OpenStreetMap (Location data)

Open Prices uses OpenStreetMap as the main source for physical location data.

Why

Having location data directly in Open Prices allows for a better contributor experience and easy filtering/aggregation/stats.

What is used

Backend

• Location table - when a new OSM ID is added by a contributor, we store it - we keep only a subset of fields (name, type, brand, lat, lng, version...)

see open_prices/common/openstreetmap.py

Frontend

• Location search - we use a combination of Komoot Photon & Nominatim
• Brand data - we regularly contribute to nsi.guide to add missing brands - we display brand logos thanks to openfoodfacts/brand-images
• Contributing back - not yet... but discussed regularly :)

Data sync

Currently, we fetch & store location data on creation only.

There is an ongoing discussion on managing location updates (e.g. a shop changes brand), see this issue.