REST Easy; Bing Maps Has You Covered
Today, we’re announcing a REST interface into those wonderful maps, aerial images, and geocoding and routing systems for your grubby coding hands to get all dirty. And, the beauty with REST is that you simply need to build URL queries and handle the JSON or XML responses. It’s quite beautiful actually and it’s essentially the way the WWW was architected, so the learning curve will be fairly flat. If you’re too excited to read on and want the SDK now, you can view it online or download it from the Bing Maps Platform site.
Okay, so here’s the scoop on the Bing Maps REST APIs. There are main 4 APIs that allow you to do Geocoding, Render Maps and Imagery, Calculate Routes and Perform Batch Geocoding. Let me break it down for you…
Locations API.
The Locations API is for geocoding on the fly. So, in your application when a user enters an address you’ll want to hit the Location API to get a response. The Location API contains 3 main functions:
Location by Address – Pass in an address and we’ll send back a lat/lon pair.
Sample: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations/US/WA/98052/Redmond/1 Microsoft Way?o=xml&key=BingMapsKey
Location by Point – Pass in a lat/lon pair and we’ll send back an address (reverse geocoding).
Sample: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Locations/47.64054,-122.12934?o=xml&key=BingMapsKey
Location by Query – Pass in a string (address or landmark) and we’ll send back a lat/lon pair.
Sample: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations/1 Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052?o=xml&key=BingMapsKey
Imagery API.
The Imagery API is for getting maps and aerial photos. When you’re ready to show a map of a location you will want to use the Imagery API. Also, the Imagery API grants you access to imagery metadata such as capture date and provider information.
Map – Getting a map image based on an address, landmark or lat/lon pair.
Sample (Road): http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Imagery/Map/Road/space needle,seattle?mapLayer=TrafficFlow&key=BingMapsKey
Sample (Aerial with Labels): http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Imagery/Map/AerialWithLabels/statue of liberty nyc?mapSize=800,600&key=BingMapsKey
Imagery Metadata – Getting imagery vintage or provider information based on a lat/lon pair.Sample: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Imagery/Metadata/Aerial/40.714550167322159,-74.007124900817871?zl=15&output=xml&key=BingMapKey
Routes API.
The Routes API is for calculating driving directions. The Routes API allows you to get route distance calculations, route geometry and step-by-step directions via driving, walking or traffic based algorithms. You can also pass in up to 25 points on your route to calculate a multiple stop route in a single request.
Route – Calculating a route.
Sample: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Routes/Walking?wp.0=Eiffel%20Tower&wp.1=louvre%20museum&optmz=distance&output=xml&key=BingMapsKey
Spatial Data API.
The Spatial Data API is for batch geocoding. Batch geocoding lets you up load a file for processing addresses through our backend systems without having to make multiple requests using the Locations API. If you have thousands of addresses to geocode at one time, you’re better off using the Spatial Data API.
Upload Data – Creates a batch geocoding job and uploads data into the cloud for geocoding.
Sample: http://spatial.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Dataflows/Geocode?input=xml&description=My dataflow&key=BingMapsKey
Check Job Status – Checks to see whether the job is complete.
Sample: http://spatial.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Dataflows/e14b1d9bd65c4b9d99d267bbb8102ccf?key=b1c323ea234
Download Data – Once the job is complete, you’ll download the geocoded data.
Sample: https://spatial.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/dataflows/Geocode/5bf10c37df944083b1879fbb0556e67e/output/succeeded&key=MyDataflowJobKey
