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iD Architecture

iD is written in a modular code style using ES6 modules. The modules are bundled with rollup.js. iD eventually aims to be a reusable, modular library to kickstart other JavaScript-based tools for OpenStreetMap.

d3

d3 is the primary library used by iD. It is used for rendering the map data as well as many sorts of general DOM manipulation tasks for which jQuery would often be used.

Notable features of d3 that are used by iD include d3.request, which is used to make the API requests to download data from openstreetmap.org and save changes; d3.dispatch, which provides a callback-based Observer pattern between different parts of iD; d3.geoPath, which generates SVG paths for lines and areas; and d3.zoom, which implements map panning and zooming.

Core Module

The iD core module implements the basic datastructures needed to support browser-based editing:

  • iD.coreContext - container for all iD "global" objects and bootstrap code
  • iD.coreGraph - graph of objects and their relationships to one another
  • iD.coreHistory - undo/redo history for changes made during editing
  • iD.coreDifference - efficiently determine the difference between two graphs
  • iD.coreTree - performs fast spatial indexing of the loaded objects

OSM Module

The iD osm module includes classes which represent the basic OpenStreetMap objects: nodes, ways, and relations.

  • iD.osmNode - a node is a point type, having a single geographic coordinate
  • iD.osmWay - a way is an ordered list of nodes
  • iD.osmRelation - a relation groups together nodes, ways, and other relations to provide free-form higher-level structures.

Each of these three types has tags: an associative array of key-value pairs which describe the object.

  • iD.osmEntity - common base class for iD.osmNode, iD.osmWay, iD.osmRelation

These three classes inherit from a common base, iD.osmEntity. This is the only use of classical inheritance in iD, but it's justified by the common functionality of the types. Generically, we refer to a node, way or relation as an entity.

Every entity has a unique numeric id. By convention, positive numbers are assigned by the OSM database for saved features, and negative numbers are assigned by the iD editor for local newly-created objects.

id values from the OSM database as treated as opaque strings; no assumptions are made of them other than that they can be compared for identity and do not begin with a minus sign (and thus will not conflict with local id values). The three types of entities have separate id spaces: a node can have the same numeric id as a way or a relation. Instead of segregating ways, nodes, and other entities into different datastructures, iD internally uses fully-unique id values generated by prefixing each OSM ID with the first letter of the entity type. For example, a way with OSM id 123456 is represented as w123456 within iD.

iD entities are immutable: once constructed, an Entity object cannot change. Tags cannot be updated; nodes cannot be added or removed from ways, and so on. Immutability makes it easier to reason about the behavior of an entity: if your code has a reference to one, it is safe to store it and use it later, knowing that it cannot have been changed outside of your control. It also makes it possible to implement the entity graph (described below) as an efficient persistent data structure.

Since iD is an editor, it must allow for new versions of entities. The solution is that all edits produce new copies of anything that changes. At the entity level, this takes the form of methods such as iD.osmNode#move, which returns a new node object that has the same id and tags as the original, but a different loc coordinate. More generically, iD.osmEntity#update returns a new entity of the same type and id as the original but with specified properties such as nodes, tags, or members replaced.

Entities are related to one another: ways have many nodes and relations have many members.

The osm module also includes code related to special kinds of objects in OpenStreetMap.

  • iD.osmIntersection - code for working with turn restrictions
  • iD.osmLanes - code for working with traffic and turn lanes
  • iD.osmMultipolygon - code for working with multipolygon relations

Editing OSM

To render a map of a certain area, iD needs a datastructure to hold all the entities in that area and traverse these relationships. iD.coreGraph provides this functionality. The core of a graph is a map between ids and the associated entities; given an id, the graph can give you the entity. Like entities, a graph is immutable: adding, replacing, or removing an entity produces a new graph, and the original is unchanged. Because entities are immutable, the original and new graphs can minimize memory use by sharing references to entities that have not changed instead of copying the entire graph. This persistent data structure approach is similar to the internals of the git revision control system.

The final major component of the core is iD.coreHistory, which tracks the changes made in an editing session and provides undo/redo capabilities. Here, the immutable nature of the core types really pays off: the history is a simple stack of graphs, each representing the state of the data at a particular point in editing. The graph at the top of the stack is the current state, off which all rendering is based. To undo the last change, this graph is popped off the stack, and the map is re-rendered based on the new top of the stack.

