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Market Coverage
Traffic API
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Map Styles

 

Service version: 4
Last edit: 2021.07.20

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Purpose

The Traffic API Resource service delivers resources required to display vector traffic maps. The service consists of the:

  • Metadata method: this retrieves a list of resources of a selected type.
  • Resource method: this retrieves a selected resource.

Request data

Metadata method

HTTPS method: GET

URL format

For ease of viewing and identification:

  • Required constants and parameters are shown in bold text.
  • Optional parameters are shown in plain text.

The generic URL format is as follows:

https://baseURL/traffic/map/versionNumber/resourceType/resourceVersion/resourceVariant/metadata.format?key=Your_API_Key

Examples

https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/metadata.xml?key=Your_API_Key
https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/sprite/20.2.4-0/metadata.json?key=Your_API_Key
https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/glyph/20.2.4-0/metadata.json?key=Your_API_Key

curl command

curl 'https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/sprite/20.2.4-0/metadata.json?key=Your_API_Key'

Request parameters (Metadata method)

The following table describes the parameters that can be used in a request.

  • Required parameters must be used or the call will fail.
  • Parameters and values are case-sensitive.
  • Optional parameters may be used.
Required parameters
Parameter Description
baseURL
string 		Base URL for calling TomTom services.
Value: api.tomtom.com
versionNumber
string 		The version of the service to call.
Value: The current version is 4.
resourceType
string 		The type of the requested resource.
Values:
  • style
  • sprite
  • glyph
format
string 		The requested response format.
Values:
  • xml
  • json
  • jsonp
key
string 		The authorization key for access to the API.
Value: Your valid API Key.
Optional parameters
Parameter Description
resourceVersion
string 		Version of the requested resource.
Value: The resource version.
resourceVariant
string 		Variant of the requested resource. Can only be used when resourceVersion is provided.
Value: The variant name.

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Resource method

HTTPS method: GET

URL format

For ease of viewing and identification:

  • Required constants and parameters are shown in bold text.
  • Optional parameters are shown in plain text.

The generic URL format is as follows:

https://baseURL/traffic/map/versionNumber/resourceType/resourceVersion/resourceVariant/resourceName?key=Your_API_Key

Example

https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/20.2.4-0/flow_absolute.json?key=Your_API_Key

curl command

curl 'https://api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/20.2.4-0/flow_absolute.json?key=Your_API_Key'

Request parameters (Resource method)

The following table describes the parameters that can be used in a request.

  • Required parameters must be used or the call will fail.
  • Parameters and values are case-sensitive.
  • Optional parameters may be used.
  • If there is a default value that will be assumed when an optional parameter is not used, it is shown in the table.
Required parameters
Parameter Description
baseURL
string 		Base URL for calling TomTom services.
Value: api.tomtom.com
versionNumber
string 		The version of the service to call.
Value: The current version is 4.
resourceType
string 		The type of the requested resource.
Values:
  • style
  • sprite
  • glyph
resourceVersion
string 		The version of the requested resource. Available versions can be listed using the Metadata method.
Value: A resource version.
resourceName
string 		The requested resource name (with an extension if applicable). Available resources can be listed using the Metadata method.
Value: A resource name.
key
string 		Authorization key for access to the API.
Value: Your valid API Key.
Optional parameters
Parameter Description
resourceVariant
string 		The variant of the requested resource. Available variants can be listed using the Metadata method.
Value: For example, flow_absolute

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Host name cycling

Most web browsers have a default limitation on the number of active connections that can be allowed to each host.

  • This means if map tiles are being loaded via the api.tomtom.com host name, they will be loaded one at a time.
  • A trick that can be used to get around this limitation is to cycle through the hosts we have created as aliases.
  • These host names are:
    • a.api.tomtom.com
    • b.api.tomtom.com
    • c.api.tomtom.com
    • d.api.tomtom.com
  • By cycling through these four different host names, the web browser will be tricked into retrieving four map resources at a time rather than just one.
  • This will significantly speed up the performance of map loading.

For instance, if four map styles are being requested, you would request the first one as:

https://a.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/(further parameters)

The second would be:

https://b.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/(further parameters)

The third would be:

https://c.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/(further parameters)

The fourth would be:

https://d.api.tomtom.com/traffic/map/4/style/(further parameters)

When more than four styles are being requested, start back again at a.api.tomtom.com.

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Response data

Metadata method

The response to a successful call will be the list of requested resources as shown in the following JSON response code example. Exception responses will use the response codes described in the following HTTP response codes section.

Response body (JSON)

{
  "content" : [
    {
      "name" : "flow_absolute.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "flow_reduced-sensitivity.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "flow_relative.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "flow_relative0-dark.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "flow_relative0.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "flow_relative-delay.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_dark.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_day.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_night.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_s0-dark.json",
      "type" : "resource" 
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_s0.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_s1.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_s2.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    },
    {
      "name" : "incidents_s3.json",
      "type" : "resource"
    }
  ]
}

Resource method

The response to a successful request will be the requested resource (style, sprite, or glyph). Exception responses will use the response codes described in the following HTTP response codes section.

HTTP response codes

Code Meaning & possible causes
200 OK
400 Bad request: Received by the interface, but there is an exception while processing it. Possible causes include:
  • One or more of the required parameters are missing.
  • An unsupported or unrecognized parameter value.
A detailed exception explanation is returned in the response in the "form of a service exception" report.
403 Forbidden: The supplied API Key is not valid for this request.
404 Not found: The requested resource could not be found.
429 Too Many Requests: Too many requests were sent in a given amount of time for the supplied API Key.
500 Internal Server Error: There is a problem with the service.

HTTP response headers

The following table lists HTTP response headers of particular interest to clients of the Traffic Incident Details API endpoint.

Header Description
Access-Control-Allow-Origin Indicates that cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) is allowed.
Value: * universal.
Cache-Control Contains directives for a caching mechanism.
Values: <public>, <no-cache>
Content-Length Contains information about the size of the response body.
Value: <decimal number>
Content-Type Indicates the media type of the resource returned.
Value: <application/json charset=utf-8>
Date Contains the date and time when the message was originated.
Value: <http-date>
Content-Encoding Indicates that gzip compression is supported.
Value: gzip

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Style visual examples

Example of the relative0 traffic flow style

relative0 example

Example of the relative0-dark traffic flow style

relative0-dark example

Example of the s0 traffic incidents style

s0 example

Example of the s0-dark traffic incidents style

s0-dark example

Example of the day traffic incidents style

day example

Example of the dark traffic incidents style

dark example

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