http://devblog.mapquest.com MapQuest Developer Blog http://devblog.mapquest.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://devblog.mapquest.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/MapQuestDevbloghttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/ajv4AuHFseA/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/18/time-dependent-routing-and-path-from-route-added-to-directions-s/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/18/time-dependent-routing-and-path-from-route-added-to-directions-s/#comments<style type="text/css"> .picture { background-color: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; padding: 3px; font: 11px/1.4em Arial, sans-serif; } .picture img { border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; vertical-align:middle; margin-bottom: 3px; } .right { margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em; float:right; } .left { margin: 0.5em 0.8em 0.5em 0; float:left; } </style> <p> We have two new features for the Directions Web Service Beta today. One of which is awesome and cool, and is rather obvious in what it does - That would be Time Dependent Routing. The second is incredibly powerful and complex, and is going to take a little time to explain, and that is Path From Route. </p> <h3>Time Dependent Routing</h3> <p>We've added new parameters to the Route function that let you tell us what time, and on what day, you want to start your directions. "Why would that matter?" I hear you ask. Well, the road network can change depending on the time of day. Sometimes a road is open, and sometimes it is not. Sometimes you can turn left at an intersection, and sometimes you can't. There's usually a sign at these lights telling you the hours you are allowed to turn left, and the hours you aren't. You normally only get to see them at the wrong time of day, sitting in a left turn lane with your indicator blinking, wondering how you are going to get back into traffic and what to do now you can't use the road you thought you could. We try to avoid giving people directions that would leave them stranded like that. However, now, by telling us when you plan to travel, we can take this into account and provide better directions that could get you there faster than if we didn't know when you were traveling.</p> <p>Make sense? good! ok, here's an example...</p> <div style="width: 257px;" class="picture left"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/restricted_turn2.png" alt="restricted turn" /><br /> Because you cannot turn left at certain times, normally we have to route you round the block to make sure you aren't stuck at a left turn you can't make </div> <div style="width: 257px;" class="picture left"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/nonrestricted_turn2.png" alt="unrestricted turn" /><br /> But if you tell the directions service that you are travelling at 4 PM on a saturday, we know you can turn left. </div> <p style="clear: both;"> </p> <p>You can see an interactive example in the documentation, by <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/directions/routetime.html" target="_blank">following this link</a>. Details on the parameters are <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/directions/#datetimeOptions" target="_blank">found here</a></p> <p style="clear: both;"> </p> <h3>Path From Route</h3> <p>OK, this could be hard to explain, so bear with me. If you have a bunch of points or places, and you have a route you are going to be traveling, this function takes them both, and will tell you how far away from your route each point is, and how long it will take to drive to each point from the nearest point on your route where you could actually leave it <em>AND</em> tells you the Lat/Lng of where you would leave your route to go to each place.</p> <p>Again, lets see if an example would help.</p> <div style="width: 407px;" class="picture left"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/lanc_baltimore.png" alt="Lancaster - Hershey, plus a bunch of random locations" /><br /> 1. Lets assume we are driving from Lancaster, PA to Hershey, PA. We have a bunch of Gas Stations (note: these are not real, but randomly generated for the example), and we want to know which ones are accessible within five driving minutes from our route </div> <div style="width: 407px;" class="picture left"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/lancbal_filtered.png" alt="Locations filtered for those which are with 5 minutes drive off of the route." /><br /> 2. So we tell the <code>PathFromRoute</code> function to compare these gas stations to our route. We also tell it that we are only interested in gas stations that we can get to in 5 minutes (we could also have said 5 miles, for a different result). the service will provide the necessary information to filter the gas stations. </div> <div style="width: 407px;" class="picture left"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/lancbal_subroute.png" alt="Showing the details that are returned by PathFromRoute" /><br /> 3. If we examine three of the points returned within 5 minutes of our route, we can see that for each point we receive the driving distance and time, as well as the latitude &amp; longitude of where to leave our original route to detour to the gas station. Using that Lat/Lng as a starting point, we can then generate the detour directions to the gas station. </div> <p style="clear: both;"> </p> <p>Still with me? Great!. Further details on the <code>PathFromRoute</code> function, as well as an interactive sample, can be <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/directions/pathfromroute.html" target="_blank">found here</a>.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/18/time-dependent-routing-and-path-from-route-added-to-directions-s/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19236394/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/18/time-dependent-routing-and-path-from-route-added-to-directions-s/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ajv4AuHFseA:JJJDWWASfMc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/ajv4AuHFseA" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-11-18T14:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/18/time-dependent-routing-and-path-from-route-added-to-directions-s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/D20DGJbxQ_A/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/12/web-2-0-geocoding-service-launched/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/12/web-2-0-geocoding-service-launched/#comments<p>Today we are very proud to announce that our new Geocoding Service has left Beta and has gone live to Production at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding">www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding</a></p> <p>This is our third web service we have pushed to Beta, iterated, and then released to production, since we first pushed out the Beta of the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapquestapi.com/directions">Directions Web Service</a> on July 20th. When you consider that we also have the <a target="_blank" href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap">Static Map Service</a> as well as version 6 of the <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases#js-sdk6.0">JavaScript </a>and <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases#as-sdk6.0">ActionScript</a> SDKs in Beta, I think that is a rather incredible pace we are maintaining!</p> <p>I'm not much of one for flowery words, so I'll let the product speak for itself.</p> <p>The MapQuest Platform: Geocoding Web Service allows you to access MapQuest geo-location data directly over <abbr title="Hypertext Transfer Protocol">HTTP</abbr> without having to go through a language-specific <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr>. Requests can be submitted as Key-Value pairs, <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>, <abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> and more. Responses do not have to match the request-type; mix-and-match to fit your development needs. Full documentation, forums, and other resources are available on the <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/geocoding-ws">Developer Network</a></p> <h2>Features</h2> <dl> <dt>Address Geocode function</dt> <dd>Provide either a single line address, or an address broken down into its component parts (5-line) and receive back potential addresses and lat/lngs, in order of confidence</dd> <dd>Here's an example of just how easy it is:</dd> <dd><code>http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/v1/address?key=YOUR_KEY_HERE&amp;location=Lancaster&amp;format=xml</code></dd> <dd>will return a result you can <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapquestapi.com/geocoding/v1/address?key=Dmjtd|lu612007nq%2C20%3Do5-50zah&amp;location=Lancaster&amp;format=xml">view here</a></dd> <dd>or, if you want to be particularly impressed by how easy it is to use, try out the little geocoding form I built right into the blog post! now THATS COOL!! I've deliberately picked a default town name that returns ambiguities - did you even know there were four towns in Georgia all named Four Points? Why don't you give your town name a try, but without entering the state, just to see how many other towns with the same name exist in the country.