Key:created_by

+/- created_by Description Tag representing Editor/Script which created/(edited) this item. Group Editor keys Element help Useful combination Implies Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

This tag is used to describe the editor or script which made the changes - similar to a user agent. Prior to version 0.6 of the API the created_by tag was applied to individual objects (nodes, ways and relations and even segments in earlier protocol versions). However, with the introduction of changesets to provide non-geographic "meta data" it makes more sense for the created_by tag to be recorded there. As of September 2009 many nodes, ways or relations still have a created_by tag, but these are slowly disappearing.

Values

These values are set by software or scripts that create, sometimes edit something.

Some examples:

• JOSM/1.5 (1788 de)
• Potlatch 1.2
• Merkaartor 0.13

Note: You shouldn't edit this value to record your own name. That's recorded as a result of the username used to upload data.

Guidance to software developers

• You should record a created_by tag on a changeset when saving changes
• The created_by tag may contain a revision number, version number or similar. This helps people track down problems if a version of your editor/script has a bug in it.
  • Alternatively, potlatch2 splits information into created_by, version and build tags.
• You should not add or update the created_by tag on nodes/ways/relations.
• You may remove the created_by tag on nodes/ways/relations that you are modifying in a changeset. This is what JOSM, Potlatch, Potlatch2 and others now do.
• You should not remove the created_by tag on objects you are not otherwise modifying. If we wanted to remove them in bulk we'd do it some other way.