1 # Setting up the Nominatim UI
3 Nominatim is a search API, it does not provide a website interface on its
4 own. [nominatim-ui](https://github.com/osm-search/nominatim-ui) offers a
5 small website for testing your setup and inspecting the database content.
7 This section provides a quick start how to use nominatim-ui with your
8 installation. For more details, please also have a look at the
9 [README of nominatim-ui](https://github.com/osm-search/nominatim-ui/blob/master/README.md).
11 ## Installing nominatim-ui
13 nominatim-ui does not need any special installation, just download, configure
16 Clone the source from github:
18 git clone https://github.com/osm-search/nominatim-ui
20 Adapt the configuration `dist/config.js` to your needs. You need at least
21 to change the `Nominatim_API_Endpoint` to point to your Nominatim installation.
23 Then you can just test it locally by spinning up a webserver in the `dist`
24 directory. For example, with Python:
27 python3 -m http.server 8765
29 The website is now available at `http://localhost:8765`.
31 ## Forwarding searches to nominatim-ui
33 Nominatim used to provide the search interface directly by itself when
34 `format=html` was requested. For all endpoints except for `/reverse` and
35 `/lookup` this even used to be the default.
37 The following section describes how to set up Apache or nginx, so that your
38 users are forwarded to nominatim-ui when they go to URL that formerly presented
41 ### Setting up forwarding in Nginx
43 First of all make nominatim-ui available under `/ui` on your webserver:
48 # Here is the Nominatim setup as described in the Installation section
51 alias <full path to the nominatim-ui directory>/dist/;
57 Now we need to find out if a URL should be forwarded to the UI. Add the
58 following `map` commands *outside* the server section:
61 # Inspect the format parameter in the query arguments. We are interested
62 # if it is set to html or something else or if it is missing completely.
65 ~(^|&)format=html(&|$) html;
69 # Determine from the URI and the format parameter aboce if forwarding is needed.
70 map $uri/$format $forward_to_ui {
71 default 1; # The default is to forward.
72 ~^/ui 0; # If the URI point to the UI already, we are done.
73 ~/other$ 0; # An explicit non-html format parameter. No forwarding.
74 ~/reverse.*/default 0; # Reverse and lookup assume xml format when
75 ~/lookup.*/default 0; # no format parameter is given. No forwarding.
79 The `$forward_to_ui` parameter can now be used to conditionally forward the
83 # When no endpoint is given, default to search.
84 # Need to add a rewrite so that the rewrite rules below catch it correctly.
90 rewrite ^(/[^/]*) https://yourserver.com/ui$1.html redirect;
94 location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
97 rewrite (.*).php https://yourserver.com/ui$1.html redirect;
103 Be aware that the rewrite commands are slightly different for URIs with and
104 without the .php suffix.
106 Reload nginx and the UI should be available.
108 ### Setting up forwarding in Apache
110 First of all make nominatim-ui available in the `ui/` subdirectory where
111 Nominatim is installed. For example, given you have set up an alias under
112 `nominatim` like this:
115 Alias /nominatim /home/vagrant/build/website
118 you need to insert the following rules for nominatim-ui before that alias:
121 <Directory "/home/vagrant/nominatim-ui/dist">
122 DirectoryIndex search.html
126 Alias /nominatim/ui /home/vagrant/nominatim-ui/dist
129 Replace `/home/vagrant/nominatim-ui` with the directory where you have cloned
133 The alias for nominatim-ui must come before the alias for the Nominatim
136 To set up forwarding, the Apache rewrite module is needed. Enable it with:
142 Then add rewrite rules to the `Directory` directive of the Nominatim website
146 <Directory "/home/vagrant/build/website">
147 Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
148 AddType text/html .php
153 # This must correspond to the URL where nominatim can be found.
154 RewriteBase "/nominatim/"
156 # If no endpoint is given, then use search.
157 RewriteRule ^(/|$) "search.php"
159 # If format-html is explicity requested, forward to the UI.
160 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} "format=html"
161 RewriteRule ^([^/]+).php ui/$1.html [R,END]
162 # Same but .php suffix is missing.
163 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} "format=html"
164 RewriteRule ^([^/]+) ui/$1.html [R,END]
166 # If no format parameter is there then forward anything
167 # but /reverse and /lookup to the UI.
168 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} "!format="
169 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "!/lookup"
170 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "!/reverse"
171 RewriteRule ^([^/]+).php ui/$1.html [R,END]
172 # Same but .php suffix is missing.
173 RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} "!format="
174 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "!/lookup"
175 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} "!/reverse"
176 RewriteRule ^([^/]+) ui/$1.html [R,END]
180 Restart Apache and the UI should be available.