The Next Level of OSM Editing—Using Mapillary with iD Editor and JOSM
Editing OpenStreetMap can be taken to the next level by using the rich information in Mapillary street photos. Our video guides show you how to do that with iD Editor and JOSM.
Thanks to the tinkering nature of the OpenStreetMap community in collaboration with the teams of Mapillary and Mapbox, we now have two incredibly useful tools to edit OpenStreetMap - the iD Editor and the Mapillary JOSM plugin. Each of the tools gives you access to street photos and detections within them so that you can edit with a level of detail not possible using satellite imagery alone.
With the help of Mapillary Ambassador Nuno Caldeira, we have created videos to walk you through using Mapillary in both iD editor and JOSM. Also, don't miss our written guide on how to photo map with Mapillary to edit OpenStreetMap.
iD editor
Based on the number of users, iD is the most popular OpenStreetMap editor. Easy to access, easy to use and graphically appealing, it’s a suitable option for new contributors or for that quick edit.
Accessing Mapillary from within the iD editor is as simple as clicking the ‘Map Data’ option within edit mode and enabling ‘Photo Overlay (Mapillary)’. You can also enable the accompanying ‘Traffic Sign Overlay (Mapillary)’ that shows any traffic signs that have been detected within the images.
Mapillary JOSM plugin
JOSM reigns supreme as far as the number of edits are concerned. Although JOSM has a steeper learning curve, it’s the workhorse of power users, with many useful plugins that make for a more efficient workflow. Our favourite of these is of course the Mapillary plugin, developed by Jorge López Fueyo.
To access Mapillary photos in JOSM, you first need to download and enable the plugin. You can do this by going to ‘Preferences’, selecting ‘Configure available plugins’ and searching for the Mapillary plugin after downloading the latest list. Find the Mapillary plugin, check the box and press OK. Restart JOSM to ensure the installation is complete.
With the Mapillary plugin installed, you can access street photos at any time for an area by selecting ‘Imagery’ in the toolbar and clicking on Mapillary.
Do your own photo mapping!
If you wish to edit an area in OpenStreetMap but cannot find any photos of it, create a Mapillary account and get started with your own photo mapping. If you need any help, you can always reach us at support@mapillary.zendesk.com.
/Ed and the Mapillary team