Multimap In-line Version 5.0 Implementation Guidelines / Software Development Kit (SDK)

This document explains how to integrate Multimap's In-line service into your existing web pages. If you require further information about contractual schedules, please contact your Multimap account manager.

Who should read this document?

This document is for programmers, web developers, project managers and other IT personnel who are implementing Multimap's In-line service.

Assumptions

The document explains how to set up and use In-line and assumes that you:

• have a good working knowledge of HTML;
• have a good working knowledge of JavaScript (if you wish to implement the features of the Multimap In-line Application Programming Interface; and
• are familiar with the basic features and scope of the Multimap In-line service (see the section entitled Technical Overview).

You need a Multimap client account. If you do not have one yet, please contact your Multimap account manager or the Multimap Sales team for your account information, or a free trial account and password.

Scope of document

This document covers:

• how the Multimap In-line service works;
• parameters required to configure the In-line service; and
• examples and descriptions of the structure of the URLs and HTML documents used.

This document does not provide instruction in HTML as it is assumed that you have sufficient knowledge not to require support in general coding.

Copyright

Please note that the maps and data used to provide this service represent copyrighted information, which is owned by our data partners. Do not copy, store, cache, or manipulate in any way any of the maps generated by this service. Any violation of this instruction could result in the cancellation of your service.

Please ensure that every web page that you use to provide a Multimap service for your users maintains a link to Multimap's Terms and Conditions of Use of map images and data.

Limits on geocoded data

Please note that any geocoding provided by Multimap may be used only as part of a Multimap service. If you wish to use the geocoded information for any application other than a Multimap service, additional charges apply. The fee charged is based on the data used and the number of addresses geocoded. This limitation is necessary because of contractual requirements of our data partners.

Terminology

What is Multimap's In-line service?

Multimap's In-line service lets you incorporate maps of any location into your web pages. You can customize the maps in various ways: for example, you can modify the size of the maps, show multiple locations and add navigational features such as panning and zooming. You can also replace the Multimap default red circle with other icons, such as your company logo.

The In-line service is used by many businesses to show a map of their offices, dealerships or properties.

How In-line works

You send Multimap requests by means of a URL that you embed in your HTML code. Multimap receives the requests and sends a map into the page on your website. The URL contains some variable information that you must add to make it work. You may also change some of the parameters Multimap suggests to include in the URL, such as the parameter for replacing the Multimap default red circle with your own icon. For details, please see the section on Customizing Icons on Maps.

When a user accesses your web page, the embedded URL sends a request to Multimap containing parameters to specify the map to be returned. The parameters included in the HTTP request tell Multimap to present maps with a range of dimensions, scales and number of locations, and with navigational features such as panning and zooming.

Showing an In-line map on a web page

To introduce you to your In-line service, we provide you with a simple example URL that you can add to your web page. When you have seen how this URL works, read through this document and add more features such as panning and icons to your map.

http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]&lon=-71.0716&lat=42.3505

In this example and others, please replace "[clientname]" with your own service client name.

If you subscribe to the Secure In-line service you need to use slightly different code in your In-line maps. In your URL, replace http with https:

https://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]&lon=-71.0716&lat=42.3505

Geographic coverage

Multimap provides maps of most of the world, although map coverage varies by country and region.

Street-level mapping

Multimap currently provides street-level mapping for over 45 countries. This list is not exhaustive and is being continually updated as new countries are added. If required, please contact your Multimap account manager for the latest update.

If you discover that you are not able to display street-level maps in a country, please contact your Multimap account manager. Your account may need to be activated to access that country.

Street-level geocoding

The accuracy with which Multimap can geocode addresses to street level varies between countries and regions. If you discover that you are not able to geocode addresses to street-level in a country, please contact your Multimap account manager. Your account may need to be activated to access that country.

Service enhancements

For details of any of the features described in this section, please contact your Multimap account manager.

Aerial Photography module

If you have purchased the Aerial Photography module, you can show aerial photographs as well as maps. Please see the section on Showing Locations with Aerial Photographs for details.

Hybrid Maps module

If you have purchased the Aerial Photography module, you can also purchase the Hybrid Maps module and have your web pages display a mixture of aerial photographs and maps; for details, please see the section on Displaying aerial photographs with the In-line API.

Geocoding module

If you do not know the longitude and latitude of your locations, you may wish to consider adding Multimap's Geocoding module to your basic In-line service.

This module allows you to geocode locations in advance and request maps of those locations in your hyperlinks using only a unique identifier.

