The preset syntax has changed and the copy from XML files needs to be joined with normal description

Tagging Presets

JOSM supports distributed tagging presets. This is a XML config file that describes a GUI for entering tags (or properties, annotations, sometimes called map features). The XML files can be placed anywhere in the web or at the users local file system. Presets can be added by the users at a central page Presets.

Installing presets

Open the preferences window, click map settings and select third tab Tagging Presets.

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Develop a new preset – Example

<presets xmlns="http://josm.openstreetmap.de/tagging-preset-1.0">
  <item name="Highway">
    <label text="Inserting a highway in UK" />

    <text key="name" text="Highway (e.g. M3)" />
    <combo key="highway" text="Type" values="major,minor" />

    <!-- Highways are usually oneway -->
    <check key="oneway" text="Oneway" default="on" />

    <!-- Always setting class=highway -->
    <key key="class" value="highway" />
  </item>
</presets>

Develop a new preset – Add to the list of available presets

See Presets.

Develop a new preset – XML Format description

The tagging preset description is in a very simple XML format.

See the defaultpresets.xml for an example covering all possibilities.

The full XSD schema is available at the namespace URI (​http://josm.openstreetmap.de/tagging-preset-1.0) as well as the source repository.

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Develop a new preset – XML Format description (outdated!)

Tags

The document prolog

<presets>

Has to be the main tag of the file. Supports following attributes

• xmlns="​http://josm.openstreetmap.de/tagging-preset-1.0"
• author - the name of the author
• version - a version of the file
• description (i18n) - description what the file contains
• shortdescription (i18n) - short overview description
• link (i18n) - web link to further details
• icon - informational icon for the preset

Comments

<!-- this is an example comment -->

The document can contain embedded comments.

Menu creation

<group>

Used to group items in sub menus. name is required, icon is optional attribute.

<item>

Every item is one annotation set to select from. name is required, type is recommended, icon is optional attribute.

<separator/>

Insert a line separator into the menu.

Create instructions for the user

<label>

Labels are static texts for display. text is a required attribute.

<optional>

Used to group some optional elements of an item. Possibly equivalent to <label text="Optional Attributes:"/>

<space />

Add some space (ie a newline) in the preset display.

item_separator

Add a horizontal separator line between items (in preset window).

<link>

Specify a web link for this feature or to anything else of use. The href attribute is required.

Attribute entry and selection dialog boxes

<text>

A text edit field to enter any arbitrary string from the user. key is mandatory, text, default, match and required is optional

<combo>

Displays a multiple choice combo box. key and values are mandatory and text, default, editable, match and required is optional. If editable is true (default), combo boxes can be edited as if they were text fields (additional to the drop down menu). Non editable combo boxes can only contain one of the specified values.

<multiselect>

Displays a list from which zero or more items can be chosen. key and values are mandatory, and text, default, delimiter, match and required are optional. The selected values will be concatenated with the specified delimiter (default: semicolon) and written to the tag value. If a tag value has already been set when the preset dialog is opened, the multiselect will attempt to mark the appropriate items in the list as select. If the tag value cannot be represented by a combination of choices in the list, then the list will be disabled so that the user cannot accidentally overwrite a custom value. In contrast to the "combo" element, the "multiselect" expects the list of values, descriptions etc. to use the specified delimiter, i.e. by default you will have to use a semicolon. You can specify delimiter="," but then a comma will also be used in the tag value.

<check>

A checkbox which the user can only select or deselect. The key attribute is mandatory. text, default, match and required is optional.

Set a key value pair

<key>

This tag will always set a key to a specific value. key is required and if value is present, the key will be set. If value attribute is ommited, the key is removed. The match attribute is optional.

Templates

<chunk>

To define a template of elements for later (repeated) use. The id attribute is mandatory.

<reference>

To include an earlier defined template. The ref attribute is mandatory.

