This is announcement for a new release: 0.7.0

This release introduces Map Manager and incorporates maps distribution via CDN. This is a major change in approach and should make the use of the server simple. In particular, use of geocoder-nlp should be easy and all dependencies are resolved automatically. I hope that you would enjoy using it!

Starting from this release, maps are supposed to be used only through download. This is to ensure that its simple to update and cleanup free space. It should also help with the incompatibilities between the versions. So, even if you had maps prepared for your devices, you would have to download new maps.

Distribution model is as follows. I have a file in the project github source that has a list of provided countries/regions/features and URL to CDN base. Location of the file will stay and you could always update the provided list via GUI/Map Manager. Then you would have to decide which countries do you want (through subscription) and whether you want to store files needed for geocoder-nlp. After that, start to download from CDN.

When you start new server, you would be asked to allocate a separate folder that OSM Scout Server would manage. Note that you are expected to let it perform all operations within that folder (or follow its lead when shown the files that it doesn't use anymore, for example). I am not allocating the folder automatically to give you more control over proceedings (~nemo, SD card, ...). If its too confusing, I can allocate .local/shared/harbour-osmscout-server for it. But that may lead to filling up of internal storage for some users.

The files downloaded by server are all tracked in a small database, so it knows the versions and timestamps for each of them. If you download files using @Karry's OSM Scout into the same folder, they would be unknown by the server. We would have to discuss with @Karry how to proceed and ensure that compatible maps can be used in the both applications, but that may take some time to figure it out.

With geocoder-nlp easily accessible, don't forget to specify which languages do you want to use for parsing addresses. Otherwise, libpostal may eat lots of RAM!

I will gather your questions and probably add also small Q&A into the first post of the thread, if needed.

I will work on making maps distribution simpler. For that, I plan to use @MartinK scripts to chop the planet into regions and import all polygons into github. It would take some time to make it all work, but should allow us to extend provided regions through github development process.

At present, I added a small credit for CDN. I do wonder for how long would it last, probably it would cover the first TB of downloads.

Now its a great time to propose your server space for distribution of maps. Or, propose a model where we could collect money for distribution. In the money collecting case, I would prefer to have it done via some organization, to stay away from all possible issues with taxes.

Its been lots of work on making it possible and I might have forgotten to mention something important.

Enjoy!