ChristianK

Spammers Plugin under attack, failing

To all those who try in vain to log in to the forum, I would like to say that I am no different.
The StopSpammers plugin (an absolute necessity) is

a.) currently faulty because the positive lists are ignored
is
b.) massively attacked to manoeuvre all valid users onto the blocklists.

Switching off the plugin is impossible because otherwise the OAM website will be flushed away by hackers/spammers.
I just had to completely rebuild the site last week.

I am currently working with the plugin manufacturer to find a workable solution.

 

Let me be clear: the current situation is making it increasingly difficult to run a popular website.
The EU manages to bully us citizens with more and more bureaucracy and lobbying, but they are too cowardly to take action against – well-known – governments that offer hackers safe havens and even encourage them.

Well…

Your Christian from OAM

 

/by
ChristianK

New ORUX POIs for Christmas

A new map set will be available at the turn of the year with the following changes:

 

The data structure for the Mapsforge POIs, as used by ORUX-Maps, has been made more efficient and this new programme library has been implemented in the new versions of ORUX.

This means that we at OpenAndroMaps can also create and deliver the new POIs – i.e. the new version will be included in the Map-zips and delivered during automatic installation from Christmas on.

The requirement is that updates from Orux are installed – this applies to both the free version and the GooglePlay version.

 

For users of older versions of ORUX who for some reason cannot be updated (old smartphone, etc.) we will continue to keep the old version of the ORUX pois available for download here
https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openstreetmap/openandromaps/pois/ORUX_old/
Please do not link permanently yet, the names of the zip files will still change.

You can download the new POIS for testing here:
https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/openstreetmap/openandromaps/pois/ORUX_V3/

 

 

So: Please update your ORUX installations to take advantage of the new POI files.

 

Best regards
Christian and the OAM team

/by
ChristianK

September update released

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In short:

 

The resolving of the SuperRoutes for the hiking trails is finished – similar to the cycle superroutes, which takes us into the waters of the route rules of Lonvia/Waymarkedtrails sind, as far as possible.

The resolution of the super routes has been rewritten to the best of my knowledge and belief – but I have to say that not every creativity in the OSM data mischmasch can be taken into account.

 

An interesting development is the new class of long-distance/rapid cycle routes
The internal discussion with all background information (mixed German/English) can be found here.

 

Also the render themes by Tobias = Elevate/Elements (Forum)
and those from
JohnPercy = VoluntaryUK (Forum) and Website

have been further improved – e.g. the contour lines are now rendered as curves.

 

In addition, it should be said that very extensive changes in the map structure were necessary and that it is possible that small errors have crept in. Please do not hesitate to report such errors in the forum.

 

We wish you beautiful tours in autumn
the team of OpenAndroMaps

/by
ChristianK

Outlook for the September update

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What’s coming up at OAM:

The resolving of the SuperRoutes for the hiking trails is finished – similar to the cycle superroutes, which takes us into the waters of the route rules of Lonvia/Waymarkedtrails sind, as far as possible.

 

An interesting development is the new class of long-distance/rapid cycle routes that are being built in NL/DE/BE/USA and also mapped in OpenStreetMap as cycle_highway=yes. These expressways are less for leisure than for commuting/commuting/shopping.
Therefore, in future we will display the two types of cycle paths (leisure versa commuting=rapid cycle routes) independently from each other and, if applicable, on a separate layer, depending on the render theme.

 

The preparations for this from our side are already in the late beta stage and we will, if everything runs well, put a new map set with the corresponding render themes online at the beginning or mid of September.

The internal discussion with all background information (mixed German/English) can be found here.

 

Have a nice summer
The Team of OpenAndroMaps

/by
ChristianK

New Maps / New Features

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And there we go,

 

As all those who have ever met me probably guessed, my sense of order is stronger than my frustration and I have written a script for the resolution of the screwed-up super routes and integrated it into the process.

 

And because I enjoyed that typing so much, I changed the generation of the REFs (= short names of the routes).
Until now, the REF – if there were capital letters in the NAME and no REF-Value – was formed from these.
So e.g. “West Coast Trail” = WCT
Unfortunately, there are also relations which, especially in Scandinavia, had the path name_+vegur +vegen etc. in the NAME. This ended up in a REF that only consisted of the first capital letter.

From now on, the capital letters only become effective when at least TWO of them are recognised.
If there is only one capital letter, the first 5 letters of the NAME are used to form the REF.
So “Fjärilsleden” was REF=”F” until now, from now on REF=”Fjäri” – looks much, much better.

 

I did allow myself a new POI, namely the “E” charging stations relevant for EBikes without the obligation to consume (Pub,Restaurant…).
These can be found in the POIs under hike/bike, I think this is also of interest to one or two of you.
Here is the exact implementation: https://www.openandromaps.org/oam-forums/topic/ebike_charging_public-2

 

Perspective: In the course of the discussion about the ICN/IWN + super routes, it came up again that the “big” routes cover the small, local cycling/walking routes too often – we are currently discussing possibilities to switch off the international routes, but this is an essential intervention in the structure of the maps and must be considered = this will take a little time.

