If you’re a web developer – or even if you’re not – you might be interested to hear that the Ovi Maps API means in real simple terms, that you can build Ovi Maps into any website. If you’ve used Ovi Maps before, you’ll know it’s a great mapping service that provides millions of different places, landmarks and addresses with a really clean user interface, so why not use it when looking to insert some mapping into your website?
The loading page for Ovi Maps API offers you three directions to take: Developer’s Guide, API Reference and the Maps API Playground. It’s the latter of the three that caught my eye as it shows what the API is capable of.
The playground is a test page for coding that will show you instant results on the very familiar Ovi Maps. Looking at the playground page, you’ll see little difference between this and the Ovi Maps starting page, other than the usual search functions are removed. Casting your eyes to the top of the page though, is the menu bar and where all the magic happens.
The < code > button – once clicked – on the right shows you the small piece of code responsible for your current Ovi Maps view. As you can see, it’s only a small piece of coding and even gives you the HTML required to turn it into a web page, if you like.
Close the code section and find your way to the examples section on the top left, then under the Basic concepts heading, select Positioning, finishing with the load button. The maps screen will reload using the newest code, showing your current position in your browser. The < code > section will now show the new coding that’s made this possible. Again, it doesn’t look too complicated for somebody who’s got the time to figure this out.
There’s plenty of code examples to look through, Routing being particularly useful if you’re wanting to calculate how to get from one place to another.
Moving on from the graphical side of things, the best place for you to get started is at the Developer’s Guide. It’s here that you’ll find out more about the Ovi Maps API and how best to use it. With examples of coding, this guide takes you through the different terminology used and how best to start using Ovi Maps on your very own website. Plus the full API Reference will come in useful too.
We’re interested to hear of your experiences using the Ovi Maps API, and would love to see how you make use of it. Let us know, below.