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  1. Jul 2, 2012

    Unlimited Free Maps with MapQuest API Community Edition

    · Posted in: Developer Network, Mobile, Platform, SDK, Services, Static Map

    Who doesn’t love free? Yes F-R-E-E. MapQuest is known for its accurate geocoding and flexible routing APIs but did you know that developers and businesses can get unlimited free MapQuest maps? With MapQuest Community Edition you can build both online and mobile apps and get access to highly accurate maps for free (there’s that F word again) with no usage limits for maps (check out our licensing chart for details). The combo of free maps built on commercial data and no usage limits for maps makes us different. Different in a good way, we think.

    Check out our Developer Network today to sign up for a Community Edition license, get access to technical information, blog posts, forums and more.

    We also offer our MapQuest Enterprise Edition for businesses that are looking for technical support, a service level agreement, geocoding only licenses and a whole bunch of other benefits. Call us (888-627-7837) or fill out our online form and one of our mapping gurus will reach out to discuss what might work best for you and your business. If you’re not sure whether Community or Enterprise is the best option for you, you can check out our Ts&Cs or just reach out to us and we can help you work thru that too.

    p.s. Seriously, if you don’t love free, tweet hashtag #MapQuestTech – we’ll send the first 50 of you a free t-shirt to convince you.

  2. Nov 17, 2011

    No Preset Limit on Free Map API Transactions

    · Posted in: Android, AS3 / Flex, Directions, Flash Builder / Flex, JavaScript, Mobile, Platform, SDK, Services, Static Map, Traffic

    Transaction limits among free map APIs have been a hot topic lately.  MapQuest is excited to announce a change to our limits, which includes no preset limit on maps within our free Community Edition license!  In addition, we are setting higher limits on our other service calls (the highest in the industry), with 5,000 geocodes, 5,000 routes and 5,000 search calls allowed per day.

    In addition to our new transactional limits (or lack thereof!) we wanted to clarify where and how you can use our APIs with a Community Edition license.  You CAN develop paid mobile applications for app stores using our Community Edition licenses.  You can also use SSL.

    For all the details, check out the following Map API Licensing and Terms Overview.  Also check out the Terms of Use for all the legal specifics.  I’ve included the handy chart available from the overview below.  Head over to the MapQuest Developer Network to sign up for a free map API key and start developing!

      ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY
      Licensed Data Licensed Data Open Data
    Maps (No preset limit)* (No preset limit)* (No preset limit)*
    Directions (No preset limit)* (5000 calls/day) (No preset limit)*
    Geocoding (No preset limit)* (5000 calls/day) (No preset limit)*
    Search (No preset limit)* (5000 calls/day) (No preset limit)*
    Route Matrix (No preset limit)* (5000 route pairs/day)  
    Traffic **  
    Non-Commercial or
    Public Web Apps
    Non-Commercial or
    Public Mobile Apps
    Private and/or Paid
    Commercial Web Apps    		  
    Paid Mobile Apps
    SSL  
    Forum Support
    Premium Support(24/7 Phone & Email Support)    
    System Performance Levels    
    Account Management    

    * MapQuest operates a shared service and reserves the right to limit access to prevent service degradation.  Please contact MapQuest to discuss applications with heavy traffic volume expectations.

    ** The Traffic API Web Service cannot be used for real-time navigation, in conjunction with in-car or stand alone portable navigation devices, or be used as the primary purpose of your website or application.

    About the Author

    Roman Hardgrave
    @MapQuestRoman I am the product manager for MapQuest Platform Services, including our APIs, web services and the Developer Network. I've worked at MapQuest for almost 10 years. I'm a full fledged geonerd who is excited to be working on the next generation of mapping APIs.
  3. Oct 3, 2011

    MapQuest Launches Mobile Flash Maps API

    · Posted in: AS3 / Flex, Directions, Mobile, Platform, SDK, Services, Traffic

    MapQuest is at Adobe MAX in sunny Los Angeles and we are thrilled to announce the official release of our Mobile Flash Maps API on both licensed data and open data.

