Gilang Charismadiptya – Team Innovation
6 minute read – 14/08/2023
In the field of logistics, location-based services play a crucial role in many software applications. Consider, for example, route planning and real-time tracking. However, location functions are not always easy to link together, so that the strengths of the individual functions are not always used equally well. Our developers built the CAPE Voyager Map widget for this. Which, thanks to platforms such as AWS (Amazon Web Services) Location Services and Mendix, makes it possible to integrate location functions relatively easily into your transport and/or route applications.
In this article we take you through this complex story. We take a closer look at the core concepts surrounding location functions, such as geocoding, reverse geocoding en routing. In the second half of this blog you will find the benefits of the CAPE Voyager Map Widget for your own transport and/or route applications.
Location features core concepts
Applications that use location functions such as charter portal applications, track-and-trace applications and any other application that offers the user route/navigation options, use the techniques of geocoding, reverse geocoding, routing, geofencing and trackers in the background. The CAPE Voyager Map widget seamlessly integrates these, and more, functionalities for maximum speed and efficiency of location functions in applications. For the operation and the benefits of the CAPE Voyager Map widget, we briefly explain these techniques below.
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of converting addresses, places, and businesses into geographic coordinates. This is commonly used in applications where locations are positioned on maps and/or travel distances and times are estimated.
Reverse geocoding
Reverse geocoding then converts the coordinates into human-readable addresses and places. This is frequently used in, for example, delivery applications and/or displaying track-and-trace information to the users of the applications.
Routing
Routing is one of the most crucial location functions in location based applications. It involves planning directions from one location to another. This function can range from simple point-to-point instructions to more complex routes with multiple waypoints and multiple vehicle types such as car, train, truck, boat, etc.
Geofencing
Geofencing is the functionality to create virtual perimeters around geographic areas and generate alerts when tracked devices or objects enter or leave these areas.
Trackers
Trackers make it possible to track the position of connected devices, store location history and retrieve the current and historical location of a tracked device.
5x benefits CAPE Voyager Map widget
1
This advanced provides an innovative solution for visualizing location positionings and routes on one map. Specially designed to optimize location functionality in applications developed in Mendix.
2
One of the most notable benefits of the Voyager Map is the flexibility in selecting map providers. The module is designed to easily switch between different map providers, such as Google Maps, Openstreet Map, PTV or any other custom map provider supported by a Leaflet library. The variety of maps and thus visual styles makes the widget applicable for any specific user need. This contributes to an improvement in functionality and user experience of any transport and/or order application that uses location functionalities.
3
The Voyager Map widget calculates and visualizes global transportation routers. The maps provide high-quality worldwide coverage, thanks to the construction from different data sources.
4
By directly integrating the geocoding, reverse geocoding and route optimization, the Voyager Map widget simplifies the route optimization process within your applications. The complexity of the process is significantly reduced, practically resulting in smoother navigation for end users.
5
In addition to the smooth display of the navigation routes, public transport directions and travel times between locations are also accurately calculated and displayed visually.
3x Extra benefit for Mendix' location based application developers
6
Application development and user interactions are seamlessly streamlined. For example, the Voyager Map widget allows microflows to be triggered after something as small as a user clicking on a map. This is an indispensable capability when building interactive applications that respond to user input.
7
The Voyager Map widget also provides context menus and custom styling options. This gives developers the tools to apply the functional application requirements and align with the aesthetic and design principles of the project.
8
The Voyager Map widget supports encoding according to Google's polyline algorithm. This is a popular algorithm because of the efficiency and accuracy with which latitude and longitude are encoded. Ideal for optimizing and displaying complex routes.
AWS Location Services
The Voyager Map widget is developed using the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Location Services. This AWS Location Service provides the ability to add maps, points of interest, geocoding, routing, geofencing, and tracking to the applications without the overhead of managing infrastructure or a third-party service. The AWS Location Services is designed to maintain the privacy and security of location data. You retain control and ownership of your data, and it is managed in accordance with the AWS Privacy Policy. This also ensures data privacy and security.
Voyager Map widget in addition to the AWS Location services
AWS Location Service is a robust tool for handling route optimization and provides significant value in the development of location-based applications. While it is integrated with Mendix and available on the Mendix Marketplace, there are some aspects of the AWS Location Services that are challenging to use effectively. Such as understanding the request structure, creating an intuitive user interface and performing input validation.
We have addressed these challenges with the Voyager Map widget. Which therefore not only uses this integration, but also addresses the shortcomings. The widget is the ready-to-use solution, including customization options to suit your specific needs and use cases. In addition, the Voyager Map widget breaks new ground in terms of visualizing the routes, providing a user-friendly interface for location-based data. The combination of these solutions results in a more streamlined and effective approach to route optimization within the Mendix environment.
In Summary
CAPE's Voyager Map widget makes the complexity of optimizing routes in, for example, transportation and order management applications, faster and more visually appealing. By combining the various location functions such as geocoding, reverse geocoding, routing, geofencing and tracking and using Google's accurate and efficient polyline algorithm, the most complex routes with different stopovers and transport types are visually displayed in an instant. the user's navigation. Regardless of the card provider preference of the user.
Are you experiencing problems while calculating routes in your transport applications or developing these applications? We are happy to help you with the Voyager Map widget.