This approach constitutes one of the main differences between iD's approach to data and that of JOSM and Potlatch 2. Instead of changing a single copy of local data and having to implement an 'undo' for each specific action, actions in iD do not need to be aware of history and the undo system.

Finally, we have the auxiliary classes iD.coreDifference and iD.coreTree.

iD.coreDifference encapsulates the difference between two graphs, and knows how to calculate the set of entities that were created, modified, or deleted, and need to be redrawn.

var a = iD.coreGraph(), b = iD.coreGraph();
// (fill a & b with data)
var difference = iD.coreDifference(a, b);

// returns entities created between a and b
difference.created();

iD.coreTree calculates the set of downloaded entities that are visible in the current map view. To calculate this quickly during map interaction, it uses an R-tree.

var graph = iD.coreGraph();
// (load OSM data into graph)

// this tree indexes the contents of the graph
var tree = iD.coreTree(graph);

// quickly pull all features that intersect with an extent
var features = tree.intersects(
    iD.geoExtent([0, 0], [2, 2]), tree.graph());

Actions Module

In iD, an action is a function that accepts a graph as input and returns a new, modified graph as output. Actions typically need other inputs as well; for example, iD.actionDeleteNode also requires the id of a node to delete. The additional input is passed to the action's constructor:

// construct the action: this returns a function that remembers the
// value `n123456` in a closure so that when it's called, it runs
// the specified action on the graph
var action = iD.actionDeleteNode('n123456');

// apply the action, yielding a new graph. oldGraph is untouched.
newGraph = action(oldGraph);

iD provides actions for all the typical things an editor needs to do: add a new entity, split a way in two, connect the vertices of two ways together, and so on. In addition to performing the basic work needed to accomplish these things, an action typically contains a significant amount of logic for keeping the relationships between entities logical and consistent. For example, an action as apparently simple as DeleteNode, in addition to removing the node from the graph, needs to do two other things: remove the node from any ways in which it is a member (which in turn requires deleting parent ways that are left with just a single node), and removing it from any relations of which it is a member.

As you can imagine, implementing all these details requires an expert knowledge of the OpenStreetMap data model. It is our hope that JavaScript based tools for OpenStreetMap can reuse the iD's core implementation, significantly reducing the work necessary to create a robust tool.

Modes Module

With modes, we shift gears from abstract data types and algorithms to the parts of the architecture that implement the user interface for iD. Modes are manifested in the interface by the three buttons at the top left:

Mode buttons

The modality of existing OSM editors runs the gamut from Potlatch 2, which is almost entirely modeless, to JOSM, which sports half a dozen modes out of the box and has many more provided by plugins. iD seeks a middle ground: too few modes can leave new users unsure where to start, while too many can be overwhelming.

iD's user-facing modes consist of a base "Browse" mode, in which you can move around the map and select and edit entities, and three geometrically-oriented drawing modes, which are accessible through the mode buttons in the upper toolbar: Point, Line, and Area. In the code, these are broken down a little bit more. There are separate modes for when an entity is selected (iD.modeSelect) versus when nothing is selected (iD.modeBrowse), and each of the geometric modes is split into one mode for starting to draw an object and one mode for continuing an existing object (with the exception of iD.modeAddPoint, which is a single-step operation for obvious reasons).

The code interface for each mode consists of a pair of methods: enter and exit. In the enter method, a mode sets up all the behavior that should be present when that mode is active. This typically means binding callbacks to DOM events that will be triggered on map elements, installing keybindings, and showing certain parts of the interface like the inspector in Select mode. The exit mode does the opposite, removing the behavior installed by the enter method. Together the two methods ensure that modes are self-contained and exclusive: each mode knows exactly the behavior that is specific to that mode, and exactly one mode's behavior is active at any time.

Behavior Module

Certain behaviors are common to more than one mode. For example, iD indicates interactive map elements by drawing a halo around them when you hover over them, and this behavior is common to both the browse and draw modes. Instead of duplicating the code to implement this behavior in all these modes, we extract it to iD.behaviorHover.

Behaviors take their inspiration from d3's behaviors. Like d3's zoom and drag, each iD behavior is a function that takes as input a d3 selection (assumed to consist of a single element) and installs the DOM event bindings necessary to implement the behavior. The Hover behavior, for example, installs bindings for the mouseover and mouseout events that add and remove a hover class from map elements.

