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Advantage API™
Product White Paper
Executive Summary
The Advantage API development environment provides maximum flexibility to build
customized location enabled applications in your preferred programming language. A
full API provides access to the complete Advantage feature set including optimized and
multi-point routing, style file management, geographic data management, and multiple
search paradigms, allowing developers to easily incorporate advanced location enabled
functionality into web and wireless applications deployed across their businesses.
Libraries include support for the leading programming languages including C++, Java,
COM (enabling Microsoft Visual Basic, ASP, ASP.NET), and ADP.
Since it’s based on a unified product architecture, Advantage API customers can easily
migrate to Advantage Enterprise to bring the entire solution into their data center for
enhanced control, security and performance.
11/4/2005
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Table of Contents
1 What is Advantage API?
1
2 Advantage API Features
4
3 System Architecture
6
4 Mapping
8
5 Geocoding
10
6 Routing
11
7 Searching & Databases
13
8 Local Spatial Search Server
14
9 Geographic Coverage
16
10 Technical Specifications
17
11 The Bottom Line
19
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What is Advantage API?
The Advantage API™ hosted service is a location technology platform that enables
developers to integrate anti-aliased maps, driving directions, geocoding, proximity
searching, and other location-based technologies into Web and desktop applications.
The Advantage API hosted service uses the advanced server technology of
MapQuest’s Advantage Enterprise solution.
Advantage API offers developers tools that can integrate advanced location-based
technology into applications using a robust, scalable development platform.
Advantage API includes:
• The best-looking map images available in the industry
• Advanced mapping, geocoding, driving directions, and searching technology
• A highly scalable architecture that supports more than 30 million maps and
driving directions every day on MapQuest.com
• Support for Java, C#, C++, Visual Basic, .NET, ASP, and ADP languages
• Extensive technical documentation and online resources
• Access to live developer phone support and optional on-site services
• A clean upgrade to a behind-the-firewall solution with Advantage Enterprise
MapQuest Technology Platform
MapQuest is the world’s most trusted brand in online maps and driving directions,
with over 37 years of cartographic experience. The MapQuest technology platform
was designed to meet the demanding requirements of the consumer Web site
MapQuest.com, which processes over 30 million transactions every day.
With its advanced server technology and industry-leading geographic data partners,
MapQuest is the only company that can provide businesses with a full range of
scalable location technology solutions.
MapQuest is the location-based services industry leader, trusted by over 1,400
customers of its MapQuest Business Solutions unit, including industry leaders such
as Walmart, Travelocity, OnStar, CitySearch, Harley-Davidson, Amtrak, BellSouth,
Chrysler, Starwood, Sears, Orbitz, Blockbuster, and LendingTree. Experience
gained from successfully meeting the constantly evolving needs of business
customers such as these has enabled MapQuest to develop powerful developerfriendly solutions that can be easily deployed within organizations of all sizes.
MapQuest combines its own custom data with that of the best partners in the
business, including: NAVTEQ, AND Data Solutions, and DMTI Spatial, to name but
a few.
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What is Advantage API?
MapQuest Technology Platform
The Advantage Product Line
MapQuest offers a comprehensive line of enterprise-class developer products based
on a single technology platform that integrates the world’s best geographic data. The
proprietary server technology utilized by MapQuest.com is the core of all products
in the Advantage product line.
The three products comprising the Advantage product line offer different levels of
functionality and control. With a unified product architecture, customers can easily
upgrade to more powerful products as their business needs change. The Advantage
product line includes the following:
• Site Advantage™. Features basic maps, driving directions, and searches.
• Advantage API™. Provides application flexibility and full API access to the
geocoding, mapping, driving directions, and search engines. Offers multiplepoint and “optimized” routing. Searches databases with SQL WHERE clauses.
• Advantage Enterprise™ solution. Offers complete server control plus all the
API access of Advantage API. Customize geocoding, mapping, driving
directions, and searching with advanced APIs. Deploy multiple
Advantage Enterprise servers for a scalable behind-the-firewall solution.