You can also identify your desired locations more exactly by using the Point and Click action in Multimap's Client Zone extranet portal.

XML Data Upload service

If you have purchased the optional Geocoding module, you can also purchase Multimap's XML Data Upload service to assist management of your data.

Secure In-line service

The Secure In-line service encrypts both the HTTP requests that the browsers that are viewing your web pages pass to Multimap servers, and the map deliveries that Multimap servers pass back in return.

The HTTP requests and map deliveries that the standard In-line service passes on a regular basis do not present any risk to the security of your web site, but the Secure In-line service caters for websites that already have encryption in their pages.

To include a map in a web page using In-line, enclose a map HTTP request in an HTML <img src> tag in the page:

<img name="multimap" src="[example URL]" [width and height attributes]>

Mandatory parameters

You can specify locations on maps in several ways, and your maps' appearance can vary according to the parameters you use. All parameters require name=value pairs in the query string to specify a map. Please follow this link for a complete List of In-line Parameters.

To display a map, you must specify:

• your service client name; and
• some way of identifying your map's location.

Choose a relevant option from one of these groups of parameters to show maps on your web page:

Specifying maps using longitude and latitude

You can specify maps anywhere in the world using global longitude and latitude coordinates with the lon and let parameters respectively. Please state longitude and latitude coordinates as decimal degrees, instead of as degrees, minutes and seconds. Longitudes west of the Greenwich Meridian and latitudes south of the Equator should be negative.

Example map

Add this URL to the <img src> tag to display a map showing coordinates for an area in Rome, Italy with a map scale of 1:10,000 and where the width and height of the map are 300 pixels (plus an extra ten pixels in height for the copyright bar):

http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]
&lon=12.5764&lat=41.7827&scale=10000&width=300&height=310

The code to incorporate in your web page is:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=12.5764&lat=41.7827&scale=10000 
&width=300&height=310" width="300" height="310">

For details of the scale parameter, please see the section on Changing map scales.

Specifying maps using addresses

You can request a map using an address. In addition to the country parameter, at least one of the pc and addr3 parameters is required for full address identification. Please follow this link for a complete List of In-line Parameters.

Here is an example of a map of a street in the center of Hamburg, Germany:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&country=de&addr3=hamburg&addr2=winterhuder+weg &width=300&height=300" width="300" height="300">

Please note that, where only a pc or an addr3 parameter is specified, the Multimap In-line service provides a map based on the geographic center of that area.

Unresolved searches and error messages

If a request does not match a location, the Multimap In-line service returns an error image. This is either a standard Multimap error image or, optionally, an image hosted on your own server.

If a request matches multiple locations, In-line's default behavior is to show a map of the first matching alternative. This feature can be disabled if required and replaced with a separate error message.

If you wish to change the way your In-line service handles these exceptions, please contact the Multimap Customer Support team.

Specifying maps using a unique record identifier

If you have purchased the Geocoding module for your In-line service, you can specify a location on a map using a parameter to identify a unique record in a table of addresses stored in a Multimap database. Your data is stored in a table of addresses which is accessible through Multimap's Client Zone extranet portal. You can specify an address that is stored in your table by using any of its fields that has a value that is unique to that address record. Please note that you must prefix the name of the field with "f_".

This example uses a unique database field to identify a location in Canada:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&f_client_id=toronto_office&width=300&height=300" width="300" height="300">

If you specify two or more of these parameters together, they use 'AND logic' to identify the correct record; an address is returned only if it matches all criteria.

This example uses two unique database fields to identify a location:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&f_client_id=A123&f_manager=smith&width=300&height=300" width="300" height="300">

For details of this module and access to its separate Implementation Guidelines / Software Development Kit (SDK) document, please contact your Multimap account manager.

Specifying multiple locations

The Multimap In-line service can show multiple locations on a single map. The map scales itself automatically to show all the locations requested, but you can specify its scale.

By default, the Multimap In-line service uses numbered boxes to show multiple locations on a map.

Multiple icons with coordinates

To display multiple icons on a single map, specify a series of points as a comma-separated list of longitude and latitude coordinates (in that order) using the lllist parameter. This example map uses default numbered boxes to identify four cities in Mexico:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lllist=-106.074,28.6306,-100.317,25.6773,-106.2591,23.3666, 
-103.3587,20.6689&width=500&height=460" width="500" height="460">

For details of the scale parameter, please see the section on Changing map scales.