    I’ve been involved with many a mobile project over the years, and, frankly, they are a huge pain.  To build an app available to most users means building the same code several times over, once for each major platform.  Today, we’re excited to announce a new API combined with an Adobe technology that should alleviate that pain.

    For those who have been following Adobe lately, you’ve seen some very exciting developments within their Flash Builder (Flex SDK) development tools.  With the release of Flash Builder 4.5, you can deploy native mobile applications to Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry Tablet from a single code base.  Yes, code ONE time and deploy native applications everywhere.  For those used to Adobe Flex, Flash Builder is the new name of the development tool to deploy applications using Adobe Flex SDK or ActionScript.

    Our Mobile Flash Maps API provides interactive mapping features to use within Flash Builder 4.5 native mobile applications.  This includes support for touch gestures, as well as making our controls and POIs mobile friendly. So now you can easily combine the great features of our web services, such as searching for traffic or optimizing your route, with an easy way to deploy to a mobile device.  Check out the video below to see just a small sample of what you can do.

    To me, there’s nothing better than finding the perfect piece of sample code when I’m looking to develop an application.  The mobile application featured in that video is available to jumpstart your next mobile project.  If you’re on an Android device, you can run this app directly on your phone by checking out the MapQuest Mobile Flash Maps API Showcase in the Android Market.  You can also download the source code for our mobile mapping app here.

    We couldn’t squeeze all the features of our web services in a single app – here are some other features you might be interested in.

    Along with those features, you have your choice of using either our licensed data (what we use on MapQuest.com) or our open data (such as OpenStreetMap).  While the Mobile Flash Maps API is different from our web/desktop Flash Maps API, you’ll still find many of the samples we provide on our desktop/web API will be useful to see the possibilities of what can be built.  Here is a full list of differences between the mobile and web/desktop versions of our Flash Maps API.

    This is just the beginning – we’re excited to meet Flash Builder and Flex developers here at Adobe MAX and hear what features they’re looking for from us going forward.  We have an Unconference discussion at 10 am on Wednesday if you would like to see the Mobile Flash Maps API in action.

    If you’re not at the show, head over to our Flash Maps API Forums at let us know what you think.  We already have some additional improvements on the way.

    Catch up with us at MAX (@MapQuestRoman)!

    About the Author

    Roman Hardgrave
    @MapQuestRoman I am the product manager for MapQuest Platform Services, including our APIs, web services and the Developer Network. I've worked at MapQuest for almost 10 years. I'm a full fledged geonerd who is excited to be working on the next generation of mapping APIs.
  4. Aug 30, 2011

    MapQuest Maps in Salesforce Provide Great Visualization of Business Analytics

    · Posted in: Platform, SDK

    Did you know you can visualize your business data using MapQuest maps to help you analyze business trends? Heat maps show layers of color to represent business data, which can then be used to make business decisions. Arrowpointe, a MapQuest partner, has a new version of their Geopointe software that shows just how powerful illustrating data can be with the MapQuest Platform.

    Watch a video on how it works:

    Geopointe integrates MapQuest maps and driving directions into Salesforce . This allows end-users, administrators and developers to search Salesforce data, plot it on the map and get multiple-point driving directions.

    By partnering with SpatialKey, Arrowpointe took the Geopointe solutions one step farther to create an analytics solution.  Arrowpoint and SpatialKey allow Salesforce users to visualize Salesforce data including leads, opportunities, contacts and more on MapQuest maps.  This solution allows Salesforce users to gain a better understanding of their business including from where business is coming, which areas of the country are driving the most revenue as well as which are underperforming, and how lead activities are performing.

    About the Author

    Cheryl
    I am a MapQuest Platform Services Account Manager and have worked with our business customers for over 8 years. I love working at MapQuest and helping my customers and prospects get the most out of the MapQuest Platform.
  5. Jun 16, 2011

    Geocoding is exciting

    · Posted in: Directions, Platform, Services, Uncategorized

    Geocoding is a very utilitarian tool and also one of the most popular capabilities in the MapQuest Platform. Did you know geocoding can also be witty, fun and exciting? Here’s how:

    Oh So Witty: It assigns a latitude and longitude coordinate to a street address, zip code, intersection, or geographic boundary.

