I'm using Google API for Work and has .Net available as backend (though any language is fine for logic).
Current implementation
I've a dropdown where user selects a city and Google Maps JavaScript widget alongside displays presence locations for a company in that city. If there are 10 cities, all users will always see the same visual on map for each city. However, if they zoom or move map, then its specific to the user. When user changes the dropdown. I know the latitude and longitude of all locations and are in database.
Question:
When user changes a city, I noticed there are lot of requests made to map API by widget, most of which download portions of map image and some download scripts. Are all requests counted for billing OR the there's some specific request which counts to a usage hit?
Since Google allows limited caching (but not pre-fetching), I want to cache the first request made by end user for each city (so if there are 10 cities, 10 keys) for a day. If user does zoom/move, that won't be cached. But how to achieve initial cached rendering as there are so many requests that JavaScript widget makes and where in maps widget do I hook server caching?
Thanks
Related
We are considering using Google Places API for a new web application project and I believe we are vastly underestimating the number of requests we would use.
We would be using place search, Maps JavaScript API map load to grab Place IDs from Google as well as Place Autocomplete to help users find the defined location. So my questions are:
Would the Autocomplete be considered a request on every keystroke?
Would if also be a request when we select the suggestion (Places API)
and update to Map?
I have seen that with the premium Plan autocompletes use 0.1 Maps API Credit, while JavaScript API map load is 1 and Places API is 2 credits. Trying to understand how to count before the 150k limit and after
As mentioned in the comment of your question, Google is making some drastic changes to their collective maps API usage rates. Starting June 11th, the new pricing will go into effect.
Would the Autocomplete be considered a request on every keystroke?
As of now, places autocomplete is counted on every keystroke. Starting June 11th, you have the option to switch to session-based billing. They have different pricing rates which can be see in the pricing sheet link. Depending on your application, you'll want to use the option that minimizes API calls. I think if your use case is one time selecting of location by your users then you're better off with billing by keystroke.
Would if also be a request when we select the suggestion (Places API)
and update to Map?
Selecting a suggestion from Places API would not incur an API request (requesting the suggestions does), but updating a google map using the Map API would use an API request.
The 150k daily limit is going away in favor of the new billing rates, so I would suggest you look into that now. There are some free unlimited services still offered, like the Google Maps Embed API. Loading a map using the Embed API is not counted towards any billing (as of now).
I would like to develop a service, using Google Distance Matrix API, where a user can enter their current location and a map will be displayed showing how many other users from their group have addresses in the same general area. For privacy reasons, I do not want to show any other details (location, name, address etc.) of those other users just the number of people.
In order to ascertain this information I was intending to make a call to the API and displaying under the map of their area a message like "There are 5 other people within a 3 minute drive of your address".
Can anybody tell me whether this meets the API limitation:
The Google Maps Distance Matrix API may only be used in conjunction with displaying results on a Google map. It is prohibited to use Google Maps Distance Matrix API data without displaying a Google map
If my requirements of the API are not acceptable, could anybody suggest another publicly available API that I could use in its place?
Thanks!
Yournavigation Api gives you distance from given points.
Try this request example.
You can find their usage policy here.
They said that there are no limitations on usage, except those regarding overload:
The routing API is open and freely available for everyone under the condition that you don't overload the server. Overloading the server in this context means: more then 1 request per second for sustained periods of time. Bursting multiple requests for short time-periods is not a problem though
I've noticed that Map services mention how different types of requests count towards an application's quota, but didn't see how autocomplete requests compare.
I'm trying to calculate the number of transactions/requests that will be made if an application utilizes an autocomplete feature for address searches. What I wanted to know is that when a user enters an address for geocoding, every time a new list of suggestions is returned (i.e. for every keystroke) is it counted as a request -- i.e. does it count as multiple requests instead of a single request?
In Bing Maps, the way it works is that a transaction isn't created until the user has selected a suggestion. Individual keystrokes are not counted. At the end of the day its the suggestion the user selects that matters. Additionally, Bing Maps also creates a session when that first transaction is created. What this does is if the user performs another search and selects another suggestion, the second transaction will be marked as non-billable as it is considered part of that session. This assumes that the autosuggest module wasn't reloaded some how (i.e. page refresh). So with Bing Maps, if a user needs 3 key strokes or 7, there is no cost until they actually select a suggestion. This should make calculating the required transactions for your application much easier. More often than not developers will require the user to use the autosuggest feature only once as part of a user experience, usually on a single page. So you basically would only need to know the number of page views for the page in that part of the user experience. Also worth noting, if you use the autosuggest module in Bing Maps with the interactive map, the autosuggest module will not generate any billable transactions as it is grouped into the map user session. For example, if you have a page that loads a map and also provides an autosuggest box, the user can type as much as they want in the autosuggest box and select as many suggestions as they want. They can also pan/zoom, calculate directions and use any feature of Bing Maps that you expose in your app. This will generate a total of 1 billable transaction for when the interactive map was loaded and all other transactions will be grouped into the map session and marked as non-billable.
Looking through HERE Maps documentation I can't find any mention of an autosuggest or autocomplete feature.
I'm working on new application in my workplace as described below:
We have tens trucks working for us. I've installed a GPS module on each of them to track their position and store their coordinates in a database.
I need to see their movements in real time on a map (Google Maps, or Bing Maps) but I don't know how to do this.
I don't want code or snippets, I prefer Guidelines and API Docs or framework to build it!
