Switch your calling method

If you are working with URLs, try making the call in Javascript instead. The easiest way to do that is by using the Mapfluence API Developer Lab. The lab allows you to test code without worrying if you've configured your environment properly.

In general, using Javascript will be easier. (Why do we then almost always show URLs in the examples? Because they are terser and it is easy for you to copy and paste them into a browser.)

By the same token, if you are having trouble with Javascript, you might try to make your call with a URL instead.

Percent-encode your URLs!

One of the easiest things to do wrong if you are using URLs is to not percent-encode special characters. See URL Escaping.

If you're using the Javascript API, this is done for you.

Get human-readable results

Sometimes the what an API call returns isn't easy for a human to read and/or interpret.

http://visual.mapfluence.com/tile/1.0.0/d/from=epasuperfnd.sf2006_geom|mode=simple|colors=black_3.1/tms/9/150/319.png

http://visual.mapfluence.com/tile/1.0.0/d/from=epasuperfnd.sf2006_geom|mode=simple|colors=black_3.1/tms/9/150/319.png?astext=True&show_error=True

400 ParameterError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '3.1'

&ashtml=1

http://spatial.mapfluence.com/spatialquery.json?from=us_census00.county_geom&select=unemplmnt.data.unemplevel&limit=100&ashtml=1

http://spatial.mapfluence.com/spatialquery.json?from=us_census00.county_geom&select=unemplmnt.data.unemplevel&limit=100

Display the values

If you are trying to figure out why your map looks funny, you can use label mode to display the select clause values as text as one of the layers on the map. For example, this URL displays the percentage of unemployed people per county as text:

http://visual.mapfluence.com/tile/d/select=healthcvrg.uninsured.prt_u_1864|mode=label|colors=ff00ff|from=us_census00.county_geom/tms/0/0/0.png

Look at one tile

If you are trying to figure out why your map looks funny, try looking at one individual tile and playing with its URL until it looks right. Here are some valid coordinate strings for tiles in given (usually interesting) places:

You can also find locations via the Maptiler service. (For Bing Maps, stick an "r" in front of the quadtree number.)

If you want to know more about one particular tile on a map, you can find out what URL of that tile is by asking your browser.

For example, in Firefox, select Tools->Page Info->Media, and you will see a list of images. In that list of images will be tiles for the base map (e.g. Bing or Google) and also Mapfluence tiles. You can either look through the base map tiles to find the geographic location that interests you, or you can look through the Mapfluence tiles until you see the one you want.

Look at just one feature

Sometimes you can get so much data that it is overwhelming. In those cases, it might be best to cut down the information to just one feature -- only the state of Louisiana, only ZIP code 76442, only San Juan County, etc.

Each feature has a unique ID which you can use to filter your query. For example, you could show only the unemployment rate in Cook County, IL by adding this where clause

where=id:573731

to a SpatialQuery:

http://spatial.mapfluence.com/spatialquery.jsonfrom=us_census00.county_geom&select=unemplmnt.data.unemprate&where=id:573731&ashtml=1

or even to a Visual query:

http://spatial.mapfluence.com/tile/1.0.0/d/from=us_census00.county_geom|select=unemplmnt.data.unemprate|mode=theme|breaks=6%2C8%2C10%2C12%2C14|colors=purple%2Cblue%2Cgreen%2Cyellow%2Cred|border=black_1.2|where=id:573731/tms/6/16/40.png

You can use this technique, coupled with layers, to find where on a map a specific feature is. For example, here is a map with the unemployment rate for counties, with all the counties bordered in black except for Cook County, which has a white border:

http://spatial.mapfluence.com/tile/1.0.0/d/from=us_census00.county_geom|select=unemplmnt.data.unemprate|mode=theme|breaks=6%2C8%2C10%2C12%2C14|colors=purple%2Cblue%2Cgreen%2Cyellow%2Cred|border=black_1.2/from=us_census00.county_geom|select=unemplmnt.data.unemprate|mode=theme|breaks=6%2C8%2C10%2C12%2C14|colors=purple%2Cblue%2Cgreen%2Cyellow%2Cred|border=white_2|where=id:573731/tms/6/16/40.png

You can see more about how to find the feature UID in the Feature Query docs, but here are a few UIDs:

Switch your format

If you find yourself stuck when you are looking at a tile, try doing the same query but as text, e.g. as a SpatialQuery. For example, if you can't figure out why San Francisco is the color it is, try looking at the underlying data for San Francisco.

If you are looking at JSON data, and you can't figure out how the data fits together, it might help to look at it geometrically, on a tile.

HTTP Response Status Codes

When developing you should check the status code of responses. The following table describes the status codes you may see when requesting our services. These codes follow the standards set out by RFC 2616.

Remember: for status codes 400, 403, and 500, you can check the X-MFError response header for additional info as to what went wrong.