[Qgis-developer] Adding default OSM backround maps

[Paolo Cavallini]

Hi all,
during a meeting with Etienne and Alessnadro we put up this proposal:
* add an entry in settings with an URL where we store details about XYZ
servers
* add a button on the Add XYZ dialog "Get default servers"
* QGIS connects to the URL above and get the list with:
  * URL of the service
  * user agent required for it
  * notes and explanations (where all details about participation and
licencing requested by OSM foundation will be stored and displayed).
Does this make sense? Any comments?
All the best.

Il 28/04/2017 22:07, Paolo Cavallini ha scritto:
> Il 27/03/2017 12:25, Jürgen E. Fischer ha scritto:
>> On Tue, 21. Mar 2017 at 14:58:30 +0000, Jorge Gustavo Rocha wrote:
>>> 1. The UserAgent is already a configurable feature in QGIS (under
>>> Options/Network). Any user can change it, but we can propose another
>>> default value.
>>
>> Correct.  And the default is what Qt would use by default.  There might be
>> servers expecting a browser signature as well - so changing this default
>> is probably not good for everyone either.
> 
> Hi all,
> let's see if we can implement this during the HF.
> I recap here the requests by OSM PSC:
> 
> 1. You seem to be using an user agent of "Mozilla/5.0 QGIS/2.18.3". We
> strongly recommend that you don't pretend to be a browser by adding the
> "Mozilla" bit. OpenStreetMap sees increasing traffic from "fake" user
> agents, and it is likely that we will penalise user agents like that at
> some point in the future - meaning tiles will still be served, but
> slower than to "honest" user agents that don't pretend to be a browser
> when they are not. We understand that this is difficult terrain and that
> other data sources might actually *require* that you pretend to be a
> browser - perhaps per-datasource overrides of the user agent are a
> possibility.
> 
> 2. As you know, OpenStreetMap thrives on contributions by mappers, and
> one of the main reasons we make our tiles freely available is the hope
> of attracting new contributors. It would be nice if QGIS could do its
> part to help us here, by making their users aware that OSM is open for
> everyone to contribute. Perhaps a link to
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/fixthemap can be placed somewhere in the
> layer description or something.
> 
> a proposal by Jorge Gustavo Rocha:
>> 2. The QGIS community is very much aware of OpenStreetMap. If we really
>> need to make our users more aware, does it make sense to add a new
>> button to QGIS to report map errors? (context dependent, when the
>> OpenStreetMap layer is shown) It would have the same functionality of
>> the notes in OpenStreetMap web interface.
> 
> 3. Our data is licensed under ODbL 1.0, and our map tiles are CC-BY-SA
> 2.0. The latter could change at any time; the former is
> relatively constant.
> 
> The legal consequences of this situation for your users are:
> 
> * If they publish an image in which our tiles are visible, they must
> attribute OpenStreetMap as the source, and specify that the map image is
> CC-BY-SA 2.0, and specify that the data behind it is ODbL 1.0. All these
> requirements can be fulfilled in one go by linking to
> www.openstreetmap.org/copyright but there is no legal requirement to
> link to that page.
> 
> a proposal:
>> 3.1 On the "add layer" dialog, we can show the OpenStreetMap url (which
>> might change over time) and licenses (for data and tiles) taken from
>> settings or an (external) resource. We can make this not hard coded, to
>> be modified easily, without upgrading QGIS. We can also check if the
>> service is enabled for us, before allow users to add that layer (related
>> with 4.).
> 
> * Everyone is allowed to create derivatives of OpenStreetMap data - for
> example by tracing features on the OSM tiles - and freely distribute
> them. Such derived datasets, unless they are "insubstantial"
> (https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Community_Guidelines/Substantial_-_Guideline)
> inherit the ODbL license and must, when publicly used, on request be
> made available under ODbL.
> 
> a proposal:
>> 3.2 When the tiles are used in the composer or on the web client, we can
>> not enforce an attribution string. We might add or suggest it, but users
>> should be free the create and edit the attributions. It the
>> responsibility of the user, not a QGIS responsibility.
> 
> 4. If the load coming from QGIS should be unexpectedly high and impact
> our service performance, there might come a time where we'd have to
> throttle or even switch off this access. You should have some mechanism
> or plan that deals with that to avoid frustration among your user base -
> maybe a mechanism where QGIS installations request updated tile sources
> from a central service so you could notify them of the OSM tiles not
> being available (or being available elsewhere) should the need arise.
> 
>> 4. We have to handle when tiles are not loading, either because there
>> are network problems, server busy, etc. We can customize the user's
>> feedback regarding the load of the default OpenStreetMap tiles. But we
>> definitely need to know formally when they shut our access down. This is
>> related with 3.1 issue. If the access is disabled, we can also disable
>> adding default OpenStreetMap tiles option.
> 
> Anyone interested?
> All the best.
> 


-- 
Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
QGIS & PostGIS courses: http://www.faunalia.eu/training.html
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