Table 1, Features Across the Advantage Product Line
Site
Advantage
Advantage
API
Advantage
Enterprise
Basic maps, routing, and search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Automatic data selection
Yes
Yes
Yes
Advanced maps, routing, and search
Yes
Yes
Advanced geocoding control
Yes
Yes
Reverse geocoding
Yes
Yes
Convert pixels to latitude/longitude
Yes
Yes
Search for embedded map elements
Yes
Yes
Choose an explicit server data set
Yes
Yes
Route optimization
Yes
Yes
Route matrix API
Yes
Yes
Search by maximum drive time
Yes
Yes
Modify map image
Yes
Yes
Feature supported by...
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What is Advantage API?
Advantage Product Line Applications
Table 1, Features Across the Advantage Product Line
Site
Advantage
Feature supported by...
Draw shapes/text on map
Advantage
API
Advantage
Enterprise
Yes
Yes
Server configuration control
Yes
Map layer importing
Yes
Unlimited API access and server control
Yes
Advantage Product Line Applications
Advantage API™ is a location technology platform for a wide range of Internet,
intranet, and wireless applications. Customers can integrate mapping, routing,
geocoding, and search capabilities into Web or desktop applications across different
segments of the enterprise within any industry. MapQuest Business Solutions
customers use the Advantage product line in a variety of industries:
• Store/dealer locators. Enable Web site searches for locations with optional
maps and driving directions for nearby dealerships or retail locations.
Optionally integrate MapQuest technologies with voice recognition and textto-speech to create automated voice-enabled call centers.
• Real estate. You’ll have the ability to provide home buyers, sellers, and real
estate agents with useful local information. You’ll also have the capability to
layer additional visual information such as aerial photographs, regional
demographic data, schools, and parks.
• Business directories. Integrate local business and location content with
MapQuest mapping, geocoding, and proximity searching capabilities.
• Tourism and hospitality. Provide Web site and concierge tools for travelers,
including trip planners and searches for local points of interest.
• Call centers. Include enhanced directory assistance, fleet management and
dispatch, emergency roadside assistance, and reservation systems.
• Asset tracking. Track the location of vehicles or other assets and display
using maps on web or wireless interfaces.
• Logistics. Use drive-time computations for efficient scheduling of field
employees who visit multiple customer locations.
• Wireless. Use MapQuest’s scalable, Internet-based technology and flexible
display interfaces to create new applications for navigation, search,
friend/family finders, traffic advisories, and more.
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Advantage API Features
The Advantage API solution, which is based on the Advantage product line’s core
MapQuest technology platform, offers the following features:
• Mapping. Display, interact with, and customize high-quality maps. Add
custom icons, annotate maps with drawings, or customize map styles.
Display different levels of detail or icons at different map scales.
• Geocoding. Assign latitude/longitude coordinates to a street address, a postal
code, a city, a state, or location. Receive detailed information about each
match to decide how to best process ambiguous or low confidence matches.
• Driving directions (routing). Generate visual and/or textual navigation
directions from one location to another with optional intermediate
destinations. Select the fastest route, the shortest route, or other route
options. Generate an “optimized” multi-destination route to reorder
intermediate destinations into the fastest route between origin and
destination.
• Proximity searching. Search for the closest locations within a set radius, a
rectangular or defined polygonal area, or along a drive route. Use dynamic
database queries to search for specific criteria about that location. API clients
can upload and manage locations using a set of tools hosted by MapQuest.
• Proximity by Drive Time. You can use search APIs in conjunction with
routing APIs to search for all locations within a certain proximity to an origin
point. You may search by either driving distance or driving time. Proximity
searching by drive distance or time can be particularly useful when searching
near bodies of water or mountains, where straight-line distance does not
accurately reflect drive time.
• Points of Interest (POIs). Search your own custom location databases
containing location information for stores, restaurants, hotels, etc., or license
large Points of Interest databases and gain access to location information
concerning local landmarks or businesses.
