Hello guys, I’m relatively new to OSM but have found it quite useful and feature-rich since I made the switch to a degoogled phone OS. I now have a question about generating OSM compatible links much like google maps has where I can send a friend a sharable link and when they click it it automatically opens their app (or browser if the app cant be found) to the OSM map with the location under a pin so that they can do whatever with it (most usefully is to “Navigate” to it and get directions)
I’m so new to it though that I don’t even know if the concept of a “link” which opens the map exists in the context of OSM. If it does though, I would love to know where I can read up on these links’ formats so that I can see how I might generate them from lat+long coords through software.
Many thanks in advance!
Edit: In OsmAnd when I want to share a location, I can select Share then Copy. That will put some text along with a link of the following format in my clipboard:
https://osmand.net/map?pin=35.96296%2C-5.50856#10/35.96296/-5.50856
I get the parts up until the #10. What does the #10 mean and why do the coordinates appear 2 times in the link, once before #10 an once after?
10 is the zoom level
There is a pin at the specified geo location and the map is at the same geo location
geo:0,0?q=example_address
geo:37.786971,-122.399677;u=35
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_URI_scheme
In osmand, click share and use the forth entry, geo: Unfortunately, on my device it only wants to open another app. I can’t copy the result.
That’s a very good first issue if someone wants to open one https://github.com/osmandapp/OsmAnd/issues?q=is%3Aissue+state%3Aopen+geo%3A
Edit: it’s not recognized as a link in thunder or molly. Meaning, a copyable link from osmand won’t be too useful. One would have to open a series of issues. I’m not too sure why it’s not yet possible. Maybe i’m missing something.
I think I made some progress using osmand.net links, which is what is copied to my clipboard when I try to share a location from OsmAnd then select Copy. Ill edit my OP with what I found
Unfortunately that is only a link to osmand. Magic earth also creates a link to magic earth. A universal link would be much better. There are no firefox and chrome links either.
I got around this on my device by adding osmand.net as supported links for OsmAnd to open. That way I guess if the app is installed it will open in the app, otherwise open it in the browser. Yes, its a manual step but for now I think its best. Im almost done with my tool also, keep an eye out for when I make a new post with the link ;)
It would be awesome if I could create a link (in osmand) and a comaps user could use that.
You’re writing a tool?
Cool, I didn’t realize that!
Yea that would be awesome! Let me get this version up and running, get some feedback for it, particularly from the visually impaired community (I did my best to make it screen-reader compatible but as I’m not visually impaired myself I’m not sure if the tools I set up for testing are the standards, or if what I have currently is even useful to visually impaired people) and then I can for sure work on expanding it!
Unfortunately osm2gmaps doesnt correctly convert gmaps links to osm links, at least for me. It simply makes a link with the coordinates being 0, 0. As for Geoshare Im not aware of it
