OpenStreetMap Vector Basemap Status?

[NathanMellor]

I'm wondering what the status is for the OpenStreetMap vector basemap. Should I use it yet?

The announcement from July:

Over the next couple months, we’ll update the vector basemap regularly with the latest OSM data. We’ll also continue to refine our use of the OSM cartography to improve the map display and performance. Lastly, we’ll make some updates to our apps to take full advantage of the new OSM vector basemap, such as enabling proper display of attribution and style customization. Once we wrap up this beta release (planned for the September update to ArcGIS Online), we’ll integrate the new OSM map into our gallery of vector basemaps so it’s accessible to all ArcGIS apps that use them.

So far I see,

You did update the vector basemap regularly with the latest OSM data. I see it is now v2.

You did refine the use of OSM cartography - you even added footpaths - I care about that.

You did update some of the apps - the Vector Style Editor now can do more things.

I can't tell if you enabled "proper display of attribution and style customization"

The Vector Style editor works off of layer names, like the output of ArcGIS PRO. You can change style of any of the layers that Esri chose, but without knowing attributes (probably stripped out), you can't do the rules based styling that is traditional in the vector style spec. If ESRI changes the layer names, the styles will be broken.

I don't know if rules based styling, with published attributes, is in the plan. Its not mandatory for me. But if it is, I imagine it would make any styles I create obsolete. If you change the schema - ie names of layers and sublayers, it would do that anyway.

I do not know if you wrapped up the beta release (planned for the September update to ArcGIS Online). In other words, is there a OpenStreetMap_v3 planned?

Is it too early to start creating styles based on OpenStreetMap_v3?

is it too early to start creating preplanned workflow chunks?

[Andy-Green · Accepted solution]

@Nathan Mellor

Thank you for your comment/questions about the OSM Vector Basemap.  It is still in Beta as we finalize our workflow.  We have updated the map 4 times since it's release in July and we are in the middle of a 5th update.  These releases publish updated data in the map as well as updated map features and symbols.  We are working to improve the Style Editor (also still in Beta).  The editor app allows making changes on individual layers. The team is working on allowing the OSM map to be styled by the Quick Editor as well, similar to the Esri Vector Basemaps.  This will require consistency in layer names and coordination to update the app if there are changes.  Our goal is to come out of Beta keeping the OpenStreetMap_v2 service/source URL as seen in the current JSON --  as opposed to publishing as v3.  Keep an eye on the blog site for details as we approach production release of the OpenStreetMap vector basemap.

[BradenE]

I'm also interested to know what the status of this is.

And is there anywhere to report issues? On a quick glance, I noticed a small suburb of St. Louis called Manchester shows up well before St. Louis itself. There are similar issues with San Francisco, Montreal, Vancouver, and probably more.

Also, country names tend to show over islands and not the mainland.

[Andy-Green]

Hi Braden E, thanks for the questions and comments.  GeoNet is a great place to report issues at this point while we're still in Beta.  As feedback comes in we'll need to review where the responsibility is to fix it.  It could be data-driven (we are just pulling OSM data, no modifications) so any changes would need to be applied directly to the OSM map.  Or it could be from the tile cooking or the styling.  So having it on GeoNet would allow us to review and report back on the changes requested.

We have a new edition of vector OSM tiles being tested for release shortly.  We can see that many of the labels you reported are fixed in this latest version of the tiles.  St. Louis appears at the smaller scale as expected, Manchester at larger scales, along with other smaller towns.

Country names are also showing improvement in placement over mainland areas of the Admin0 area.  These labels will appear in their new location with the release of the updated vector tile set soon.

[BradenE]

Sounds good! Thanks for the update!

[NathanMellor]

Hello,

Wanted to check back.

Is OpenStreetMap_v2 still intended to be the one?

If I wanted to change the style, say, to cause it to label peaks with feet instead of meters in the United States, could that be done with styling?

[Andy-Green]

Hi Nathan Mellor‌, Thanks for your questions.

While in and when we exit beta for our OpenStreetMap vector map tiles, the service URL is planned to be OpenStreetMap_v2.

We're currently using the "ele" field to label the elevation in meters and we're not doing any modifications to the data.  The OSM Wiki is reporting there's likely no good solution without using a separate tag... (see Key:ele - OpenStreetMap Wiki Local Units section).   If there are changes that creates this separate tag, we may add the modification.

[Andy-Green]

Braden E‌ & Nathan Mellor‌

Just following up on this thread.  The OpenStreetMap tile layer was updated late last week (and we are 'cooking' another set of tiles for an upcoming update).  You'll see improvements to the placement of the Admin0 names from previous labels over islands to now over the 'expected' part of the country (see United States, Portugal, Mexico, etc.).  Other improvements on city labeling priorities (St. Louis notably) as well as continued changes to reflect the specs of OSM.  Our items are still flagged Beta, but we inch closer to becoming our production OpenStreetMap tile layer and web map offering.  We'll announce the end of Beta likely through a blog on the ArcGIS site as well as a GeoNet blog.

[NathanMellor]

Is this vector OSM with "Flat Tile Set" something I should be concerned about?

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a637ea6d019d44b4bd33ca1925d635a5 

Does it have advantages or disadvantages vs the "regular" tile set?

[Andy-Green]

Nathan Mellor‌,

The Flat Tile Set (FTS) OSM map from Esri is in beta release.  The "regular" tile set is an indexed version of the tiles, creating additional tiles as needed based on density of the content.  The FTS has a set number of tiles on each scale level (multiple of 4 at each larger scale).  So the FTS has many, many more tiles.

The indexed is designed for use on the Esri ArcGIS platform (Online, Pro, etc.). The FTS can be used outside the Esri platform as well as within our platform. 

As the OSM vector basemap story matures at Esri, we'll be providing more information about all of our offerings.

Thanks for the question.