</dd> <script src="http://devblog.mapquest.com/include/geocodesample.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <dd> <div id="basicSampleUrl"> </div> <p><input type="text" value="four points, GA" id="txtLocation" size="30" /><button onclick="mq.bp.getGeocode(document.getElementById('txtLocation').value);" id="test1-run">Run</button> (Results will be displayed below)</p> <div id="narrative"> </div> </dd> <dt>Reverse Geocode function</dt> <dd>Provide a Latitude and Longitude, and receive back the known address information of that location.</dd> <dt>Batch Geocode function</dt> <dd>Geocode up to 100 locations at once in a single batch function call. You can also receive the output in a delimited-text file for easy importing into Excel or a database.</dd> <dt>Reflected User-provided values</dt> <dd>Add your own data into the location object on your request, and receive it back in the response. Great for helping you maintain state in your application, and for keeping your own information about the location packaged together for your application.</dd> <dt>ViewPort Biasing</dt> <dd>If you provide a Map Bounds as part of your geocode call, ambiguity results within the map bounds will be moved to the top of the results list. So if you have someone already staring at a map, this greatly improves the chance that the place they are looking for is the top result</dd> <dt>ccTLD Biasing (Country Code Domains)</dt> <dd>If you don't provide a country for the address, the country will default to the domain of the web address making the geocoding request. For example, if you make a request from http://www.myAwesomeSite.co.fr, we will default the country to France unless you tell us differently.</dd> <dt>Thumbnail Ambiguity maps</dt> <dd>Each ambiguity result can return a static map URL that provides a thumbnail image of the ambiguous location, if you wish to display these to end-users for some context when disambiguating.</dd> <dt>Delimited File Output</dt> <dd>For any of the geocoding service functions, you can specify outFormat=file and a delimiter=of Comma(,) Pipe(|) Colon(:) or semi-colon(;). The service will then return a delimited text file including a header row. This should be especially useful for the batch geocoding function</dd> </dl> <h3>Stay Tuned for more updates</h3> <p>More updates to Beta, and more Production roll-outs to come before the end of the year - we're not done yet</p> <p>Please remember to <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/rss.xml">subscribe to the RSS feed</a>, follow <a href="http://twitter.com/mapquest">MapQuest on Twitter</a>, or become a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/MapQuest">Fan of MapQuest on Facebook</a> by clicking the links at the top-right of the page. Thanks!</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/12/web-2-0-geocoding-service-launched/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19232306/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/12/web-2-0-geocoding-service-launched/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=D20DGJbxQ_A:x5QIQRFOQ-Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/D20DGJbxQ_A" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-11-12T12:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/12/web-2-0-geocoding-service-launched/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/BTLWpi7-j2g/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/09/a-ton-of-updates-for-static-map-service-and-geocoding-in-beta/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/09/a-ton-of-updates-for-static-map-service-and-geocoding-in-beta/#comments<p>The Geocoding and Static Map Service teams have provided another update with more feature enhancements and improvements. We hope you like them, try them, and find them useful. Please remember to provide feedback on the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases/forums" target="_blank">Beta Forums</a> if you find the time. Ok, enough chit-chat! On with the features...</p> <p>More details on the features listed below are always found on the <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/beta">Developer Network Beta page</a><br /></p> <h2>Geocoding Service</h2> <h3>Delimited Text File Output</h3> <p>We've added a new format to the geocoding service of <code>outFormat=file</code>. It can be used for geocoding, reverse geocoding, and batch geocoding. The response will be a text file containing your results. </p> <p>You can specify the delimiter you want out of a list that includes commas, pipes, colons, and semi-colons - so, for example <code>delimiter=|,</code></p> <p>The file also contains a header row, so you should find yourself with a nice import into a database or a spreadsheet. The hope is that those using the Batch Geocode function will find this very useful</p> <h2>Static Map Service</h2> <h3>New Function: Place Map!</h3> <p>A new <code>/getPlaceMap?location=</code> function has been added to the Static map service that easily allows you to get a map for any place you know the address of without having to worry about using the geocoding service to get the latitude / longitude.</p> <p>It takes a single location, map size, and zoom level. You can provide a single icon if you want a POI on the map to show the exact location.</p> <p>One item to note: because the return is an image, we can't provide an ambiguities list like we can in the Directions Service. We always take the top of the ambiguous results (the one with the highest granularity and confidence) and use that for the image</p> <h3>Auto Best Fit</h3> <p> This one is very simple! If you have a group of POIs on the map and do NOT provide us with a zoom level of a center Lat/Lng, the returned map will be fitted around your POIs at the closest zoom to fit them all in.</p> <h3>Just Declutter it please!</h3> <p>We've added a <code>declutter=true</code> parameter to the static map as well, so you no longer have to provide all the pixel X/Y offsets. Instead, just set declutter to "true" and the service will handle it all. Because of this change, all the pixel X/Y offset values have been made Optional. </p> <h3>Additional Map Styles</h3> <p>Another new parameter now unlocks different map styles. <code>style=</code> provides black &amp; white, classic, European styles, and others. Check the documentation for the full list</p> <p><img hspace="4" border="1" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/bwmap.jpg" alt="" /><br /></p> <p><img hspace="4" border="1" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/11/eurostyle.jpg" id="img1" alt="" /></p> <h3>Other Static Map Additions</h3> <p>We've made quite a few other tweaks to the Static Map Service too:</p> <ul> <li>Added support for Compressed Line overlays using a shapeFormat parameter</li> <li>The MapType parameter now defaults to Map</li> <li>POI Offset values are now optional</li> <li>Minimum Map Size restrictions have been removed</li> </ul> <h3>Thats all folks</h3> <p>More to come soon! The end of the year draws nigh and we're looking to finish it out on a high note by sustaining our current pace of betas and production roll-outs, so stay tuned and check back frequently.</p> <p>Almost forgot - my erstwhile companion in crime on this blog, Josh, has asked me to remind everyone to <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/rss.xml">subscribe to the RSS feed</a>, follow <a href="http://twitter.com/mapquest">MapQuest on Twitter</a>, or become a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/MapQuest">Fan of MapQuest on Facebook</a> by clicking the links at the top-right of the page. Thanks!</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/09/a-ton-of-updates-for-static-map-service-and-geocoding-in-beta/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19229166/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/09/a-ton-of-updates-for-static-map-service-and-geocoding-in-beta/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=BTLWpi7-j2g:97zLaGjJLCI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/BTLWpi7-j2g" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-11-09T16:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/11/09/a-ton-of-updates-for-static-map-service-and-geocoding-in-beta/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/CWQTuzR_RFE/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/new-mapquest-map-style-added-to-js-and-as3-sdks-in-beta/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/new-mapquest-map-style-added-to-js-and-as3-sdks-in-beta/#comments<p>You may have noticed that <a target="_blank" href="http://mapquest.com">MapQuest.com</a> has a new style to its maps today. We're celebrating this launch on the SDK team by pushing an extra special update to the JavaScript and ActionScript 6.0 SDKs in Beta to enable the new map style.<br /><br />While we're at it, we also added a few other things to the JavaScript SDK. Namely:</p> <ul> <li>A new Overview Map control you can add to the main map</li> <li>A documentation overhaul for presentation</li> <li>New Documentation sections, including how to do your own custom POIs</li> </ul> <p>Check the <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/beta">Developer Network Beta section</a> for the latest AS3 Packages (AS3 Release 3) and for JavaScript include string and docs (JS Release 4).