The Map URL API
URLs have the following structure. Note that in all cases where a query string follows a directory the separating '/' is optional (i.e. https://map.cam.ac.uk/x/?q=s is exactly the same as https://map.cam.ac.uk/x?q=s).
| URL | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| https://map.cam.ac.uk/ | displays the home page of the University map | https://map.cam.ac.uk/ |
| https://map.cam.ac.uk/name |
displays the map homed in on the item called name. name is URL encoded text for any entity the map can locate, ignoring case and punctuation and including any synonymous forms (such as Road vs. Rd). In fact this is simply an neater abbreviation for 'http://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=name' (see below). If you want to link to a map on the centrally hosted site, this is the best kind of URL to use. But consider embedding a map: see below. Older names will still respond to searches providing a cross reference is included in the database (as it was in the older system), or the old name is present in the 'AKA' field. |
https://map.cam.ac.uk/Lucy+Cavendish+College https://map.cam.ac.uk/austin%20building https://map.cam.ac.uk/Fenner%27s https://map.cam.ac.uk/Tennis+Court+Road https://map.cam.ac.uk/fitzwilliam+st
https://map.cam.ac.uk/queens+college |
| https://map.cam.ac.uk/?ref=ref | displays the map homed in on the item(s) referenced ref. References are geographical information and refer to entrances, buildings and sites/colleges as indicated by the ref=... tag on the corresponding OpenStreetMap data. ref can also be a list of references separated by '|' (up to 25 can be requested at once). Where buildings or sites are selected the corresponding main entrances are also displayed. |
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?ref=STEDMUNDS019
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?ref=WOLFSON--W |
| https://map.cam.ac.uk/?inst=inst | displays the map homed in on institution(s) identified by inst, the institution code, which is case insensitive, or a list of these separated by '|' (up to 25 can be requested at once). |
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?inst=CS
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?inst=cs
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?inst=lcc
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?inst=lucy-cav%7Cjoh |
|
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=search |
displays the map page with results of the search for the URL encoded string search. Multiple search strings may be given separated by '|' 'one=list' is optional and if given overrides the default behaviour (which is to display the single result) and instead to display it as a list of results comrpsing only a single entry. If 'partial=yes' (or in fact, 'partial=anything else') is given results returned by the search are interpreted as a partial search, that is in the same way as typing the first few letters of a word (the last word if more than one). If not present then a match is made only on whole words (including synonymous forms and ignoring case and punctuation, but in any order). Note that as a special case for non-partial searches, if a match is found on a phrase which also has a longer phrase in which the same words appear, only the single shorter result is supplied. For example 'Austin+Building' does not return 'Austin Robinson Building'. If filter is given, only results which match the filter are returned. filter is one or more of the following, separated by vertical bar, for example "filter=college|academic": college, academic, site, nonacademic, lecture, techno, street, nonuniversity. Note that if the search yields only one result and the optional parameters are omitted, then the result is identical to the URL https://map.cam.ac.uk/name as above. |
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=Lucy+Cavendish+College https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=lucy%7Cqueens https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=Wolfson+College&one=list
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=Do&partial=yes
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?q=Do |
|
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?bb=lat0,lon0,lat1,lon1 |
search by bounding box (specified as a pair of latitude/longitude co-ordinates) rather than text string. Note: no spaces after commas. Large bounding boxes can produce very large amounts of data, so please keep areas small (say < 500m). filter as above |
https://map.cam.ac.uk/?bb=52.2021,0.1184,52.2047,0.1218 |
You can also append a fragment part to any of the URLs, that is a hash followed by further information. The fragment part comprises either several numbers, or another URL, or both (the numbers preceding the URL and separated by a comma). The numbers control where the map is displayed initially (and overrides any default arising from the specified search). A URL provides an overlay, created manually, using UCamGeoJSON or interactively using 'Annotate the map'. The URL may also be abbreviated to an identifier (a code usually starting Y or Z) which identifies annotation stored on the University's own annotation server. For example:
https://map.cam.ac.uk/#52.206397,0.114015,16 https://map.cam.ac.uk/#https://demo.map.cam.ac.uk/annotation.json https://map.cam.ac.uk/#52.206397,0.114015,16,https://demo.map.cam.ac.uk/annotation.json
The numeric appendices are as follows (and can be determined simply by moving the map to where you want it, adding marker(s) if required, using a click on the map, and saving the URL from the browser's address bar or the 'Link to map' button/menu.
https://map.cam.ac.uk/#z https://map.cam.ac.uk/#lat,lon https://map.cam.ac.uk/#lat,lon,z https://map.cam.ac.uk/#lat,lon,mlat,mlon https://map.cam.ac.uk/#lat,lon,z,mlat,mlon https://map.cam.ac.uk/#lat,lon,z,mlat0,mlon0,mlat1,mlon1,...
where z is the initial zoom level (from 13, furthest zoomed out to 19, furthest zoomed in), lat and lon are the latitude and longitude where the map view is centred, and mlat and mlon are the latitude and longitude where a marker should be displayed, repeated as required for further markers.
nofont: You can also include a query parameter nofont (though this would only be needed in very unusual situations). When on, the University corporate fonts are not loaded. This is useful in circumstances where links to external URLs are not permitted (e.g. when embedding the map on a cafe-style login page). nofont=1 (or any non-zero, non-empty value) turns it on and nofont=0 turns it off.
