Overpass API developpement

[mmd <>]

Hi,

PBF is well known for its compactness and better efficiency. No wonder
it is also on the roadmap for the official API's map call (see [1].
That's reason enough to evaluate how PBF could also be integrated into
Overpass API.

Thanks to libosmium and Jochen's great support, I'm happy to present a
first (incomplete) prototype:

http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/jpK

Be sure to click on Export -> raw data directly from Overpass API to
avoid garbled output in overpass turbo.

When trying your own examples, be sure to always use `out meta;`, all
other modes are not implemented in this prototype.

I tested pbf output for areas of roughly 300km by 300km, yielding about
500MB in PBF file size. (in turbo use: Load -> Examples -> Map Call)

Along with PBF, libosmium also provides additional output formats like
OPL (a text based representation), which is useful for command line
tooling. We get this format basically for free:

http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/jpL

Note: This feature is available for testing on the following endpoint
only: http://dev.overpass-api.de/test753/


Best,
mmd


[1] http://www.asklater.com/matt/blog/2015/11/18/the-road-to-api-07/