    Exciting: Because without geocoding, you can’t show a map, driving directions or start a proximity search!  If I was desperate for a Sonic burger I wouldn’t’ be able to find a Sonic without using a geocode.

    Good ol’ fashion fun: Geocoding also allows businesses to do analytics such as understand where their customers are and where their customers are coming from.

    And just when you couldn’t get enough of geocoding, here’s what makes MapQuest geocoding unique:

    -       The ability to return a 5-character result code to verify the accuracy of locations in greater detail than a simple yes/no or percentage match.

    -       Support for geocoding up to 100 locations at once in a single batch function call.

    -       Address point geocoding – this means we return a geocode that represents the middle of the land parcel and one where the address connects to the road network.

    -       Thumbnail ambiguity maps – if the MapQuest service finds multiple options for the geocode you can return a thumbnail image of the ambiguous location to give end-users some context when disambiguating.

    -    Reverse geocoding – take a latitude and longitude and find what address it is

    -       And more. . . .

    All of this can be easily accessed through our Geocoding API, which you will also access when using our JavaScript API or our Flash Maps API.

    MapQuest Community Edition allows up to 5,000 geocodes per day. The licensed solution, as part of the Enterprise Edition, has unlimited access.  We license geocodes to be used in conjunction with maps and directions as well as provide geocoding only licenses.

    If you’re looking for more geocodes but aren’t interested in an Enterprise license, do not fear.  Our Nominatim search API built on top of Open Street Map data can also geocode and reverse geocode.  No key is required and MapQuest sets no transactional limits!  Plus, since its on top of crowdsourced Open Street Map data, you can fix any data problems you might find.

    If you have questions about geocoding, just give us a call 888-627-7837 at or email info@mapquest.com .

    Now get geocoding!

    About the Author

    Cheryl
    I am a MapQuest Platform Services Account Manager and have worked with our business customers for over 8 years. I love working at MapQuest and helping my customers and prospects get the most out of the MapQuest Platform.
  6. Apr 12, 2011

    Interoperable Location Data

    · Posted in: Events, Platform

    SXSW Interactive has traditionally served not just to launch new products, but also as a collaborative brain trust where the dialogue on stage continues into Austin’s streets. Along with some esteemed industry friends, I had the pleasure of participating on a SXSW panel last month covering the topic: "Interoperable Location Data: Matching Your Places with My Places."

    Tyler Bell
    Director of Product: Factual
    Kate Chapman
    Developer Advocate: GeoIQ
    Adam DuVander
    Executive Editor: ProgrammableWeb
    Scott Raymond
    Co-founder and CTO: Gowalla

    The Issue

    There’s an ever-increasing amount of applications using location data. Some are licensing data, some are using open-source data, and some are building datasets from user-generated records. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to match records between them. For instance, latitude and longitude may have been captured differently, there might be no address or only a partial address, or the common name of the business (Jo’s) might be offered instead of the formal name (Jo’s Coffee Downtown).

    How do we make it easy for a developer and a machine to know that we’re both talking about the same specific place, especially when that place can be a park bench, taco truck, or the Starbuck’s that’s on this side of the street (not that side)?

    How also do we make this system open and flexible so developers aren’t locked into yet another black-box solution, since the ability to own and manage the data attributes is one of the major reasons organizations build their own datasets to begin with.

    Here’s a good example of how and where location data in the sponsored link of the iOS Maps app differs from the actual place record for the Michelangelo Hotel in New York.

    These types of disconnects are most apparent in mobile operating systems. Independent developers make location apps, but these apps don’t necessary provide a clean way to move a place context from the app to the operating system, then to another app.

    As another example, I’ve pulled the below foursquare check in, displayed in the Twitter app, and finally pulled up on the iOS Maps app.

