This page is missing some new options and the list of commands is probably better situated on a separate page.

Preferences > Remote Control

Settings for the remote control feature.

Remote Control allows JOSM to be controlled from other applications, e.g. from a web browser, by opening a listening TCP port (8111) on localhost where it accepts commands.
Note: Due to security reasons this feature is disabled in the default settings and has to be enabled manually.

The following control options are available:

• Enable remote control allows to switch the remote control feature on or off.
  • Load data from API
  • Import data from URL
  • Load imagery layers
  • Change the selection
  • Change the viewport
  • Create new objects
  • Read protocol version

• Confirm all Remote Control actions manually

List of Commands

load_and_zoom

Instructs JOSM to download a bounding box from the API, zoom to the downloaded area and optionally select one or more objects.

GET /load_and_zoom?left=...&right=...&top=...&bottom=...&select=object[,object...]

where

Parameter	Required/Optional	Meaning
left	R	minimum longitude
right	R	maximum longitude
bottom	R	minimum latitude
top	R	maximum latitude
select	O	comma-separated list of objects that should be selected. Object specifiers are combinations of the words "way", "node", or "relation", and the numerical object id. Example: select=way38473,node12399,node54646
addtags	O	Optional parameter to add tags. The key and value is separated by "=" and multiple tags can be separated by a Pipe "|". Try this one for ​example. Works also with the zoom-command. The user must review the tags and the selection before the tags are applied to the selected objects.
new_layer	O	If true, downloads to a new layer

Example

Start JOSM (don't forget to enable the RemoteControl feature), then click on:

​http://127.0.0.1:8111/load_and_zoom?left=8.19&right=8.20&top=48.605&bottom=48.590&select=node413602999

JOSM should now load an area in the German Schwarzwald and have the specified node selected.

zoom

Instructs JOSM to zoom to the specified area and optionally select one or more objects.

GET /zoom?left=...&right=...&top=...&bottom=...&select=object[,object...]

Accepts the same parameters as the load_and_zoom command and uses the same code for zoom and selection. The only difference is that no data will be loaded from the API.

Hint: This command can also be used to select objects only. Just enter a small arbitrary area to the left..bottom entries and add the object list to the select= option.

import

Instructs JOSM to download the specified OSM file and add it to the current data set.

GET /import?url=...

imagery

Instructs JOSM to add an imagery (WMS/TMS) layer.

GET /imagery?title=...&type=...&url=...

where

Parameter	Required/Optional	Meaning
title	O	The display name of the layer
type	O	Type of the layer. Possible values are wms and tms (since RemoteControl Version 1.3)
min_zoom	O	The minimum zoom level (since RemoteControl Version 1.4)
max_zoom	O	The maximum zoom level. For higher scales, the images of the maximum level is enlarged (since RemoteControl Version 1.4)
url	R	The Request URL, including patterns. Must be the last parameter, everything after "&url=" is interpreted as URL, even if it contains "&" characters.

Examples

• TMS layer "osm" http://tile.openstreetmap.org/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

​http://localhost:8111/imagery?title=osm&type=tms&url=http://tile.openstreetmap.org/%7Bzoom%7D/%7Bx%7D/%7By%7D.png

• WMS layer "landsat" http://irs.gis-lab.info/?layers=landsat&SRS={proj}&WIDTH={width}&HEIGHT={height}&BBOX={bbox}

​http://localhost:8111/imagery?title=landsat&type=wms&url=http://irs.gis-lab.info/?layers=landsat&SRS=%7Bproj%7D&WIDTH=%7Bwidth%7D&HEIGHT=%7Bheight%7D&BBOX=%7Bbbox%7D

load_object

Instructs JOSM to download objects with a given id.

GET /load_object?new_layer=true|false&objects=...

where

Parameter	Required/Optional	Meaning
objects	R	Comma separated list of object ids, e.g. "n1234,n1235,w84,r958493"
new_layer	O	If true, downloads to a new layer

Example

​http://localhost:8111/load_object?new_layer=true&objects=w106159509

add_node

Instructs JOSM to create a new node at the given coordinates.

Note: This action requires the permission Create new objects which is disabled by default.

GET /add_node?lon=...&lat=...

where

Parameter	Required/Optional	Meaning
lon	R	The longitude of the node
lat	R	The latitude of the node

Example

​http://localhost:8111/add_node?lon=13.3&lat=53.2

add_way

Instructs JOSM to create a new way with new way nodes at given coordinates.

Note: This action requires the permission Create new objects which is disabled by default.

GET /add_way?way=lat1,lon1;lat2,lon2;...

where

Parameter	Required/Optional	Meaning
way	R	Pairs of latitude, longitude coordinates separated by semicolon.

Example

​http://localhost:8111/add_way?way=53.2,13.3;53.3,13.3;53.3,13.2

version

This command returns the current protocol version of the installed RemoteControl interface. Developers can use it to query for a running instance of JOSM and also determine whether the requested functionality is available in the client.

GET /version[?jsonp=callback]

The command returns a json object containing an application identifier that is always "JOSM RemoteControl", a major number and a minor number. Compatible protocol changes result in an increase of the minor number. Incompatible changes increase the major number. So a client application knowing of protocol version 1.0 can still talk to JOSM having 1.1. But it's not guaranteed to be working with 2.0. So the client should verify the major number.

A typical output looks like this:

{
   "protocolversion": {
      "major": 1, 
      "minor": 0
   }, 
   "application": "JOSM RemoteControl"
}

For older browsers not implementing ​Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) the command provides the possibility for jsonp callback. Load the URL in a script tag and supply the name of a callback that will receive the JSON data.

Following is some sample code that checks for CORS capabilities and uses ​JSONP as a fallback solution.

// in addition to the CC-BY-SA of the wiki feel free to use the following source for any purpose without restrictions (PD)
// credits and additions appreciated: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Stephankn

function checkJOSM(version){
   alert(version.application + " uses protocol version " + version.protocolversion.major + "." + version.protocolversion.minor);
   // do something useful, maybe showing edit button
}

var url = "http://127.0.0.1:8111/version";
var useFallback = false;
// currently FF3.5, Safari 4 and IE8 implement CORS
if (XMLHttpRequest) {
   var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
   if ("withCredentials" in request) {
      request.open('GET', url, true);
      request.onreadystatechange = function(){
         if (request.readyState != 4) {
            return;
         }
         if (request.status == 200) {
            checkJOSM(eval('(' + request.responseText + ')'));
         }
      };
      request.send();
   }
   else if (XDomainRequest) {
      var xdr = new XDomainRequest();
      xdr.open("get", url);
      xdr.onload = function(){
         checkJOSM(eval('(' + xdr.responseText + ')'));
      };
      xdr.send();
   } else {
      useFallback = true;
   }
}
else {
   // no XMLHttpRequest available
   useFallback = true;
}

if (useFallback) {
   // Use legacy jsonp call
   var s = document.createElement('script');
   s.src = url + '?jsonp=checkJOSM';
   s.type = 'text/javascript';
    
   if (document.getElementsByTagName('head').length > 0) {
      document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);
   }
    
}

Other commands

Remotecontrol allows other plugins to add additional commands. The other registers a RequestHandler class and specifies a command to be handled by this class. The command syntax has to be defined by the other plugin.

Reverter plugin since version 27091 makes use of this feature.

See also

​Old JOSM Remote-Plugin page at OSM wiki

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