• Automatic data selection. Use MapQuest’s proprietary data selection
technology to provide the best data for each request, dynamically choosing
among multiple data sets from the world’s leading data providers.
• Voice-recognition integration capability. Create a voice interface for location
searching using MapQuest’s valued partnership with NetByTel, the leading
provider of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems.
• Technical support. Access technical support using comprehensive online
documentation, or obtain phone and e-mail support from dedicated business
account managers and knowledgeable 24/7 technical support personnel.
• Reporting. Generate various transaction reports using an online interface.
Use custom geographic area reports or other reports to track trends and
provide the basis for vital business decisions.
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• Location management. Manage locations in MapQuest-hosted databases with
online tools available 24/7. You can upload locations, customize locations,
add locations, and examine location data in a staging server before pushing
data to the “live” database.
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Syst em Architecture
Advantage Product Line Applications
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System Architecture
Developers can integrate Advantage API into a Web application, desktop
application, wireless WAP application, Java application, back-end enterprise system,
or voice activated phone system; the possibilities are limitless. Below are some basic
elements of an Advantage API deployment:
The client application. This
is your application that utilizes the MapQuest client
interface. Implement your application in .NET, C++, Visual Basic, Java, ASP, and
ADP. Additionally, you can implement your application by using the HTTP protocol
without client libraries. For details of the supported environments, refer to “Client
Requirements” on page 17. Your application invokes the MapQuest API to
communicate with a MapQuest server and to read/write MapQuest data structures.
The client interface. This
interface takes the form of MapQuest-provided libraries
that typically link with a custom application or are installed as a shared library plugin for a Web server. The MapQuest client interface communicates with one or more
MapQuest servers to provide the core MapQuest functionality: mapping, geocoding,
routing, and proximity searching. Client-to-server communication uses a proprietary
protocol based on the industry standard protocol HTTP. This communication can use
optional authentication and/or encryption. The results of a request are returned to the
client interface and returned to the client application using the MapQuest API.
The MapQuest server is unique to Advantage Enterprise and
provides all the advanced MapQuest server functionality, often with the help of
database servers (for location data) and session servers (to improve interactive map
performance). For Advantage API customers, the Advantage API servers on the
Internet perform this function.
The MapQuest server.
Web Applications and Image Handling
Although most non-Web applications directly request both information and images
from the MapQuest server, Web applications work slightly differently because they
display images indirectly by exposing HTML IMG tags within HTML code.
Web applications do not need to cache map images locally because the Web
application never needs to download images to the Web server. Instead, the Web
application uses the MapQuest API to request an “image URL” from the MapQuest
server, and this URL can be exposed within an HTML IMG tag. When a user’s Web
browser wants to display the image, it requests it from the MapQuest server.
Compatibility with standard Web browsers is easy because the image URLs (like all
MapQuest client-server requests) use a protocol based on HTTP, the universal
standard of the World Wide Web.
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See the following diagram for a general system architecture design.
Advantage API Architecture
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Mapping
Mapping Features
4
Mapping
Advantage API can generate interactive anti-aliased maps centered on any location
and can be customized with icons, text labels, shapes, and even specific elements of
the maps.
Example Map
and Search Results
Mapping Features
Best-of-class interactive maps. Millions
of visitors each month use MapQuest’s
popular interactive maps on their online mapping Web site.
Advantage API can improve readability of bitmap images by
smoothing transitions between colors using anti-aliasing. For instance, black text on
a white background is smoothed by adding nearby grey pixels.
Anti-aliased maps.
Automatic map data selection. Let
the server choose the best mapping data for the
requested map. For instance, one data set might be used for metropolitan areas and
another for rural areas. Additionally, maps show the correct level of detail for the
map scale by hiding and displaying map elements.
Panning. Provide latitude and longitude for the map center, or allow the user to click
on the map to re-center the map at that location.
View maps at an arbitrary “zoom” setting, choose customizable zoom
levels, or let a user click on a rectangle to approximate the desired map scale.
Zooming.
