Controlling Vespucci from other apps#

by Simon Poole

Android supports a powerful mechanism for starting and controlling other apps that goes by the name of "Intents". Every app needs to register which Intents it can support and the Android operating system will route requests to handle a specific Intent to appropriate app(s). If there is more than one app available you will see the familiar app chooser.

Supported intents#

Load a preset

vespucci:/preset?preseturl=url&presetname=name

url: URL of a JOSM format preset file or zip archive (including icons)

name: optional name of the preset

Load a preset from a website and store it in internal storage, the preset can replace or be used together with the default and other presets.

Zoom to a bounding box

http://127.0.0.1:8111/zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top

https://127.0.0.1:8112/zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top

josm:/zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top

left,bottom,right,top: bounding box definition in WGS84 coordinates

JOSM style remote control, zoom to the specified bounding box.

Load data and optionally select objects

http://127.0.0.1:8111/load_and_zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top&select=osmobjects

https://127.0.0.1:8112/load_and_zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top&select=osmobjects

josm:/load_and_zoom?left=left&bottom=bottom&right=right&top=top&select=osmobjects

left,bottom,right,top: bounding box definition in WGS84 coordinates

osmobjects: optional, comma separated list of OSM objects in the form objectID, ie node1111111,way1234456.

Further supported attributes:

changeset_comment: a draft changeset comment. (added in version 13.1) changeset_source: a draft changeset source. (added in version 13.1)

Load objects

josm:/load_and_object?objects=osmobjects

osmobjects: optional, comma separated list of OSM objects in the form abbreviationID, ie n1111111,w1234456.

Downloads the objects if they are not already present. (added in version 20.0)

Configure imagery (added in version 13.1)

josm:/imagery?title=title&type=type&min_zoom=min_zoom&max_zoom=max_zoom&url=url

title the title/name of the layer type tms or wms min_zoom minimum zoom level max_zoom maximum zoom level url url with place holders (note for WMS servers the proj value in the URL should not be replaced by a place holder)

Configure and activate an imagery layer.

geo URLs

geo:lat,lon?z=zoom_level

lat,lon: WGS84 coordinates zoom_level: zoom level, not supported

Partial implementation of geo URLs, only WGS84 coordinates are supported, an area of the size of the current auto-download area is downloaded around the specified location.

Notes on JOSM style remote control#

Directly using the local host IP address with a port will not work on modern Android variants. Your application needs to generate URLS like the following for use in a web page/app:

intent:/load_and_zoomleft=8.3844600&right=8.3879800&top=47.3911300&bottom=47.3892400&changeset_comment=thisisatest&select=node101792984#Intent;scheme=josm;end;

for the load_and_zoom command, and 

intent:/imagery?title=osmtest&type=tms&min_zoom=2&max_zoom=19&url=https://a.tile.openstreetmap.org/%7Bzoom%7D/%7Bx%7D/%7By%7D.png#Intent;scheme=josm;end;

for the imagery command.

From version 20 on Vespucci supports opening links to the OpenStreetMap website referring to individual OSM elements (hosts openstreetmap.org, www.openstreetmap.org, osm.org, www.osm.org).

Supported paths are /node/nnn, /way/nnn, /relation/nnn_ and /note/nnn (trailing map hashes will be ignored).

Examples: 

https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1

https://www.openstreetmap.org/note/100

Notes - This will not work with links on openstreetmap.org itself, but will with other sites. - Depending on the browser you are using you may need to explicitly allow opening links in apps. - On modern Android versions you may have to explicitly allow this to work in the app configuration.