Getting 'Mountain' and other geographic entity types from Bing APIs - bing-maps

I've been trying to figure out how I can get 'Mountain' and other geographic entity types from the Bing Maps REST Location API. Using the "Find a location by Point" returns very little information.
Perhaps using the Bing Maps REST API isn't the best place for the kind of information I'm looking for, basically natural geographic features like mountains, lakes, etc. Any recommendations?
'Tanks.

Those types of feature (mountain, hill...) are not available inside the Bing Maps platform wether in the REST service or the Public Data Source from the Spatial Data Service (see the available categories: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh478191.aspx)
In order to do so, depending on your needs, you can rely on OSM data or geonames information to retrieve information about places and known mountains/lake, see: http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=mont+blanc&country=

Related

Building a City/Country Search box. Can Bing API support this?

I'm currently building a search box for a mobile app that can search for a Country/ State/ Country. I'm currently looking for APIs that can support this... An option for me would be the Google Places API but as much as possible I don't want to use Google for my project.
So before I import the Bing SDK into my project, I'm curious if anyone knows if this is possible with Bing API.
With Bing Maps you can use the location query API: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/rest-services/locations/find-a-location-by-query however, it will also find addresses if you pass them in. Generally though, if you type just a state or country, this API will return the expected result. You can add a bit of code to look through the results and filter them based on their entity type if required.
Since you tagged Azure Maps, you can use the Azure Maps address search API: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-search-address It has filtering parameters available that might be better suited for this scenario.

Query Openstreetmap for specific amenity

I want to query openstreetmaps api for amenitys near a specified city / coords. So something like
Find all hospitals near denver, within a radius of 50km. The openstreetmaps API Documentation doesn't say anything about amenitys or i didn't found that.
Is this possible via REST and if yes, how?
For this kind of request, you'll likely want to use Overpass API, which is a read-only API that's designed for queries (unlike the main OSM API, also known as Editing API, which is mostly useful for contributing to OSM).
Overpass API supports an around filter.
Your example – hospitals in a 50 km radius around Denver – might look like this. (This is a link to Overpass Turbo, which is a frontend that lets helps with building and testing Overpass API queries. Note that the Geocoding in the example is a convenience feature of Overpass Turbo. For regular Overpass API queries, you'll need to provide either the coordinates or OSM element(s) you want to filter around.)
To build your query, you will want to know which OpenStreetMap tags correspond to the feature types you're interested in. The OpenStreetMap wiki provides documentation for most commonly used tags, e.g. amenity=hospital in this example.

Clarification on Bing Maps API locationCode field

I'm working on learning the Bing Maps API for my current project at work. In various locations in route and traffic data output, there is a field called locationCode (or locationCodes). The documentation provides no clarification on what this field is, except to state: "A subscription is typically required to be able to interpret these codes for a geographical area or country."
Nothing I've been able to find yet defines this further or clarifies what data that code can be translated into by these subscription services. So, what are some of the services available to translate this code and what data can be obtained via these services?
Those information are related to traffic for specific roads, see the details for the API:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh441726.aspx
Also the description of each field included in the result:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh441730.aspx
You are referring to the locationCode. Those are related to the Traffic Message Channel information where the included information are the event id, the location code, expected incident duration, affected extent and other details.
Those TMC are managed in different ways depending on the country you are interested in and specialised mapping data provider can give you access to those kind of information and that's what the subscription is about. It is also related to the way you can use the TMC depending on the concerned area to get or give information from there.
For more information about TMC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_message_channel

Extract map information from Bing Maps

I would like to write a navigation software for windows phone 7 that is available without being on the internet. Therefore, I would like to download the map information from Bing maps. Not the entire world or country, just a small city - because this software is just for me and I only need navigation within my home town.
What I basically need is something similar to the map export that OpenStreetMap offers. I could not find anything equivalent on bing maps, so I wrote a program that queries bing maps (through the API) for routes. It then saves intersections and thus builds a graph. This technically works and I get a lot of streets, but sometimes bing leaves out a single intersection. In that case, my data will become invalid.
So I was wondering if there is any way of asking the API directly for a map export, returning something like an array of streets that is within a certain boundary rectangle. (Or something similar)
Thanks for your help
No, there is no standard API call in Bing Maps API that will let you do this.
Downloading all the street data within "a small city" would violate the terms of service. See 8.2(r) at http://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/terms.html.
If you want that data, you can try OpenStreetMap or else you would probably have to license the data from a commercial provider of such things which is no doubt very expensive.

iPhone - can I use MapKit without displaying a Map?

I am writing an app that will use Reverse Geocoding to translate the user's current location into something like a Street Address or City. It seems the only way to get this kind of information is via MapKit (specifically the Placemark class).
Can I use this without having to display a map to the user?
The reason I am asking this is because in the Google HTTP Reverse Geocoding documentation it states:
Note: the geocoding service may only be used in conjunction with displaying results on a Google map; geocoding results without displaying them on a map is prohibited. For complete details on allowed usage, consult the Maps API Terms of Service License Restrictions.
I'm wondering if this holds true for the MapKit API as well or if Google and Apple worked something out.
I answer my own question way too much around here -
10.12 use or display the Content without a corresponding Google map, unless you are explicitly permitted to do so in the Maps API Documentation, the Street View API Documentation, or through written permission from Google (for example, you must not use geocodes obtained through the Service except in conjunction with a Google map, but the Street View API Documentation explicitly permits you to display Street View imagery without a corresponding Google map); or
via Google Maps iPhone TOS
The Map Kit framework provides an embeddable map interface for your application. Use it to display map or satellite imagery from the windows and views of your custom applications. You can also use the framework to annotate your maps with points of interest and other custom information.
What was stated above about using Googles HTTP API for reverse geocoding would be a better way to display the information you are looking for and using a text box to read the information.