[Emux]

I would like to inform the community that today we released Mapsforge 0.5.0
You can find the announcement at the mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mapsforge-dev/rPbNJc-MIYI

Cruiser / Atlas have already advanced to the new release version,
having also both new features like Bookmarks and GeoJSON support.

Emux
Cruiser – Atlas

[ChristianK]

Hi Emux,

Thanks for information, I just started rendering European maps with the new mapwriter for testing.
First maps whese will be available in 2Days.

Best regards, Christian

[Caleido]

Hi Emux,
you’re my last hope 😉

Cruiser is a very nice little app, and I use it to play with the new stylemenus, which are great fun!
(And in a second step it would be very helpful to add min-zooms to the layers, not just on/off…)
Of course, the best thing would be if single elements could be switched by a user individually in a checkmarks list, similar as in Osmand. At the moment he can only switch a set of combined rules which the theme creator has predefined. Of course slightly advanced users can do that themselves far easier now than before, so it’s still a HUGE step forward.

Another great step forward is that finally errors in a style don’t stop the whole thing anymore!
They are simply ignored now. (In a second step it would be nice to be informed which line in a style causes a prob, perhaps as a user setting..)

=======

But my #1 prob since years is a real killer bug in mapsforge!
The infamous „common value bug“, that Christian keeps mentioning:
Mapsforge can show wrong values in a map, if an element has multiple keys.
The prob is that mapsforge rules don’t compare keys with their own values, but with ALL values of ALL keys of a given node or way.
Example:
A building has amenity=parking / building=yes / access=private
Rule access=private? TRUE!
Rule access=yes? TRUE! (should be wrong)
Locus has it fixed since years, but native Mapsforge not yet.

For theme creaters it’s a huge prob, and Christian also struggles endlessly with this when creating the OAMaps.
As a workaround he’s trying to retag all things to specific values if possible, for example ford=fd_yes instead of simply „yes“, or noexit=nd_yes instead of „yes“, but cannot cover all.

For demonstration I’ve attached a file with a test code to highlight some example ways.

=======

Another prob I have now with mapsforge, but only since the new version:
linesymbols are restricted to 1 now.
If multiple ones are painted, only 1 wins, the others vanish.
But multiple symbols are needed to be able to display several keys.

Those multiple symbols work great in Locus, but I’d prefer to have them work in all mapsforge apps, in case others may want to use my fancy style some day too (still in the works).
(That said, my Locus version is still a rather old one, so I *hope* it still works ;-))

Attachments:

1. mapsforge_bugtest353.xml_.txt

[Emux]

Hi, thanks for the feedback.

Both in Cruiser / Atlas I have implemented a simple use of the style menu.
I intend to present a more detailed one in the future with check list for layers on/off.

To validate the render theme xml I recommend to use an xml editor that can use the xml schema definition:
https://github.com/mapsforge/mapsforge/blob/master/mapsforge-map/src/main/resources/renderTheme-v4.xsd
for validating the render theme files.

For the „common value bug“ I use also, as Christian, the TagTransform.
As we said in the forum, Mapsforge is under the LGPL license.
If anyone has solved some issues, we welcome any patches or pull requests for community benefit.

About the multiple symbols, can you explain a little what you’re meaning?
Also have you tried the new ‚display‘ directive which allows symbol and label overlapping?
https://github.com/mapsforge/mapsforge/blob/master/docs/Rendertheme.md#display

I suggest to post also your thoughts in Mapsforge mailing list, so that Ludwig and I can analyze them for implementation.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mapsforge-dev

Emux
Cruiser – Atlas

[Caleido]

Thanks emux, I’m trying to read through your links, much is a bit over my head, and it’s also a time issue…

The theme-validator sounds interesting, is that something to be added as a styler to Notepad++ or such? But if so, I suspect it wouldn’t tell which symbols are missing?
Have accidentally rediscovered now (in old notes) that the old AdvancedMapViewer031 does reveal which pics exactly are missing, after modifying the xml to version2 again. Perhaps a newer Locus meanwhile too, no idea. Just decided to finally update it and looked into their forum , but only to discover that the new version has some bad bug again, so have happily kept my old one again.

Interesting find in your render-xml link, there is a „base-stroke-width“ – looking forward to try it. Had been looking for a general zoom setting next to the base-text-size, and this could very well be it.

Unfortunately have also found something about the killer-bug #1 at
https://github.com/mapsforge/mapsforge/issues/353
The bug report dates from 2012, and Menion from Locus had posted how to fix, but it seems rather complicated, and last summer Ludwig replied that he doesn’t quite understand it yet. My hopes are sinking again 🙁

Regarding multiple line symbols, I mean to show at the same time at the same way multiple rules like this (simplified for demo):
<rule e=“way“ k=“surface“ v=“paved“>
<lineSymbol src=“file:../quality/surf_paved.png“ align-center=“true“ repeat=“true“ />
</rule>
<rule e=“way“ k=“mtb_scale|mtb:scale“ v=“mtbs_1|1″>
<lineSymbol src=“file:../quality/mtb_1.png“ align-center=“true“ repeat=“true“ />
</rule>

[Tobias]

Emux wrote:

As we said in the forum, Mapsforge is under the LGPL license.
If anyone has solved some issues, we welcome any patches or pull requests for community benefit.

Menion recently wrote in the Locus forum:
„Modified code is available for everybody who wants“

I don’t think that he would make patches. But as he claims that his variant is faster than the original mapsforge and has this bug fixed, it might be interesting for mapsforge developers to get his code.

Best regards,
Tobias

Developer of Elevate mapstyle

[Emux]

Caleido I think xml validation is about validating the xml schema (e.g. mityped tags), not actually parsing the values.
Notepad++ has this feature or via a plugin, you can check it. Just see that the xsd path inside the xml is correct.

We have changed the error / exception reporting since Mapsforge 0.3, I have tried to pass the errors in Cruiser / Atlas to the user, probably more work is needed.

Emux
Cruiser – Atlas

[Emux]

Tobias after speaking with Ludwig, I posted a request for the Mapsforge modified code at that Locus forum topic.

Emux
Cruiser – Atlas

[Caleido]

Ah, there’s hope returning a bit… 😉 Great, thanks!

About error reporting, you’re right, Cruiser actually reports some things. Perhaps it’s mainly missing symbols that aren’t reported yet.
Just noticed it again when trying to use named colors, that creates a message.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be too complicated to include a few color names again, like Locus and Oruxmaps use? It’s about a dozen only, but even those few make the code already much easier readable.
Acc. to the locus-manual last year, and works also in Orux, they understand „black“ (#000000) white (#ffffff) lightgray (#D3D3D3) gray (#bebebe) darkgray (#A9A9A9) red (#ff0000) blue (#0000ff) green (#00ff00) yellow (#ffff00) cyan (#00ffff) magenta (#ff00ff)
Of course wish there were a few more yet (brown, darkbrown, lightbrown, beige, olive….), but at least those help much already.

And tried the base-stroke-width, it also works beautifully, like base-text-size. Do you think it would be possible to create also something like base-zoom-shift? 😎
(PS: if you like feel free to copy my stuff to the mapsforge lists or wherever it may concern)

[Autor]

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