Map width and height

The default map size is 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels high; to use a different size, change the width and height parameters. Please see the List of In-line Parameters for the minimum and maximum permissible values.

In the HTML <img src> tag, the width and height parameters appear twice:

• inside the URL to tell the mapping program what size image to create; and
• as attributes of the <img src> tag to tell the browser what space to allocate within the web page for the image. This speeds up the rendering of the image on your web page.

The maximum width and height attributes of an embedded img link are limited only by the size of the browser window. Please remember to specify the same ratio of width to height in both instances, to avoid distorting the map.

Panning maps

To pan a map away from an original location, use the panx parameter to pan a map east or west and the pany parameter to pan a map north or south. These parameters can have the value of any positive or negative integer, depending on the direction in which you wish to pan your map:

• panx pans east with a positive value and west when negative; and
• pany pans north with a positive value and south when negative.

These parameters adjust automatically to the map's scale; a value of 1 is approximately one half of the width or height of the map.

For example, to pan the example URL shown in the section on Showing an In-line map on a web page one step north and west simultaneously, use the link:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=-71.0716&lat=42.3505&panx=-1&pany=1">

For users who have JavaScript enabled on their browsers, you can also add JavaScript functions to your web page to let users easily pan maps north, south, east, west and diagonally. For details, please see the section on Panning and zooming with the In-line API.

Changing map scales

Changing the scale parameter

You can specify the scale of map you wish to show by including the scale parameter in your URL:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&scale=5000&lon=151.2085&lat=-33.8684" width="250" height="250">

For a full list of available map scales, please see Multimap's online List of Map Scales.

Zooming with the ds parameter

You can also zoom a map in and out using the scale delta parameter ds. The value for this parameter is equal to the number of rows up or down the scales table from the current scale of the map. Moving up the table (zooming in) is a negative number and moving down the table (zooming out) is a positive number.

To zoom a map of New York from a default scale of 1:50,000 three steps out to 1:500,000, use the parameter ds=3:

This code generated the map on the left with the default map scale:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=-73.9607&lat=40.6328&width=250&height=250" width="250" height="250">

This code generated the map on the right, zooming out from the default scale by three scale points:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=-73.9607&lat=40.6328&width=250&height=250 &ds=3" width="250" height="250">

You can use the ds parameter with several methods of specifying a location:

• coordinates;
• address and postal code details; or
• eastings and northings (in Great Britain).

Please note that, if you are using your In-line service to show maps of Great Britain using Ordnance Survey grid references (via the grid parameter as described in the section on Specifying maps with Ordnance Survey grid references), that method is not compatible with the ds parameter.

For users who have JavaScript enabled on their browsers, you can also add JavaScript functions to your web page to let users change map scales. For details, please see the section on Panning and zooming with the In-line API.

The icon parameter specifies the icon that shows a location on your In-line map. In-line maps show a red circle by default, but you can replace this with your own icon by uploading GIF images to Multimap through Client Zone, then using them in HTTP requests in your web page.

Uploading icons using Client Zone

You can implement In-line without Client Zone. However, you need to use Client Zone if you wish to:

• use your own icons, rather than our default red circle;
• view your service documentation; or
• view your traffic reports.

Preview and live environments

You can test any changes made to your icons in a preview environment before making them live. For details, please see the section on Uploading custom map icons.

Logging in to Client Zone

To log in to your account in Client Zone, use the username and password given to you by your Multimap account manager, as follows:

https://cz.multimap.com

1. From the login page, enter the username and password of your company. This takes you to the Select a service to manage page.
2. From the Select a service to manage page, select your In-line service.

Uploading custom map icons

If you wish, you can upload your own icon and display it on your map.

The size of the icon can vary, but we recommend that the image be large enough to be clearly visible, but not so large as to obscure a substantial area of map space underneath it. A typical size is 25 pixels wide by 25 pixels high.

To upload the GIF image of your own icon:

1. Log in to Client Zone.
2. From the Management Menu, File Actions section, select Upload templates and images.
3. From the Upload templates and images page, click Browse... to find the GIF image file on your computer, then enter a comment about the image, outlining any changes made to it. This will help you identify the version of the image in its file history on the Revert to previous live templates or images page (accessible from the Management Menu).
4. Click Upload. This takes you to the Copy templates and images to your live environment page.
5. If you wish to view your icon before making it live, check it using a link to your preview environment; for details, please see the section on Displaying custom map icons.
6. When you are satisfied with the appearance of your new icon, click the Copy button corresponding to your image. This adds your image to the Live templates and images list in Client Zone.

