[Feature] Export and import .obf-map files from SD-Card

[pietervdvn]

I spoke to Jorieke from MSF on SoTM about OsmAnd.

One of the important (but barely visible use cases) of OsmAnd is usage in Africa by Médicins Sans Frontieres. However, a problem they have there is that internet is very scarce.

They deploy OsmAnd on phones by putting the .apk directly on the phone, after which the maps are copied over as well. However, this workflow could be optimized. If FDroid is used, one phone can offer the .apk directly to the other.

If the .obf files could be copied over as well (e.g. via bluetooth or a hotspot) and could be installed by 'importing' them, that would mean that OsmAnd can be installed in a peer2peer fashion only needing the actual phones.

[vshcherb]

Yes I spoke too. We already have support for opening obf file and it is easy to do many tasks with navigator. Though there is a question how to bundle "apk" with maps, nowadays it is possible to do manually and we plan to create a package file "ready to use" kind of which will include maps as well.

[pietervdvn]

Ooohhh, great! I didn't know that you met each other in the end, so it seems like you are aware of their problems.

[vshcherb]

Though it doesn't mean it is easy to solve

[pietervdvn]

I thought that the 'Be Walking - Be Brussels'-app (based on OsmAnd) did something similar, although their map is quite small (a couple of megabytes) and out of date.

If I'm really dreaming, the would update peer to peer with a protocol as dat:// or ipfs, but that is really but a dream XD