Because certain behaviors are appropriate to some but not all modes, we need the ability to remove a behavior when entering a mode where it is not appropriate. (This is functionality not yet provided by d3's own behaviors.) Each behavior implements an off function that "uninstalls" the behavior. This is very similar to the exit method of a mode, and in fact many modes do little else but uninstall behaviors in their exit methods.

Operations Module

Operations wrap actions, providing their user-interface: tooltips, key bindings, and the logic that determines whether an action can be validly performed given the current map state and selection. Each operation is constructed with the list of ids which are currently selected and a context object which provides access to the history and other important parts of iD's internal state. After being constructed, an operation can be queried as to whether or not it should be made available (i.e., show up in the context menu) and if so, if it should be enabled.

Operations menu

We make a distinction between availability and enabled state for the sake of learnability: most operations are available so long as an entity of the appropriate type is selected. Even if it remains disabled for other reasons (e.g. because you can't split a way on its start or end vertex), a new user can still learn that "this is something I can do to this type of thing", and a tooltip can provide an explanation of what that operation does and the conditions under which it is enabled.

To execute an operation, call it as a function, with no arguments. The typical operation will perform the appropriate action, creating a new undo state in the history, and then enter the appropriate mode. For example, iD.operationSplit performs iD.actionSplit, then enters iD.modeSelect with the resulting ways selected.

Renderer and SVG Modules

Finally, we get to the parts of iD that actually draw and manipulate the map entities on screen. The rendering is coordinated by iD.rendererMap, which takes care of setting up a Spherical Mercator projection and the zoom behavior, and provides accessors for such things as the current zoom level and map center.

For rendering entities on screen, we found it convenient to adopt a geometric vocabulary that provides a slightly higher-level representation than the basic entity types of the OSM data model:

  • A point is a node that is not a member of any way.
  • A vertex is a node that is a member of one or more ways.
  • A line is a way that is not an area.
  • An area is a way that is circular and has certain tags, or a series of one or more ways grouped in a multipolygon relation.

For each of these geometric types, iD.svg has a corresponding module: iD.svgPoints, iD.svgVertices, iD.svgLines, and iD.svgAreas. To render entities on screen, iD.rendererMap delegates to these modules. Internally, they make heavy use of d3 joins to manipulate the SVG elements that visually represent the map entities. When an entity is rendered for the first time, it is part of the enter selection, and the SVG elements needed to represent it are created. When an entity is modified, it is part of the update selection, and the appropriate attributes of the SVG element (for example, those that specify the location on screen) are updated. And when an entity is deleted (or simply moves offscreen), the corresponding SVG element is in the exit selection, and will be removed.

The iD.svg modules apply classes to the SVG elements based on the entity tags, via iD.svgTagClasses. For example, an entity tagged with highway=residential gets two classes: tag-highway and tag-highway-residential. This allows distinct visual styles to be applied via CSS at either the key or key-value levels. SVG elements also receive a class corresponding to their entity type (node, way, or relation) and one corresponding to their geometry type (point, line, or area).

The iD.svg module has a few other submodules that don't have a one-to-one correspondence with entities:

  • iD.svgMidpoints - draws the small "virtual node" at the midpoint between two vertices.
  • iD.svgLabels - draws textual labels
  • iD.svgLayers - sets up a number of layers that ensure that map elements appear in an appropriate z-order.
  • iD.svgOsm - sets up the OSM-specific data layers
  • iD.svgGpx - draws gpx traces
  • iD.svgDebug - draws debugging information

Other UI

iD provides a lot of user interface elements other than the core map component: the page footer, the interface for saving changes, the splash screen you see the first time you use iD, the map controls, and the tag/preset editor, for example.

The implementations for all non-map UI components live in the iD.ui module. Many of the submodules under the ui module follow a pattern for reusable d3 components originally suggested by Mike Bostock in the context of charts. The entry point to a UI element is a constructor function, e.g. iD.uiViewOnOSM(). The constructor function may require a set of mandatory arguments; for most UI components exactly one argument is required, a context.

The constructor function returns a draw function which accepts a d3 selection. Drawing is then accomplished with d3.selection#call:

    footer = footer.enter()
        .append('div')
        .attr('class', 'footer')
        .merge(footer);

    footer
        .call(uiViewOnOSM(context).entityID(entityID));

Some components are reconfigurable, and some provide functionality beyond basic rendering. Both reconfiguration and extended functionality are exposed via module functions:

var inspector = iD.uiInspector();
inspector(container); // render the inspector
inspector.tags(); // retrieve the current tags
inspector.on('change', callback); // get notified when a tag change is made