Displaying custom map icons

To display your own image on a map, for example "mycustomicon1.gif", add the parameter icon=mycustomicon1 to the query string of your HTTP request.

To view your icon in your preview environment, include a link as follows:

<img name="multimap" src="http://preview.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=174.6799&lat=-36.9101&width=300&height=310 
&scale=50000&icon=mycustomicon1" width="300" height="310">

To view your icon in your live environment, include a link as follows:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lon=174.6799&lat=-36.9101&width=300&height=310 
&scale=50000&icon=mycustomicon1" width="300" height="310">

Displaying multiple custom map icons

To use your own images instead of Multimap's default boxes to show multiple locations on a single map:

1. Upload your icons in Client Zone, as instructed in the section on Uploading custom map icons.
2. Use the lllist parameter to specify your pairs of coordinates (as described in the section on Specifying multiple locations) and the gif_array parameter to specify the names of the images (without their ".gif" suffixes) that you want to use.

The gif_array parameter lists the names of the GIF files in the same order that the coordinate pairs appear in the lllist parameter. You can use the same icon for several locations on the same map or specify in your URL link the images that you wish to use.

This example requests a map which uses the two different custom icons to identify Guangzhou and Kowloon in China:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&lllist=113.26,23.1175,114.1775,22.3075 
&width=500&height=310&gif_array=[myicon1],[myicon2]" width="500" height="310">

Disabling Multimap's default red circle

To show a map without any icon, include the parameter icon=none in your URL:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&pc=w1a1aa&country=gb&scale=10000 
&width=300&height=300&icon=none" width="300" height="300">

Changing icon positions on maps

If you use coordinates to specify a map, the icon shown on the map is centered on the specified point automatically.

However, an address search may locate the wrong end of a street, or the geographic center of an area covered by a postal code instead of an accurate point at the edge of that area.

You can use the delta parameters dx and dy to adjust the exact position of an icon on a map. These parameters change the position of an icon on a map by adding a value (in meters) to, or deducting a value from, the x and y coordinates:

• x denotes a longitudinal value; and
• y denotes a latitudinal value.

This example shows a map of the British postcode EX1 1JN with its icon in the default position on the left, and the same map with the icon in an adjusted position on the right:

This code generated the map on the left:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&pc=ex1+1jn&country=gb&scale=5000 
&width=200&height=200" width="200" height="200">

In the map on the right the dx parameter in this code has moved the icon 100 meters east of its default position and the dy parameter has moved it 25 meters north:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&pc=ex1+1jn&country=gb&scale=5000 
&width=200&height=200&dx=100&dy=25" width="200" height="200">

If your In-line service covers Great Britain or Northern Ireland, there are additional ways in which you can specify locations.

Specifying maps with Ordnance Survey grid references

As an alternative to using coordinates, addresses or postcodes to specify maps in Great Britain, you can use an Ordnance Survey grid reference with the grid parameter:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&grid=SJ860779&scale=25000 &width=300&height=300" width="300" height="300">

Specifying maps with eastings and northings

You can specify a map of Great Britain using eastings and northings with the x and y parameters. For British locations you need to include the coordsys parameter with the value "gb".

This requests the map of a location in the Isle of Wight:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&x=456000&y=77900&coordsys=gb&scale=50000 
&width=300&height=310" width="300" height="310">

Specifying multiple UK locations

Multiple icons with postcodes

To request a map with multiple postcodes in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, use the pclist parameter.

In this example the postcodes are indicated by three custom icons:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&pclist=W1A+1AA,W12+7RJ,WC2B+4PH &gif_array=[myicon1],[myicon2],[myicon3] 
&width=300&height=300" width="300" height="300">

Multiple icons with eastings and northings

To show multiple locations in Great Britain using eastings and northings, use the xylist parameter to specify a comma-separated list of pairs of x and y coordinates (in that order), adding the parameter value coordsys=gb.

Here is an example of the xylist and gif_array parameters showing three locations in Great Britain:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname] 
&xylist=325900,673800,424600,564900,340300,555700 
&coordsys=gb&gif_array=[myicon1],[myicon2],[myicon3] 
&width=450&height=300" width="450" height="300">

If you have purchased the Aerial Photography module you can have your web page show aerial photographs as well as maps. The Aerial Photography module can use all the same parameters as the main In-line mapping module.

