The preset syntax has changed and the copy from XML files needs to be joined with normal description. Also the example should be changed because it uses key-value pairs which are uncommon in OSM and highways are usually NOT oneway.

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

Either:

• Click on main menu Presets and click on "Preset Preferences".
• Open the preferences window, click map settings and select third tab Tagging Presets.

Develop a new preset

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

See the defaultpresets.xml for an example covering most of the possibilities listed below.

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

To add the preset to the list of available presets see Presets#Createnewpresets.

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>

XML Format description (outdated!)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 of the preset
• version - the version number of the file. For automatical version adjustment of presets managed in this wiki you can use two internal variables: [[revision]] (the latest version number of the wiki page) and [[date]] (the date of the last edit).
• description (i18n) - description what the file contains
• shortdescription (i18n) - very short overview description i.e. the "name" of the preset
• link (i18n) - web link to further details (optional)
• icon - informational icon for the whole preset. (This is nedded to display the icon in the table at Presets.)

(i18n) means the values may also be localized (e.g. de.link).

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 and preset_name_label are recommended, icon and name_template are optional attributes.

<separator/>

Insert a line separator into the menu.

Preset window layout

<label>

Labels are static texts for display. text is a required attribute, icon and icon_size are optional.

<space />

Add some space (ie a newline).

<optional>

Used to group some optional elements of an item. The text attribute is optional. If used without text then this is equivalent to <space /><label text="Optional Attributes:"/><space />

<item_separator />

Add a horizontal separator line between items.

<link>

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

<checkgroup>

To group checks. The columns attribute is required.

<roles>

This is required around <role> and adds the heading ("Availible roles role count elements") to the table which is generated by several <role>.

<role>

To specify possible roles of members in relations. The key attribute is required, text, requisite, count, type and member_expression are optional.

<preset_link>

Adds a link to an other preset. The preset_name attribute is required.

Set a fixed 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.

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 (or set as unset). The key attribute is mandatory. text, default, match, required, value_on , value_off and disable_off are 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. Also used in the <role> tag to specify which object types are allowed for a specific relation member.

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.

icon_size="a number"

The maximal size of an icon in px. If no value is given, default is 16 for <label>.

key="some_key"

This specifies the property key that will be modified by the item. In case of <role> it is the role name used in a relation.

text="Any text"

The description, that will be displayed before (after in case of <check>) the gui element. Also used for <label> and <optional>.

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). In case of <check> whether the checkbox is ticked on or off by default (default is "off").

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 of a checked <check> (default is "yes").

value_off="foobar"

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

disable_off="true"

Whether the off value of a <check> is disabled in the dialog, i.e., only unset or yes are provided.

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

columns="a number"

the number of columns of grouped checks

requisite="optional|required"

If a relation member is optional or required. Default is "optional".

count="a number"

How often can a role occur (if not given unlimited number is assumed)

member_expression="an expression"

an expression (cf. search dialog) for objects of this role

preset_name="exact_name"

The exact name of the preset to link to.

preset_name_label="false|true"

Whether to insert "[preset name]" label in dialog (defaults to "false" for backward-compatibility on external presets.

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

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

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)

Translation

To support translations, all textual elements ("name", "text", "display_values") may also be localized. (E.g. "de.name" would represent the name in case German language support is loaded.)

In JOSM internally (internal preset) 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. 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. The translation for the internal preset is done at ​Launchpad (and will probably change to Transifex in the future).

Icon handling

See Styles.

See also

• Presets
• Presets menu
• Tagging presets preferences