Best fit. The server can automatically adjust center point and scale to best highlight
any visible Points of Interest. For example, if a user searches for POIs, the mapping
engine can calculate the center point and scale that nicely displays all results.
Map styles. Built-in
map styles include the default MapQuest style, yellow
background maps, black-and-white maps, and European styles. Anti-aliased images
are available for all map styles.
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Map style customization. Developers can programatically change map object
appearance by general class or by name. Element styles include colors, fonts, icons,
line widths, road shield appearance, and dynamic hiding/showing of map elements.
Display map features with unique icons and optional text labels. Create
these dynamically from user interaction, from dynamic database queries, or from
other application-specific search results.
Map icons.
Point-and-click APIs. MapQuest
APIs allow clients to implement features to allow
their users to click with a mouse to pan, zoom, identify streets, identify map features,
and other actions. For example, allow users to use a mouse to select a map feature
for more information or click-and-drag a mouse to define search areas.
Supported formats include GIF, PNG, EPS (Encapsulated
PostScript), WBMP, and more. Non-bitmap formats like EPS include non-rasterized
text and lines for high-resolution display and printing.
Multiple image formats.
Map Annotations
Applications can draw simple shapes or text on maps to highlight map features,
search areas, or other custom data. For example, display the search radius for a
recent proximity search, demarcate boundaries of an important geographic region,
identify sub-map regions, or highlight an abstract feature such as “Geofences” to
track assets and personnel.
Drawing objects include ellipses, circles, rectangles, squares, custom icons, lines,
closed polygons, and text. Use custom line colors, fill colors, fill patterns, fonts, font
sizes, and font styles. Additionally, you can use primitive characteristics. One such
example is ‘opacity’, a primitive characteristic that can be changed.
You can display drawing objects on top of other map information or embed drawing
objects between specific visual layers of map information. For instance, you could
draw a polygon ‘on top of’ streets but ‘below’ highlighted driving directions.
Session Management
Applications can create and manage session data to improve context from one page
view to the next. Session data describes the map size, style, annotations, and search
results for faster application development and short map image URLs.
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Geocoding
Advantage API contains a powerful geocoding engine to calculate a location’s
latitude and longitude coordinates in order to display the location, or use the
coordinates for other actions such as searches. Advantage API can calculate the
latitude and longitude of:
• Street addresses and intersections, using the most accurate geocoding
methods.
• Street blocks, including the nearest block to an invalid street number address.
• Postal codes, including ZIP, ZIP+2, and ZIP+4 codes.
• Centers of administrative areas, such as states, provinces and countries
Although the results of geocoding are often used to display a map centered on a
particular location or to calculate driving directions using the routing API, you may
use the coordinates in any manner you choose.
If you geocode a location and exact coordinates cannot be found, the geocoding
engine can ‘fall back’ to other data and estimate a location based on that
information. For example, the server may not know the location of 123 Fake Street
in Philadelphia, PA, but it might be able to estimate the center of the likely postal
code instead.
Use the default server-based geocoding rules to ‘fall back’ to useful data or define
your own complex geocoding rules using multiple data sets.The server can allow
slight differences between user input addresses and server data. For instance, if a
user provides “123 N. Main,” the address can match the street address “123 North
Main Street.” When allowing non-exact matches, some geocoding data supports
correcting directionals (North versus South), road types (Street versus Road), and
sound-alike matches for street names, cities, states, and other administrative areas.
Each geocoding request returns detailed result codes that describe confidence
information about each address element (except the ‘state’ element). Use this
information to decide whether the results are useful and/or how to use multiple
matches within your user interface.
The geocoding engine also supports reverse geocoding, which takes a latitude and
longitude pair and returns a full street address. For example, roadside assistance or
emergency dispatch services can extract latitude/longitude information from phones
with Global Positioning System (GPS) features and generate human-readable street
addresses as well as driving directions. Reverse geocoding is supported by all United
States data sets. Contact MapQuest regarding support within other international data
sets.