To show a static aerial photograph instead of a map, replace the "map" part of your embedded HTML tag with "aerial", as in this example which shows a photograph of Stonehenge:

<img name="multimap" src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/aerial? 
client=[clientname]&lat=51.1797 
&lon=-1.8282&scale=25000&width=300&height=310 " width="300" height="310">

To show an overlay or hybrid map, please see the section on Displaying aerial photographs with the In-line API.

The Multimap In-line service provides an Application Programming Interface (API) to help you build applications using In-line maps. The In-line API is particularly useful for building applications that pan and zoom your maps and, if you have bought the Hybrid Maps module, it helps you to easily display an aerial photograph with a transparent map overlaid on top, as shown on the Multimap public website.

The In-line API is written in JavaScript; please note that users who do not have a JavaScript-enabled browser cannot use its features.

Linking to the In-line API

To begin using the In-line API, you must include a link to it within your web page. Typically, you should place this within the <HEAD> section of your web page:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://classic.multimap.com/scripts/inlineapi.js"> </script>

Creating and displaying maps using the In-line API

Creating a map

After you have linked to the In-line API, create a new map object using the class MultimapInlineMap and specifying your service client name:

map = new MultimapInlineMap("[clientname]");

The In-line API also provides height and width parameters to specify the size of the map you have created:

map.height = 350; map.width = 350;

Please note that the restrictions regarding the size of maps in In-line, as described in the List of In-line Parameters, also apply to the In-line API.

Specifying a location

The next step is to specify the location of map you wish to display.

The In-line API supports all the methods for requesting maps and aerial photographs of the In-line service, which are supplied as parameters to the map you created earlier:

Specifying a scale

By default, the In-line API automatically selects the most appropriate scale to display the map, based on the location(s) you specify.

You can however choose a specific scale using the scale parameter:

map.scale = 5000;

You can also control users' view of maps when zooming in and out by changing the map.scales parameter to define which scales to use, as in this example of a location in London, England:

<script type="text/javascript"> map = new MultimapInlineMap("[clientname]") 
	map.lat = 51.2835; map.lon = -0.1375; map.scale = 50000; 
	map.scales = Array(25000,50000,100000); map.height = 350; map.width = 350; </script>

For a full list of available map scales, please see Multimap's online List of Map Scales.

Displaying your map

After creating your map object and specifying the location of the map, display the map in your web page using the drawMap() method. Place the following code within your web page where you wish to show the map:

<script type="text/javascript"> map.drawMap(); </script>

Panning and zooming with the In-line API

The In-line API provides a number of methods to help you easily pan and zoom your map.

You can control panning by using the pan(intX, intY) method. This method accepts integer values, with positive numbers panning the map a number of steps to the east and north respectively, and negative numbers panning west and south:

<a href="javascript:map.pan(0,1);">Pan North</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(0,-1);">Pan South</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(1,0);">Pan East</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(-1,0);">Pan West</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(1,1);">Pan North-east</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(-1,1);">Pan North-west</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(1,-1);">Pan South-east</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.pan(-1,-1);">Pan South-west</a>

The gotoScale(int) method can be used to set the scale of the map to the specified value:

<a href="javascript:map.gotoScale(5000);">Go to 1:5000</a>

The zoom(int) method increments or decrements the scale of the map by the specified number of units, with positive numbers zooming out and negative numbers zooming in:

<a href="javascript:map.zoom(-1);">Zoom In 1 level</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.zoom(1);">Zoom Out 1 level</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.zoom(-2);">Zoom In 2 levels</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.zoom(2);">Zoom Out 2 levels</a>

If you have chosen a specific scale to display your map, using the scale parameter, it is possible to specify an array of scales that the zoom(int) method uses when displaying a map, using the scales parameter:

map.scales = Array(5000,25000,100000,500000,4000000);

For a full list of available map scales, please see Multimap's online List of Map Scales.

Please note that:

• it is not possible to use the scales parameter without the scale parameter, so this feature is not available when you wish the In-line API to automatically select the most appropriate scale; and
• due to the way the In-line service works, it is not possible to pan more than one map on a single web page.

Displaying aerial photographs with the In-line API

By default, the type of your In-line service is set to "map".

If you have purchased the Aerial Photography module, you can use the In-line API to set the service's initial type attribute to "aerial" in the initialization code whenever a map is drawn:

map.type = "aerial";

When a map has been displayed, you can also use the changeType(type) method to alter the type of image that the service provides:

<a href="javascript:map.changeType('aerial');">Display Aerial Photography</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.changeType('map');">Display map</a>

If you have also purchased the Hybrid Maps module, you can set the value of the map's type to "overlay" or "hybrid":

• "overlay" displays an aerial image with a section of the associated map overlaid around the location of the user's mouse, as shown on the Multimap website; and
• "hybrid" displays an aerial image with the associated map overlaid on top.

