Windshaft-cartodb/docs/anonymous_maps.md

Anonymous Maps

Anonymous maps allows you to instantiate a map given SQL and CartoCSS. It also allows you to add interaction capabilities using UTF Grid.

Instantiate

Definition

POST /api/v1/map

Params

{
  "version": "1.3.0",
  "layers": [{
    "type": "mapnik",
    "options": {
      "cartocss_version": "2.1.1",
      "cartocss": "#layer { polygon-fill: #FFF; }",
      "sql": "select * from european_countries_e",
      "interactivity": ["cartodb_id", "iso3"]
    }
  }]
}

See MapConfig File Formats for details.

Response

The response includes:

Attributes	Description
layergroupid	The ID for that map, used to compose the URL for the tiles. The final URL is: https://{account}.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/:layergroupid/{z}/{x}/{y}.png
updated_at	The ISO date of the last time the data involved in the query was updated.
metadata	Includes information about the layers.
cdn_url	URLs to fetch the data using the best CDN for your zone.

Example

Call

curl 'https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d @mapconfig.json

Response

{
  "layergroupid": "c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0",
  "last_updated": "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "metadata": {
    "layers": [
      {
        "type": "mapnik",
        "meta": {}
      }
    ]
  },
  "cdn_url": {
    "http": "http://cdb.com",
    "https": "https://cdb.com"
  }
}

Retrieve resources from the layergroup

Mapnik tiles can be accessed using

These tiles will get just the mapnik layers. To get individual layers see next section.

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Individual layers

The MapConfig specification holds the layers definition in a 0-based index. Layers can be requested individually in different formats depending on the layer type.

Individual layers can be accessed using that 0-based index. For UTF grid tiles:

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/:layer/{z}/{x}/{y}.grid.json

In this case, :layer as 0 returns the UTF grid tiles/attributes for layer 0, the only layer in the example MapConfig.

If the MapConfig had a Torque layer at index 1 it could be possible to request it with:

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/1/{z}/{x}/{y}.torque.json

Attributes defined in attributes section

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/:layer/attributes/:feature_id

Which returns JSON with the attributes defined, like:

{ "c": 1, "d": 2 }

Blending and layer selection

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/:layer_filter/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Note: currently format is limited to png.

:layer_filter can be used to select some layers to be rendered together. :layer_filter supports two formats:

• all alias

Using all as :layer_filter will blend all layers in the layergroup

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/all/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

• Filter by layer index

A list of comma separated layer indexes can be used to just render a subset of layers. For example 0,3,4 will filter and blend layers with indexes 0, 3, and 4.

https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map/c01a54877c62831bb51720263f91fb33:0/0,3,4/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Some notes about filtering:

• Invalid index values or out of bounds indexes will end in Invalid layer filtering errors.
• Once a mapnik layer is selected, all mapnik layers will get blended. As this may change in the future it is recommended to always select all mapnik layers if you want to select at least one so you will get a consistent behavior in the future.
• Ordering is not considered. So right now filtering layers 0,3,4 is the very same thing as filtering 3,4,0. As this may change in the future it is recommended to always select the layers in ascending order so you will get a consistent behavior in the future.

Create JSONP

The JSONP endpoint is provided in order to allow web browsers access which don't support CORS.

Definition

GET /api/v1/map?callback=method

Params

Param	Description
config	Encoded JSON with the params for creating named maps (the variables defined in the template).
lmza	This attribute contains the same as config but LZMA compressed. It cannot be used at the same time as config.
callback	JSON callback name.

Example

Call

curl "https://documentation.cartodb.com/api/v1/map?callback=callback&config=%7B%22version%22%3A%221.0.1%22%2C%22layers%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22cartodb%22%2C%22options%22%3A%7B%22sql%22%3A%22select+%2A+from+european_countries_e%22%2C%22cartocss%22%3A%22%23european_countries_e%7B+polygon-fill%3A+%23FF6600%3B+%7D%22%2C%22cartocss_version%22%3A%222.3.0%22%2C%22interactivity%22%3A%5B%22cartodb_id%22%5D%7D%7D%5D%7D"

Response

callback({
  layergroupid: "d9034c133262dfb90285cea26c5c7ad7:0",
  cdn_url: {
    "http": "http://cdb.com",
    "https": "https://cdb.com"
  },
  last_updated: "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
})

Remove

Anonymous maps cannot be removed by an API call. They will expire after about five minutes but sometimes longer. If an anonymous map expires and tiles are requested from it, an error will be raised. This could happen if a user leaves a map open and after time, returns to the map and attempts to interact with it in a way that requires new tiles (e.g. zoom). The client will need to go through the steps of creating the map again to fix the problem.