</p> <p>And now, because a picture can paint a thousand words - a totally gratuitous amount of screenshots!</p> <p>If you like these, you can see more, and read more, on the <a href="http://blog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/mapquest-introduces-our-new-map-styles-and-more/" target="_blank">main MapQuest Blog</a><br /></p> <style type="text/css"> .picture { background-color: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; padding: 3px; font: 11px/1.4em Arial, sans-serif; } .picture img { border: 1px solid #CCCCCC; vertical-align:middle; margin-bottom: 3px; } .right { margin: 0.5em 0pt 0.5em 0.8em; float:right; } .left { margin: 0.5em 0.8em 0.5em 0; float:left; } </style> <div class="picture left" style="width: 557px;"> <img alt="The New North America (Zoom Level 2)" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/mainmap.png" /> <br />The New North America (Zoom Level 2). </div> <br /> <div class="picture left" style="width: 558px;"> <img alt="The new map style with Globe View turned on in the AS3 map toolkit" id="img3" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/globe.png" /> <br />The new map style with Globe View turned on in the AS3 SDK. </div> <br /> <div class="picture left" style="width: 556px;"> <img alt="New map Style with the Overview Map control in the JavaScript SDK" id="img1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/overviewmap_sm2.png" /> <br />New map Style with the Overview Map control in the JavaScript SDK.</div> <br /> <div class="picture left" style="width: 556px;"> <img alt="New Map Style with a Draggable Route added and in mid-drag" id="img2" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/dragmap_sm2.png" /> <br />New Map Style with a Draggable Route added and in mid-drag. </div><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/new-mapquest-map-style-added-to-js-and-as3-sdks-in-beta/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19214134/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/new-mapquest-map-style-added-to-js-and-as3-sdks-in-beta/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=CWQTuzR_RFE:9kOLsafbpeo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/CWQTuzR_RFE" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-10-29T15:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/29/new-mapquest-map-style-added-to-js-and-as3-sdks-in-beta/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/G3B_GI1caSw/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/27/draggable-routes-for-actionscript-now-in-beta/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/27/draggable-routes-for-actionscript-now-in-beta/#comments<p>Not to be outdone by the <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/">latest beta releases from the Services Team</a> the SDK team have a brand new Directions module for the Actionscript/Flex SDK that uses the new <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapquestapi.com/directions/">Directions Service</a> already in production.</p> <h3>ActionScript SDK Updates</h3> <p>Available on the <a target="_blank" href="http://developer.mapquest.com/beta">Developer Network Beta page</a>.</p> <dl><dt>Completely new Directions module</dt> <dd>There is a new Directions.swc which replaces all the routing functionality previously found in the AdvantageApi.swc - this is a complete overhaul and upgrade to the object model and how you use it - it is now MUCH MUCH simpler and saner - and smaller!</dd> <dt>Simplified Routing Function</dt> <dd>Create a route object, pass in your locations, provide your map object, and watch the route ribbon and stop-icons appear on the map automagically. Provide an event handler to receive the directions narrative. Done!. <br />If you are a power-user type, you can dive under the covers to provide all the different options available from the underlying <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapquestapi.com/directions/">Directions Service</a> or customize the look and feel of the route ribbon and stop-icons that are added to the map.</dd> <p>The code would look something like this:</p> <code> </code> </dl><blockquote><dl> <pre>this.myMap = new TileMap("YOUR_KEY_HERE");<br />//create an array of locations<br />var arrLocations:Array = new Array();<br />arrLocations = ['Lancaster, PA', 'York, PA'];<br /><br />//create the Directions object, hand in map object and locations array<br />this.dir = new Directions(myMap, arrLocations);<br />//Success Listener - handle the narrative here<br />dir.addEventListener(DirectionsEvent.DIRECTIONS_SUCCESS, doSuccess);<br /><br />//get the route<br />dir.route(); </pre> </dl></blockquote><dl> <dt>Draggable Routes!</dt> <dd>If you want your users to be able to drag the route, then on the directions object, just add <code>dir.ribbonIsDraggable = true;</code> before asking for the route - at the end of each drag, your directions success event handler is called again so you can handle the updated narrative - that's it. done!</dd><dt></dt> <dd style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="static map screenshot" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/dragas3.png" /> </dd> <br /> <dt>Optimized Routing</dt> <dd>With Optimized Routing, all of the stops between the first and last are reordered for the shortest overall distance or drive time, giving the most efficient path for visiting several locations on a single journey. Instead of calling the <code>dir.route();</code> function, use the <code>dir.optimizedRoute();</code> to get an optimized route. </dd> <dt>Route Matrix</dt> <dd>A Route Matrix request in the Directions Web Service will return a quick and easy calculation of the distances and drive times between a bunch of points. Nothing gets added to the map, the results are returned to your success listener, but you set up the directions object in the same way as a regular route and then call, for example, <code>dir.routeMatrix();</code> instead. </dd> </dl> <h3>Stay Tuned!</h3> <p>Work continues as we revitalize, enhance, upgrade, streamline, and simplify our web services and SDKs. It remains our goal to roll out each project to beta at the end of every sprint if possible (some things take more than one sprint). I hope to be back here soon with a nother blog post announcing more cool things</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/27/draggable-routes-for-actionscript-now-in-beta/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19210001/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/27/draggable-routes-for-actionscript-now-in-beta/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G3B_GI1caSw:tVr5I-xcOP8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/G3B_GI1caSw" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-10-27T06:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/27/draggable-routes-for-actionscript-now-in-beta/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/MsG4fD-jHAI/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/#comments<p>Hot on the heels of <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/">last week's releases</a> we have another two Beta updates.</p> <h3>Geocoding Web Service Updates</h3> <p>Available at <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/geocoding" target="_blank">http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/geocoding</a>.</p> <br /> <dl> <dt>Overhauled Documentation</dt> <dd>First thing you'll notice is overhauled documentation and better examples for the previously available functions of geocode and reverse geocode. It should now match the style of the other services.</dd> <dt>Batch Geocoding</dt> <dd>We've added a new function that lets you geocode up to 100 addresses at once. Each address has its own ambiguity list returned in the results.</dd> <dt>Map Biasing</dt> <dd>If you provide a Map Bounds with your geocode request, then we will move the ambiguity results that are within the map area to the top of the list. For example, if you geocode the city of Lancaster, and prove a map bounds which contains south central <abbr title="Pennsylvania">PA</abbr>, then Lancaster, <abbr title="Pennsylvania">PA</abbr> will be at the top of the return list instead of Lancaster, <abbr title="California">CA</abbr>.</dd> <dt>ccTLD Biasing</dt> <dd>We now default the first country used for geocoding to the country code found in your top level domain, instead of always to the <abbr title="United States">U.S.</abbr> For example, if your website is "myAwesomeSite.co.fr" we'll try geocoding in France first, instead of in the <abbr title="United States">U.S.</abbr> You can of course always override this merely by providing us the country as part of the address.</dd> <dt>Ambiguity Static Maps</dt> <dd>We've hooked the geocoding service up to the Static map service. Now, each ambiguity in the results also has a URL that provides a simple static map of the ambiguous location</dd> <dd style="text-align:center"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/geo_sm.png" alt="static map screenshot" /> </dd> </dl> <br /> <h3>Static Map Web Service Updates</h3> <p>Available at <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap" target="_blank">http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap</a>.