Attributes

The attributes of the tags have the following meaning:

name="a_name"

Specify a name for an item. This name will be used in the GUI to display the tagging preset.

name_context="context"

Translation context for name attribute to separate equals words with different meaning (not required for in-file translations).

type="data_type"

When specified, only objects of the given type will be changed at all by this tagging preset. Can be "node", "relation", "way", "closedway" or any comma separated combination of them.

icon="iconname"

A name or link to an icon. The image will be used as icon to display in the selection list and when adding the preset to the toolbar. The icon should be quadratic in size. See Styles#Iconhandling how icons can be specified.

key="some_key"

This specifies the property key that will be modified by the item.

text="Any text"

The description, that will be displayed before (after in case of <check>) the gui element.

text_context="context"

Translation context for text attribute to separate equals words with different meaning (not required for in-file translations).

default="default_value"

The default value for the item. If not specified, the current value of the key is chosen as default (if applicable).

values="entry1,entry2,entry3"

A list of entries (for the combo box and multiselect). The list has to be separated by commas (for the combo box) or by the specified delimiter (for the multiselect). If a value contains the delimiter, the delimiter may be escaped with a backslash. If a value contains a backslash, it must also be escaped with a backslash.

values_context="context"

Translation context for name attribute to separate equals words with different meaning (not required for in-file translations).

display_values="Entry1,Entry2,Entry3"

A list of entries that is displayed to the user. Must be the same number of entries as values and editable must be false or not specified. For the delimiter character and escaping, see the remarks at values.

value="foobar"

Specify a value to be entered in the <key> tag.

value_on="foobar"

Specify the true value to be entered in the <key> tag (default is "yes").

value_off="foobar"

Specify the false value to be entered in the <key> tag (default is "no").

editable="false"

The combo box is readonly, which means that the user can only select an item in the list.

use_last_as_default="true"

For combo boxes or text fields the last value is used as default. Using "force" enforces this behaviour also for already tagged objects.

rows="count"

Specify the number of rows in multiselect entry.

name_template="template", name_template_filter="search expression"

Custom name formatter for osm primitives matching this preset. See NameTemplate for details.

match="none|key|key!|keyvalue|keyvalue!"

Allows to change the matching process, i.e., determining whether the tags of an OSM object fit into this preset. If a preset fits then it is linked in the Tags/Membership dialog.

• none: neutral, i.e., do not consider this item for matching
• key: positive if key matches, neutral otherwise
• key!: positive if key matches, negative otherwise
• keyvalue: positive if key and value matches, neutral otherwise
• keyvalue!: positive if key and value matches, negative otherwise

Note that for a match, at least one positive and no negative is required. Default is "keyvalue!" for <key> and "none" for <text>, <combo>, <multiselect> and <check>.

id="unique_identifier"

the unique identifier for this chunk

ref="unique_identifier"

the unique identifier of the (already defined) template to include

To support translations, all textual elements may be used in translated form. E.g. "de.name" would represent the name in case German language support is loaded.

Format description from XML document (needs to be joined with above texts)

(delete here the parts which you have joined with above texts)

item:
  name: the text to display
  icon: the icon to display
  - relative to the icon path
  - URL's are also supported to allow remote icons (are cached locally)
  type: the data types - way,node,relation,closedway (separated by comma)
  name_template: define custom formatting for OSM primitives
                 see [[NameTemplate]]
  preset_name_label: whether to insert "[preset name]" label in dialog
                     (defaults to "false" for backward-compatibility on external presets)

preset_link: a link to an other preset
  preset_name: the exact name of the preset to link to

label: simple static text label
  text: the text to display
  icon: location of icon to display (optional)
  icon_size: maximal size of icon (optional). If no value is given, default is 16px

optional: optional tags, short for "space" plus "label" plus "space"
  text: the text to display (defaults to "Optional Attributes:")

key: fixed key/value pair to be set
  key: key to set
  value: value to set

text: text box
  key: key to set
  text: fixed label to display
  default: default string to display (defaults to "")
  use_last_as_default: true/false/force (default is "false")
  auto_increment: may contain a comma separated list of integer increments or
                  decrements, e.g. "-2,-1,+1,+2"; a button will be shown next
                  to the text field for each value, allowing the user to select
                  auto-increment with the given stepping. auto-increment only
                  happens if the user selects it. default is no auto-increment;
                  mutually exclusive with use_last_as_default.
  length: length of input box (number of characters allowed)
  alternative_autocomplete_keys: comma separated list of alternative keys to use for autocompletion

