Tiles
Map tiles are pre-rendered, small sections of a larger map, typically displayed as square images. They are used to efficiently display geographic data by loading only the visible portions at different zoom levels. There are three main types of map tiles:
Tile types
- Vector map tiles
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Vector map tiles store map data as geometric shapes (points, lines, polygons) rather than as images. This enables the creation of high-quality, scalable maps that remain clear at any resolution.
- Raster map tiles
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Raster map tiles are pre-rendered images representing a specific geographic area. Unlike vector tiles, raster tiles are simpler but lack flexibility for restyling.
- Hybrid map tiles
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Hybrid map tiles combine both vector and raster data. They use vector data for core map elements, such as roads, while using raster imagery for more complex elements like detailed satellite or aerial photography.
Vector tile layers
The following are the 10 layers of vector map tiles:
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Boundaries: Defines administrative and geographic boundaries, including country, state, and city borders.
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Buildings and addresses: Represents building shapes and detailed address points.
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Earth: Shows global terrain and surface coverage for natural features like deserts, mountains, and forests.
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Land use: Displays categorized areas such as parks, farmland, and urban zones.
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Places: Identifies important locations like cities, towns, and notable landmarks.
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Points of interest (POIs): Highlights attractions, businesses, and other key locations.
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Roads: Represents the network of streets, highways, and pathways.
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Road labels: Provides text labels for road names and route numbers.
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Transit: Depicts public transport lines such as buses, trains, and subways.
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Water: Displays bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Use cases
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Fetching map tiles for rendering different sections of a map at various zoom levels.
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Optimizing map tile requests based on user interaction, such as panning and zooming.
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Accessing vector or raster tiles for detailed rendering purposes.
Understand the request
The request requires the following parameters: Tileset, X, Y, and Z to identify the specific tile to be fetched. The Key parameter can be optionally included for authorization.
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Tileset: Specifies the desired tileset for fetching the tile. -
X: The X-axis value for the map tile. -
Y: The Y-axis value for the map tile. -
Z: The zoom value, defining the zoom level for the tile. -
Key: Optionally included for authorization purposes.
Understand the response
The response includes headers such as CacheControl, ContentType, and ETag, and contains the map tile data as a binary blob in MVT format. These headers manage cache control, provide content format details, and version control for tiles.
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CacheControl: Controls client-side caching for the map tile. -
ContentType: Specifies the format of the tile data. -
ETag: Provides a version identifier for the tile. -
Blob: Contains the vector tile data in MVT format.
