carpooling companies, if our geocoding or our directions (itineraries) don't work, we're basically dead. So it's a tricky move :p

**Strypey (was at Quitter.se)** @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · Jul 03, 2018, 10:36

**Strypey (was at Quitter.se)** @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz · Jul 03, 2018, 10:36

@fla the folks who develop the #Leaflet map embed module for #Drupal might be one place to look for tips. Also the #OSMAnd folks?

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:38

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:38

@fla I just built a personal thingy with https://opencagedata.com/ for both forward and reverse geocoding. Data and search result quality was excellent so far.

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:46

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:46

@raucao it doesn't look like a free software we can install, is it?

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:49

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:49

@fla No, it is not. Check the FAQ.

As you said it's your company that is switching, I assumed you don't want to build everything yourself.

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:52

**Râu Cao** @raucao@kosmos.social · Jul 03, 2018, 10:52

@fla But also, there's nothing comparable as free software. However, it depends on your use case, if it's worth paying for. I'm not nearly doing enough requests to worry about moving beyond the free tier myself.

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:54

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:54

@raucao it's not much about the license of the software, more about if it can be hosted by us or not. We would be fine with a proprietary software that we can install ourselves (even if free software is better of course), as this would make our cost fix (so no surprises).

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 10:40

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 10:40

@fla it is a well known problem with #nominatim . It is the weakest part of the #osm world currently.

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:44

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:44

@saper do you think that photon is better?

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 10:45

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 10:45

@fla I don't know what photon is.

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:47

**Fla** @fla · Jul 03, 2018, 10:47

@saper http://photon.komoot.de/

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 12:50

**Marcin Cieślak** @saper · Jul 03, 2018, 12:50

@fla I've checked it out :) needless to say - zero experience.

I tried to identify issues with two annoyances I had observed in nominatim https://github.com/openstreetmap/Nominatim/issues/509 - only to learn that geocoding is difficult.

Also, one should NOT tag items on a map to make life easier for some specific geocoding service.

**blub** @blub@mastodonten.de · Jul 03, 2018, 11:28

**blub** @blub@mastodonten.de · Jul 03, 2018, 11:28

@fla
Maybe you shoild consult business GIS OSM companys AS Mapbox er al?

**bongo** @bongo · Jul 03, 2018, 13:49

**bongo** @bongo · Jul 03, 2018, 13:49

@fla you can maybe try https://www.gisgraphy.com/webservices/index.php to get better results? (I cannot provide any personal assessment of it though)

**LWFlouisa** @LWFlouisa@wandering.shop · Jul 03, 2018, 18:03

**LWFlouisa** @LWFlouisa@wandering.shop · Jul 03, 2018, 18:03

@fla congrats! I love me some open street map.

**~norwin** @norwin@mastodon.art · Jul 04, 2018, 04:47

**~norwin** @norwin@mastodon.art · Jul 04, 2018, 04:47

@fla
Nominatim being bad is a known issue.
Thats why some OSM based commercial companies such as mapzen and mapbox made their own geocoders.
Thankfully mapzen open sourced theirs after shutting down a few months ago:
https://github.com/pelias/pelias
I have no hands on experience with it, but when hosted by them it worked great!

**~norwin** @norwin@mastodon.art · Jul 04, 2018, 05:01

**~norwin** @norwin@mastodon.art · Jul 04, 2018, 05:01

@fla
Also there is ORS providing a couple of APIs also for geocoding. No idea about the quality though, they mentioned rolling out a new improved version in the next days
https://openrouteservice.org/services/

**Fla** @fla · Jul 04, 2018, 15:10

**Fla** @fla · Jul 04, 2018, 15:10

@norwin I saw #pelias yeah, and #photon too. In France, we have #addOk which is pretty awesome too. But problems: OSM data for addresses is incomplete. The BAN and BANO contain the complete France addresses. AddOk is the search engine built for that data set so it works well with it, but that's limited to France. It can import OSM data, but that requires cleaning it, and solutions to do that need Postgres (but my stack doesn't need it). Pelias can import openaddresses which contain the BAN.

**Fla** @fla · Jul 04, 2018, 15:10

**Fla** @fla · Jul 04, 2018, 15:10

@norwin new question is, how do I handle duplicate addresses, and maintain up to date the data.