    • What sent me to this place
    • The name of the place
    • Additional useful details of the location from:

      • foursquare: Whose check in did I follow? Who’s the mayor? How many people are there now?
      • Twitter: The referring tweet, other tweets nearby, references to the conversation thread.
      • Additional location attributes such as the phone number or website link.

    Continuing the Conversation

    Last summer, MapQuest started socializing the concept of the location ID pivot table to a number of organizations and start-ups. The basic concept is that the table will take a location ID from one organization and return the matching location ID from the organization you want a match from.

    So in the example above, the foursquare venue ID would be passed to Twitter; Twitter could then access other information about the venue with confidence that both applications are referring to the same place. Next, Twitter would pass the foursquare venue ID, and a Twitter Place ID, to the iOS Maps app. Lastly, the iOS app could then present the user with detailed information about the location and allow for directions with assurance of accuracy.

    Got it? A picture might help.

    Basic POI information is becoming more commoditized. The value is now weighted higher in the special characteristics of a place, not its physical location in the world. There’s nothing proprietary and no "secret sauce" to the information that one of MapQuest’s offices is located at 300 Granite Run Drive, Lancaster, PA. And, the same applies for your favorite pizza place, least favorite dentist or the Empire State Building.

    If providers of place data allowed their location IDs and basic location information to be used as part of place-matching efforts, it’s my opinion (as shared during the SXSW panel), that place-data providers and other services could begin more easily aligning the same places across systems. As a developer, wouldn’t it be great to query a data set like MapQuest’s and get the IDs to that same place represented in other datasets like Gowalla, Yelp and Facebook as well?

    So Many Questions, So Much Opportunity

    My hope is that the conversation continues from here. There are so many opportunities for growth and collaboration, and below are just a few recommendations:

    How can you help?

    Data Service Providers:

    • Consider either:

      • Providing location/venue/spot/POI IDs for other services in the API responses to your own locations
      • Include flexibility in your terms-of-use to allow developers to use, share, and store your location IDs and align them with location IDs from other services using the basic geographic attributes of the record (lat/long., address, business name, etc.).

    Developers:

    • Ask your data and API providers to:

      • Provide Interoperable Location IDs
      • Allow you to build easy ways to associate yourself
      • Allow their IDs and basic geographic attributes to be freely published
    • Ask them to allow you to build easy ways to make associations available yourself
    • Ask them to allow their IDs and basic geography attributes to be freely published.

    My fellow panelists and I agreed to make an effort to create more visibility around this important topic. Kate has summarized her thoughts over on the GeoIQ blog in a post called "SXSW and Interoperable Location Data." You can also check out our panel in its entirety on the SXSW page for the "Interoperable Location Data" panel.

  7. Dec 9, 2010

    New Community Accounts for All!

    · Posted in: Platform

    Big news today as we introduce our new Community Accounts! So what are they, you ask? This new account replaces the current Free and Developer accounts with access to the best of both worlds. Current users have automatically been upgraded. Listed below are a few of these advantages.

    Or if you care to, please visit the new Terms of Service page. I know – who reads them? Certainly not developers!? I’ll summarize here but I’ll also feel better knowing you know where to go should you need more information.

    Better Geocoding

    All users now have access to Address Point Geocoding (APG) data. This data has added over 83 million addresses in the U.S. to our already extensive geocoding database and allows for more accurate placements of locations and addresses. These geocode results return a quality code of P1 for our SDKs v6.0 and above, and a quality code of L1 for v5.* and older with a coverage name “ntus_strpt“. If some of these response values look gibberish to you, don’t worry. Just refer to our Geocode Quality Code documentation for more details.

    Internal & Commercial Use

    For many developers, any kind of usage limitation or restriction can be the sole reason that prevents them from using a certain product. In an effort to reduce our own limitations, all users will now have the ability to use their AppKey in BOTH an internal and a production commercial application. A separate key is no longer necessary for this purpose.

    Also, if you wish to use the MapQuest Services in conjunction with any commercial application that isn’t publicly available without charge, please obtain permission first by contacting sales@mapquest.com with a description of your application and your intended distribution channels. Permission is not necessary for use with our Open Services.

