Application programming interface for mapping application

• US 9,094,785 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2010
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Watt, Robert Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Nunez, Jordany
• Application Number:
  US12/938,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20120017166A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,728 Days
• Field of Search: 715/771, 345/633
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

A method of and mobile device are provided. The method comprises: receiving, at an application programming interface associated with a mapping application on a device, one or more tagging commands to associate specified geospatial data with a specified tag; in response to receiving each tagging command, updating a memory of the device to store an association between the specified geospatial data and the specified tag; receiving, at the application programming interface, a function command, wherein the function command references one of the specified tags; and in response to receiving the function command, executing a function associated with the function command for all geospatial data associated with the tag referenced by the function command.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at an application programming interface associated with a mapping application on a device, one or more tagging commands from at least one application on the device to associate specified geospatial data with a specified tag, wherein the tag is associated with at least two locations identified by separate geospatial data, wherein the geospatial data is associated with one separate text, wherein the geospatial data identifies a location by coordinates and wherein the tag is a text-based label that identifies the nature of the location and wherein the tag does not identify the location by coordinates;

in response to receiving each tagging command, updating a memory of the device to store an association between the specified geospatial data and the specified tag;

receiving, at the application programming interface, a function command from the at least one application on the device, wherein the function command references one of the specified tags and wherein the function command is a command to set at least one rendering option associated with the separate text that is associated with the geospatial data associated with the specified tag to a setting specified by the function command, the rendering option and the setting describing at least one of a font, a size, or a color;

in response to receiving the function command, executing a function associated with the function command on the separate text associated with all geospatial data associated with the tag referenced by the function command, and wherein the tag referenced by the function command is associated with the at least two locations identified by separate geospatial data, wherein the application programming interface provides an interface for the at least one application on the device to access features of the mapping application, wherein the function command configures the setting for the separate text associated with the geospatial data associated with the tag referenced by the function command;

rendering a map on a display on the device; and

rendering, on an overlay on the map, the separate text associated with the geospatial data configured based on the setting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the function command includes a command to set a visibility control associated with the geospatial data, the visibility control indicating whether a geospatial data identifier associated with the geospatial data will be visible on the map.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the overlay displays geospatial data identifiers for geospatial data with a visibility control which is set to visible and excludes geospatial data identifiers for geospatial data with a visibility control which is set to not-visible.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the overlay displays at least one geospatial data identifier in accordance with the rendering option.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting specified indicates that the geospatial data is to be rendered with a pushpin to indicate the location of the geospatial data relative to a map, the method further comprising:

rendering a map on the display of the device; and

rendering one or more pushpin on the map in accordance with the geospatial data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the application programming interface, an instruction to add geospatial data to a first container;

in response to receiving the instruction to add geospatial data to the first container, storing the geospatial data in the first container;

receiving, at the application programming interface, an instruction to add geospatial data to a second container;

in response to receiving the instruction to add geospatial data to the second container, storing the geospatial data in the second container, wherein rending the map on a display on the device is in response to receiving a command to display a map, and wherein the overlay on the map is rendered in accordance with the geospatial data in the first container and the geospatial data in the second container.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first container is a data structure or class which stores data in the memory.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an instruction to untag specified geospatial data and, in response, updating a memory of the device to remove an association between the specified geospatial data and at least one tag.

8. A mobile device comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory storing a mapping application having an application programming interface, the application programming interface being configured to cause the processor to;

receive, at an application programming interface associated with a mapping application on a device, one or more tagging commands from at least one application on the device to associate specified geospatial data with a specified tag, wherein the tag is associated with at least two locations identified by separate geospatial data, wherein the geospatial data is associated with one separate text, wherein the geospatial data identifies a location by coordinates and wherein the tag is a text-based label that identifies the nature of the location and wherein the tag does not identify the location by coordinates;

in response to receiving each tagging command, update a memory of the device to store an association between the specified geospatial data and the specified tag;

receive, at the application programming interface, a function command from the at least one application on the device, wherein the function command references one of the specified tags and wherein the function command is a command to set at least one rendering option associated with the separate text that is associated with the geospatial data associated with the specified tag to a setting specified by the function command, the rendering option and the setting describing at least one of a font, a size, or a color;

in response to receiving the function command, execute a function associated with the function command on the separate text associated with all geospatial data associated with the tag referenced by the function command, and wherein the tag referenced by the function command is associated with the at least two locations identified by separate geospatial data, wherein the application programming interface provides an interface for the at least one application on the device to access features of the mapping application, wherein the function command configures the setting for the separate text associated with the geospatial data associated with the tag referenced by the function command;

render a map on a display associated with the device; and

render, on an overlay on the map, the separate text associated with the geospatial data configured based on the setting.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the function command includes a command to set a visibility control associated with the geospatial data, the visibility control indicating whether a geospatial data identifier associated with the geospatial data will be visible on the map.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the overlay displays geospatial data identifiers for geospatial data with a visibility control which is set to visible and excludes geospatial data identifiers for geospatial data with a visibility control which is set to not-visible.

11. The mobile device of claim 8 wherein the overlay displays at least one geospatial data identifier in accordance with the rendering option.

12. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the setting specified rendering option indicates that the geospatial data is to be rendered with a pushpin to indicate the location of the geospatial data relative to the map, wherein the application programming interface is further configured to render one or more pushpin on the map in accordance with the geospatial data.

13. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the application programming interface is further configured to:

receive, at the application programming interface, an instruction to add geospatial data to a first container;

in response to receiving the instruction to add geospatial data to the first container, store the geospatial data in the first container;

receive, at the application programming interface, an instruction to add geospatial data to a second container;

in response to receiving the instruction to add geospatial data to the second container, store the geospatial data in the second container, wherein rendering the map on a display on the device is in response to receiving a command to display a map, and wherein the overlay on the map is rendered in accordance with the geospatial data in the first container and the geospatial data in the second container.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the first container is a data structure or class which stores data in the memory.

16. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the application programming interface is further configured to cause the processor to:

receive an instruction to untag specified geospatial data and, in response, update the memory of the device to remove an association between the specified geospatial data and at least one tag.