Prerequisites

Before you begin calculating routes, follow the prerequisite steps:

Create a route calculator resource

Before you can calculate a route, create a route calculator resource in your AWS account.

When you create a route calculator resource, you can choose from the data providers available:

1. Esri – For more information about Esri's coverage in your region of interest, see Esri details on street networks and traffic coverage.

2. HERE Technologies – For more information about HERE's coverage in your region of interest, see HERE car routing coverage and HERE truck routing coverage.

3. Grab – For more information about Grab's coverage, see Countries/regions and area covered.

Note

If your application is tracking or routing assets you use in your business, such as delivery vehicles or employees, you must not use Esri as your geolocation provider. See section 82 of the AWS service terms for more details.

You can do this using the Amazon Location Service console, the AWS CLI, or the Amazon Location APIs.

Console

To create a route calculator resource using the Amazon Location console

1. Open the Amazon Location console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/location/.

2. In the left navigation pane, choose Route calculators.

3. Choose Create route calculator.

4. Fill out the following boxes:

   • Name – Enter a name for the route calculator resource. For example, ExampleCalculator. Maximum 100 characters. Valid entries include alphanumeric characters, hyphens, periods, and underscores.

   • Description – Enter an optional description.

5. For Data providers, choose a data provider to use as a route calculator.

6. (Optional) Under Tags, enter a tag Key and Value. This adds a tag your new route calculator resource. For more information, see Tagging your resources.

7. Choose Create route calculator.

API

To create a route calculator resource using the Amazon Location APIs

Use the CreateRouteCalculator operation from the Amazon Location Places APIs.

The following example is an API request to create a route calculator resource called ExampleCalculator using the data provider Esri.

POST /routes/v0/calculators
Content-type: application/json

{
   "CalculatorName": "ExampleCalculator",
   "DataSource": "Esri",
   "Description": "string",
   "Tags": { 
      "Tag1" : "Value1" 
   }
}

AWS CLI

To create a route calculator resource using AWS CLI commands

Use the create-route-calculator command.

The following example creates a route calculator resource called ExampleCalculator using Esri as the data provider.

aws location \
  create-route-calculator \
  --calculator-name "ExampleCalculator" \
  --data-source "Esri" \
  --tags Tag1=Value1

Note

Billing depends on your usage. You may incur fees for the use of other AWS services. For more information, see Amazon Location Service pricing.

Authenticating your requests

Once you create a route calculator resource and you're ready to begin building location features into your application, choose how you would authenticate your requests:

• To explore ways you can access the services, see Accessing Amazon Location Service.

• If you have a website with anonymous users, you may want to use API Keys or Amazon Cognito.

  Example

  The following example shows using an API key for authorization, using AWS JavaScript SDK v3, and the Amazon Location JavaScript Authentication helper.

  import { LocationClient, CalculateRouteCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-location";
  import { withAPIKey } from "@aws/amazon-location-utilities-auth-helper";
  
  const apiKey = "v1.public.your-api-key-value"; // API key
  
  // Create an authentication helper instance using an API key
  const authHelper = await withAPIKey(apiKey);
  
  const client = new LocationClient({
    region: "<region>", // region containing Cognito pool
    ...authHelper.getLocationClientConfig(), // Provides configuration required to make requests to Amazon Location
  });
  
  const input = {
    CalculatorName: "ExampleCalculator",
    DeparturePosition: [-123.4567, 45.6789],
    DestinationPosition: [-123.123, 45.234],
  };
  
  const command = new CalculateRouteCommand(input);
  
  const response = await client.send(command);