Advantage API customers can use online tools to upload and geocode large numbers
of locations. The online interface allows clicking on a map to reposition a location.
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Routing
Mapping Features
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Routing
Advantage API provides a robust routing API for calculating driving directions
between two locations and unlimited optional intermediate destinations1.
Advantage API supports the routing data from multiple vendors worldwide.
MapQuest’s routing algorithms include proprietary heuristics for intersection
crossings, turn costs, long distance artery filtering, and other features for high
performance routing.
You can use the routing API on its own or in conjunction with the mapping API. You
can highlight a driving route on a map or display textual driving directions, as shown
below.
Driving Directions
Overview Map
Full route result map customization. Easily highlight a route on a map, as above. Use
the default route highlight style or design your own. You can also create sub-maps
for each maneuver (leg) of the journey or create sub-maps for the origin and
destination.
Textual driving directions (routing narrative). The routing engine optionally provides
textual driving directions that contain maneuver (turn-by-turn) directions with
distances measured in either kilometers or miles. You may also display state and
country boundaries. The following is an example of textual driving directions:
1. Turn RIGHT on to SOUTH ST. Drive 0.2 miles.
2. Merge onto I-76 E (Portions toll). Drive 58.77 miles.
3. Take the exit number 286 toward US-222. Drive 1.06 miles.
4. Merge onto US-222 S. Drive 15.21 miles.
Provide three or more locations in a route and the routing
engine will calculate directions through intermediate destinations.
Multiple location routing.
1.
Optimized routes do not permit the generation of unlimited intermediate destinations.
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Advantage API supports intelligent routing
when using more than three locations in a route. The server can generate an
“optimized” route, which reorders intermediate destinations to generate the fastest
route for the entire journey.
Optimized multi-destination routing.
Routing using latitude and longitude. Specify
locations using latitude and longitude
to let the server find the closest drivable locations. This allows users to click on a
map and generate navigation directions to or from that point.
Use the geocoding and the routing APIs together to
provide door-to-door driving directions from street addresses.
Routing using street addresses.
Route customization. The
routing engine can generate different types of routes,
including shortest distance routes, fastest time routes, pedestrian routes, or
“optimized” multi-destination route. Other options include routes that avoid certain
road types and changing the language of textual driving directions. You can also
specify particular route segments you wish to avoid along a particular route.
Automatic data selection. Request a route without manually choosing specific
routing data on the server. Simply request a route and let the server choose the best
vendor and coverage data. You can even let the server determine the best data
without requesting the route immediately — a helpful feature when routing data is
distributed across multiple high-performance servers.
Route matrix calculation. Applications can efficiently automate
the calculation of
driving distance and driving time among many locations in a list. Choose between a
one-to-all route matrix or a larger all-to-all route matrix.
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Searching & Databases
Advantage API includes powerful location-searching APIs to search for locations
within a given geographic area, calculate distances between locations, and search for
locations using dynamic database queries. For example, you may enable your users
to search for the closest restaurants in their neighborhood or search for all hotels
within 10 minutes driving time from a tourist attraction.
You may also search for custom locations stored in a database, a collection of
“manually” created locations programmatically, features from map data, or even
features returned from previous searches.
Search Any Data in
Any Geographic Area
Look for all custom locations in a geographic area, or request only those possessing
specific attributes. This flexibility allows applications to provide users with a user
interface that allows them to design custom proximity searches. This is critical for
applications with large numbers of locations of varied types and attributes.
Advantage API customers can use custom SQL WHERE clauses to limit database
searches to any record set specified with this type of SQL query fragment.
Advantage API customers can access virtually unlimited custom locations and up to
100 database fields in MapQuest-hosted databases.
Use database connectivity to:
• Search for locations within a specified radius, rectangle, or polygon.
• Search for locations around a path, such as a journey calculated with the
routing API. This feature is also called a corridor search.
• Search with a simple database record API. You can even access nonMapQuest-specific database fields.
• Integrate location data sets with customer-specific corporate data. For
instance, filter retail store search results based on their store hours.
