Guide to using the VisioMapServer to retrieve your map bundles

Introduction

Use VisioMapServer to retrieve information related to your map(s).

Hash code (map key)

A hash code uniquely identifies a map bundle (or set of map bundles).  Below is an hash code example:

maa7ee391e0803f630a6c7b35a72a3cb32dc70982

Hash codes are generated by VisioMapEditor when the map is first built.  Once generated, the hash won't change (normally).  It's generated using the following input:

• map domain and name (com.companyname/map.name)
• platform type (mobile, kiosk, web)
• build type (dev or prod)

Given a hash code we can deduce certain things:

• platform type
• "m" - mobile
• "k" - kiosk
• "w" - web
• build type
• "dev" - development (used for validating a map)
• "" - production (the hash code that should be used in the public application)

So the above hash code would be for mobile (because it's prefixed with "m") and for production purposes (because it isn't prefixed with "dev").

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Descriptor

To view the information associated with a hash code, use the following url template:

https://mapserver.visioglobe.com/<<your hash code here>>/

For example:

https://mapserver.visioglobe.com/maa7ee391e0803f630a6c7b35a72a3cb32dc70982/

This returns a descriptor.json file:

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Download

To download a map bundle, append the "zip_file" value (obtained from the descriptor.json file) to the previous url.

For example, to download the above map we would use "Data.move.zip":

https://mapserver.visioglobe.com/maa7ee391e0803f630a6c7b35a72a3cb32dc70982/Data.move.zip

Note:

For mobile applications, it's a good idea to download the map bundle and add it locally as a resource to your application. This ensures the map will work offline and not require an internet connection to download a first version of the map when it's first opened by the end user.

Performance

Important: While we do our best, Visioglobe don't provide any uptime or response time guarantees.

If you need assurances for your maps' performance, you may want to consider serving your maps locally.  Our servers are in Paris, so you would gain in performance and reliability by hosting your maps closer to your intended audience.  To do this, you would set up a proxy map server that pinged our map server, checking the version time stamp.  When it detects the map has been updated, it would download the new map.  Your map applications would communicate directly with your proxy map server.

If you do implement your own proxy, we strongly suggests that it's over a secure connection (https).  For example, on iOS 9 non secure connections are not supported by default.

More Info

VisioMapServer replaces VisioMapManager.

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