Warnings for deleting/merging relation members

[openstreetmap-trac]

Reporter: fernando.trebien[at]gmail.com
[Submitted to the original trac issue database at 6.26pm, Wednesday, 17th July 2013]

Hello,

I know this can be considered a duplicate of tickets #3777 and #4879, but I'd like to elaborate on this issue.

Despite members of relations now being rendered a little differently, I still see some novice users breaking relations from time to time without noticing it. They use Potlatch because it is easy and because they feel they can skip a lot of technical reading. The visual language is a very nice feature when understood but it is evidently not that obvious to some users. A visual clue may indicate that something is different but it does not indicate what the difference is.

I suggest a warning that the user may disable through a check box (and re-enable in the Options dialog). The warning can briefly explain the possible consequences of operating on relation members and provide a link for further reading.

An example dialog for deleting nodes or ways:

If you delete this element, one or more relations may become broken. Relation membership can be managed in the Advanced tab. To learn more about relations, see: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation

Proceed?

[ ] Don't show this again [Yes] [No]

And one for merging ways, shown only if necessary (not shown if all ways are already members of the same relations, except relations with type=restriction):

If you merge these ways, one or more relations may become inconsistent. Relation membership can be managed in the Advanced tab. To learn more about relations, see: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation

Proceed?

[ ] Don't show this again [Yes] [No]||

[openstreetmap-trac]

Author: Richard
[Added to the original trac issue at 6.31am, Thursday, 18th July 2013]

Potlatch will not be the default editor for much longer (iD will be) so purely beginner-focused feature requests are largely out of scope now.

[openstreetmap-trac]

Author: bryce2[at]obviously.com
[Added to the original trac issue at 10.49pm, Friday, 21st February 2014]

+1 on this.

It's reasonable for all editors to warn on deleting a relation member,
by default, no matter the editor level targeted. Even josm. Even P2.