bit of a rewrite
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Revision as of 12:42, 11 October 2012
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If you search the wiki sandbox (a page where you can play around with wiki editing), go to [[Sandbox]].
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''If you're looking for a wiki sandbox (a page where you can play around with wiki editing), go to [[Sandbox]]''
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You can use the [[development]] server for testing clients (with no need for a dev account) or trying out complex things before doing them on the OSM database.
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If you're looking for a place to test and play around with making OpenStreetMap edits, you can use the [[development]] server for this purpose. Here you can try out complex things before doing them on the OSM database. If you are developing editing clients and automated edit scripts this is very useful (and in fact ''required'' or at least strongly recommended. See [[Automated Edits code of conduct]]).
The dev.openstreetmap.org server hosts several versions of the OSM APIs for use by anyone for testing clients against or as a data sandbox. The API versions are detailed here:
The dev.openstreetmap.org server hosts several versions of the OSM APIs for use by anyone for testing clients against or as a data sandbox. The API versions are detailed here:
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http://apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/
http://apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/
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Most of the time, for testing clients or as a sandbox, http://master.apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/ (commonly known by it's alias, http://api06.dev.openstreetmap.org) is the one you want, as that is the same code as the live site. The others are various development branches where new code is being tested.
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Most of the time, for testing clients or as a sandbox, http://master.apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/ (commonly known by it's alias, http://api06.dev.openstreetmap.org) is the one you want, as that is (usually) the same code as the live site. The others are various development branches where new code is being tested.
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Other instances are running as well as a virtual host for each user of the server, of the form of: http://username.dev.openstreetmap.org/
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You need to 'sign up' to these sites as if you were a fresh new OpenStreetMap user. Once you have done so, you should configure your client with the correct URL address. For example, in JOSM, you do it in the following menu: Edit > Preferences > Connection settings. Uncheck "Use the default OSM server" then, for example, as the "OSM Server URL", write: "http://api06.dev.openstreetmap.org/api" and add your authentication details.
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What people run on their virtualhost is entirely up to them, and some of them may choose to run an API for some reason.
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These sandboxes are installed as instances of [[The Rails Port]] OpenStreetMap rails app which also includes a copy of the openstreetmap.org website and things like user profiles and diary entries, but the database may be empty or populated with only some test data, and non of them are currently hooked into a rendering stack, so you wont see your data change on a map.
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To upload data while being connected to one of those virtualhosts, you need to create an account (even if you have one on www.openstreetmap.org). Once you have done so, you should configure your client with the correct URL address. For example, in JOSM, you do it in the following menu: Edit > Preferences > Connection settings. Uncheck "Use the default OSM server" then, for example, as the "OSM Server URL", write: "http://api06.dev.openstreetmap.org/api" and add your authentication details.
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Other instances can be found running elsewhere, sometimes as a sandbox for playing around, sometimes as mapping database with a particular purpose separate from OSM. You can set this up on your own server too. Developers can also get account on the OSM development server for this kind of experiment.