HERE Map Tile v2 Developer's Guide

Metainfo with Road Signs

The user wants to make road signs on the map interactive to offer, for example, several options for having the map display additional information. This requires obtaining metadata information about an image showing a map tile that includes road signs.

Note: These examples use a HERE API Key to authenticate your request. For the available authentication options, see the Identity & Access Management Developer Guide.

Original Map Tile

This request obtains a map tile with a roadsign:

https://2.base.maps.ls.hereapi.com/maptile/2.1/maptile/newest/normal.day/13/4410/2694/256/png8
?apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}

The response contains a road sign for route A12 in Germany:

Figure 1. Map Tile with Road Sign

The following request obtains more information about this map tile:

Metainfo Tile Request

In this request, the query parameter metadata specifies that the response is to contain only metadata and the query parameter mgen specifies what metainfo is in the response.

https://2.base.maps.ls.hereapi.com/maptile/2.1/maptile/newest/normal.day/13/4410/2694/256/png8
?apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}
&metadata=metaonly
&mgen=2

Processing Metainfo Tile Response

The response provides information that allows you to locate a road sign in order to make it interactive.

Road sign labels belong to the labels array of the metadata JSON object ("type": "ROADSIGN"). The box 1 array specifies the bounding box for a road sign icon in the following format: [x, y, width, height].

Additionally, the JSON object also provides the following information:

  • country region
  • road sign category
  • route name
  • route level
{
  "metadata": {
    "street labels": [],
    "labels": [
      {
        "name": "12",
        "type": "ROADSIGN",
        "bounding boxes": [ { "box 1":[ 41.62, 71.52, 24, 18 ] } ],
        "region": "DEU",
        "category": 0,
        "route name": "A12",
        "route level": 2,
        "uri": "http://image.maps.ls.hereapi.com/mia/1.6/roadsign?category=0&region=DEU&label=A12&route_level=2&apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}"
      }
    ],
    "city center labels":[],
    "buildings": [],
    "transit stops": [],
    "POIs": []
  }
}

Using the value of the uri attribute from the above response body as a request obtains the related road sign icon:

http://image.maps.ls.hereapi.com/mia/1.6/roadsign
?category=0
&region=DEU
&label=A12
&route_level=2
&apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}
Figure 2. Road Sign Icon

Filter Only Metainfo for Road Signs

Adding the parameter filter to the request obtains only metainfo for road sign labels and excludes all other kinds of labels from the JSON response. This is useful in case of tiles that contain a lot of different labels as the one requested below:

https://2.base.maps.ls.hereapi.com/maptile/2.1/maptile/newest/normal.day/11/1102/673/256/png8
?apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}
The response delivers a tile that contains a lot of city center labels.
Figure 3. Tile with Several Labels

If the request specifies "filter=1", this obtains only roadsign labels for the metadata tile:

https://2.base.maps.ls.hereapi.com/maptile/2.1/maptile/newest/normal.day/11/1102/673/256/png8
?apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}
&metadata=metaonly
&mgen=2
&filter=1

The response include only information relevant to roadsign labels:

{
  "metadata": {
    "labels": [
      {
        "name": "12",
        "type":"ROADSIGN",
        "bounding boxes": [ { "box 1":[ 46.38, 110.68, 22, 16 ] } ],
        "region": "DEU",
        "category": 0,
        "route name": "A12",
        "route level": 2,
        "uri": "http://image.maps.ls.hereapi.com/mia/1.6/roadsign?category=0&region=DEU&label=A12&route_level=2&apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}"
       },
      {  
        "name": "10",
        "type":"ROADSIGN",
        "bounding boxes": [ { "box 1":[ 7, 115.18, 22, 16 ] } ],
        "region": "DEU",
        "category": 0,
        "route name": "A10",
        "route level": 2,
        "uri": "http://image.maps.ls.hereapi.com/mia/1.6/roadsign?category=0&region=DEU&label=A10&route_level=2&apiKey={YOUR_API_KEY}"
      }
    ]
  }
}