<a href="javascript:map.changeType('overlay');">Display Overlay Map</a>
<a href="javascript:map.changeType('hybrid');">Display Hybrid Map</a>

By default, the map layer is overlaid with an opacity value of 75%. You can use the In-line API to set the service's initial opacity attribute in the initialization code to any value between 0% and 100% whenever a map is drawn, where the map layer becomes less transparent as the value increases:

map.opacity = 50;

When a map has been displayed, you can alter the opacity of the map layer using the changeOpacity(int) method:

<a href="javascript:map.changeOpacity(0);">Highest</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.changeOpacity(25);">Higher</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.changeOpacity(50);">Medium</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.changeOpacity(75);">Lower (default)</a> 
<a href="javascript:map.changeOpacity(100);">Lowest</a>

Frequently-asked questions

Why do I see the error message "Unknown client" on my map?

The URL will not work without the client parameter and you must have an account set up with Multimap with the name you have specified for your service. You may have:

• omitted your service client name from the URL for your map;
• spelled your service client name incorrectly;
• entered your client name in upper case; or
• used incorrect syntax for your URL.

Why is my icon in the wrong place on my map?

Your icon, or the Multimap red circle, seldom appears exactly in the middle of a map. It is more noticeable with small-sized, large-scale maps. This is why the icon sometimes looks off-center on very small maps. To improve the appearance of the icon on your map, try enlarging your map with the width and height parameters, or use the scale parameter to specify a smaller scale. A search that uses address parameters usually resolves to the center of an area, whether a street, postal code district or town, depending on the level of local coverage that In-line provides. This central point is where the icon is usually placed on the map. For HTTP requests that contain these address parameters, it is possible to use the dx and dy parameters to move an icon a few meters in the x (east to west) or y (north to south) directions and correct the position of the icon manually. For details of this, please see the section on Changing icon positions on maps.

Can I show multiple maps on one web page?

This is possible, but we recommend that you show each map on its own web page, especially if you are using the In-line service's panning and zooming features, since this functionality does not support more than one map per web page.

Why do I see the message "This page contains both secure and non-secure items"?

This warning sometimes occurs when displaying maps on pages served from a secure server. If you think such a message will alarm your users, you may wish to use the encrypted version of the In-line service - the Secure In-line service (see the section on the Secure In-line service). If you would like to use this service, please contact your Multimap account manager.

What is the correct way to encode ampersands in HTTP requests?

To ensure your HTML code conforms to W3C guidelines, we recommend that you follow the standards therein for encoding ampersand characters in HTTP requests to our In-line CGI script. The HTML way of specifying an ampersand (&) character is & and, by using this format in embedded HTML, you ensure that the HTML code is valid. Therefore, where the In-line documentation refers to a query string embedded within an HTML document, we recommend that you replace ampersand values with the & string.

This URL complies with W3C guidelines:

<img src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]
&amp;pc=ec1n2ns&amp;country=gb">

This URL does not:

<img src="http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]
&pc=ec1n2ns&country=gb">

However, if the link is a stand-alone URL such as an example query string, please leave the standard ampersand values as they are:

http://classic.multimap.com/clients/map?client=[clientname]
&pc=ec1n2ns&country=gb

List of Countries

This section contains a list of countries that your Multimap In-line service supports, along with the unique two-character International Organization for Standardization (ISO) country code for each. You can access the full ISO list of country codes on the ISO website.

If the country you are interested in is not listed, it does not necessarily mean it is not supported. Other countries are being added to this service all the time, so please ask your Multimap account manager for an update.

For details of how Multimap services interpret names and codes for countries, states and provinces, please see Multimap's online documentation on Countries and States.

Mandatory parameter combinations

You must include the client parameter and one of the following mandatory combinations, plus any optional parameters as described elsewhere in this section:

• lat, lon
• addr3, country
• addr3, state, country
• pc, country
• lllist
• grid (Great Britain only)
• x, y, coordsys (Great Britain only)
• xylist, coordsys (Great Britain only)
• pclist (Great Britain and Northern Ireland only)

Further Help

If you require further help with your Multimap service implementation, additional Multimap services or general account enquiries, please contact Multimap: