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Glossary

API

Application Programming Interface. An API is an interface which offers services to other programs. The MapTrip Server API let's you integrate functions like geocoding, route calculation, communication with devices running MapTrip and many more into your software.

Endpoint

A specific URL provided by an API that represents a particular resource (e.g. a MapTrip FollowMe file) or function (e.g. geocoding or route calculation). Each endpoint corresponds to a specific operation (e.g., retrieving data, creating a resource) and is typically accessed using an HTTP method such as GET, POST, PUT or DELETE.

Geocoding

Geocoding is a process that maps structured addresses (street, house number, postal code, city, country) or address strings to coordinates.

These coordinates can be used by other endpoints of the API, e.g. as a destination of a route.

See also Reverse Geocoding

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the protocol used by clients to communicate with the MapTrip Server API. Every function is called by sending an HTTP request to an endpoint of the API.

HTTP methods used in this API:

  • GET – Retrieve data from the server without modifying it
  • POST – Send data to the server to create a new resource
  • PUT – Update an existing resource on the server
  • DELETE – Remove a resource from the server

The response consists of some headers, a numeric status code indicating whether the request was successful or not (and if so, why not), and optionally data like an address, a route etc.

For details see Wikipedia.

HTTP Status Codes

A numeric status code indicating whether a request as successful or not. The most important codes for this API are:

  • 200 OK: The request was successful
  • 202 Accepted: The request has been accepted for processing. You will get that for asynchronous calls
  • 204 No Content: The request was successful and the response contains no content
  • 400 Bad Request: The request parameters or body are not valid; see details in the response
  • 401 Unauthorized: No valid JWT token provided in Authorization header
  • 403 Forbidden: You do not have permission to use this endpoint. You will get this for example when using FollowMe endpoints without a FollowMe license
  • 404 Not Found: The specified resource does not exist, e.g. a FollowMe file or a MapTrip Remote device
  • 500 Internal Server Error:
  • 503 Service Unavailable: The service you're trying to use is currently unavailable
  • 504 Gateway Timeout: A timeout occurred while calling the service

For details see MDN.

JSON

A lightweight, text-based data format used for data exchange between client and server. It represents data as key–value pairs and supports nested structures like arrays and objects. JSON is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate, making it the most common format for REST APIs.

For details see Wikipedia.

JWT

A compact, URL-safe token used for authentication and authorization. A JWT consists of three parts (header, payload, and signature) encoded in Base64. It securely transmits information such as user identity and permissions, and can be verified without needing to store session data on the server.

Reference Route

A reference route is a list of coordinates that describe the course of a route. It is usually saved as a CSV file with the columns latitude and longitude. Passing a reference route to MapTrip can ensure that the navigation follows an exact route course. See the endpoint [POST] /remote/route/reference/{device} and the tutorial sections on routing and MapTrip Remote.

Reverse Geocoding

In contrast to geocoding, reverse geocoding is a process of mapping coordinates to the nearest addresses.

See also Geocoding

Synchronous and Asynchronous Calls

Synchronous calls are requests where the client waits for the server’s response before continuing with the next operation. Most of the endpoints of this API are synchronous.

In asynchronous calls a job is started on the server and the result is fetched later via a second request. This is used by tour optimization and route matrix calculation, since these requests may take too long for synchronous calls.

Token

See JWT