Reverse Geocoding Display Name Language?

[Parzival0x]

Love the project tess1o! I've been trialling a couple different options and this is definitely the most well optimised and easiest to use.

I've imported my Google Timeline data, but I had a question regarding the language returned for geocoded locations. I have locations in Japan that are being displayed in kanji (e.g. 塩釜公園 (新虎自転車道)), but ideally I would want this displayed in english/romaji (e.g. Hiyori Stay Kyoto Kamogawa). I checked what Photon returns for the reverse geocoding and it does return english details:

I realise the map tiles used will determine the language displayed on the map itself, but it is the pin details that I wondering how to have it pull the english details?

Thanks and happy new year!

[tess1o]

Hello,

Can you please show a screenshot where a Japanese language is displayed so I understand your case properly?

Thanks

[tess1o]

In this case (I assume you setup Photon as primary geocoding provider) the system tried to format the address like "%NAME% (%STREET%)". I see that the street is indeed in Japanese but the Name should be in English (according to your screenshot). My guess is that your "stay" is in slightly different coordinates and Photon returned both Name and Street in Japanese. To get exact coordinates right click on this timeline stay card (on the right part of your screen) and select "View all visits to this place". You will see "Geocoded Location" and exact coordinates there. Please check those coordinates in Photon to see what data is returned.

As a solution I can try to use "Name" without street if the "Name" is not empty. I don't have much information about Japanese addresses so you help would be appreciated here.

Thanks.

[Parzival0x]

Following those instructions the exact coordinates are: 34.9926, 135.7682 and using these coordinates to query Photon gives the following:

The name for this coordinates are in English on Photon, but GeoPulse is returning it in Japanese, as 日和ステイ京都鴨川 translates to Hiyori Stay Kyoto Kamogawa as the Photon name property states. Some of the other hotels I stayed at do have the issue you described (geolocated to not the actual hotel so it is returning Japanese street names instead of the location) which is fine, but there are other locations that have the same issue I am describing, Photon has English name but GeoPulse is returning Japanese. For example, for Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan GeoPulse states "海遊館 (北海岸通)" as you can see below but Photon returns "Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan" for the Name property when I query the coordinates stated in GeoPulse

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help figure this out.

[tess1o]

When I do reverse geocoding using Photon from GeoPulse backend I receive this response:

23:02:07 DEBUG [or.gi.te.ge.ge.se.ex.PhotonGeocodingService] (Quarkus Main Thread) Calling Photon for coordinates: lon=135.7682, lat=34.9926
23:02:08 DEBUG [or.gi.te.ge.ge.se.ex.PhotonGeocodingService] (vert.x-eventloop-thread-1) Photon response received: PhotonResponse(type=FeatureCollection, features=[PhotonResponse.Feature(type=Feature, properties=PhotonResponse.Properties(osmType=W, osmId=562243184, osmKey=tourism, osmValue=hotel, type=house, postcode=605-8799, housenumber=null, countrycode=JP, name=日和ステイ京都鴨川, country=日本, city=京都市, district=東山区, locality=東橘町, street=問屋町通, state=京都府, county=null, extent=[135.7680631, 34.9926609, 135.768409, 34.9924801]), geometry=PhotonResponse.Geometry(type=Point, coordinates=[135.76816674859688, 34.9925706]))])

As you can see: name and street are in Japanese.
From the browser I call https://photon.komoot.io/reverse?lat=34.9926&lon=135.7682 and receive

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "osm_type": "W",
        "osm_id": 562243184,
        "osm_key": "tourism",
        "osm_value": "hotel",
        "type": "house",
        "postcode": "605-8799",
        "countrycode": "JP",
        "name": "HIYORI STAY KYOTO KAMOGAWA",
        "country": "Japan",
        "city": "Kyoto",
        "district": "Higashiyama Ward",
        "locality": "Higashitachibanacho",
        "street": "問屋町通",
        "state": "Kyoto Prefecture",
        "extent": [135.7680631, 34.9926609, 135.768409, 34.9924801]
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [135.768166748597, 34.9925706]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Checking further why I get different results.

[tess1o]

Ok, I found the difference. From browser it additionally sends header "Accept-Language: en-US", from java code obviously I don't do that. When I add "Accept-Language: en-US" I get the name in English, when I don't send this header - in Japanese.
Probably I should fix it permanently and always send this header (make it configurable, not all users of GeoPulse prefer English).

It's sad but I don't see any documentation on Photon website about this behavior :)

[Parzival0x]

That is frustrating this behaviour isn't documented by Photon, but I'm glad to have helped a small amount in you figuring it out. A configurable option sounds great. Thanks again for looking into this.

[tess1o]

This issue is fixed in release 1.11.0 - https://github.com/tess1o/geopulse/releases/tag/v1.11.0
You can update preferable language via env variables or via Admin Panel.

After that go to Geocoding Management page (app/geocoding-management), select the rows you want to update and click on "Reconcile selected" - select Photon and it will update the name to English.

[tess1o]

I hope it worked for you. I'm gonna close this discussion as resolved. Feel free to reopen or raise a new issue if something doesn't work for you.