    Open Initiatives

    So you may be wondering how this affects our Open Services. Well, absolutely nothing has changed here! Neither a community account nor an AppKey is required for the use of our OpenStreetMap tiles, Nominatim Search, Open Directions, or Open Elevation. However, we encourage developers to at least sign up for an account and take advantage of the resources found on the Open Forums and to ask questions and interact with others.

    With just a few of the advantages described above, we hope you now have an understanding of what Community Accounts are all about and why we’re excited to have finally released this for everyone. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re also constantly adding new features and services so be sure to check the MapQuest Developer Network often to get the most out of your Community Accounts!

  8. Oct 21, 2010

    Nominatim, Potlach2 and Tiger Edited Map on Developer Network

    · Posted in: Open Source, Platform, Services

    As per usual I have a ton of updates, and what seems to be very little time in which to write it all down.  Therefore, at a breakneck pace, and with a casual disregard for grammer and spulling.. here we go:

    For the record, OSM = OpenStreetMap – read about it on the first draft version of our MapQuest Guide to OpenStreetMap.

    Directions Service Update:

    Since last I blogged, we’ve added Oceania and India to the routing database – so you should be able to get directions in those areas. The directions data on the Open sites and on the developer web service now updates daily! (Hurrah!).   That seemed very short to write, and doesn’t quite convey the monumental effort involved in getting the daily updates working and stable.  If you are not yet familiar with the OSM-powered directions service, it can be found at http://open.mapquestapi.com/directions.

    Perth to Sydney

    directions from Perth to Sydney

    multi-piont route across India

    multi-point route across India

    Nomimatim Search Service:

    Nominatim is the main search web service used by OSM and developed by Brian Quinion.  Since pretty much anyone who wants to search OSM uses Nominatim, and the copy hosted on the OSM website needs to have usage limits, we thought it would be helpful to stand up a copy too, to share some of the load.  There are no usage limits at this time.  There is no need for keys or registration, and works exactly the same way as the one on OSM (because the point is that it IS the same as the one on OSM! Open Source FTW!)

    The Nominatim service can be found at http://open.mapquestapi.com/nominatim.

    It works just like any other web service – querystring parameters go in, and results come out in JSON or XML. If you don’t specify a format, you actually get a rather handy little search interface using openLayers.  Also, like the other web services we host, going to the base URL displays the documentation – so if ever you get lost figuring out how to use it, just back up the address until documentation appears.

    Potlatch 2 OSM Map Editor (Beta. Pre-Beta. More sorta Alpha.):

    We are now hosting a copy of Potlatch 2, the new (still very beta) OSM Map Editor tool as well.  The tool itself can be found at http://open.mapquestapi.com/dataedit/.  We’ve created a primer to give some basic help, found here on our Developer Network.

    Potlatch 2 is the new version of the flash-based map editing tool on OSM.  Anyone who is familiar with OSM and with editing the map, is probably familiar with Potlatch – it’s what comes up when you click the edit button above the map on OSM, and then lets you draw or move roads, add points of interest, and generally add to, or edit, the map itself.  As a side note (because I find it fascinating) Richard Fairhurst, the creator, called it Potlatch after the indian gift-giving ceremony.

    The new one has been (and still is) in development for quite some time, but is starting to get close to “prime time.”  It was featured last week on the Project Of the Week and caused much great feedback that the developers are applying, even as we speak.

    Potlatch 2 Editor

    Potlach 2 Editor

    It is important to understand that this editing tool is still very much under development, but it IS functional and usable.  It will be upgraded, enhanced, fleshed out, and have increasing documentation as we, and the community, contribute to its growth. Once again, its a completely open source tool, released under my absolutely favourite license.  No I’m not telling, go find it.  Anyone can contribute to its growth, or install it themselves on their own sites.

    For those who are new, and have never edited before, I feel I should ask for patience when it comes to signing up, and getting the editor registered.  Don’t panic, here’s a quick cheat sheet of what’s going on:

    1) In order to edit, you need to have an OSM account.  You can create one ahead of time by going here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/new.

    2) When you create that account, it will send you an email, that you must then confirm by clicking on the link in the email they will send to you.  When you confirm, it will open a page of account settings.  Don’t worry – you don’t have to do anything here (although its really cool if you do).

    3) When you sign into the Potlatch 2 editor for the first time, its going to give you a link that sends you back to the OSM website again – Log in on the OSM site with the name/password you just created, and OSM will ask you to confirm that you are OK with Potlatch 2 being able to do things for you.  Once you confirm that, you should be good to go.

    4) Congratulations! you are now part of the OSM community, and empowered to edit the map! I highly recommend reading the primer, and also checking out the map features page on the OSM Wiki.

    TIGER Edited Map Viewer:

    In 2007 the free US government map data (AKA TIGER) was imported into OSM.  Unfortunately that was a large amount of data, and a lot of it is inaccurate.

    Basically this map shows how much of the US map is unchanged from that original TIGER import in 2007 in red, and how much of the map has been touched by someone, since, in green.  Our goal, as members of the OSM community, is to turn all the red roads into green roads. You can read more about the project here.  You can go here to see the TIGER Edited Map Viewer

    A big thanks to Matt Amos who originally built this TIGER tool and has helped us reinstate it.

    TIGER Edited Map viewer
    TIGER Edited Map viewer

    If you use the Potlatch 2 editor, you can also turn the TIGER Edited Map on as a background layer to help you know which roads need attention.  There’s a few very simple things anyone can do to help clean up the map in their neighbourhood!

    • Turn on the aerial imagery background and make sure the streets are actually aligned with reality.
    • Un-abbreviate the street names (OSM likes fill street names – south instead of S. or Road instead of Rd).
    • Check that the road classification is good.  Many, many roads were imported with the tag “highway=residential” which is meant for streets full of houses (like suburbia) – when instead many of them should be “highway=tertiary” (larger streets that connect suburban developments for example) or “highway=service” and “service=alley” (this problem is especially rampant in city areas where all the alleys that run down the backs of the houses are incorrectly tagged).
    • For roads that end in turning circles, you can select the last point that makes up drawing the road, make sure its positioned in the center of the circle shown on the aerial imagery, and add the tag of “highway=turning_circle”.
    • Once you think the road is good, then find the tag on it that says “tiger:reviewed=no” and change it to say ‘Yes’…because you’ve just reviewed it!

    Unfixed alleys from TIGER import

    Alleys after they've been fixed

    Alleys after they've been fixed

    Well that’s all I’ve got for now.  Thanks to everyone involved in getting these things together and out, including Brian Quinion, Andy Allan, Matt Amos, Casey Doerschuk, Greg Knisely, Caryn Hughes, Artem Pavlenko, Bob Rudi, Joe Barbara, Hurricane Coast, Thea Clay, Kumiko Yamazaki, Duane Gearhart, Richard Fairhurst, Cameron Thomas, Tom Hughes, Jessica Feaster, Richard Weait, and Dave Stubbs amongst others.  As usual when I mention names, beat me up if I forgot yours, and I’ll buy you a frosty beverage as recompense.
  9. Sep 23, 2010

    Four new OSM sites, Draggable Routes, OSM Section on DevNet, and New Team Member

    · Posted in: Open Source, Platform

    New OpenStreetMap based sites localized by country

    We’ve got localization going on!  Four new Open Beta domains rolled out today:

    - http://open.mapquest.de – defaults to Germany as the map, and German as the language

    - http://open.mapquest.fr – centers on France, starts in French

    - http://open.mapquest.it – shows Italy in Italian

    - http://open.mapquest.es – tell you what, I’ll leave you to guess what this one does

    You can read more about the new sites over on the Consumer Blog.

    You can of course change your language setting on these sites, regardless of which one you are on (as described by Deb in this post) and pan the map anywhere in the world.  And, it’s powered by Nominatim, so you can search for anything, anywhere from any of the sites.

