HERE Technologies recently announced the availability of HERE XYZ, a real-time, flexible, and open location data management cloud service built for a broad range of developers and users: from students to small and medium businesses to large enterprises to data journalists and cartographers. The service, currently in Beta, fills a major gap for mapmakers and developers of location-aware applications by providing live access to uploaded data, complete flexibility in rendering tools, and cloud services to share your location data with the world in an instant.
A major difference this cloud service offers is flexibility, unlike Google Maps and other closed location data services, as HERE’s robust system is designed to be used in conjunction with a range of existing, popular mapping and geospatial data management tools. Not only that, new data is automatically rendered into your map without having to refresh the data making users’ maps truly real-time, according to the company.
HERE XYZ is built for a broad range of developers and users, and developers in large organizations can make rich, interactive maps and location-aware applications that benefit from the robust tools and capabilities of HERE XYZ. Data journalists and cartographers will find the publishing services of HERE XYZ to be valuable for making maps that require live updates. At the same time, casual users can quickly make simple maps without writing code.
“Location-awareness is the next big thing for products, applications and services. Successful location-awareness depends, however, on location data management. HERE XYZ allows developers and map makers to maximize their creative energy by making it easy to manage location data,” said Achal Prabhakar, Vice President of Core Map Engineering at HERE Technologies. “Making great maps, serving live location data and creating location-aware apps will soon have one thing in common—HERE XYZ.”
HERE XYZ is built around a powerful and versatile XYZ Hub API that is delivered as a cloud service. Developers can invoke the XYZ Hub API directly or explore it via the HERE Command Line Interface (HERE CLI). Casual mappers can use the XYZ Hub API, via a web-based graphical interface called XYZ Studio, to visualize data in Hub and for simple map creation.
To access the HERE XYZ Beta go to https://explore.xyz.here.com/ to experience:
Benefits include:
- Location datasets, uploaded via the XYZ Hub API, made immediately available for management, editing and quick display via the CLI or by using XYZ Studio;
- Interoperability between HERE XYZ and third-party map renderers, including Leaflet, Tangram and Three.js; and
- Casual maps made with XYZ Studio without having to write any code.
- Real-time, interoperable and open location data management service
- Aimed at developers, data owners, cartographers and GIS analysts
- Frees data owners from having to build a service to use or share their data
