How to upload Interactive Map Layer to HERE platform

Interactive Map Layer (IML) is one of the supported data layer types on HERE platform. It offers a set of unique capabilities, enabling you to store, retrieve, search for, analyze and modify data at a feature (e.g., a place) and feature property (e.g., the name of the place) level. The API behind the IML is the Interactive Map API in Data API. Map features stored in IML can be retrieved as tiles, this can be useful for reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred to the client and helps the client render the data faster. In this blog post, we are going to showcase the capability of IML and how to upload IML to HERE platform. 

For the purpose of showcasing how IML helps the client render the data faster, we are going to use the data showing the road network in Germany along the beaches along the Baltic and the North Sea, which was used in our previous blog showing how Germany €9 travel pass affected road traffic. This data has around 165,000 LineStrings features that made up the road network in the area of interest, and rendering data with that many features in a web mapping application is often time-consuming. Below is a sample application showing the comparison between rendering the data using IML versus displaying objects from the GeoJSON file on the map using a built-in parser in HERE Maps API for Javascript. This sample is put together using the combined samples provided in HERE Maps API for Javascript documentation page. 

• Display GeoJSON data sample.
• Interactive Map Layer sample. 

In this scenario, IML seems to be best suited to render this data. There are three ways you can upload data to HERE platform as IML, using Interactive REST API, using the command line and using HERE Studio. 

Interactive REST API

The detailed steps are outlined in this documentation page, but here is the summary:

• Obtain an authorization token to use with your HTTP requests. For more information, see the Identity & Access Management Guide.
• Use the API Lookup service to get the base URL for the Interactive API for the catalog you want to write to. For more information on how to use the API Lookup service, see the API Lookup Developer's Guide.
• Send your data to the layer using the POST or PUT requests of the Interactive API.

Command Line

The steps to upload your data as IML using the command line are well documented in this knowledge base article, but here is the summary:

• Create a layer with the layer "interactive map" within a catalog on HERE platform Data. 
• Create OAuth2.0 credentials to upload your data. For more information, see the Authentication on HERE platform blog.
• Send your data using OLP CLI. 

HERE Studio

• In HERE platform launcher, click on HERE Studio, go to "Data" tab, and click on the "New Layer" button

• Upload your data in the format of GeoJSON or CSV file. 

• Keep the HRN link of the catalog and the layer ID to be used to refer to the IML layer you just created in the web mapping application.

Interactive Map Layer is a powerful feature in HERE platform to render large amounts of data faster. It offers a set of unique capabilities, enabling you to store, retrieve, search for, analyze and modify data at a feature and feature property level. We are excited to see what you are building with it.