Adding POI in planning mode add generic stops, not named ones

[Manuel]

Hi,

when long-pressing a POI on the map, e.g. monuments, sights, etc. in the route planner a menu is shown where the name of the POI is shown and three buttons to add this POI to the route. 
But instead of adding a named waypoint to the route, the planner just adds an anonymous waypoint. In order to have navigation announce it properly, I then have to manually rename the waypoint.
IMO the route planner should use the name for the POI.

[Tapio]

I agree. Plus: it should also be possible to use Lopoints this way. I only need to short click btw.

[Graf Geo]

When I activate LoPoints, a simple short click on the POI is enough to add it to the route. And it is also given the corresponding name.

With the normal POIs, the address is adopted if you have the corresponding LoMap with address database installed. The name of the POI is actually not, but that's what LoPoints are for. So I don't see such a great need.

[Tapio]

Hmmm strange, you're right, maybe an input problem in my prior testing.

[Manuel]

With the normal POIs, the address is adopted if you have the corresponding LoMap with address database installed. The name of the POI is actually not, but that's what LoPoints are for. So I don't see such a great need.

I disagree that there is no "great" need. This might be the case for you, but not for everyone. There is definitely a need for me and there is also zero drawbacks to this functionality. There will be no one who pressed on a POI then adds it to a route and not wanting the name. And these people could just clear the name afterwards. Much easier than vice versa.     
LM knows the name of the POI, it shows it. There is simply no reason not to use it if you add it to the route. Depending on the maps used the POI might also not be in the LoPoints. 

That said, I don't use LoMaps. I also never used LoPoints. I enabled them now (awful interface for selection, BTW) and it works fine. That doesn't change my opinion that the name should be transferred to the route marker.

[Menion]

Hello Manuel,
unfortunately, I do not understand your idea. You see a place on the map and you want, with a long click, to add it to the planner together with the name visible on the map? This is technically very complicated and should not be necessary at all.

This, as mentioned, should be perfectly covered by LoPoints. Then simple short click on the LoPoint allows adding to the plan.

[Manuel]

Here is a video:

As you can see I can select POIs from the map like the BBQ spot, the church or the cafe. The planner shows the name at the bottom and three option to add it to the route, i.e. start, middle, end. If I choose an option there is only a generic triangular "shaping point" (looks like that is the English name). If I want to name the point and have it announced I need to change it into a via point and rename it. 

Then I enabled Locus Points and tried to add it, and it looks like I managed to not select the point correctly, so it only created shaping points. After recording the video I tested it again and then it worked, i.e. I select the point, the name is shown with the three options but in this case it creates a correctly named via point.
But this can also be seen in the video at the end. I add a point from my own points and it shows the name and after adding a named via point is added.

So, Locus maps knows the name of the selected point, regardless if it is a point from the map (here Openandromap), a LoPoint or already saved point. It shows the name when you can choose where you want to add it in the route, but if the point is from the map, it just generates a generic unnamed shape point. 

I don't see how that is technically complicated. All the data is there, location and name, it's just different behaviour.
But at the end

[Menion]

Hello Manuel,
thanks for the video. I'm little confused from it. So few notes:

- in the first part, you have disabled LoPoints, so no active items are on the map. When you long click anywhere on the map, no matter if there is any LoPoint/point etc, the app creates a temporary point and sets its address. But it does not mean, it knows it is a valid place with something interesting.

- then you enabled LoPoints and saw them correctly on the map (suggest only online LoPoints for now if you have internet). But you still used long-click? Just quickly tap on the point and you should get the bottom panel with its correct name and icon! Then add it to the route with one of the bottom three buttons.

Does it help?

[Manuel]

Hello Manuel,
thanks for the video. I'm little confused from it. So few notes:

- in the first part, you have disabled LoPoints, so no active items are on the map. When you long click anywhere on the map, no matter if there is any LoPoint/point etc, the app creates a temporary point and sets its address. But it does not mean, it knows it is a valid place with something interesting.

Now I understand what you mean regarding the temporary point. But the temporary points gets a name and it is shown. So why not use it when setting the waypoint? It makes no sense to throw this information away instead of using it. 

Not sure what you mean by "valid". It is named after the nearest map feature, which is of course a valid and helpful name and that's why the app shows it to begin with. Whether it is interesting should be up to the user.
E.g. without any POI or LoPoints enabled I can long press close to the Eiffel Tower. The temporary place shown is called "Eiffel Tower". If I add it to a route is becomes an unnamed shape point. And IMO it should transfer the name of the temporary point. It shouldn't matter that is not generated from some POI that sits on the geometric center of the tower.
This way I can plan a route with names points without having to enable or search for fitting POIs. And some named map features are sinmpyl not in POI databases. This would be a very useful feature that does no harm.

Here is a graphic showing the 3 ways to add a route point like in the video

I don't think it is consistent that points from the map are not named as shown in the top point on the left.
Additionally it is also not consistent how shape points are handled. I cannot rename them directly, but I can change them into a via point, then rename them, then change it back to a shape point. Now it is named.

