Yahoo! Maps Web Services

Request URL

http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/mapImage

How do I get started?

Online Documentation
Read the online documentation below and FAQs.
Get an Application ID
To access Yahoo! Search Web services, you will need to get an application ID. Like a browser's User-Agent string, the Application ID uniquely identifies your application and has no effect on rate limiting.
Download the SDK
The development kit includes BSD licensed examples and libraries for various languages: Perl, Python and PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Flash.

Request parameters

See information on constructing REST queries

Parameter	Value	Description
appid	string (required)	The application ID. See Application IDs for more information.
street	string	Street name. The number is optional.
city	string	City name.
state	string	The United States state. You can spell out the full state name or you can use the two-letter abbreviation.
zip	integer or <integer>-<integer>	The five-digit zip code, or the five-digit code plus four-digit extension. If this location contradicts the city and state specified, the zip code will be used for determining the location and the city and state will be ignored.
location	free text	This free field lets users enter any of the following: city, state city, state, zip zip street, city, state street, city, state, zip street, zip If location is specified, it will take priority over the individual fields in determining the location for the query. City, state and zip will be ignored.
latitude	float: -90 to 90	The latitude of the starting location.
longitude	float: -180 to 180	The longitude of the starting location. If both latitude and longitude are specified, they will take priority over all other location data. If only one of latitude or longitude is specified, both will be ignored.
image_type	png (default) or gif	The image format for the map.
image_height	integer: 10 to 2000 (default: 500)	The height of the image being generated, in pixels.
image_width	integer: 10 to 2000 (default: 620)	The width of the image being generated, in pixels.
zoom	integer: 1 to 12 (default: 6)	The zoom level for the map, from 1 (street level) to 12 (country level). If a radius is specified, this is ignored.
radius	float	How far (in miles) from the specified location to display on the map. The default radius varies according to the location given and the zoom level.
output	string: xml (default), php	The format for the output. If php is requested, the results will be returned in Serialized PHP format.

Sample Request Url: http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/mapImage?appid=YD-U.UxAtM_JXwbX18zcL_DpQ--&street=701+First+Avenue&city=Sunnyvale&state=CA

Response fields

There is no schema for this service.

Field	Description
Result	The URL of the image file corresponding to the requested map. Has an optional attribute: warning: Any warnings associated with the map. Usually means the exact address could not be found and the map is for the closest approximation.

Sample response

The following is a sample response for a map of the Yahoo! headquarters:

	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<Result xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
	http://img.maps.yahoo.com/mapimage?MAPDATA=eJz6K.d6wXVM6myr2yRPfx6.kl.uMGgD3Tu4JtDQzr_33pFEsTTSaosZ9OCtsiDrsLv9t65fzjz0CJm6JO2v_ZIHLflY9gto.xWMK9ovlRJVmrBLO4FoSsh3Ipsr
	</Result>

Displaying the map image using PHP

This example uses PHP to make the image request, requesting serialized php output and then displays the image.

	<?php 
	    $request = 'http://local.yahooapis.com/MapsService/V1/mapImage?appid=YD-U.UxAtM_JXwbX18zcL_DpQ--&street=701+First+Avenue&city=Sunnyvale&state=CA&output=php';
	    
	    $response = file_get_contents($request);
	
	    if ($response === false) {
	    	die('Request failed');
	    }
	
	    $phpobj = unserialize($response);
	
	    echo '<img src="'.$phpobj["Result"].'">';
	?>

Errors

The Map Image service returns the standard errors.

Rate Limit

The Maps Image service is limited to 50,000 queries per IP address per day. See information on rate limiting.

Terms of Use

Use of the Yahoo! Maps APIs is governed by the Yahoo! Maps APIs Terms of Use and the Yahoo! Maps Terms of Use. These Terms of Use supplant the general Yahoo! Developer Network Terms of Use. See also the Usage Policy for more information about acceptable usage of these APIs or to request additional queries.

Support & Community

All Yahoo! Maps Web Services are discussed on the yws-maps mailing list.

Yahoo! Maps Web Services - Map Image API

Version 1Map Image

Getting a map