How do you take a round object and display it accurately on a flat surface? TomTom's location services employ a Spherical Mercator projection of the earth's surface to create the underlying map representation used by the services. The map data is further delineated by zoom levels and tile grids that provide the exact visual representation you need to display a map.

We conclude our series of articles on creating a WordPress Plugin that use the TomTom Maps and Search APIs, adding the final touch to our plugin: intelligent routing that helps a site user generate driving directions to guide them from their present location to their chosen store location. Moreover, they'll be smart directions based on current traffic conditions.

TomTom Live Traffic continuously monitors traffic flow and traffic incidents, and this information can be combined with TomTom's mapping and routing services to provide better routes and real-time traffic visualizations.

In the third installment of our WordPress Plugin series we'll build the Plugin admin components that take store addresses, convert them to coordinates with the Search API, and save the location data to a database.