Reitti / Photon: Importing Data into Photon

[MickLesk]

🗺️ Importing Data into Photon

Photon is a fast, open-source geocoding service built by komoot.
It uses OpenStreetMap data and stores it in an embedded Elasticsearch index for search.

This guide explains how to import Photon datasets (JSONL dumps) into your own Reitti / Photon instance — for example, for Switzerland & Liechtenstein.

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🌍 1. Choose a Dataset

Photon provides preprocessed JSONL dumps for each region.
You can browse available regions here:

🔗 https://download1.graphhopper.com/public/

Example (Switzerland & Liechtenstein):

• https://download1.graphhopper.com/public/europe/switzerland-liechtenstein/

You’ll typically see entries like:

Photon version	File	Size	Updated
0.7.x	photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein-0.7-latest.jsonl.zst	257 MB	2025-10-27

✅ Use the 0.7.x dump when running Photon 0.7.x (Elasticsearch backend).
The master dumps are for the latest development versions and may not be compatible.

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🧰 2. Download and Import the Data

Run the following commands to download and import the JSONL dump.

Increase your HDD/SSD Space for the LXC before, the files are really big.

It is recommended to write everything to an SSD or NVME.

You can increase the CPU to 4+ and RAM/SWAP to 4+, for faster Imports.

# Stop Photon if it's already running
systemctl stop photon

# Create target directories
mkdir -p /opt/photon
cd /opt/photon

# Download the latest Switzerland+Liechtenstein dump (0.7.x)
curl -fsSL -o photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein.jsonl.zst   https://download1.graphhopper.com/public/europe/switzerland-liechtenstein/photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein-0.7-latest.jsonl.zst

# Import into Photon (creates photon_data index) -- This takes some Minutes!
zstd --stdout -d photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein.jsonl.zst   | java --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED -Xmx4g -jar photon.jar       -nominatim-import       -import-file -       -data-dir /opt/photon       -languages de,en,fr,it

# Remove dump to save space
rm -f photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein.jsonl.zst

# Start Photon
systemctl start photon

After this import, you’ll have:

/opt/photon/
 ├── photon.jar
 ├── photon_data/
 │   ├── nodes
 │   ├── segments
 │   ├── _state
 │   └── ...

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🔎 3. Test the API

Once running, you can query Photon’s REST API:

curl "http://127.0.0.1:2322/api?q=zurich"

Example response:

{
  "features": [
    {
      "geometry": { "coordinates": [8.55, 47.36667] },
      "properties": {
        "name": "Zürich",
        "country": "Switzerland",
        "osm_id": 240109189,
        "osm_type": "N",
        "extent": [8.4, 47.5, 8.7, 47.3]
      }
    }
  ]
}

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🧹 4. Notes & Maintenance

• Re-import the dataset periodically to keep it updated.
• Photon can handle multiple languages (-languages de,en,fr,it,...).
• For other regions, replace the dataset URL with your desired country or continent.
• On large imports (e.g. Germany, Europe), increase -Xmx to at least 8–12 GB.

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🧭 Example: Full One-liner Import

zstd --stdout -d <(curl -fsSL https://download1.graphhopper.com/public/europe/switzerland-liechtenstein/photon-dump-switzerland-liechtenstein-0.7-latest.jsonl.zst)   | java -Xmx4g -jar photon.jar       -nominatim-import -import-file - -data-dir /opt/photon -languages de,en,fr,it

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🧩 Related Links

• Photon GitHub: https://github.com/komoot/photon
• Photon Demo: https://photon.komoot.io
• Graphhopper Dumps: https://download1.graphhopper.com/public/
• OpenStreetMap License: ODbL 1.0

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🟢 Tip: The .jsonl.zst dumps are fully compatible with Elasticsearch/OpenSearch-based Photon releases ≥ 0.7.
Always match the dump version to your Photon binary (0.7.x ↔ photon-0.7.x.jar).