In order to communicate with your or our hosted GraphHopper server you need to understand how to use it. There is a separate JavaScript and Java client for this API or use the plain JSON response for your language.
http://localhost:8989/route?point=45.752193%2C-0.686646&point=46.229253%2C-0.32959
The end point of the local instance is http://localhost:8989
The URL path to obtain the route is /route
All official parameters are shown in the following table
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| point | - | Specify multiple points for which the route should be calculated. The order is important. Specify at least two points. |
| locale | en | The locale of the resulting turn instructions. E.g. pt_PT for Portuguese or de for German |
| instructions | true | If instruction should be calculated and returned |
| vehicle | car | The vehicle for which the route should be calculated. Other vehicles are foot, bike, motorcycle, hike, ... |
| elevation | false | If true a third dimension - the elevation - is included in the polyline or in the GeoJson. IMPORTANT: If enabled you have to use a modified version of the decoding method or set points_encoded to false. See the points_encoded attribute for more details. Additionally a request can fail if the vehicle does not support elevation. See the features object for every vehicle. |
| points_encoded | true | If false the coordinates in point and snapped_waypoints are returned as array using the order [lon,lat,elevation] for every point. If true the coordinates will be encoded as string leading to less bandwith usage. You'll need a special handling for the decoding of this string on the client-side. We provide open source code in Java and JavaScript. It is especially important to use no 3rd party client if you set elevation=true! |
| debug | false | If true, the output will be formated. |
| calc_points | true | If the points for the route should be calculated at all printing out only distance and time. |
| type | json | Specifies the resulting format of the route, for json the content type will be application/json. Other possible format options: jsonp you'll need to provide the callback function via the callback parameter. The content type will be application/javascriptgpx, the content type will be application/gpx+xml, see below for more parameters. |
| point_hint | - | Optional parameter. Specifies a hint for each point parameter to prefer a certain street for the closest location lookup. E.g. if there is an address or house with two or more neighboring streets you can control for which street the closest location is looked up. |
Create a GPX output via type=gpx and use the following additional parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| gpx.track | true | Include tag in gpx result. Only applicable if type=gpx is specified. |
| gpx.route | true | Include tag in gpx result. Only applicable if type=gpx is specified. |
| gpx.waypoints | false | Include tag in gpx result. Only applicable if type=gpx is specified. |
If you enabled hybrid mode in the config you can use most of the features from flexible mode and still benefit from a speed up.
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ch.disable | false |
Set to true in order to use the hybrid mode for all weightings that are enabled |
| lm.active_landmarks | 4 | Not recommended to change this |
Unlock certain flexible features via ch.disable=true per request or disable CH on the server-side in the config.properties via prepare.ch.weightings=no
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ch.disable | false |
Use this parameter in combination with one or more parameters of this table |
| weighting | fastest |
Which kind of 'best' route calculation you need. Other option is shortest (e.g. for vehicle=foot or bike), short_fastest if time and distance is expensive (e.g. for vehicle=truck) and curvature (only for vehicle=motorcycle) |
| edge_traversal | false |
Use true if you want to consider turn restrictions for bike and motor vehicles. Keep in mind that the response time is roughly 2 times slower. |
| algorithm | astarbi |
The algorithm to calculate the route. Other options are dijkstra, astar, astarbi, alternative_route and round_trip |
| block_area | - | Block road access via a point with the format latitude,longitude or an area defined by a circle lat,lon,radius or a rectangle lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2. Separate multiple areas with a semicolon ;. |
| heading | NaN | Favour a heading direction for a certain point. Specify either one heading for the start point or as many as there are points. In this case headings are associated by their order to the specific points. Headings are given as north based clockwise angle between 0 and 360 degree. This parameter also influences the tour generated with algorithm=round_trip and forces the initial direction. |
| heading_penalty | 120 | Penalty for omitting a specified heading. The penalty corresponds to the accepted time delay in seconds in comparison to the route without a heading. |
| pass_through | false |
If true u-turns are avoided at via-points with regard to the heading_penalty. |
| round_trip.distance | 10000 | If algorithm=round_trip this parameter configures approximative length of the resulting round trip |
| round_trip.seed | 0 | If algorithm=round_trip this parameter introduces randomness if e.g. the first try wasn't good. |
| alternative_route.max_paths | 2 | If algorithm=alternative_route this parameter sets the number of maximum paths which should be calculated. Increasing can lead to worse alternatives. |
| alternative_route.max_weight_factor | 1.4 | If algorithm=alternative_route this parameter sets the factor by which the alternatives routes can be longer than the optimal route. Increasing can lead to worse alternatives. |
| alternative_route.max_share_factor | 0.6 | If algorithm=alternative_route this parameter specifies how much alternatives routes can have maximum in common with the optimal route. Increasing can lead to worse alternatives. |
Keep in mind that attributes which are not documented here can be removed in the future - you should not rely on them! The JSON result contains the following structure:
