{"id":18873,"date":"2020-05-24T16:38:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T20:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=18873"},"modified":"2020-12-27T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:08:10","slug":"high-resolution-strava-global-heatmap-in-josm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2020\/05\/24\/high-resolution-strava-global-heatmap-in-josm\/","title":{"rendered":"High Resolution Strava Global Heatmap in JOSM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Mapping trails in OpenStreetMap<\/a> (OSM), using JOSM<\/a>, is done by overlaying one or more data sources, then hand-drawing the trail locations using this background data as a guide. While not a default in JOSM, with a little know-how and a paid Strava Subscription<\/a> the Strava Global Heatmap<\/a> data for this can be used as well.<\/p>\n

While there’s a fair bit of info about doing this scattered across some JOSM tickets (eg: #16100<\/a>), this post is to document how I make this work for me by creating a custom Imagery provider<\/a>. Because there isn’t an official (and robust) plugin to authenticate JOSM against Strava it’s a little tricky, but overall isn’t bad.<\/p>\n

First, you need to sign into Strava, then go to the Global Heatmap and get the values of the three cookies CloudFront-Key-Pair-ID<\/em>, CloudFront-Policy<\/em>, and CloudFront-Signature<\/em>. These values are essentially saved credentials, and by using them in a custom Imagery provider<\/em> URL<\/a>, JOSM will use these to access the Global Heatmap data via your account and make it available as an Imagery<\/a> layer.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to get these cookie values is to use the Developer Tools built into your web browser:<\/p>\n

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  1. Launch your web browser, either Firefox, Chrome, or Edge.<\/li>\n
  2. Go to the Strava Global Heatmap<\/a>, sign in if needed (check the Remember me<\/em> checkbox), and be sure it’s properly displaying high resolution data.<\/li>\n
  3. Load the developer tools for your browser to show cookie details:\n