Point to point routing allows a customer to specify a start and destination location and in return receive the shortest time or shortest distance route in both spatial feature and directions form.  A robust set of client and server side preferences support this feature, some of which include: 

• Optimization of routes by either travel time or distance
• Internalization of driving directions and the addition of directions' modules that provide complete control over text directions
• Road type preferences that allow for the avoidance of particular road types such as major or minor roads
• The ability to change speed limits on road segments and have Routing J Server consider this data when calculating optimized routes
• The ability to focus routes allows one to control the amount of detailed travel information returned to the calling application
• The ability to receive terse driving directions, ideal for limited display devices

Multi-point routing allows one to specify a start and destination location but also as many intermediate points as needed.  The user has the ability to specify whether the server should build a multi-point route in an optimized or an ordered fashion.  An ordered multi-point request will return a path with all stops in the order in which they were submitted, while an optimized multi-point request will return the most efficient path between all stops.  In addition to point-to-point routing preferences, multi-point preferences provide control over such factors as a duration spent at a particular stop.

Matrix route requests return a table of travel costs associated with any number of start and destination points.  The costs are the total time and distance of the individual route.  The matrix route feature is extremely useful for situations such as the following.  Given 500 start and 500 destination points, find the shortest paths between all the start points and all the destinations, and return the routes costs, i.e. their times and distances.  A table of travel costs between many locations is a valuable support tool for delivery and rate determination.  Almost all the preferences applicable to route request are applicable to matrix route request.

An isochrone is a polygon or set of points representing an area that can be traversed in a network in a given amount of time from a specified starting point.  An isodistance is a polygon or set of points representing the area that is a certain distance from the starting point.  This boundary or polygon can then be used for further analysis and it is, for example, ideal for analyzing the customer base within a given distance from an existing or proposed location.  Drive time polygon preferences allow one to control the creation or shape of the returned polygon through settings such as off road distance, ambient speed, islands, and simplication factor. 

MapInfo Routing J Server ships with several categories of sample Java applications including:

Servlets

Classic - This sample application assumes the user has MapMarker J Server as well as MapXtreme Java installed.  It provides the ability to geocode an address and display the route plus driving directions.

Isochrone - Extends the Classic sample to demonstrate the generation of drivetime ploygons (isochrones).

Multipoint - Extends the Classic sample to demonstrate the generation of multipoint routes.

Applications

Include/Exclude - For those interested in this sample demonstrates how to request regular routes, isochrones and mulimulti-point routes as a Java application.

Diagnostics

TestXML - For those interested in accessing the routing engine directly via XML instead of via the Java or COM client, this sample demonstrates how routing functionality can be achieved.

RoutingClientGUI - This sample application does not rely upon MapXtreme Java - the user may enter latitude/longitude coordinates.

For Routing J Server, internalization means generating a response that is specific to a locale.  This includes providing information in formats commonly used in that locale (such as date, time, and currency formats) as well as in the language of that locale such as driving directions in the German language.  There are two general uses for this feature.  The primary use is to allow directions to be returned in different languages.  This is important for any application used by people who speak a different language, i.e. online applications or tourist centered applications.  Routing J Server provides this functionality through the use of directions' modules that provide complete control over text directions.  The second use of this feature is to present the XML data in a format that is correctly internationalized for a given requestor.  This does not impact the end user necessarily, but would make it easier for a programmer to interpret the XML response data.  It also allows a programmer to generate an XML request that contains data in a familiar locale.