| JSON path/attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| paths | An array of possible paths |
| paths[0].distance | The total distance of the route, in meter |
| paths[0].time | The total time of the route, in ms |
| paths[0].ascend | The total ascend (uphill) of the route, in meter |
| paths[0].descend | The total descend (downhill) of the route, in meter |
| paths[0].points | This value contains the coordinates of the path. If points_encoded=true or no points_encoded specified an encoded string will be returned, otherwise an array with order [lon,lat,elevation] is returned. See the parameter points_encoded for more information. |
| paths[0].points_encoded | Is true if the points are encoded, if not paths[0].points contains the geo json of the path (then order is lon,lat,elevation), which is easier to handle but consumes more bandwidth compared to encoded version |
| paths[0].bbox | The bounding box of the route, format: minLon, minLat, maxLon, maxLat |
| paths[0].snapped_waypoints | This value contains the snapped input points. If points_encoded=true or no points_encoded parameter was specified then an encoded string will be returned, otherwise an array is returned. See the parameter points_encoded for more information. |
| paths[0].instructions | Contains information about the instructions for this route. The last instruction is always the Finish instruction and takes 0ms and 0meter. Keep in mind that instructions are currently under active development and can sometimes contain misleading information, so, make sure you always show an image of the map at the same time when navigating your users! |
| paths[0].instructions[0].text | A description what the user has to do in order to follow the route. The language depends on the locale parameter. |
| paths[0].instructions[0].street_name | The name of the street to turn onto in order to follow the route. |
| paths[0].instructions[0].distance | The distance for this instruction, in meter |
| paths[0].instructions[0].time | The duration for this instruction, in ms |
| paths[0].instructions[0].interval | An array containing the first and the last index (relative to paths[0].points) of the points for this instruction. This is useful to know for which part of the route the instructions are valid. |
| paths[0].instructions[0].sign | A number which specifies the sign to show e.g. for right turn etc TURN_SHARP_LEFT = -3 TURN_LEFT = -2 TURN_SLIGHT_LEFT = -1 CONTINUE_ON_STREET = 0 TURN_SLIGHT_RIGHT = 1 TURN_RIGHT = 2 TURN_SHARP_RIGHT = 3 FINISH = 4 VIA_REACHED = 5 USE_ROUNDABOUT = 6 |
| paths[0].instructions[0].annotation_text | [optional] A text describing the instruction in more detail, e.g. like surface of the way, warnings or involved costs |
| paths[0].instructions[0].annotation_importance | [optional] 0 stands for INFO, 1 for warning, 2 for costs, 3 for costs and warning |
| paths[0].instructions[0].exit_number | [optional] Only available for USE_ROUNDABOUT instructions. The count of exits at which the route leaves the roundabout. |
| paths[0].instructions[0].exited | [optional] Only available for USE_ROUNDABOUT instructions. True if the roundabout should be exited. False if a via point or end is placed in the roundabout, thus, the roundabout should not be exited due to this instruction. |
| paths[0].instructions[0].turn_angle | [optional] Only available for USE_ROUNDABOUT instructions. The radian of the route within the roundabout: 0<r<2*PI for clockwise and -2PI<r<0 for counterclockwise transit. Null if the direction of rotation is undefined. |
{
"paths": [{
"bbox": [
13.362853824187303,
52.469481955531585,
13.385836736460217,
52.473849308838446
],
"distance": 2138.3027624572337,
"instructions": [
{
"distance": 1268.519329705091,
"interval": [
0,
10
],
"sign": 0,
"text": "Geradeaus auf A 100",
"time": 65237
},
{
"distance": 379.74399999999997,
"interval": [
10,
11
],
"sign": 0,
"text": "Geradeaus auf Strasse",
"time": 24855
},
{
"distance": 16.451,
"interval": [
11,
11
],
"sign": 0,
"text": "Geradeaus auf Tempelhofer Damm",
"time": 1316
},
{
"distance": 473.58843275214315,
"interval": [
11,
12
],
"sign": -2,
"text": "Links abbiegen auf Tempelhofer Damm, B 96",
"time": 37882
},
{
"distance": 0,
"interval": [
12,
12
],
"sign": 4,
"text": "Ziel erreicht!",
"time": 0
}
],
"points": "oxg_Iy|ppAl@wCdE}LfFsN|@_Ej@eEtAaMh@sGVuDNcDb@{PFyGdAi]FoC?q@sXQ_@?",
"points_encoded": true,
"time": 129290
}]
}If you need to find out details about the area or need to ping the service use '/info'
{ "build_date":"2014-02-21T16:52",
"bbox":[13.072624,52.333508,13.763972,52.679616],
"version":"0.3",
"features": { "foot" : { "elevation" : true },
"car" : { "elevation" : false } }
}| JSON path/attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| version | The GraphHopper version |
| bbox | The maximum bounding box of the area, format: minLon, minLat, maxLon, maxLat |
| features | A json object per supported vehicles with name and supported features like elevation |
| build_date | [optional] The GraphHopper build date |
| import_date | [optional] The date time at which the OSM import was done |
| prepare_date | [optional] The date time at which the preparation (contraction hierarchies) was done. If nothing was done this is empty |
| supported_vehicles | [deprecated] An array of strings for all supported vehicles |
{
"message": "Cannot find point 2: 2248.224673, 3.867187",
"hints": [{"message": "something", ...}]
}Sometimes a point can be "off the road" and you'll get 'cannot find point', this normally does not indicate a bug in the routing engine and is expected to a certain degree if too far away.
| JSON path/attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| message | Not intended to be displayed to the user as it is not translated |
| hints | An optional list of details regarding the error message e.g. [{"message": "first error message in hints"}] |
| HTTP error code | Reason |
|---|---|
| 500 | Internal server error. It is strongly recommended to send us the message and the link to it, as it is very likely a bug in our system. |
| 501 | Only a special list of vehicles is supported |
| 400 | Something was wrong in your request |