I also noticed a minor bug when planning a route this way. The first two point in a route are forced to be via points. When choosing a point from the map and not a POI it will add a via point called "Lade...", i.e. "Loading..." in English. This is also shown in the graphic.
It will never load anything and stay this way. This is hardly intended behaviour. I bet this is connected to the fact that shape points are not named.


Overall, this is the expected behaviour:
- When adding a point picked from the map, it should name the point according to the label the app has given the temporary point.
- Additionally it should give the user the option to add them as a via point or a shaped point. Just because it was picked from the map doesn't mean it is a meaningless shape point.
Or a sensible default could be chosen. My suggestion is to add temporary points from the map as named via points. If the user only want a shape point, changing it to one is much faster than having to manually name it when changing it to a via point. And in the case when the user reroutes a segment by dragging the red circle it should be a shape point. Name doesn't matter that much in this case but, again, it doesn't hurt to fill out the name of the location, even if it is just the street name.

[alang]

Apologies for jumping in on this conversation, but it is of some interest to me.  I was very confused as I did not have the "Tap and Hold to Display Address" setting enabled, but I got it now and can see the reasoning. Hope this helps (and is correct !)

The issue, I think, is whether or not you have got the offline Lomaps for your region downloaded, even if using a different map.  When creating a point in a route this is where it gets the address data from. I don't believe OAM maps include the address data. If that Lomaps address data has not been downloaded then you get just "Shaping point" or "Via Point" in the point's name.

However (provided setting "Controlling/Map Screen/Tap and Hold to Display Address" is enabled !!) when long pressing on the map it DOES show the address - so it must be getting this online - I proved it by setting Airplane Mode - and it can't then get the address.
But when adding the point it still uses the offline Lomap as the source, so this does seem strange/inconsistent. If the offline data isn't available then why not use the online as it has already got it ?  Maybe there is a technical difficulty with that.

For myself, I do have the offline Lomap downloaded for my region so everything works fine. As long as you don't mind the extra storage space needed, that is one solution to the missing address in the point.

On the question of Shaping versus Viapoints.... position cursor at the location, long press on the "+" button at bottom left, then choose "screen centre" will create a viapoint with name filled in with the address. Alternatively there is an option in the route planner settings "Via points as default".  You might want to try that out.  But I suggest download the offline Lomap first.

I can't see a way to directly edit either a Shaping or Viapoints name/icon data. Seems you can only do that when changing from Shaping to Via Point.
So to change a Shaping Points name (or icon) change it to viapoint, edit, then back again, To change viapoints name, change it to shaping point, then back to viapoint then edit.
Could be improved I think, unless there is some other way of doing it already but I can't see it.

[Manuel]

Thanks for your insight.
There are definitely many factors at play.

I'm sure LM uses Brouter to get the address online, because I just got a big errror message from Brouter on the screen when selecting a point. That also somewhat explains the "Loading..." name.

I only have outdated LoMaps but I can confirm it works. But whether the address data comes from offline maps or online requests shouldn't matter. This should be transparent to the user. If the address data is shown, it is known to LM and should be used.
But weirdly I managed to get named shape points when using LoMaps Online. Seems like the offline version is installed, it queries that for the name of a point. But that isn't logical. I can only assume that long-press shows the BRouter address, but then it would save the offline LoMaps name. It should most of the time be the same, but there is no guarentee. 
Also, if a user online LoMaps and has some offline LoMaps installed for some regions, the name for new route points would work in some cases, but not in others. There is no obvious reason for the user why this would happen.

Thanks for the tip of longpress +. I didn't know this is possible. Problem is it still needs the offline LoMaps to use the names. If I want to have named waypoints I still prefer longpressing on the map to see the name and then adding it to the route, because this way I can see the name of the place beforehand. If I choose "screen centre" I don't see the name in advance. 
And when there is no offline LoMap for the area the via points are named with the coordinates. I don't think this isn't helpful either. You see the point already on the map. The coordinates as a string are not really meaningful for humans. And if someone wants the actual coordinates, they could just select the point and it will display the coordinates and they can even be edited.
But these reveals another oddity: If you name a via point and then adjust the numeric coordinates, the name is overwritten. If there are no offline LoMaps it will be renamed to the generic "Zwischenziel" (waypoint), if the offline LoMaps exist, it pick a new name depending on what the LoMaps say. This is also unexpected behaviour.

You can change the name of a via point by clicking again on the via point icon. If you do that for a shape point, it just closes the details for this point. Unexpected.
I don't think you can change the icon at all.

Anyway, I'm not planning to use offline LoMaps. They cost money and I'm online anyways, Also I use online router for navigation. I can get offline maps elsewhere. And this shouldn't be a prerequisite for being able to get names points in the planner.

PS: I was wrong that start and end have to be vias. They can be shape point too. But that changes nothing about the confusing UI.