HERE launches XYZ: Mapmaking and geospatial data management made easy for developers and non-coders alike
- Extends the HERE Freemium plan for developers by adding new tools to build location-aware applications.
- Empowers users to create maps without writing code.
- Delivers ready-made tools for staging, editing and publishing live geospatial data.
- Combines “command-line cartography” with an enterprise-scale API.
HERE Technologies, a global leader in mapping and location platform services, announces the general availability of HERE XYZ, a cloud-based service that provides software developers as well as novice and professional mapmakers with the tools needed for effortless map publication and data management.
HERE XYZ aims to maximize ease of use, flexibility and interoperability by leveraging the best of the open source ecosystem and tools from the company’s long history of building standard and high definition maps at global scale. This approach allows developers to maintain their workflow while incorporating XYZ to address the challenge of managing large and unwieldy geospatial datasets.
Data journalists, cartographers and geospatial data providers will find the real-time nature of HERE XYZ’s dynamic tiling capability to be indispensable for publishing maps that require live updates.
“HERE XYZ is about flipping the fundamental challenge of mapmaking on its head,” said Achal Prabhakar, Vice President of Engineering at HERE Technologies. “We’ve built the largest SD and HD mapping platform in the world and we know that eighty percent of mapmaking is time spent wrangling and managing geospatial data. HERE XYZ solves this problem by delivering the pre-requisite building blocks for data management and map publishing, so users of all levels can focus on creating the insights and context that only the concept of location can provide.”
HERE XYZ is included as part of the market-leading HERE Freemium developer plan, offering users generous entitlements for data transfer and database storage and seamless integration of HERE Location Services APIs such as geocoding, routing, search and more to build full-featured, location-aware applications. Developers can invoke the XYZ Hub API directly or via the HERE Command Line Interface (HERE CLI). Non-developers can use the XYZ Studio to invoke the same XYZ Hub API but using an intuitive web application.
For Interline Technologies, a San Francisco-based startup that improves transportation networks digitally, the HERE XYZ Hub API is accessed via a custom “connector” that enables push updates for live datasets.
“HERE XYZ is a great addition to Interline’s toolkit for our team and for our users,” says Drew Dara-Abrams, Principal at Interline Technologies. “The command-line interface has become part of our regular workflows for visualizing and inspecting our work-in-progress and other miscellaneous geodata. XYZ Connectors are opening even more interesting possibilities for our production systems and real-time data updates. They’re a powerful hybrid of managed-cloud services, open-source components, and common data formats like GeoJSON and GeoJSONL.”
HERE XYZ will continue to evolve in response to developer and user feedback, GitHub pull requests for the HERE CLI and QGIS plug-in, and needs articulated by leading providers of public datasets.
For all mapmaking and data management needs, head to HERE XYZ: https://explore.xyz.here.com/
About HERE Technologies
HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes – from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com.