</p> <br /> <dl> <dt>Custom Icons</dt> <dd>You can now provide us with the URLs of your own custom icons for use on the static Maps. Because we cache the icons for performance, there is a new function to flush an icon from our cache, in case you update the icon.</dd> <dd style="text-align:center"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/customicon.png" alt="custom icon screenshot" /> </dd> <dt>New Image Formats</dt> <dd>You can now get static maps as <code>.jpeg</code>, <code>.png</code>, or <code>.gif</code> formats. the new parameter is <code>imagetype=</code>.</dd> <dt>All Icons Available from <code>pois=</code> Parameter</dt> <dd>All the icons used by the <code>mcenter</code>, <code>pcenter</code>, <code>scenter</code>, <code>ecenter</code>, and <code>stop</code> parameters are also now available as icon names for the <code>pois=</code> parameter.</dd> </dl> <br /> <h3>More to Follow Coming Soon!</h3> <p>As we continue to iterate on our projects, we are striving to maintain a schedule of releasing new versions to beta every two weeks, with new features, bug fixes, and upgraded documentation, until the projects are complete and roll out to production. Stay tuned for more beta versions coming over the next weeks.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19200721/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MsG4fD-jHAI:n2Bq_J8IOcQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/MsG4fD-jHAI" height="1" width="1"/>Antony Pegg2009-10-19T12:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/19/batch-geocoding-and-static-map-custom-icons-in-beta/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/6ry4kTeC5Kk/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/#comments<p>Along with today's relaunch of the <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/">MapQuest Developer Network</a>, we're also launching two new products to go with it.</p> <h3>Directions Web Service</h3> <p>First is our new <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/directions-ws">Directions Web Service</a>, which frees you of having to use a language-specific <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr> for directions data and provides maximum flexibility in how you integrate those directions into your application.</p> <p>Features include:</p> <ul> <li> Basic and Advanced Routing </li> <li> Route Matrix </li> <li> Draggable Routes </li> </ul> <h3>Long <abbr>URL</abbr> Web Service</h3> <p>One of the issues with Internet Explorer is that it has a 2048 character limit for <abbr>URL</abbr>s. This is problematic for long GET requests, since the <abbr>URL</abbr> could be truncated and cause an invalid request.</p> <p>The <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/long-url-ws">Long <abbr>URL</abbr> Web Service</a> provides a solution to this by allowing your request to be split up in chunks. We then provide a single response.</p> <h3>Easy to Use</h3> <p> Both of these products kick off our new approach to helping developers. The documentation also contains the working code samples with source code, and all of it lives along-side the service. </p> <h3>More to Come</h3> <p>More Web Services are in the works. Check out the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases">Beta section</a> of the MapQuest Developer Network to try out our <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases#gws">Geocoding Web Service</a> and our <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases#smws">Static Map Web Service</a>.</p> <p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19182799/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6ry4kTeC5Kk:t47dr1MkHyw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/6ry4kTeC5Kk" height="1" width="1"/>directionsdirections web servicedirectionswebservicelong url web servicelongurlLongUrlWebServicewhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-10-12T11:20:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-directions-web-service-and-long-url-web-service-release/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/Ip9cIiSnOvM/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/#comments<h3>DevNet Next</h3> <p> MapQuest is happy to announce the launch of a completely rebuilt and revised <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com">MapQuest Developer Network</a>. Our goal is to make it easy for the growing development community to get started with the <a href="http://platform.mapquest.com">MapQuest Platform</a> and for experienced developers to find what info they need fast. </p> <h3>What's New</h3> <dl> <dt> Documentation Made Easy </dt> <dd> Our new <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products">Web Services</a> and upcoming <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/beta-releases">6.0 SDKs</a> will have a simpler and concise set of documentation so you can view instructions, variables, samples, and source code all at-a-glance. </dd> <dt> Consolidated Application Management </dt> <dd> Your applications are now attached to <a href="http://www.mapquest.com/mysavedmaps">MapQuest My Places</a>. No more tracking multiple sets of credentials for the various MapQuest applications you manage. Access all of your account settings, tools, and resources from one place. If you were a user of our <abbr title="Technical Resource Center">TRC</abbr>, we've provided an easy way to <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/mapquest-trc">migrate your accounts</a>. </dd> <dt> Reorganized Site; Cleaner Interface </dt> <dd> Site content is now organized by product and technology, each with a dedicated forum to discuss topics with other developers. The site also has a cleaner look. </dd> </dl> <br /> <p style="text-align:center"> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/devnet-menus.gif" alt="devnet screens" class="border1" /></a> </p> <h3>Check It Out</h3> <p>Please give our updated <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com">Developer Network</a> a look and <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/contact">let us know what you think</a>.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19182664/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=Ip9cIiSnOvM:ejokpzeIXkA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/Ip9cIiSnOvM" height="1" width="1"/>apicodedevelopdeveloperdevelopersdevelopmentdirectionsdirections web servicedirectionswebservicegeocodingmappingsdkweb servicesWebServiceswhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-10-12T11:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/12/mapquest-developer-network-relaunched/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/G-USHzKs-3k/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/05/javascript-sdk-6-0-beta-now-with-iphone-events/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/05/javascript-sdk-6-0-beta-now-with-iphone-events/#comments<p> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/10/iphone-js-sdk6.jpg" alt="iPhone Screenshot" style="float:right; margin: 0 0 10px 5px" />We've had a lot of excitement this month with multiple launches and cool projects. We wanted to make sure that we also highlight our recently updated <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#js-sdk6.0-3">JavaScript 6.0 <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr> Beta</a>. In the latest build, we've got some great additions to the feature set:</p> <ul> <li> Overlay support, including <code>CircleOverlay</code> for quickly showing a radius </li> <li> Routes can now be run without needing a map </li> <li> Wrapper functions for easy access to the Directions Web Service <code>RouteMatrix</code> call </li> </ul> <p>The big new feature this time is <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0/js/p3/iphone.html">support for iPhone/Mobile Safari events</a> such as <code>pinchToZoom</code>. When Mobile Safari is detected, the support module is automatically included, registering touch events.</p> <p>In a few lines of code, you can also take advantage of the geolocation services in the device and default your map the the user's location.