Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This FAQ will forever be updated with new information as it becomes available and as you, the user, recommend or highlight areas needing more explanation.
Check back here often.
Index
Registration
Cost
Common Issues
Registration
Why do I have to register the URI I'll be using for Development?
The URI is used for your protection. It's so no-one can use your key on their site and start taking up all your allotted transactions (possibly leaving you with a bill, or having your key stop working). Our servers will know and recognise your registration key and check to ensure that the request is coming from the URI that you register. If the key and URI do not match, then our servers will reject the request.
How do the servers use the URI?
Our servers will look to see if your call comes from the exact URI that you registered or any URI under that. For example, registering...
- http://www.yourdomain.com/mydev
...will allow our servers to recognise URIs like...
- http://www.yourdomain.com/mydev/mymap.html
- http://www.yourdomain.com/mydev/project1/mymap.html
- http://www.yourdomain.com/mydev/project2/mymap.html
...but will NOT allow
- http://www.yourdomain.com/mymap.html - comes a level above the registered URI
- http://yourdomain.com/mydev/mymap.html - a totally different URI (no www)
- http://dev.yourdomain.com/mydev/mymap.html - also a totally different URI (dev)
- http://www.yourdomain.com:8080/mydev/mymap.html - treated as a different URI. In this case registering "http://www.yourdomain.com" (without an end slash) will allow the use of the port number as coming under the base URI.
To allow you to develop under different URIs for legitimate reasons (e.g. both with and without the "www"), we allow you to register more than one URI.
What is a "Valid URI"?
A valid URI must be precluded by "http://" or "https://" (Note: See the question above for more detail).
It is advisable to just enter the URI for your domain e.g.: http://yourdomain.com. This will work for all ports (http://yourdomain.com:8080) and subdirectories (http://yourdomain.com/yourapp/) on this domain. To enable subdomains such as http://www.yourdomain.com, or http://dev.yourdomain.com we recommend you add these as separate URI’s.
Tips:
- We accept both HTTP & HTTPS schemes, but these must be detailed in separate URI’s if you wish to use both schemes.
- When entering a URI for your domain, we recommend you do not add a trailing slash, as adding this prohibits us from matching on port numbers.
- We also accept valid complete IP addresses as URI’s, e.g.: http://127.0.0.1 however please read about the security implications in registering localhost if you are considering this.
- If you enter a URI with a subdirectory, e.g.: http://yourdomain.com/yourapp/) we will be unable to match on any port numbers, e.g.: http://yourdomain.com:44633/yourapp/
Read further information on URI’s.
Can I register using my localhost?
Yes, but be aware of the security implications of registering localhost. Using localhost will allow you to develop on your own computer with just an internet connection to download the map tiles and other transactions from our servers.
Registering http://localhost, http://127.0.0.1, or even http://mymachinename is all valid so long as it is precluded by either http:// or https://, however this can cause some issues if others get hold of your registered key.
Everyone who registers http://localhost will be given a unique key and that key is then tied to their development account. Our servers only check to see if the base URI is what you have registered and has no way of telling if that is you or someone else using your key on their computer.
The page Important Information tells you your restrictions when developing pages and what will happen if you exceed those restrictions. If you then give away your key (even by accident, for example by posting your code in some discussion forum or email list and leaving your key for all to see), you run the risk that others will use your key and your development restrictions will be used up and exceeded very quickly. In extreme cases, you may find that we cut off your use of the key or even bill you for excessive use.
Giving a genuine development URI protects you as no one else should have access to your development area and the key would then be of no use to anyone else as it will only work on that URI.
How do I change my URI; disassociate a key; or add another URI to the key?
Your key may have become compromised; someone else may have your localhost key; your server name has been changed; the IT department has decided to move all development onto another server. Whatever the reason, occasionally you might want to change the URI or even have a new key issued for the same URI. Maybe you want your old key stopped. How do you go about that?
Soon we should have all this automated so it will be a simple matter of filling in a form on the website, but until then, please just contact us. Tell us what you want done and we'll help resolve the issue.
Just a couple of things to remember: Please use the email address you used when you first registered your key, or if you can't (e.g. that person is no longer with the company or is on holiday); state that clearly in your correspondence with us quoting the original email address if you can and we'll sort out the problem.
Cost
What is the cost?
This service is free while you are in development mode and during an evaluation period of up to 8 weeks. After that 8 weeks, or if you are ready to promote your application to a live environment, then an annual licence fee will apply along with a low charge per 1000 transactions.
MapData Sciences would love to offer this service for free, and for developers we have done so for a reasonable evaluation and development period. In order to bring you this service we offer:
- racks and racks of very fast servers;
- an internet pipe you could drive a truck through;
- some of the best people in the business;
- and expertise recognised by the big names in the industry as the best available.
All this hardware, connectivity, technical expertise, and IP costs us a great deal to maintain so supplying it to you for free during your evaluation period is what we consider as investing in your expertise to deliver great commercial mapping applications with our API.
Call us and talk to us, we are experts in this field and can discuss with you your likely market size and estimated costs once you go live. If you think you'd like an evaluation period that is longer than the initial 8 weeks, or perhaps you want more transactions per day than your free evaluation period allows, or if you have any questions or concerns at all, talk to us, we're here to help you.
What is the cost of Points of Interest (POIs)?
Using the QuickMap® Developer Toolkit you'll be able to access over 20 categories and 52,000 predefined "sets" of locations eg fast food outlets, ATM's, Schools. You can display features near a marker, along a route or within an area. POI access can start from as little as $200 per year.
You can include your own POIs from your database for your own exclusive use and we can even store them here on our servers.
Call us and we can discuss your needs and assist you on the best way to display POIs on your map and discuss any costs.
Common Issues
My map doesn't display or access is not working
There can be several answers to this, for example:
- You have not yet registered for your key. Please register and read about why you need to register then go ahead and register for your own development key to use. Read about how to use your new key.
- The URI that you are using is above, rather than at or below the base URI that you have registered. Read where we have tried to fully explain the URI rules and how some URIs can work but others can't.
- The URI is not the URI you registered.
- Your website server has change the URI. Try opening that link in a separate window so the true URI is shown. Sometimes, especially in low cost or free website hosting packages, the URI may be changed by the hosting company and you may have to add another URI to your key.
- If you are accessing the map immediately after you registered, you may have to wait up to 30 minutes for our servers to update their security cache with your new registration details.
Please contact us if you are having difficulty.
My maps were working but now they're not
This may be due to any number of issues so give us a call and check that we haven't cut off your access with that key. We may do this under any of the following conditions or other reasons not yet mentioned here:
- You are past your 8 week evaluation/development period
- We have been unable to contact you
- You have exceeded your daily allowance
- We suspect that there may be a security issue with that key
As the key is for development and evaluation only, we know that it won't be affecting your customers so it may be nothing more than we are attempting to contact you. If, for example you entered an incorrect telephone number or email address, then by halting access we can prompt you to contact us so we can discuss ways we can help you.