The exhibit floor at the GIS in the Rockies conference. Photo courtesy of Annette Ginocchetti.

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking about the MapQuest Directions API as a part of the Emerging Technologies track at the GIS in the Rockies conference. The conference, which was held at The Cable Center here in Denver, Colorado, is a large regional conference that focuses on many topics relevant to geospatial technologies, including geospatial web development, analysis, surveying, photogrammetry, and remote sensing.

My session, An in-depth look at the MapQuest Directions API, touched upon many of the features included in the Directions API that go beyond simple point-to-point routes and driving directions, such as:

• Multipoint routing
• Optimized routing
• Route control points
• Route matrix
• Corridor searching (with the MapQuest Search API)

We took a look at sample code, requests, responses, and talked about how to get started, since all of this great functionality is available to both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition developers today (yes, today!).

The conference was well done and certainly did not disappoint; in fact, it was inspiring to see the work being done by others in the industry and many of the sessions were informative and fun. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference. Only 360 more days to go!

If you need help with getting started or have questions about the Directions API, feel free to check out the forums on the Developer Network or tweet @MapQuestTech!

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.

The SplitViewNavigator in Flash Builder 4.6

Hello from cloudy and cool Los Angeles! Adobe MAX has been humming along so far and there’s a lot of excitement about the types of mobile applications possible with Adobe Flash Builder 4.5, as well as the improvements coming with Flash Builder 4.6.  Naturally with mobile apps come mapping, directions, traffic and more, and so far we’ve seen a warm welcome to our new Mobile Flash Maps API.

I set out at MAX to determine sentiment around the overall Flash Builder foray into mobile applications. The folks I spoke with were generally pleased and excited by the possibilities of coding once and deploying everywhere, not the least of which, significant cost savings. I had forgotten how much people love Flash Builder as a tool to design, build and debug applications – when compared with developing in other web languages, Flash really spoils you.

As far as actual mobile applications built with Flash Builder 4.5 in the market, the most notable is Politico. However, several folks I spoke with were in active development on some new apps, so the next 3-6 months should be interesting to watch.

The pre-release of Flash Builder 4.6 has generated a stir, most notably with the performance enhancements, native extensions, new mobile components and an improved deployment for Android so that users don’t have to separately install AIR. These first two features should really close the gap between what a Flash-built native app can do versus a natively coded app.

From my perspective, it’s exciting to be on the forefront of a technology that has such great potential. I’m pleased to see the features Adobe has in 4.6, as they match up well with MapQuest’s roadmap. (We’re trying to keep up with several great features of our own planned in the next several months.)

On a related note, we have a cool demo to share from WebMapSolutions. While we’ve built our own demo application (which Android users can install directly from Android Market), the good folks at WebMapSolutions have been working on several of their own. Check out the following video they put together of one of their apps.

Just a reminder, tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 5) at 10 a.m. we’ll do a deeper dive into the capabilities of the API and what’s next in our Unconference panel.

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.

• Searching for traffic incidents along a route
• Search by drive time or drive distance, either around a point or along a route
• Alternate routing
• Optimized routing (re-order stops to make the overall trip more efficient)
• Reverse geocoding
• Bicycle routing and elevation charts using open data

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)!

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.

Now get geocoding!

Using this service is really no different than directly calling for our driving, walking, or biking directions. Simply changing the routeType to ‘multimodal‘ will prompt MapQuest to begin searching for an optimal route combining pedestrian routes with transit routes.

Because transit data is also time-sensitive, some key parameters outlined on Date/Time Routing Options have been added and are required for the service to return a response. Seen below is an example of a transit route request using the Metro from the oft forgotten about and climbable (!!) Albert Einstein Memorial to the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.

http://open.mapquestapi.com/directions/v0/route?routeType=multimodal&timeType=1&outFormat=xml&from=38.892551,-77.048244&to=38.898137,-77.020928

As documented on the Date/Time Routing Options page, when the value of timeType is set to 1, the current time is sent to generate a transit route. Other options include choosing a certain day of the week and time, or selecting a specific date and time — all of which can have a major impact on the transit route returned.

Don’t forget to also check out the updated Advanced Routing Sample and give our API a test-drive!

Partial screenshot of the Advanced Routing Sample using the Open Directions API

Currently, transit directions are available for six major metropolitan areas: New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco in both our Directions API and the Open Directions API. Please feel free to provide feedback on our forums or @MapQuestTech while we look to increase the amount of transit data available and improve the service itself.

Happy Transit Commuting!