combo: combo box, with multiple choices and possible to enter free form text
  key: key to set
  text: fixed label to display
  delimiter: character that separates values (default: comma)
  values: separated list of values
  values_from: to use instead of "values" if the list of values has to be obtained with a Java method
               of this form: public static String[] getValues();
               The value must be: "full.package.name.ClassName#methodName"
  display_values: comma separated list of values to be displayed instead of the
                  database values, order and number must be equal to values
  short_descriptions: comma separated list of texts to be displayed below each
                      display_value. (Only if it is not possible to describe
                      the entry in 2-3 words.) Instead of comma separated list
  instead using values, display_values and short_descriptions, the following form is also supported:
    <list_entry value="" display_value="" short_description="" icon="" icon_size="" />
        icon: location of icon
        icon_size: maximal size of icon. If tag is not setup it is taken default size of icon file
  default: default string to display (defaults to "")
  use_last_as_default: true/false/force (default is "false")
  editable: allow to add other values as text (default is "true")
  values_searchable: true/false (whether to search in combo (display_)values when searching for presets)
  length: length of input box (number of characters allowed)

multiselect: list of values from which zero or more can be selected
  key: key to set
  text: fixed label to display
  delimiter: character that separates values (default: semicolon) - this
             will also be used to separate selected values in the tag.
  values: delimiter-separated list of values (delimiter can be escaped with backslash)
  values_from: to use instead of "values" if the list of values has to be obtained with a Java method
               of this form: public static String[] getValues();
               The value must be: "full.package.name.ClassName#methodName"
  rows: specify the number of rows to display (default -1)
  display_values: delimiter-separated list of values to be displayed instead of the
                  database values, order and number must be equal to values
  short_descriptions: delimiter-separated list of texts to be displayed below each
                      display_value. (Only if it is not possible to describe
                      the entry in 2-3 words.) Instead of a separated list
  instead using values, display_values and short_descriptions, the following form is also supported:
    <list_entry value="" display_value="' short_description="" icon="" icon_size="" />
        icon: location of icon
        icon_size: maximal size of icon. If tag is not setup it is taken default size of icon file
  default: default string to display (defaults to "")
  use_last_as_default: true/false/force (default is "false")
  values_searchable: true/false (whether to search in multiselect (display_)values when searching for presets)

checkgroup: group of checks
  columns: number of columns

check: checkbox
  key: key to set
  text: fixed label to display
  default: ticked on/off (default is "off")
  value_on: the value to set when checked (default is "yes")
  value_off: the value to set when unchecked (default is "no")
  disable_off: whether the off value is disabled in the dialog, i.e., only unset or yes are provided

role: type to specify possible roles in relations
  key: the role name used in relation
  text: fixed label to display
  requisite: optional/required (default is "optional")
  count: how often can the role occur (if not given unlimited number is assumed)
  type: the data types - way,node,relation,closedway (separated by comma)
  member_expression: an expression (cf. search dialog) for objects of this role

 presets: For external files <presets> should have following attributes:
   author: the author of the preset
   version: a version number of some sort (e.g. creation date)
   description: what is your preset meant to be
   shortdescription: very short description
   link: a link to a helpful website (optional)
   icon: an icon for the whole presets
 The fields description, shortdescription and link may also be localized (e.g. de.link)

The fields "name", "text", "display_values" may also be localized (e.g. de.name).
When translations of equal words but different meanings may conflict, a translation
context should be specified. Use "name_context", "text_context" or "values_context"
for this. The context should be a meaningful short description to help translators.

In JOSM internally all "name", "text" and "display_values" are translated when
no specific translation has been given in XML file. When no "display_values"
are supplied, then "values" will be treated as "display_values" and translated instead.

Icon handling

See Styles.

See also

• Presets
• Tagging presets preferences