</p> <pre> navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition( function(position) { map.setCenter( { lat: position.coords.latitude, lng: position.coords.longitude } ); } ); </pre> <p> More news and announcements coming soon. Stay tuned. </p> <p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/05/javascript-sdk-6-0-beta-now-with-iphone-events/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19182616/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/05/javascript-sdk-6-0-beta-now-with-iphone-events/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=G-USHzKs-3k:FWOuUIYFgNA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/G-USHzKs-3k" height="1" width="1"/>apidirectionsdirections web servicedirectionswebserviceiphonejavascriptoverlaysroutingsdkwhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-10-05T09:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/10/05/javascript-sdk-6-0-beta-now-with-iphone-events/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/6Cju_HyKygA/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/30/we-love-l-a-meet-us-at-adobe-max/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/30/we-love-l-a-meet-us-at-adobe-max/#comments<p>In addition to auditioning for sitcoms at the studios, MapQuest will be at the <a href="http://max.adobe.com">Adobe Max conference</a> in <a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps/los-angeles-ca">Los Angeles</a>, October 4th-7th. We'll be talking to developers, showing demos of our MapQuest Platform using the current <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Library/SDK_Documentation/AS3">5.3 <abbr title="ActionScript 3">AS3</abbr> <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr></a> and our upcoming <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#as-sdk6.0">6.0 <abbr title="Software Development Kit">SDK</abbr> (currently in Beta)</a>. My colleague Ant will also be demonstrating his ability to cry on cue for any casting directors in attendance.</p> <p>We've also partnered with Adobe to power an Interactive Map of the area. The MapQuest-built <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/maxlocator/">Adobe Max Locator application</a> will show conference goers nearby restaurants, hotels, conference shuttle locations, and other hot spots near the <a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps?name=Los+Angeles+Convention+Ctr&amp;city=Los+Angeles&amp;state=CA&amp;address=1201+S+Figueroa+St&amp;zipcode=90015&amp;country=US&amp;latitude=34.041876&amp;longitude=-118.266874&amp;geocode=ADDRESS&amp;id=10762148">Los Angeles Convention Center</a>, home to this year's event.</p> <p style="text-align:center"> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/maxlocator/"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/09/locator.jpg" alt="Adobe Max Locator" style="height:365px;width:340px;" class="border1" /></a> </p> <p>If you're heading to Adobe Max, stop by and say "Hi!" We'll be in Community Pavilion Booth <strong>#843</strong>, sitting next to you in the Sessions, or in line to audition for the parts of "Guys in Background" for an upcoming episode of "<a href="http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/">How I Met Your Mother</a>."</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/30/we-love-l-a-meet-us-at-adobe-max/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19179590/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/30/we-love-l-a-meet-us-at-adobe-max/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=6Cju_HyKygA:x3vbaXjDyXc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/6Cju_HyKygA" height="1" width="1"/>adobeapias3flashflexsdkwhere:los-angeles-caJosh Babetski2009-09-30T13:30:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/30/we-love-l-a-meet-us-at-adobe-max/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/xnf8Qn1GhkA/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/14/geocoding-and-static-map-web-services-now-in-beta/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/14/geocoding-and-static-map-web-services-now-in-beta/#comments<p>In recent weeks we've had a string of updates talking about new services and features we've been working on. Today we've got two new Web Services we're releasing into beta and a feature update for the Beta <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#dws">Directions Web Service</a>.</p> <h3>Geocoding Web Service</h3> <p>We're jazzed to release the <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/geocoding/">Geocoding Web Service</a> into beta. You can now make a simple request containing an address and the service will return a latitude and longitude.</p> <p><code> http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/geocode/v1/address<br /> ?location=lancaster%20pa<br /> &amp;key=YOUR_KEY_HERE<br /> </code></p> <p>You can also make a request containing the Latitude and longitude and we'll tell you the address of that location.</p> <p><code> http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/geocode/v1/reverse<br /> ?lat=40.0378<br /> &amp;lng=-76.305801<br /> &amp;key=YOUR_KEY_HERE<br /> </code></p> <h3>Static Map Web Service</h3> <p>While interactive and draggable maps are useful for many things, sometimes a good ol' single map image is what's needed for your application. While we've made these maps available for well over a decade, you can now build them using our new <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap/">Static Map Web Service</a>. This allows you to easily create, configure, and return a map image. this includes adding <abbr title="points-of-interest">POI</abbr> icons, traffic data, or shapes to you maps.</p> <p>This also means you can easily embed a map into any web page without writing or embedding any code. Just insert the map like any other image.</p> <p><code> http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap/v3/getmap<br /> ?type=map<br /> &amp;size=400,200<br /> &amp;zoom=7<br /> &amp;center=40.054600,-76.313100<br /> &amp;key=YOUR_KEY_HERE<br /> </code></p> <p style="text-align:center"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/09/staticmap.jpg" alt="static map" class="border1" /> </p> <h3>Directions Web Service</h3> <p>Powered by our new <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/staticmap/">Static Map Web Service</a>, you can now return a static map image for each maneuver of a route narrative. Like on MapQuest.com, this will allow you to show your users a map containing additional detail of the transition to their route.</p> <p style="text-align:center"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/09/maneuvermap.gif" alt="maneuver map" class="border1" /> </p> <p>More information is available on our <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta">Developer Network Beta page</a> and included in the <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/">MapQuest Platform: Web Services Documentation</a>.</p> <p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/14/geocoding-and-static-map-web-services-now-in-beta/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19158742/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/14/geocoding-and-static-map-web-services-now-in-beta/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=xnf8Qn1GhkA:-MzaamBR4IY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/xnf8Qn1GhkA" height="1" width="1"/>betadirectionsdirectionswebservicegeocodegeocodingstatic mapsStaticMapswhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-09-14T09:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/09/14/geocoding-and-static-map-web-services-now-in-beta/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/MkoAZMWULcs/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/25/blog-post-referring-to-the-sxsw-panel/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/25/blog-post-referring-to-the-sxsw-panel/#comments<p> <a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/index/interactive/company:mapquest" target="_blank"> <img src="http://sxsw.com/files/SXSWPanelPicker-lg.png" alt="Vote for our PanelPicker Ideas!" style="float:right;margin:0 0 10px 10px;" /> </a> MapQuest is on the road to <a href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps/austin-tx">Austin, Texas</a> - hopefully to speak on panels at <a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive"><abbr title="South by Southwest">SXSW</abbr> Interactive</a>. Over on our sister blog for MapQuest.com, we've got an overview of the two panels we're stumping for votes:</p> <p><a href="http://blog.mapquest.com/2009/08/24/where-we-solicit-for-2010-sxsw-interactive-panel-votes/">The Blog Post Where We Solicit for 2010 SXSW Interactive Panel Votes</a></p> <p>If you already know how SXSW works and want to jump straight to the voting, here's the panel info:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3415"><b>Time + Social + Location. What's Next In Mobile Experiences?</b></a><br /> Panelists include experts from: <ul> <li><a href="http://dashboard.aim.com/aim"><abbr title="AOL Instant Messenger">AIM</abbr></a></li> <li><a href="http://brightkite.com">Brightkite</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.fortiusone.com/">FortiusOne</a> / <a href="http://www.geocommons.com/">GeoCommons</a></li> <li><a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/geo/">Yahoo! Geo</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3013"><b>Social Breadcrumbing - Tying Networks Together by Phone</b></a></li> </ul> <p>Thanks for the <a href="http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/index/interactive/company:mapquest">PanelPicker votes</a> and see you in Austin!</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/25/blog-post-referring-to-the-sxsw-panel/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19138851/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/25/blog-post-referring-to-the-sxsw-panel/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=MkoAZMWULcs:Q2pL9JjIoow:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/MkoAZMWULcs" height="1" width="1"/>aimbrightkiteconferencefortiusonegeocommonslocationpanelsocialspeakerssxswsxsw2010twittervotingwhere:austin-txwhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-payahoogeoJosh Babetski2009-08-25T13:30:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/25/blog-post-referring-to-the-sxsw-panel/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/2x0xovFN96w/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/19/big-beta-updates-fun-globes-colorful-stars-zooming-mice-chun/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/19/big-beta-updates-fun-globes-colorful-stars-zooming-mice-chun/#comments<p>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.