Changeset Manager

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-Alt-C TOC(inline)

Launching Changeset Manager

There are several ways to launch the Changeset Manager:

1. Select the menu item View->Changeset Manager
2. Press Ctrl-Alt-C
3. Select one or more changesets in the Changeset List Dialog and click there on

The Changeset Manager window

Querying changesets

There are several ways to query and download changesets. The most common query and download operations can be invoked directly from the Changset Manager. Other more advanced features are provided by the Changeset Query Dialog.

Query and download a changeset by its unique ID

If you want to download a specific changeset whose ID you know, you can download it directly in the Changeset Manager.

1. Enter the changeset ID in the input field in the toolbar section of the Changeset Manager
2. Press ENTER or click on

If you download a single changeset JOSM downloads both the changeset properties (for instance its id or the date it was created) and the changeset content (i.e. the list of objects created, updated, or deleted with this changeset).

Query and download your open changesets

Changesets can be open or closed. A mapper can always upload additional objects to an open changeset he or she owns.

If you want to download the list of open changesets you own

1. Click on My open changesets in the toolbar section of the Changeset Manager

Note that this download only the changeset properties without the changeset content. For downloading the content of changesets see below.

Advanced queries

Advanced queries like

• querying the changesets owned by another mapper
• querying the most recent changesets open or closed on the OSM server
• querying changesets which modified object in a specific area (called a "bounding box")

can be run using the Changeset Query Dialog.

To launch the Changeset Query Dialog:

1. Click on Query in the toolbar section of the Changeset Manager

Managing the cache of downloaded changesets

JOSM locally maintains a cache of the changesets downloaded from the OSM server. The content of this cache is displayed in the upper half of the Changeset Manager.

Removing changesets from the cache

Changesets can be removed from the local cache. Removing a changeset from the cache doesn't affect the OSM server. The changeset isn't deleted on the server. In fact, it is not possible to delete a changeset on the server.

Removing changesets from the local cache can be useful because the local changeset cache consumes memory, though. You can remove changesets you don't need from the cache in order to free up the memory.

To remove one or more changesets from the local cache

1. Select the changesets in the Changeset Manager
2. Click on or press DEL. Alternatively you may select Remove from cache from the popup menu.

Updating the properties of changesets in the cache

Properties of changesets can cache over time. For instance, an open changeset can become closed or the tags of an open changeset can change because it is assigned a new set of tags in another upload.

In order to update the properties of one or more changesets

1. Select the changesets in the Changeset Manager
2. Click on . Alternatively you may select Update changeset from the popup menu.

Note that this will update the changeset properties only. For updating the changeset content, see below.

Downloading/Updating the content of changesets in the cache

A changeset includes a collection of object which have been created, updateded, or deleted by the changeset. These objects are called the changeset content. The size of a changeset content varies, but in general it can become very large. Changesets can grow up to 50'000 objects. Changeset content is therefore not automatically downloaded from the OSM server.

In order to download the changeset content of one or more changesets

1. Select the changesets in the Changeset Manager
2. Click on . Alternatively you may select Download changeset content from the popup menu.

The content of a changeset may change over time too, provided the changeset is still open. The same steps will always retrieve the lastest content for a given changeset. If the local cache already includes the content of a changeset, this operation will refresh it.

Managing a single changeset

Browsing properties, tags, and content

The detail view in the lower half of the Changeset Manager consists of three tabs:

• Properties - displays the basic properties of the currently selected changeset, i.e. its ID or whether the changeset is open or closed
• Tags - displays the tags assigned to the currently selected changeset
• Content - displays the changeset content

Click on either of these tabs to browse the respective information.

Remove a changeset from the local cache

1. Click on to remove the currently selected changeset from the cache.

Updating/Downloading changeset content

There are two commands available to either update the basic properties of the changeset or to update/download the changeset content:

In order to update the changeset properties

1. Click on

In order to update/download the changeset content

1. Click on or respectively. Depending on whether the changeset content has already been downloaded either of these two actions is available.

Selecting objects in the changeset content in the Map View

If the Map View includes an active data layer you can select all objects in this layer which are also part of the current changeset in the Changeset Manager.

1. Click on in the detail view of the Changeset Manager

You can also select

1. Select the tab Content in the detail view
2. Select one or more objects in the content
3. Click on . Alternatively, you may select Select in layer in the popup menu.

Zooming to objects in the changeset content

If the Map View includes an active data layer you can "zoom to the changeset". Actually, neither the changeset nor the entire changeset content is ever included in a data layer. With "zoom to the changeset" we mean that JOSM zooms to the largest subset of objects in the data layer which is also a subset in the changeset content.

In order to zoom to "zoom to the changeset"

1. Click on in the detail view of the Changeset Manager

Alternatively, you may zoom to a subset of the changeset content". In order to do so

1. Click on the tab Content
2. Make sure the changeset content is downloaded. If not, download it first.
3. Select some objects in the changeset content
4. Click on . Alternatively, you may select Zoom to layer from the popup menu.

Download and display the history of objects in the changeset content

For an object included in the content of a changeset, you may retrieve and display its history.

1. Click on the tab Content
2. Make sure the changeset content is downloaded. If not, download it first.
3. Select some objects in the changeset content
4. Click on . Alternatively, you may select Show history from the popup menu.

See also

• Close changesets
• Changeset List Dialog
• Changeset Query Dialog

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