If you have any question ask without problem! Thanks guys
Since you have the data in a database, the first step would be to expose that data to your app. There are a couple of different ways to do this depending on the type of app you want to create, however the most universal solution would be to create a web service that any of your apps can connect to. Here are a couple of good blog post on how to create spatial web services.
http://blogs.bing.com/maps/2013/07/31/how-to-create-a-spatial-web-service-that-connects-a-database-to-bing-maps-using-ef5
http://blogs.bing.com/maps/2013/08/05/advance-spatial-queries-using-entity-framework-5
Once you have a web service you can then create the app that will display the truck locations. You have a lot of options here; web, mobile, desktop (WPF, Windows app), cross platform. Web apps tend to be the most common as they can be accessed from the most locations. Connecting to a REST service from JavaScript is fairly easy. There is a number of different ways to load in real time data. The easiest is to use a timer that calls your web service regularly and grabs all truck locations. A slightly more complex option, but more efficient is to timestamp the last update of each location and then keep track of the last timestamp used to request an update. By doing this you can limit your request to only retrieve updates that have occurred since the last request. This would significantly reduce your bandwidth and make your app faster. Displaying the actual truck location on a map is easy. Your web service will return the location information, likely as either two number properties (i.e. latitude/longitude) or as a well known text string (simply parse this as shown in the previous blog posts). If using Bing Maps and you have two number properties, you can create a pushpin and add it to the map like this:
var loc = new Microsoft.Maps.Location(latitude,longitude);
var pin = new Microsoft.Maps.Pushpin(loc);
map.entities.push(loc);
Here are some useful resources around developing with Bing Maps:
https://www.bingmapsportal.com/ISDK/AjaxV7
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd877180.aspx
Note, if you use Bing or Google maps (or just about any other major mapping platform), they require all asset tracking applications to have a license to use the maps. If you use Bing Maps, you can find details on licensing here: https://www.microsoft.com/maps/licensing/licensing.aspx#mainTab4
I am developing GPS based Location reminder in j2me. I am little bit confuse to which maps i use??.....Google maps & Nokia maps. Which one allows me good working... The working of my app are as follows :-
-User will provide a string to app to search a place of his/her desire.
-Then according to given string app will show a place on map by pointing marker on map.
-User can save that place or he/she can select a near by place rather than searched place by clicking on map or any other way.
-app will save that searched place coordinates & remind when it reached to near that place.
-When app remind to user about already stored place... that place should show on map by pointing an marker along with the how far he is from his destination.
The real choice here lies in whether to use a RESTful API like the Google Static Maps (or Nokia's RESTful Maps) or to use a native Java ME mapping library plugin such as the Nokia Maps API for Java ME. The latter has several major advantages:
Static mapping services such as the Google Static Maps API or Nokia's
RESTful Map API do not cache or tile the images when requested,
therefore each request involves a round trip to the server. If the
map on a mobile application needs to be refreshed at any time, using
a caching library will result in a reduction in network traffic after
around three maps have been displayed. An explanation of this can be
found here
As the name implies, Google's Static Maps API can only retrieve over
http static images for a requested coordinate point, image size,
image type and zoom level. Newer libraries offer additional
functionality out of the box offering dynamic Map content and touch
support, where the user can move around his/her current position,
zoom in, zoom out, modify the view mode to satellite or translate an
address to a coordinate point and show that on the map, among others.
This abstraction of the underlying functionality is hidden from the
developer so much less coding is needed in order to achieve the same
result .
Terms and Conditions for Nokia Maps are easier to fulfil than
Google - No legal restrictions of using the API outside a web browser
application or need to provide a link to the native Google Maps App
(if there is one), or to Google Maps (if there isn't one).
Nokia currently offer higher free daily request limits. Nokia Maps
API for Java ME supports up to 50,000 render requests per day and per
unique IP address (as of January 2012), for Nokia Developer
registered users (free of charge) while the limit for Google's Static
Maps API is currently 1000 unique (different) image requests per
viewer per day.
A couple of years ago there wouldn't be a choice, only RESTful solutions existed, but these days I would say a static http solution should only be used if you want a simple single image
As an abstraction of the underlying services, there are already a full set of examples to cover most of your use cases:
-User will provide a string to app to search a place of his/her desire.
-Then according to given string app will show a place on map by pointing marker on map.
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...PI_for_Java_ME
-User can save that place or he/she can select a near by place rather than searched place by clicking on map or any other way.
Maybe you need to use a draggable marker:
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...ples/#standard
Or react to the touch and find a Geocoordinate:
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...PI_for_Java_ME
-app will save that searched place coordinates & remind when it reached to near that place.
This is known as geofencing and is covered by the Location API:
- http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resou...ty-events.html
-When app remind to user about already stored place... that place should show on map by pointing an marker along with the how far he is
from his destination.
Showing a Map with a Marker
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...ples/#standard
For distance calculations, I guess you'd be after the ROUTING example
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devel...mples/#routing
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...g_with_Java_ME
Now you could re-write and all these services from scratch using RESTful APIs (and then go about debugging your code) , but I'm sure you'll agree it would be much easier to use an existing, working and tested framework for the low level plumbing and then just write your code on top using the services.
It is possible to encapsulate RESTful service in Java ME. As an example, added below is a screenshot from an app encapsulating the suggestion service
It is just a lot easier when someone else has already done this work for you and placed it in a library.