ID (software)


iD is a free software online editor for OpenStreetMap geodata created in JavaScript and released in 2013. It is designed to be simple and user friendly and is used as a default editor on the main OSM page.

Usage

Measured by number of users, iD is the most popular OSM editor. As of 2020, an estimated 70% of all OSM editor users were using iD.
iD's features include choosing custom aerial imagery and native support for Mapillary photos.
Some specialized forks of iD:
Prior to iD, the primary web editor for OpenStreetMap data was the Flash-based Potlatch 2 editor.. The iD editor project was founded by the author of Potlatch 1 and 2, Richard Fairhurst, online on July 13, 2012 and at the State of the Map conference on October 14, 2012.
In September 2012, the Knight Foundation announced the winners of the Knight News Challenge: Data competition. The team from Development Seed/Mapbox was selected as a winner for their proposal to develop new contribution tools for OpenStreetMap, and awarded a grant of $575,000.

Name

The choice of iD as a name is related to popularity of getElementById in JavaScript, combination of iPad with Système D, and a tribute to the Citroen iD car model. It was also meant to be easier to spell than Potlatch.

Technical background

This editor was meant to be a Potlatch 2 architecture reimplementation in JavaScript with redesigned user interface. The big internal change was departure from XML tagging preset architecture to a JSON-based one.
While the initial versions were based on Dojo framework, iD now uses D3.js library for rendering and its primary mode of rendering is via SVG. Its core architecture is modular and designed to be easily used in other JavaScript-based tools for OpenStreetMap.

Versions