    New features

    Draggable Routes
    This release also adds draggable routes to all the Open sites, including the beta http://open.mapquest.co.uk site.  If you hover over the route ribbon after getting directions, you can drag the ribbon to go through different roads than we originally calculated. While you are dragging, you get a tooltip that tells you the time and distance of the new route.  Once you let go, your route is updated.  If you click on the little red dot in your route (it represents where you dragged your route ribbon to, and we call it a “via”) an infowindow pops up that allows you to convert it to a stop along your route.

    click, hold, and drag the route ribbon

    More Sharing Options
    The “Send To” section has been beefed up as we figure out how to get it all working with OSM data.  I personally find these features very useful to have, and I hope others do too:

    • Send to Facebook – You can share your maps & directions on Facebook.  If you haven’t already used the awesome ability to save collections of places, you should check out My Maps
    • Send to GPS – You can upload your maps or directions as waypoints and tracks directly to your GPS!
    • Send to Email – Enter multiple email addresses and send your maps and directions to people

    The Send To button lets you share your map in different ways

    So how’s THIS for a crazy scenario?

    • Run a route you intend to go mapping down.
    • Use the dragging feature to arrange it down the roads you want to go.
    • Save it to your My Maps section.
    • Use the Link function to get a link to the map and add to your mapping party wiki page.
    • Then send to email, to let other members of the mapping party know which area you intend to tackle.
    • Send to GPS to upload the trail to your GPS device that you go mapping with.
    • After the mapping party is done, the data is uploaded, and the map is updated (remember they update every 15 minutes), come back and share the new map out to your friends on Facebook to show what you did!

    In fact, since I intend to run the first Lancaster, PA  Mapping Party on October 14th, I think I will do EXACTLY that.

    Improved Search
    I’d also like to point out that the search results also show a vast improvement over our original launch.  A combination of our growing understanding of how to handle Nominatim results in our interface, combined with tweaks and enhancements by Twain have introduced the following noticeable effects:

    • You should no long get ANY ” unable to locate” results that you can’t click on to see on the map (if you see any, PLEASE send us feedback at open@mapquest.com and list the search phrase you used)
    • House numbers now show up if they are in the OSM data.
    • Improved understanding of names vs. places when searching (for example, “Pubs in London” was showing The London Pub in Somerset as our first result – Now it actually shows a pub in London!)

    For the developers & cartographers following along at home, we’ve also updated the map style again.  The awesome folks at Cartifact have provided us with a version of the high quality geoTiffs we use as background images on the furthest-out zoom levels of MapQuest.

    High Quality geoTiffs added to top level zoom tiles, and part of open source style

    I don’t feel a screenshot really does them justice, so I’d recommend checking them out live on the site (notice the cunning use of the Link feature to put you at a further-out zoom level than default).  The style has been updated on GitHub and the geoTiffs are available under the MIT license.   The style was also upgraded to native Mapnik 2 also known as Version 0.8.0, so you’ll want the latest source.  Major thanks to Artem and Gravitystorm for the heavy lifting in getting this done.

    Along the way we also found time to fix the scalebar so that it actually works now and shows both miles and KM; and, thanks to feedback from the OSM talk lists, we made it change size based on the latitude center of the map as you pan around (most noticeable, obviously, at further-out zoom levels as you pan north and south).

    As I said, these sites ARE Beta, so if you notice any weirdness (or have any other feedback) please let us know.  There are now three ways to provide us feedback.

    - Click on the Feedback link, top right above the map

    - Email open@mapquest.com

    - Post on our forums on the Developer Network

    This is a rather nice segue into telling you about the new pages on the developer network…

    New OpenStreetMap section on the MapQuest Developer Network

    If you go to the MapQuest Developer Network homepage, you’ll notice that there is an entirely new section called OpenStreetMap Initiatives.  I’ve kept the details up-to-date on the OSM wiki regarding what we have available, but we thought it would be good to gather everything in one place on our Developer Network too.  You will find a place for our map tiles that you are free to use, the Mapnik Style file we use, and the RESTful Directions Service that uses OSM data, and you’ll also find the new forums where you can post to discuss.

