GeoComrade

Today we started testing the integration of MapQuest maps into UMapper (example below), and it went extremely well. This might not seem like a big deal since UMapper currently supports Bing, OpenStreetMap, Yahoo, CloudMade and other mapping providers, but there are few technical details that make this an important milestone (setting aside the fact that MapQuest is the second largest mapping provider). MapQuest uses a different projection from all the the other providers as well as a unique way to calculate zoom levels based on the map scale. Both of those are significant differences making MapQuest maps extremely challenging to integrate into third-party mapping APIs.

That said, we were able to make the necessary changes to the UMap API in order load map tiles, re-project overlays and swap the algorithm for calculating zoom levels. I can’t say exactly when, but we plan to release this functionality publicly in the near future. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please test the embed below and let me know if you see anything funky.

If you are interested in learning more about map projections, take a look at the detailed post on the subject on Geoweb Guru.