Wayfinding SDK & APIs - Indoor Mapping for Smart Buildings

Feb 4, 2022
6 min read
By: Cara Hueston

Mappedin’s SDKs are highly integrable and come with a number of benefits including the ability to completely customize your indoor mapping experience, automatic floor detection, offline mode and more.

Wayfinding Made Easy with Mappedin’s SDKs

Mappedin’s Mobile and Web SDKs allow you to build a completely custom indoor navigation experience, regardless of industry or use case. Our SDKs encompass a wide variety of components and features required to easily integrate mapping into any application. Mappedin’s SDKs are the foundation of every indoor mapping experience we’ve built, and these tools enable customers to build just about anything that incorporates an indoor map. 

Indoor Mapping & Wayfinding for Smart Buildings

On their own, indoor mapping and wayfinding can provide helpful information to visitors, employees, and facilities teams as well as intuitive and up-to-date wayfinding to various points of interest within the building. Used in combination with indoor positioning or other smart building technology, however, maps and wayfinding can further unlock efficiencies and experiences for tenants and building managers.

Why use a Wayfinding API?

By selecting a wayfinding SDK with strong APIs, customers are granted ultimate flexibility. Indoor mapping providers such as Mappedin supply the tools, but the potential solutions you can build are endless. Not only can you create a completely custom indoor navigation experience, but through a wayfinding SDK and APIs, you can also ensure that the mapping portion is optimized for your application.

How Could You Benefit From Indoor Maps?

Any person who manages or interacts with an indoor space on a regular basis can benefit from indoor maps. Mappedin specializes in transforming 2D floor plans into interactive, digital maps that are used to improve the visitor experience, optimize efficiencies, and more. Digital indoor navigation is most often seen in large establishments with high foot traffic – malls, offices, university campuses, airports, and stadiums all over the world use interactive wayfinding to seamlessly guide their visitors along the most efficient path. 

Sample Applications

Sample applications provide an overview of common features and can be used to verify components of your integration. Mappedin customers can use sample apps that utilize our wayfinding SDK and APIs as a starting point when building your own experiences.  

Mapping SDK Advantages

Along with flexibility, working with SDKs has a number of advantages and by integrating your digital maps with indoor positioning, you can provide a complete navigation experience.  

Robust Documentation

Well documented resources are imperative for a smooth integration of your directions API. Experienced mapping companies such as Mappedin offer documentation for all features and components across iOS, Android, and Web SDKs. Resources include comprehensive API documentation, sample applications, and step-by-step guides to ensure a seamless integration. 

Automatic Floor Detection

As your venue maps are rendered via the SDK, the solution takes into consideration the elevation of each floor. With indoor positioning systems (IPS) in place, your mapping application can be set to automatically update as users navigate between floors. 

Accuracy

To provide the most accurate and efficient route for users, SDKs can be used in conjunction with positioning infrastructure such as beacons, wi-fi point access, and so on. This combination of technology determines the precise location of a device within a venue and populates turn-by-turn directions to your desired destination. 

Scalable

Whether you hope to build a mapping experience across mobile, web, kiosk, or all three, Mappedin’s SDKs are designed with scale in mind. The React Native SDK allows you to build your mobile app experience once, but deploy it across multiple device types. As well, the back-end Map Editor allows you to manage all of the venue maps in one central location. With some customers managing hundreds of property maps within a single portfolio through the Mappedin CMS, our end-to-end solution is built to scale with you. 

Offline Mode

Mappedin’s SDKs and APIs include an offline mode. When users do not have access to wi-fi or other networks, the map defaults to the most recently updated version. This way, there is no interruption to users currently navigating your venue. When service is re-enabled, any changes to the map or location data will be reflected. 

Relevant POIs

Customers have complete control of the relevant points of interest (POIs) located across their venue. In order for the directions engine to populate the most efficient route, it requires building details and location data to be tied to the indoor map. Customers can choose to store and manage their data within Mappedin's CMS or their own systems and sync through a production API. 

Optimized experience

Mappedin’s SDKs are highly performant with large amounts of data. Regardless of venue size, number of integrated datasets, and so on, your mapping application can be completely optimized. 

Mappedin Wayfinding SDK and Maps Platform

Along with being built for scale, Mappedin’s Editor is a powerful tool for map maintenance. Both map changes and location data can be changed within the platform and pulled into your applications through the wayfinding SDKs. With additional features such as the Map Upload Portal, Draft and Publish Mode, map and data exports, and an Analytics Dashboard, the Map Editor is a full-service platform. 

Benefits for Developers

Mappedin’s SDKs are highly integrable with other datasets and integrations. Along with a flexible and robust solution, we continually improve our developer tools and value customer input. This dedication to customer success ensures that your voice is heard as we evolve our products.

  • 24/7 support

  • Getting Started guides

  • Expert integrations team

  • Demonstration applications 

  • Comprehensive API documentation 

  • Access to Release Roadmap and version migration guides 

Use Your Map in Your Mobile, Web, and Kiosk Apps

Through the use of mapping SDKs, you do not have device limitations when building your indoor navigation application. These, along with the wayfinding features, can be used to deploy your maps across mobile, web, and kiosk apps. 

Web SDK

Mappedin’s Web SDK has been leveraged to build applications across platforms. Whether you are integrating indoor mapping alongside a digital signage application on building directories, or creating a custom application, the Web SDK is what Mappedin’s own pre-built applications are built on, meaning its capabilities are constantly expanding.

iOS & Android SDKs

For venues hoping to integrate mapping into their mobile applications, a Mobile SDK is often the best choice. Customers can choose to build their experience using Mappedin's iOS SDK and Android SDK, or they may opt to use the React Native SDK to build once and deploy across both device types. 

How to Make the Most of our Mapping SDKs

Mappedin’s Integrations team is dedicated to the evolution of our SDKs and APIs and their successful implementations. With robust documentation, migration guides, and developer support, you can launch this solution across your venues without worry. 

For further documentation on our SDKs and APIs, visit our Developer Portal. To get started with Mappedin’s SDKs, contact us today.