Database Connectivity
Advantage API customers do not need a database server because MapQuest hosts all
of your location data on high-performance servers. Advantage API customers
upload and update location data using MapQuest Web applications called the
Data Manager™.
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Local Spatial Search Server
The Local Spatial Search Server (LSSS) allows Advantage API users to search their
own databases without first uploading database information to MapQuest servers.
The LSSS is especially beneficial in cases where databases are so large (one million
or more records) that it's impractical to upload them to MapQuest servers. The
LSSS is also beneficial in situations involving highly sensitive data or data that is
updated very frequently, such as hotel data that is updated daily. Since LSSS allows
databases to reside locally instead of on MapQuest servers, users can utilize standard
database APIs such as ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, etc. to perform normal database
searches.
LSSS operates using the same underlying platform that powers MapQuest's
Advantage Enterprise product, making transitioning to Advantage Enterprise a
smooth and seamless procedure. With LSSS you can use database connectivity to
perform the following types of searches:
Radius searches.
Search for locations a set radius from a center point, and choose
the maximum number of matches to return from the search.
Drive time searches. Search a list of defined locations by their driving distance or
drive time from a point of origin.
Search for locations a set distance around a path, such as a
journey calculated using the routing API.
Corridor searches.
User-defined polygon searches.
Search for locations within a defined polygonal
area.
Rectangular searches.
Search for locations within a defined rectangular area.
You can integrate location data sets with customer-specific corporate databases. For
example, an application could filter bookstore proximity search results based on
book availability determined through 100% dynamic database searches.
Additionally, you can use custom SQL WHERE clauses to limit database searches to
any record set specified with this type of SQL query fragment.
Database Connectivity
Advantage Enterprise customers can use database servers with an Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) drivers on supported platforms to store location data for
custom map icons and proximity searches.
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L o c a l S p a t i a l S e a rc h S e r v e r
Mapping Features
ODBC Driver Manager
For Non-Microsoft systems MapQuest provides the unixODBC driver manager with
LSSS. This driver manager ensures the proper driver is loaded. It is up to you,
however, to select the driver you wish to load.
The unixODBC driver manager and some drivers may be downloaded at:
http://www.unixodbc.org/, or you may purchase a driver from a 3rd party vendor.
The diagram below depicts the relationship between MapQuest, LSSS, and a Client
Organization.
The Local Spatial Search Server (LSSS), in combination with the Open DataBase
Connectivity (ODBC) driver provided by the client, allows the client to search their
local databases.
NOTE: The ODBC/JDBC component may or may not be contained in your
application.
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Geographic Coverage
Licensed Data for Maps, Routing, and Geocoding
MapQuest’s data partners are the best in the business. You can use Advantage API
with the latest data from data providers including:
• Navigation Technologies (NAVTEQ)
• DMTI Spatial
• AND Data Solutions
• Group1/Sagent
• LeadDog Consulting
• MapQuest Proprietary Mapping Solutions (MapQuest proprietary data)
Standard regions include all countries in North America and Western Europe, with
new countries added regularly.
For the latest list of available geographic data, please contact MapQuest.
Licensed Points Of Interest (POI)
You can also license databases of custom locations called Points Of Interest (POIs).
NAVTEQ POI databases cover the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.
Search the database for one record or all records of a specific category to add context
to your proximity searches and spatial displays.
For the latest list of available POI data, please contact MapQuest.
Automatic Data Selection
MapQuest’s proprietary data selection technology provides the best data for each
request in any geographic region with any geographic data. Automatic data selection
algorithms are available for geocoding, mapping, and routing data.
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Technical Specifications
Database Requirements
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Technical Specifications
Database Requirements
Advantage API customers do not need a database server because MapQuest hosts
your location data. You can upload new location data or modify it with a suite of
Web applications called the MapQuest Data Manager™. Advantage API
customers can access virtually unlimited custom locations with up to 100 fields in
MapQuest-hosted databases.