</p> <p>Here's what we've got to show you today:</p> <h3><abbr title="ActionScript 3">AS3</abbr> <abbr title="software development kits">SDK</abbr> 6.0 - NEW!</h3> <p>We're happy to introduce the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#as-sdk6.0">preview release of our <abbr title="ActionScript 3">AS3</abbr> <abbr title="software development kits">SDKs</abbr>, Version 6.0</a>. This rewrite makes the SDK more modular, create smaller final .swfs, and add and improve a number of new features like:</p> <ul> <li> <abbr title="Points of Interest">POI</abbr> Decluttering Refactored </li> <li> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0/as/6_0_0_RC2/ASFXSamples/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/08/globeviewmapcoontrol.jpg" alt="globe view / ocean breeze controls screen" style="float:right; margin: 5px 0 5px 5px" /></a>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. </li> <li> New Control Component style (Ocean Breeze) to match the ones available on MapQuest.com </li> <li> Raster images are now remotely loaded. So your application only pulls in what's needed </li> <li> Overview map control added </li> <li> Mouse-wheel zoom controls and keyboard controls added </li> <li> We've added a vector-based <abbr title="Points of Interest">POI</abbr> star. It's scalable and color-customizable too. </li> </ul> <p style="text-align:center"> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0/as/6_0_0_RC2/ASFXSamples/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/08/vectorstar.gif" alt="vector stars" /></a> </p> <p>Download and check out <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0/as/6_0_0_RC2/ASFXSamples/">samples</a> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#as-sdk6.0">from our Beta page</a>.</p> <h3>JavaScript <abbr title="software development kits">SDKs</abbr> 6.0 - UPDATED!</h3> <p>In this update, we've added:</p> <ul> <li>Route Options for tailoring your route</li> <li>Toggle Route Dragging on and off</li> <li>Basic mouse wheel support for zooming</li> </ul> <p>Check out the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0/js/p2/">updated documentation and samples here</a>.</p> <h3>Long URL Web Service - NEW!</h3> <p>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 <abbr>URLs</abbr> smaller and sane to the human eye, there are still scenarios where a complex request can get pretty beefy. Our new <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/longurl/">Long URL Web Service</a> will automatically chunk-up the request and still be able to use a <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation with Padding">JSONP</abbr> callback in the response.</p> <h3>Directions Web Service - UPDATED!</h3> <p>In our fourth feature release, we've now added draggable routes to the service. You now have the option of adding <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#drag">draggable routes through the Directions Web Service</a> or our <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/">JavaScript SDK 6.0</a>.</p> <p>We've also added a <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#shape">Route Shape</a> feature. This will allow you to return a route shape from a previous request without have to re-run the route.</p> <p>Even more features and updates are in the works. Stay Tuned.</p> <p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/19/big-beta-updates-fun-globes-colorful-stars-zooming-mice-chun/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19132643/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/19/big-beta-updates-fun-globes-colorful-stars-zooming-mice-chun/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=2x0xovFN96w:yyB3Y359p-8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/2x0xovFN96w" height="1" width="1"/>actionscript3as3betadirectionsdirectionswebserviceflashflexjavascriptlongurlpoisdkwhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-08-19T08:30:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/19/big-beta-updates-fun-globes-colorful-stars-zooming-mice-chun/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/gVtGDlJ_ioM/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/#comments<p>Today we've released a preview of our upcoming <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#js-sdk6.0">6.0 version of the MapQuest Platform: JavaScript <abbr title="software development kit">SDK</abbr></a>. This version release is a complete overhaul of the code base and designed to be more modular, more lightweight, and easier-to-use code. We've also simplified our documentation, making it easier to follow and reference and complete with inline samples and source-code snippets.</p> <p>One notable feature in this initial release is that Draggable Route functionality is included. This will allow developers to build applications that let their users dynamically edit their directions right from the map.</p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/content/developer/documentation/ApiDocumentation/6_0_p1/routing.html" target="_blank"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/08/draggableroute.gif" alt="drag route screenshot" /> </a> </p> <p>Find out more information on our <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta#js-sdk6.0">Developer Network Beta Page</a>, and we <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/home/contactus">welcome your feedback</a>.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19122716/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=gVtGDlJ_ioM:Uzli3PbmGoM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/gVtGDlJ_ioM" height="1" width="1"/>directionsdraggable routedraggable routesDraggableRouteDraggableRoutesdriving directionsDrivingDirectionsjavascriptsdkwhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-08-07T12:30:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/07/mapquest-javascript-sdk-6-0-preview-with-draggable-routes/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/1wkdrMlVzto/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/04/directions-web-service-beta-adds-route-matrix-feature/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/04/directions-web-service-beta-adds-route-matrix-feature/#comments<p>Last week we pushed out <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/">Optimized Routing to our Directions Web Service beta</a>. The week before that we <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/">introduced our new Directions Web Service</a>. Today we're making the <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#matrix">Route Matrix feature</a> available.</p> <p>A <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#matrix">Route Matrix</a> request in the Directions Web Service will return a quick and easy calculation of the distances and drive times between a bunch of points.</p> <p>In the table below, we want to compare the times and distances between:</p> <ul> <li>York, PA</li> <li>Lancaster, PA</li> <li>Boalsburg, PA</li> <li>and Sunbury, PA</li> </ul> <p>You'd ask the Directions Web Service something like this:</p> <code> <pre> REQUEST URL: http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/directions/v1/routematrix?key=YOUR_KEY_HERE REQUEST BODY: { locations: [ "York, PA", "Lancaster, PA", "Boalsburg, PA", "Sunbury, PA" ], options: { allToAll: true } } </pre> </code> <p>And with the results, you could display something like this:</p> <p>Driving distance (in miles)</p> <table style="border:1px solid #eee"> <thead> <tr style="background:#ccc"> <th> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"></td> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"> TO </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"> FROM </td> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </th> <th> York, PA </th> <th> Lancaster, PA </th> <th> Boalsburg, PA </th> <th> Sunbury, PA </th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> York, PA </th> <td> 0.00 </td> <td> 25.68 </td> <td> 107.85 </td> <td> 78.45 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Lancaster, PA </th> <td> 25.92 </td> <td> 0.00 </td> <td> 120.64 </td> <td> 91.25 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Boalsburg, PA </th> <td> 107.42 </td> <td> 120.94 </td> <td> 0.00 </td> <td> 62.48 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Sunbury, PA </th> <td> 78.84 </td> <td> 92.36 </td> <td> 61.80 </td> <td> 0.00 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Driving times (in seconds)</p> <table style="border:1px solid #eee"> <thead> <tr style="background:#ccc"> <th> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"></td> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"> TO </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"> FROM </td> <td style="border: 0pt none ;"></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </th> <th> York, PA </th> <th> Lancaster, PA </th> <th> Boalsburg, PA </th> <th> Sunbury, PA </th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> York, PA </th> <td> 0 </td> <td> 2260 </td> <td> 7253 </td> <td> 5930 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Lancaster, PA </th> <td> 2348 </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 7771 </td> <td> 6448 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Boalsburg, PA </th> <td> 7350 </td> <td> 7816 </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 5098 </td> </tr> <tr> <th style="background:#ccc"> Sunbury, PA </th> <td> 6048 </td> <td> 6514 </td> <td> 5019 </td> <td> 0 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Check out the complete documentation for <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html">Route Matrix and the rest of the Directions Web Service Beta</a> and please continue to <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/home/contactus">send us your feedback</a>.