How to load OSM data into PostGIS preserving all Tags?

Question

I am new to the field of GIS and am trying to view source tags in OSM. I have downloaded the shapefiles from http://downloads.cloudmade.com and have loaded them into Postgres. When I view the data, I am unable to see any tagging data. Should I be following a different process or using shapefiles at all?

Answer 1

Shapefile on cloudmade server are final data made from osm data. If you want to get raw data (ie with osm tags) you need to download osm files.

You can find some information about how import osm files into PostGIS here: http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/wiki/RenderingOsmDataUbuntu

Hope it helps.

Y.

Answer 2

It looks like the Cloudmade (and Geofabrik) shapefiles only have a minimum number of tags included. The free-form nature of tagging in OSM doesn't transfer to the shapefile format very easily.

You might want to consider a setting up a database if you want to use OSM data very extensively. OSM Stack Overflow suggests:

It's also possible to create PostGIS databases of OpenStreetMap data using either osm2pgsql or Osmosis, which will give you greater control over the types of features included, but is a more complicated procedure.

Answer 3

Download the OSM files (in .osm format) and import using osm2pgsql.

When using osm2pgsql, there's a file called default.style that allows you to control which OSM feature goes into which postgresql table, e.g.:

way        boundary     text         polygon
node,way   railway      text         linear

means that

• features tagged "boundary" go into the *planet_osm_polygon* table
• features tagged "railway" go into the *planet_osm_point* and *planet_osm_line* because the "railway" tag is common between railway stations (osm nodes) and railway tracks (osm ways).