Enhancements for "Tag multiple objects" feature in UtilsPlugin2

[aat765]

First off, thank you for developing and maintaining the UtilsPlugin2. It's a very helpful tool!

I'm writing to suggest some enhancements for the "Tag multiple objects (alpha)" feature, which would greatly improve its usability and efficiency for editing tags of multiple objects in the table view.

Specifically, I propose the following additions:

1. Clone tag values: The ability to quickly clone the value of one tag to another for multiple selected objects would be extremely beneficial. For example, copying values from a "name" tag to a "name:en" tag for several hotels.

2. Search and replace with Regex support: Implementing search and replace functionality within the tag editor table, with support for regular expressions (Regex), would be incredibly powerful for bulk editing and fixing common tagging problems. This would allow for quick operations like removing prefixes from multiple tags.

3. Integrated object history: While JOSM has a history feature, accessing it requires deselecting the current objects. Integrating a history view directly within the tag editor table would streamline the process of reviewing past edits without losing the current selection.

These enhancements would significantly improve the workflow for editing multiple objects and make the UtilsPlugin2 even more valuable. Thank you for considering these suggestions.

[GerdP]

I wondered why we have the "Tag multiple objects" dialog because I found no use case. I think it would help to understand if you could describe what you do with the dialog and why it is easier to use this dialog compared to the standard dialog for tags.

[aat765]

I understand your point about wanting to see clear use cases for the "Tag multiple objects" dialog. I admit, I didn't fully appreciate its value until recently. Lately, I've been tackling a challenge with fixing name tags for a large number of features in my region. Many of them had issues like:

• Descriptive names (e.g., "..._Hotel", "..._Shop", "..._Gas Station") which are discouraged by best practices as the feature type is already captured by the appropriate tags.
• Spelling or grammatical errors and other inconsistencies.
• Discrepancies between the "name" tag and the localized "name:xx" tag.

For example, I recently corrected the name tag for 50 shops that were prefixed with "..._Hotel". Using the "Tag multiple objects" dialog, I was able to remove the prefix from all 50 hotels in under a minute. Doing this individually would have taken at least 10-15 minutes.

While the standard tagging dialog works for individual objects, it's not efficient for making the same change across many objects, especially when dealing with the kinds of bulk edits I described. This tool has been a lifesaver in fixing these errors efficiently and has saved me a significant amount of time. I wish I had discovered it sooner!

Beyond bulk editing, the table view is also useful for exploring tags and names in a selected area or after performing a search/filter. This resembles the data browsing capabilities found in GIS software like QGIS, Global Mapper, and ArcGIS Pro. Users familiar with those programs would likely find this functionality beneficial in JOSM.