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/04/directions-web-service-beta-adds-route-matrix-feature/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19118808/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/04/directions-web-service-beta-adds-route-matrix-feature/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=1wkdrMlVzto:84GtPXK2EAs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/1wkdrMlVzto" height="1" width="1"/>betadenver-padirectionsdirections web serviceDirectionsWebServiceroute matrixRouteMatrixwhere:boalsburg-pawhere:lancaster-pawhere:sunbury-pawhere:york-paJosh Babetski2009-08-04T15:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/08/04/directions-web-service-beta-adds-route-matrix-feature/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/ooCEE16xSAc/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/premium-data-sets-now-available/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/premium-data-sets-now-available/#comments<p>For our Enterprise Edition users, we've just introduced Premium Data Sets. This allows easy integration of location-based point, boundary, and demographic data into your application.</p> <div style="text-align:center;margin:10px"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/07/nymedincome.gif" alt="New York Median Income" /> <div>New York Median Income</div> </div> <p>Premium Data Sets include:</p> <ul> <li> US Boundaries <ul> <li> Parcels </li> <li> City, County &amp; State </li> <li> ZIP codes </li> <li> Neighborhoods </li> <li> School districts </li> <li> Core Based Statistical Areas, including Metropolitan Statistical Areas (<abbr>MSAs</abbr>) </li> <li> Congressional Districts </li> </ul> </li> <li> US Census Data (2000) <ul> <li> Broken down by Block, Group, Tract, ZIP Code Tabulation Area (<abbr title="ZIP Code Tabulation Area">ZCTA</abbr>), City, County &amp; State </li> <li> Over 400 Categories to choose </li> </ul> </li> <li> Premium Business Listings <ul> <li> 13+ million <abbr>US</abbr> and 2+ million Canada Business Listings </li> </ul> </li> <li> <abbr>US</abbr> Public School Locations <ul> <li> Over 102,000 public schools </li> </ul> </li> <li> <abbr>US</abbr> Traffic <ul> <li> Incident and Flow data </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>Existing customers should contact your MapQuest Sales Account Manager or email <a href="mailto:sales@mapquest.com">sales@mapquest.com</a> to enable access.</p> <p>If you don't already have access to the MapQuest Platform, <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Home/Register?_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_action=signup&amp;_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_clientType=Developer">sign-up for a free Developer License</a>, then email <a href="mailto:sales@mapquest.com">sales@mapquest.com</a>.</p> <div style="text-align:center;margin:10px"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/07/denverparcels.jpg" alt="Denver Parcel Data" /> <div>Denver Parcel Data</div> </div> <div style="text-align:center;margin:10px"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/07/nyzipcode.gif" alt="New York ZIP Code Data" /> <div>New York ZIP Code Data</div> </div> <div style="text-align:center;margin:10px"> <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/07/sfneighborhoods.jpg" alt="San Francisco Neighborhoods" /> <div>San Francisco Neighborhoods</div> </div><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/premium-data-sets-now-available/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19114769/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/premium-data-sets-now-available/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=ooCEE16xSAc:CiQZIyPiiHE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/ooCEE16xSAc" height="1" width="1"/>boundrychinadatajapanparcelschool districtsSchoolDistrictswhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-pazip codeZipCodeJosh Babetski2009-07-30T16:15:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/premium-data-sets-now-available/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/-jXQ2i4Bdss/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/#comments<p>We recently <a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/">announced the beta of our new Directions Web Service</a> for the MapQuest Platform; today we want to tell you that the team just added <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#optimized">Optimized Routing</a> functionality to the code.</p> <p>If you're not familiar with <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html#optimized">Optimized Routing</a>, it basically works like this:</p> <p>Say the users of the app you've built using the Directions Web Service plug in a bunch of places they need to go. They have the addresses, but aren't really familiar with how far away all of these stops are from each other. With Optimized Routing, all of the stops between the first and last are reordered for the shortest overall distance or drive time.</p> <p>Now it <em>is</em> still a work in progress, so keep in mind that Optimized Routing is designed for use on locations that are relatively nearby to each other (e.g.: delivery or repair services, planning a tour of open houses, etc.) It will attempt to optimize longer distances, but to meet performance limits, it may estimate the drive time calculation. This could lead to a less than optimally optimized route.</p> <p>If you haven't yet checked out the <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html">Developer's Guide to the beta Web Directions Service</a>, please do so and <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/home/contactus">give us your thoughts and feedback</a>.</p> <p>Also, thanks for all the Directions Web Service mentions <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/07/21/mapquest-opens-its-directions-data/">on the blogs</a> and on <a href="http://twitter.com/mapquest">Twitter</a>. We are paying attention to your feedback and comments and appreciate the support. We also dig that you enjoy the phrase "<em>sane</em> and <em>modern</em> web service" as much as we do.</p> <p>More features are on the way. Stay tuned.</p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19113490/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=-jXQ2i4Bdss:gjRfa_ewxvQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/-jXQ2i4Bdss" height="1" width="1"/>betadirectionsroutingweb servicesWebServiceswhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paJosh Babetski2009-07-30T09:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/30/directions-web-service-beta-optimized-routing-options-added/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/519IGATfDDY/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/#comments<p>Today we're celebrating "One small step for man..." However, it turns out that it's the <a href="http://www.wechoosethemoon.com/">40^th anniversary of the Moon Landing</a> we're celebrating, not today's beta release of our new <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta">Directions Web Service</a>. Well I say: "Why can't we celebrate both?"</p> <p>And while you'll likely never set foot on the Moon, you can check out our first beta of our new <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta"><b>MapQuest Platform: Directions Web Service</b></a> right now. We've taken our decades worth of routing technology and know-how and have been rewriting it into a <em>sane</em> and <em>modern</em> web service that's <em>easy to use</em>.</p> <p>How easy?</p> <p><code>http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/directions/v1/route?key=&lt;your app key here&gt;&amp;from=Lancaster,PA&amp;to=York,PA&amp;callback=renderNarrative</code></p> <p>This simple request will return a <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation with Padding">JSONP</abbr> response containing the directions narrative data and then fires the defined JavaScript callback function in your app. You then have the flexibility to display the information in your <abbr title="User Interface">UI</abbr> however you want.</p> <p>Yes, that easy.