GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 706044
Add a nominatim instance or proxy on gnome.org
Last modified: 2013-11-21 15:17:39 UTC
Geocode-glib (and therefore GeoClue and Maps) uses Nominatim[1] for geocoding[2]. OpenStreetMaps[3] and MapQuest[4] host the only two free and public Nominatim-instances that I know of. During the 3.9.x series we have used the Nominatim instance on OSM directly, but that probably needs to change in time for 3.10. === The usage policy for OSM's instance[5] states (among other) the following: "No heavy uses (an absolute maximum of 1 request/s)." "Note that the usage limits above apply per website/ application: the sum of traffic by all your users should not exceed the limits." "Apps must make sure that they can switch the service at our request at any time (in particular, switching should be possible without requiring a software update). If anyhow possible, set up a proxy and also enable caching of requests." === The Terms of Use for the MapQuest instance[6] basically states that we can use it freely if we: 1) give OSM credit 2) give MapQuest credit 3) mail them and let them know we'll start using their services 4) mail them if we expect jumps in usage 5) abide to the legal stuff stated in 9a here: http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/terms-of-use Regarding #2 here we'd actually need to show a MapQuest logo and say “Nominatim Search Courtesy of MapQuest” next to it for all applications that uses it. I'm not sure exactly how that'd work really since I think we want to use GeoClue in the control-center for example to help us autofill stuff and possibly in other places as well. Regarding #5 I have no idea. It's all gibberish to me. === As I see it this leaves us with three possible choices: - Install our own Nominatim instance The hardware requirements[7] are really high so this might be unfeasible. Might be necessary in the long run if we generate too much traffic for osm/mapquest. - Use MapQuest Nominatim directly or via a proxy Someone would have to come with some input here on whether MapQuests terms of use are reasonable for us. If we don't put up a proxy we would also get into trouble if MapQuest suddenly decided that our load is too high and blocked us since we'd have no way to redirect our requests to another server (since the url to MapQuest's nominatim would be hardcoded). - Set up a (caching) proxy to OSM Nominatim This is what I'd suggest right now. We would be pretty future proof while not having to install too much server software. We'd also not have to deal with the MapQuest Terms of Use-stuff (which might or might not be a deal-breaker, I have no idea). Me and Andrea had a discussion about this on #sysadmin earlier today and I told him I'd post here. Here's the log if anyone is interested: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=251641 -- 1: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocoding 3: http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ 4: http://open.mapquestapi.com/nominatim/v1/ 5: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim_usage_policy 6: http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/nominatim 7: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim/Installation#Hardware
(In reply to comment #0) > Geocode-glib (and therefore GeoClue and Maps) uses Nominatim[1] > for geocoding[2]. > OpenStreetMaps[3] and MapQuest[4] host the only two free and public > Nominatim-instances that I know of. During the 3.9.x series we have > used the Nominatim instance on OSM directly, but that probably needs > to change in time for 3.10. > > === > > The usage policy for OSM's instance[5] states (among other) the > following: > > "No heavy uses (an absolute maximum of 1 request/s)." > > "Note that the usage limits above apply per website/ application: > the sum of traffic by all your users should not exceed the limits." > > "Apps must make sure that they can switch the service at our request > at any time (in particular, switching should be possible without > requiring a software update). If anyhow possible, set up a proxy and > also enable caching of requests." > > === > > The Terms of Use for the MapQuest instance[6] basically states that > we can use it freely if we: > 1) give OSM credit > 2) give MapQuest credit > 3) mail them and let them know we'll start using their services > 4) mail them if we expect jumps in usage > 5) abide to the legal stuff stated in 9a here: > http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/terms-of-use > > Regarding #2 here we'd actually need to show a MapQuest logo and > say “Nominatim Search Courtesy of MapQuest” next to it for all > applications that uses it. I'm not sure exactly how that'd work > really since I think we want to use GeoClue in the control-center > for example to help us autofill stuff and possibly in other places > as well. s/GeoClue/geocode-glib/ and maybe we could ask them if its OK if some of our UIs can't give them very visible credits? We could give them credits in about dialog or something. I'll also talk to Jon about this.
(In reply to comment #1) > (In reply to comment #0) > > Regarding #2 here we'd actually need to show a MapQuest logo and > > say “Nominatim Search Courtesy of MapQuest” next to it for all > > applications that uses it. I'm not sure exactly how that'd work > > really since I think we want to use GeoClue in the control-center > > for example to help us autofill stuff and possibly in other places > > as well. > > s/GeoClue/geocode-glib/ and maybe we could ask them if its OK if some of our > UIs can't give them very visible credits? We could give them credits in about > dialog or something. I'll also talk to Jon about this. Thanks. We probably need designer input on this.
Added a mod_proxy rule for forwarding the requests sent to nominatim.gnome.org to nominatim.openstreetmaps.org. Also got in touch with the OSM admins about a possible way to avoid being banned for doing more than 1/reqs per IP. Also seems the OSM admins are going to whitelist our proxy's IP. In addition they'll be enforcing the 1/reqs on the User-Agent header binding it to the one provided by gnome-maps itself. In the case things will get worse and the traffic will be getting huge, they'll contact us for finding a possible solution but ideally the internal caching of the various apps (geocode-lib?) should also help with this.
The GNOME Infrastructure Team is currently migrating its bug / issue tracker away from Bugzilla to Request Tracker and therefore all the currently open bugs have been closed and marked as OBSOLETE. The following move will also act as a cleanup for very old and ancient tickets that were still living on Bugzilla. If your issue still hasn't been fixed as of today please report it again on the relevant RT queue. More details about the available queues you can report the bug against can be found at https://wiki.gnome.org/Sysadmin/RequestTracker. Thanks for your patience, the GNOME Infrastructure Team
How is this bug "old" or "ancient"? :)
"The GNOME Infrastructure Team is currently migrating its bug / issue tracker away from Bugzilla to Request Tracker and therefore all the currently open bugs have been closed and marked as OBSOLETE." We're not handling requests with Bugzilla anymore, I'm sending out an email soon with all the details.