    Our goal is, obviously, to fill this section up with many more useful tools, so stay tuned in this area.

    New MapQuest Team Member!

    Last, but by no means least, I’m also very excited to announce that Hurricane Coast has joined our Open Initiative team!  She will be focused on the US improvement fund we announced at SOTM 2010.

    Before joining us, Hurricane has been very active in the OpenStreetMap community.  She has organized and held mapping parties in over 9 states, 6 countries, and 2 continents that I have been able to count so far, been part of the organizing committee for the State Of The Map Conference for the last 3 years, and is part of the OSM Communications Working Group, as well as having previously worked as a Community Ambassador in the United States.  I expect it won’t be long before she has banned me from blogging for crimes against literature and grammar, and started providing you with coherent and cogent posts herself!

    As always, stay tuned, there’s more to follow soon.

  10. Jul 23, 2010

    JavaScript v6 launched, MapQuest Platform v6 complete!

    · Posted in: Platform, SDK, Services

    The JavaScript SDK v6 is live! This completes our revamp of the MapQuest Platform from the ground up.

    MapQuest Platform v6 features new Web Services to easily implement mapping, routing, geocoding, geographic search and traffic using a REST-like API. On top of our new Web Services, we’ve rebuilt the JavaScript and ActionScript SDKs, streamlining our object model. We have also added new features such as enhanced wireless support, draggable routes and a custom object to quickly add a business locator.

    Draggable Routes

    Here is an overview of the platform, with details and links to more information below.

    MapQuest Platform v6

    Web Services – Overview Documentation

    -Pass name/value, JSON or XML in, get JSON or XML out

    Directions Web Service – Documentation

    -Easily access our patented routing algorithms

    -Calculate alternate routes

    -Display road shields in narrative

    -Tweak narrative to show border crossings, landmarks and side of street information

    -Let MapQuest optimize a multi-stop route, re-ordering the stops for a faster overall trip

    -Do one-to-many or many-to-many route matrix calculations

    -Add turn maps

    -Avoid highways, tolls, ferries, border crossings

    Geocoding Web Service – Documentation

    -Get accurate address resolution using both NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas street data, as well as address points

    -MapQuest’s precise 5 character result code tells you exactly how your address geocoded

    -Pass a bounding box to bias the results to addresses within that area

    -Get both a street lat/lng and a parcel centroid for point geocodes

    -Retrieve side of street information

    -Easily add thumbnail maps for ambiguities

    -Batch geocode up to 100 locations in one call

    -Reverse geocode

    Static Map Web Service – Documentation

    -Easily create map images with overlays, icons, declutter and traffic

    -Utilize different map styles

    -JPG, PNG or GIF at customizable sizes

    -Easy-to-use wizard to create map URLs

    Geographic Search Web Service – Documentation

    -Search by lat/lng, address or IP address

    -Search by radius, rectangle, polygon or corridor

    -Search by drive time/distance or walking time

    -Mix and match data sources, including hosted data, remote data and NAVTEQ mapping data

    -Utilize multiple POI tables to add restaurants, bars, airports, train stations and more

    Traffic Web Service – Documentation

    -Retrieve a list of incidents in a given area, both construction and traffic incidents

    -Retrieve flow overlay

    -Retrieve available markets

    New Overview Control

    SDKs – JavaScript and ActionScript (AS3/Flex)

    JavaScript SDK Documentation

    AS3 SDK Documentation

    -Wireless (including iPhone) support for draggable maps through the JS SDK

    -Draggable routes

    -No more proxy!

    -Overview control

    -Mouse wheel support

    -New declutter styles

    -Automatically add routes and search results to the map

    -Removes many of the separate calls for geocodes, record details and more

    About the Author

    Roman Hardgrave
    @MapQuestRoman I am the product manager for MapQuest Platform Services, including our APIs, web services and the Developer Network. I've worked at MapQuest for almost 10 years. I'm a full fledged geonerd who is excited to be working on the next generation of mapping APIs.

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