 

So, I wish you a pleasant Summer

Best regards,
Christian

/8 Comments/by
ChristianK

New LIDAR Contourlines Europe

A quick info for you:

Most maps have better LIDAR contour lines again.
Unfortunately, there is currently a problem with a tile in the border area Germany/Poland – I will solve this as soon as possible…

General: Please re-download all maps otherwise there are ghost lines where new and old contour lines overlap.
… or disable the automatic loading of maps.

 

Have a nice springtime
Christian

/by
ChristianK

New hybrid maps of England/Scotland/Wales under the Christmas tree

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Anyone who has ever been hiking in the UK is familiar with the fantastic Landranger maps by OrdnanceSurvey(c).
For many years the dataset of these maps was under strict copyright – this has since changed and large parts are now freely available and can be added to other map series.

Details can be found in this thread from the forum:
https://www.openandromaps.org/oam-forums/topic/ordnance-survey-crag-detail-for-uk-maps

You can find this dataset from OrdnanceSurvey here:
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/products/vectormap-district

Specifically, the OrdnanceSurvey layer with the cliffs/rocks is now integrated into the OpenAndroMaps maps, a milestone in terms of the visual appearance and usability of the OAM in this area.
The integration of complete foreign layers was quite a challenge, but – if you look at the result – it is worth every single work hour.

The now integrated crags-layer require the latest version of the Elevate Theme:
https://www.openandromaps.org/en/legend/elevate-mountain-hike-theme

Highly recommended is the Voluntary-Theme by John Percy whose look is very, very close to the OrdnanceSurvey Landranger maps it looks really fantastic.
https://www.openandromaps.org/oam-forums/topic/ordnance-survey-crag-detail-for-uk-maps#post-51501

 

This layer is now available for the following maps:

Great-Britain
UK-LakeDistrict
UK-Scotland
UK-Shetlands
UK-Wales

 

Thence…..

Another year has passed. This year even with largely open borders again, so my long planed Trip to Norway was without a headache this time.
I enjoyed it and in the hope that we will make 2023 a good year again let’s start planning our activities for 2023 over the Christmas holidays.
For this purpose you will find a completely new set of maps in the download section.

 

Thank you again for supporting the OAM
and I wish all of us a happy and peaceful 2023.

The team of OpenAndroMaps
Tobias, Michael, Christian

/by
ChristianK

Problems with new webserver, Sorry

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Issue solved for now.

However, such a VPS is a maintenance-intensive, unstable, insecure thing.
… we need a performant webspace, managed by Professionals …

It would be my next goal to find a financially feasible solution.

/by
ChristianK

OAM Website moved to new server

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We have moved our site over to a VPS (again..)

I try to make the serviceability of this project as simple as possible in order to ensure a smooth handover to my CO-admins in case of….
However, a simple webspace for a website with 4000-6000 page views per day plus BBPress plus multilanguage is just too flimsy.

The delivery of the pages via cache was quite OK, but an important point – namely the interaction with our community, i.e. you, via forum was simply unbearably slow.

A managed server or a premium enterprise webspace is impossible to finance, so we decided to go for a VPS – with all its pitfalls.

Same time the major autumn update of the OAM maps is running, which will be uploaded one by one the next days.
And, by the way: Subscribing to forums and forum topics is working again!
If you have problems with the site please clear browser-cache and cookies for openandromaps.org

We wish all enjoyable tours in the hopefully sunny autumn.
Best regards, your OAM team

/3 Comments/by
ChristianK

It’s Summer ….

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… which also means for the OAM team that the sports gear will be taken out and various projects planned for the winter will be tackled – be it with the bike, in the mountains or whatever.

The main thing is to get out into nature again!

You will probably meet me in June/July in Norway/Sweden/Finland, my beloved Scandinavia, on a white scooter. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to cycle for health reasons – anyway, never mind.
The Eurovelo NR1 leads through Norway along the most beautiful back roads along the coast, and thus also on the scooter, to the Nordkapp – of course also on this tour with the OpenAndroMaps and the BRouter.

The major summer update will therefore be rendered 2-3 weeks later, in mid/late July.

I am leaving on this holiday with a healthy conscience because…
The OAM project is on solid ground:

  • I have eliminated all programme fragments
  • many scripts have been rewritten from scratch and made clean
  • cleaned up the structure
  • the all tools have been changed towards licence-free
  • simplified the web hosting and paid for it 2 years in advance
  • all changes are _immediately_ transferred to a backup box at Hetzer via RSynch
  • Tobias and Michael, my two companions, have all the access data and a completely set-up test system.

Have a nice summer
the OAM team

 

/2 Comments/by