MapQuest Developer Network Blog

In addition to auditioning for sitcoms at the studios, MapQuest will be at the Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles, October 4th-7th. We'll be talking to developers, showing demos of our MapQuest Platform using the current 5.3 AS3 SDK and our upcoming 6.0 SDK (currently in Beta). My colleague Ant will also be demonstrating his ability to cry on cue for any casting directors in attendance.

We've also partnered with Adobe to power an Interactive Map of the area. The MapQuest-built Adobe Max Locator application will show conference goers nearby restaurants, hotels, conference shuttle locations, and other hot spots near the Los Angeles Convention Center, home to this year's event.

If you're heading to Adobe Max, stop by and say "Hi!" We'll be in Community Pavilion Booth #843, sitting next to you in the Sessions, or in line to audition for the parts of "Guys in Background" for an upcoming episode of "How I Met Your Mother."

So we have a bonanza of beta and preview updates to share with you. We've been busy making a number of updates to the MapQuest Platform and we've been creating new Web Services and revising our client-side SDKs.

Here's what we've got to show you today:

AS3 SDK 6.0 - NEW!

We're happy to introduce the preview release of our AS3 SDKs, Version 6.0. This rewrite makes the SDK more modular, create smaller final .swfs, and add and improve a number of new features like:

• POI Decluttering Refactored
• Our popular Globe View has been refactored and made a separate component. We've even added a handy feature to let the globe reorient itself when you've turned your world upside-down.
• New Control Component style (Ocean Breeze) to match the ones available on MapQuest.com
• Raster images are now remotely loaded. So your application only pulls in what's needed
• Overview map control added
• Mouse-wheel zoom controls and keyboard controls added
• We've added a vector-based POI star. It's scalable and color-customizable too.

Download and check out samples from our Beta page.

JavaScript SDKs 6.0 - UPDATED!

In this update, we've added:

• Route Options for tailoring your route
• Toggle Route Dragging on and off
• Basic mouse wheel support for zooming

Check out the updated documentation and samples here.

Long URL Web Service - NEW!

Today also marks the introduction of a new service which will allow you to manage large GET requests in Internet Explorer, which can't handle them. While we've put a lot of effort into making our URLs smaller and sane to the human eye, there are still scenarios where a complex request can get pretty beefy. Our new Long URL Web Service will automatically chunk-up the request and still be able to use a JSONP callback in the response.

Directions Web Service - UPDATED!

In our fourth feature release, we've now added draggable routes to the service. You now have the option of adding draggable routes through the Directions Web Service or our JavaScript SDK 6.0.

We've also added a Route Shape feature. This will allow you to return a route shape from a previous request without have to re-run the route.

Even more features and updates are in the works. Stay Tuned.

MapQuest will be attending Adobe Max next week in San Francisco. We'll be hanging out with the Adobe community and demonstrating the features and functionality of our AS3 and FUJAX APIs.

If you're going to Adobe Max, please stop by and say "Hi!" We'll be at booth #410 in the Community Pavilion.

One of the challenges all web developers face is future versions of platforms your application runs on. When a new browser or in this case version 10 of the Adobe Flash Player is on the horizon, it's good to run your application against it to see if any changes will need to be made before the new version goes to production and screens across the Web light up with messages of "An upgrade is available."

We've recently launched an unsupported version of our AS3 API for those of you working with Flash 10. Some developers have found that our 5.3 release and it's version checking of the Flash Player would cause errors to be thrown. This unsupported release (5.3.1_U) fixes that.

For the curious, it's an unsupported build because the Flash 10 player is still in development. This update will however allow you to run and test your applications on Flash 10 using the MapQuest AS3 API.

Oh, one other note: 5.3.1_U also was built for Adobe Flex 3 and AIR.

We also have unsupported versions of our C++ API for Mac OSX 10.5 (Intel) and a PHP API. You can download them on our Unsupported Tools page.

Shazou (Japanese for "mapping") is a great Firefox plug-in developed by Seisan to map and geolocate any web site currently being viewed. It's another helpful tool against phishing scams.

Shazou is powered by the MapQuest Platform: Free Edition AS3 API. Download it from the Shazou page on the Official Mozilla Firefox Add Ons site.