Utility Application Requirements
Customers can use utility applications provided with the products to customize some
parts of the product. For example, you can prepare custom icons, edit map style files,
or create “spatial IDs” to increase performance of proximity searches. These tools
require a computer running Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 operating systems.
Client Requirements
To connect with the server, you will need at least one client system that would
connect with the server. The MapQuest client applications and the MapQuest client
libraries may run on the same computer as the server, although this is not
recommended for highest performance. For a typical Web application, the Web
server would be considered the MapQuest client.
To compile and link code with MapQuest client programming interfaces, you must
have development tools compatible with at least one of the following interfaces:
Table 2, Supported Languages and Development Environments
Platform
Java
C++
COM & .NET
ADP
Windows 2000
JDK 1.4
VS 6.0 SP6,
VS .NET 2003*
VS6.0 SP6,
VS .NET 2003*
Solaris 2.8
JDK 1.4
GNU 2.95.3,
Forte 6.0
AOLServer 3.5**
Red Hat Linux AS2.1
JDK 1.4
GNU 2.96
AOLServer 3.5**
** You will need to install the ADP client interface library on the AOLServer server.
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Technical Specifications
MapQuest Hosting Facilities
MapQuest Hosting Facilities
The servers providing the back end of the Advantage API service are hosted within
the data facilities of America Online (AOL) Network Operations, making it part of
one of the world’s most robust hosting operations. MapQuest’s hosting system has
been designed to meet the performance and availability needs of high volume
customers who serve tens of millions of maps and driving directions each day.
Advantage API servers are maintained in geographically separated, redundant data
centers connected through AOL’s national backbone to multiple Internet subnetwork backbones.
The highly reliable AOL facilities include redundant power grids, on-site diesel
generators, redundant servers on multiple networks, dry fire systems, and high
security physical access restrictions. To ensure disaster recovery capabilities,
multiple data centers are used and backups are performed regularly, including offsite copies.
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The Bottom Line
MapQuest Hosting Facilities
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The Bottom Line
For companies seeking flexible, reliablelocation technology solutions,
Advantage API offers a significant return on your investment with capabilities
such as:
• Industry-leading maps, driving directions, and proximity searching
• Unique advanced technology such as multi-point route optimization
• Compatibility with popular platforms and development environments
• 24/7 emergency technical support
• Technology evolved from 37 years of experience in cartography
• Flexibility to use powerful defaults or override behavior using the API
• Automatic scalability with high performance MapQuest-hosted servers
• Fast application development and deployment
• A clean upgrade path to full server control with Advantage Enterprise
• Database integration
Contact MapQuest today to discover how Advantage API can benefit your
organization.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 888-MAPQUEST (888-627-7837)
International callers can dial (303) 312-0176 with country code +1.
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The Bottom Line
About MapQuest
About MapQuest
MapQuest is the world leader in mapping, driving directions, and destination
information to consumers and businesses. MapQuest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
America Online, Inc. has three business units:
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services solutions to more than 1,400 leading businesses in industries such as
retail, healthcare, financial, real estate, travel, and automotive.
• Creative Mapping Solutions is the world’s leading provider of custom
maps for publishers and corporations, producing more than 1.5 billion pages
of printed maps for telephone directories, textbooks, travel guides, and more.
Copyrights & Trademarks
Copyright 2005 MapQuest.com, Inc. All rights reserved. The use of this
documentation and the product with which it is provided are governed by the
product license agreement and copyright law. No part of the product or this
documentation may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written
authorization from MapQuest.com, Inc. MapQuest may revise this documentation
from time to time without notice.
THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND. IN NO EVENT SHALL MAPQUEST, ITS PARENT OR ITS
LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM ANY ERROR
IN THIS DOCUMENTATION, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY
LOSS OR INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, PROFITS, USE, OR DATA.
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described in the license agreement for that product.
MapQuest, MapQuest.com, the MapQuest logo, Advantage, Site Advantage,
Advantage API, and Advantage Enterprise are either registered trademarks or
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