Things sometimes slow down a bit in July with people taking vacations or time away from their screens. In case you took a much-needed break off the grid this past month, here’s a roundup of all our tutorials from TomTom Developers this past month – accompanied by some of our favorite articles and resources that we encountered in July.

TOMTOM DEVELOPER BLOGS

Learn how to use TomTom maps with Django, migrate from Google Maps, or check out our fleet management tutorials: learn how to track and trace construction assets with the Location History API, or route truck rest stops with CodePen and the Reachable Range API. Lastly, get to know our July Mapmaker, Leen D’hondt, Product Manager for TomTom Maps!

TomTom’s Location History API allows users to safely store and retrieve the locations and movements of tracked devices. There are a plethora of ways developers can use the Location History API (primarily the Objects Service and the Position History Service) to build applications that solve real construction industry problems.

Server-side frameworks like Django read and generate pages in milliseconds —which is perfect for apps accessing a store information database. In this tutorial, learn how to build a simple store locator app’s back end using Django with a location model linked to TomTom Maps APIs.

In part two of our Django series, we'll add a TomTom map to our locator app by setting up Django URLs, creating views, and understanding the mapping code.

For the fifth article in the TomTom Mapmakers series, we spoke with Leen D’hondt, Senior Product Manager for the Maps product unit. Learn more about Leen’s journey working with maps in a variety of industries, and her insights on the future of location technology.

How to transition different elements of your map from Google Maps to TomTom Maps, from displaying a simple map to adding Traffic, Routing, Search and Map Markers in a matter of minutes.

Learn how to easily include TomTom’s reachable range in your routing app using CodePen, helping truckers time their rest stops to comply with regulations — and get a good meal and rest at their favorite truck stop.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Developers are in a unique position to utilize location technology to help a wide range of businesses, in a variety of industries. From delivering packages to displaying traffic to routing for electric vehicles, our Maps APIs have got you covered. In this video, our dev advocate Jose shows us how to build a traffic dashboard, create a service delivery app, and plan long distance routing for EVs.

In this video, Jose does some route reconstruction with on-demand product marketing manager Anna, using the Location History API. Watch how they created a new project using the Geofencing API and added her car as an asset to track. This use case can be useful for transport companies to manage vehicles and optimize routes.

Events

TomTom participated in Home Delivery Asia, a virtual event covering innovation and disruption in Asian retail logistics, last mile delivery & warehousing. Product Marketing Manager Dosanna Wu gave a talk on using location technology to improve the last mile delivery – you can catch the talk below!

Vinod Kumar, Head of Strategic Sales for India & Asia, also gave a talk on location tech for food and grocery delivery. You can watch his talk here.

FORUM

Our Developer Forum is a great place to get support when you’re stuck on a project or get inspiration for a new one. Here are some of our most popular questions and answers from the forum this month:

• categorySet code in the Search API
• Loading the map already panned and zoom control
• Adding Places to TomTom Maps via Map Share

Even More Resources

There were so many resources we loved in July. We found and shared so many that this month we’re organizing them by category. Here are some articles, videos, and resources we enjoyed and shared this month:

• 29 Best YouTube Channels to Learn to Code and Become a Better Developer – Get learning via video and level up your programming and coding skills.
• The 10 Most Valuable Lessons I Learned as a Developer – From patience to consistency, here’s a list from Oliver Jumpterz on what he’s learned in 21 years of software development.
• How to Help Developers Work in The Flow – Some more inspiration and motivation, this time on on the flow state or “the zone” and how to get there.
• The Frontend Hitchhiker's Guide – An eight-part series by web developer & instructor Nicholas Mendez covering all things frontend, including web APIs, build tools, testing, and more.
• Location is Everything — Part I: How Shifting Consumer Behaviors are Redefining the Role of the Store – An insightful article on the impact of the pandemic on retail store location strategy and the store lifecycle
• 10 Tips on How Developers can Increase their Productivity – Check out these ten tips from software developers on what helps them stay focused.
• 20 Activities that Increase my Creativity as a Developer – Creativity is essential to development and design – take a look at these ideas to help you think outside the box!

STAY CONNECTED

Do you have a blog or project you’d like to share with the TomTom Developers community to be featured in an upcoming monthly roundup? Reach out to us at tomtom.developer@gmail.com and let us know!

We hope there’s something in here to get you inspired for your next project! Make sure to follow us on Twitter and YouTube to see what’s coming up in August.

Happy mapping!