</p> <p>Some other tidbits of useful information regarding our Directions Web Service:</p> <ul> <li> The service will utilize the following formats: <ul> <li>Key-Value pairs submitted via <abbr title="Hypertext Transfer Protocol">HTTP</abbr> GET or POST</li> <li><abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr></li> <li><abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr></li> <li>...and more formats are in the works. Check the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Beta">Developer Network Beta page</a> for updates.</li> </ul> </li> <li> The format supplied does not have to match the format requested either. Send us <abbr title="Extensible Markup Language">XML</abbr> but ask for a <abbr title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</abbr> response. Mix and Match to fit the needs of your application. </li> <li>You can make your Directions requests as simple or as advanced as you'd like</li> <li> If there's an ambiguity in one of the locations, we will return a list of location choices or you can opt for us to take the first location and just return your directions </li> <li> You can return the full route shape or in a <a href="http://soulsolutions.com.au/Articles/Encodingforperformance.aspx">performance encoded format</a> for size </li> <li style="vertical-align:middle"> <img src="http://content.mqcdn.com/mqsite/turnsigns/icon-dirs-start_sm.gif" style="height:13px; width:28px; margin-right:5px" alt="road shield" /> The response returns the image URIs of the road shields, making it easy to manage how and where you display them </li> <li> More functionality, such as route matrix and optimized routing will be available in future beta updates </li> </ul> <p>All the details are in the <a href="http://platform.beta.mapquest.com/usage/directions/overview.html">Directions Web Service Documentation</a>, which we've also baked right into the service.</p> <p>One important thing to note: You need to use a <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Home/Register?_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_action=signup&amp;_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_clientType=Developer">Developer License</a> key in order to use beta services. There is no-cost associated with using a Developer License. <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Home/Register?_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_action=signup&amp;_devAPISignup_WAR_devAPISignup_clientType=Developer">Signup here</a>.</p> <p>I was going to close out this post with something, like "It's out of this world," but it's probably a bit cheesy, ya'know, like the stuff the Moon is made out of. How about you check it out and <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/home/contactus">let us know what you think</a> instead?</p> <p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/19103850/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=519IGATfDDY:KMriSSVTASY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/519IGATfDDY" height="1" width="1"/>capuchin monkeydirectionsjsonroutingweb servicesWebServiceswhere:denver-cowhere:lancaster-paxmlJosh Babetski2009-07-20T18:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/07/20/our-new-directions-web-service-goes-to-beta-not-the-moon/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/vGY8PLpjjlQ/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/04/dump-your-garmin/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/04/dump-your-garmin/#comments<p>Dump your Garmin! No, I don't mean getting rid of your Garmin, so don't go chucking it out the window just yet. I'm referring to dumping the data from the .gpx file your Garmin device utilizes to store location and route information.</p> <p>A co-worker of mine recently asked me to write <a href="http://samples.dweakley.com/gpxreader/gpxreader.html">an app that reads a Garmin's .gpx file and displays the waypoints</a> and the route on a map. Never having seen a .gpx file (I'm a TomTom boy, myself) I was pretty sure it would include all the basics - <abbr title="Latitude">lat</abbr>/<abbr title="Longitude">lng</abbr>, name, etc, etc. I found what I was expecting in the file, not much to it, it's fairly simple.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://samples.dweakley.com/gpxreader/gpxreader.html"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/devblog.mapquest.com/media/2009/01/garmin-gpx2.gif" alt="garmin gpx screen" class="border1" /></a></p> <p>You can view the <a href="http://samples.dweakley.com/gpxreader/gpxreader.html">sample app here</a>. Viewsource is enabled on the sample so you can see the code involved in it. To sum it up, I used an HTTPService to read the file, array collections (I know they're heavy and slow, but they're <em><strong>easy</strong></em>), and looped through the collections displaying the waypoints and route on the map. If you're at all familiar with placing <abbr title="Points of Interest">POI</abbr>s and routes on MapQuest's maps, the whole process is fairly simple.</p> One other thing: On MapQuest.com, by using the <a href="http://www.garmin.com/products/communicator/">Garmin Communicator Plug-in</a>, you can output map and directions info into a .gpx format using the "Send to <abbr title="Global Positioning System">GPS</abbr>" option in the "Send To" menu. <p>Hope this helps some one! If you threw your Garmin out the window in the first paragraph, neither MapQuest nor I are responsible.</p> <!-- [where:lancaster pa] --><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/04/dump-your-garmin/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/1445931/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/04/dump-your-garmin/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vGY8PLpjjlQ:0rsXL7GZ7UY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/vGY8PLpjjlQ" height="1" width="1"/>apias3flexgarmingarmin gpsGarminGpsgpxmapswhere:lancaster-paDarin Weakley2009-02-04T13:00:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/04/dump-your-garmin/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~3/vuxBE3Ugjk4/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/03/5-3-dotnet-sample-updates/http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/03/5-3-dotnet-sample-updates/#comments<p>Use the DotNet <abbr title="Application Program Interface">API</abbr>? We've made some updates and improvements to the <a href="http://developer.mapquest.com/Library/CodeSamples/dotNET">5.3 DotNet Simple Samples</a>.</p> <h3>Change #1</h3> <p>Previously, in order to get the samples to build, you needed to download the mapquest <abbr title="Application Program Interface">API</abbr> <abbr title="Dynamic Link Library">DLL</abbr> separately and:</p> <ul> <li>For <abbr title="Visual Basic">VB</abbr>.net and <abbr title="C-Sharp">C#</abbr>.net, edit all the project files</li> <li>For <abbr title="Active Server Pages">ASP</abbr>.net, you had to add a reference to the <abbr title="Dynamic Link Library">DLL</abbr></li> </ul> <p>The current 5.3 <code>mapquest20.dll</code> has now been added to each package. For <abbr title="Active Server Pages">ASP</abbr>.net, it's in a <code>/bin</code> subdirectory so that it will automatically be picked up as a reference.</p> <p>For <abbr title="Visual Basic">VB</abbr>.net and <abbr title="C-Sharp">C#</abbr>.net, its been added to the top level of the zip package and we've modified all the project files so that the correct location is referenced.</p> <p>In short, when you extract the samples archive and open the solution file, the <abbr title="Dynamic Link Library">DLL</abbr> will already be there with a working reference.</p> <h3>Change #2</h3> <p>The relevant <code>MQServers</code> file had <code>localhost</code> and strange development ports settings. These files have been updated so that they default to the appropriate dev server location (e.g., <code>map.dev.mapquest.com</code>) and <code>port 80</code>.</p> <h3>Change #3</h3> <p>The <code>readme.txt</code> for the <abbr title="Active Server Pages">ASP</abbr>.net archive to call out that the user needs to modify <code>MQServers</code> with your client id, password and possibly server info.</p> <p><code>readme.txt</code> files were added to the <abbr title="Visual Basic">VB</abbr>.net and <abbr title="Active Server Pages">ASP</abbr>.net archives.</p> <p>In general, these changes should make our dotNet samples easier to use.</p> <!-- [where:lancaster pa] --><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;">&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/03/5-3-dotnet-sample-updates/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://devblog.mapquest.com/forward/1446103/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&amp;fc=1&amp;url=http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/03/5-3-dotnet-sample-updates/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking&nbsp;Blogs</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?a=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MapQuestDevblog?i=vuxBE3Ugjk4:nEXbCKTceJc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MapQuestDevblog/~4/vuxBE3Ugjk4" height="1" width="1"/>apidotnetwhere:lancaster-paTony Homer2009-02-03T08:28:00+00:00http://devblog.mapquest.com/2009/02/03/5-3-dotnet-sample-updates/