We're integrating Bing basemap data into an Openlayers map. There are a couple Bing Maps layers that we need to display, but acquiring the corresponding metadata for those tiles doesn't seem to be well documented. The two layer types we're interested in are the Streetside availability tiles (transparent tiles with Streetside availability shown in blue), and a labels layer (transparent tiles with only place name labels shown). Here are a couple examples of functional tile queries that Microsoft is already providing to accomplish these goals and that we'd like to be able to use, but we haven't found a way to acquire metadata for them: Streetside availability layer with transparent background: https://t.ssl.ak.dynamic.tiles.virtualearth.net/comp/ch/02133100?mkt=en-US&it=Z,HC Labels only layer: https://t.ssl.ak.dynamic.tiles.virtualearth.net/comp/ch/03023?mkt=en-US&it=Z,L We just need an equivalent metadata query target for these tile types as we use for other tile types. The format from the documentation is: https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Imagery/Metadata/{imagerySet}?key={BingMapsKey} , but we don't know the imagerySet names for streetside availability tiles or labels only layer and they don't appear in the documentation. Is there any way to get the corresponding metadata for these products?

Documentation for streetside imagery can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/articles/getting-streetside-tiles-from-imagery-metadata As for the label layer, if it is not documented as an imagerySet here you should not be accessing it. There is no documentation as it's not a supported layer to access. That said, if you have the option, I highly recommend using Azure Maps instead. It's the same data, much easier to license, has increased security options, and has additional tile layers such as a label only layer, weather, and traffic layers. There is even a library to make it easier to integrate with OpenLayers: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-maps-openlayers

Bing Maps - Tile metadata requests for undocumented tile types

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rbrundritt 15,386 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-11-01T19:46:43.9133333+00:00

Documentation for streetside imagery can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/articles/getting-streetside-tiles-from-imagery-metadata

As for the label layer, if it is not documented as an imagerySet here you should not be accessing it. There is no documentation as it's not a supported layer to access.

That said, if you have the option, I highly recommend using Azure Maps instead. It's the same data, much easier to license, has increased security options, and has additional tile layers such as a label only layer, weather, and traffic layers. There is even a library to make it easier to integrate with OpenLayers: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-maps-openlayers
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Shane 20 Reputation points

2023-11-01T20:18:01.81+00:00

Thanks! I've come across the Streetside documentation, but haven't seen any way to access to the tiles showing where the data is available (though based on the rest of your answer I'm guessing that tile layer also isn't officially supported for use, which is an unfortunate limitation).

Thanks for the link to the Azure tooling! We'd initially leaned towards Bing for the first party Openlayers support. I'd assumed the data was the same but it's good to hear it confirmed.

Thanks again.

rbrundritt 15,386 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-11-01T20:50:57.1433333+00:00

The tile layer that shows where streetside imagery is available is not documented anywhere. Doing a bit of testing, if you take the URL for road tiles, you will see an &it= parameter. This specifies the type of layers to render in the tile. You can try modifying it (removing things, to see what it does). I found that if you set the value to "z,hc" you get the streetside coverage data. Now doing this would be unsupported and could break in the future.

Going back to the labels side of things I just remembered that the Bing Maps tile service supports custom styles. With that in mind, it should be possible to add a tile URL parameter that may help here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/articles/custom-map-styles-in-bing-maps

I also just noticed the "mapLayer" option of the metadata service (I don't recall seeing that in the past). It looks like you can use it in combination with a map style and specify what subset of information you want in the tiles (background, labels...). Testing this out it does modify that &it URL parameter. Trying out "Foreground" I get tiles with a transparent background that included the labels and road lines.

https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Imagery/Metadata/RoadOnDemand?output=xml&uriScheme=https&mapLayer=Foreground&key=

Shane 20 Reputation points

2023-11-02T20:00:50.6066667+00:00

Thanks again! Yeah, modifying the it= param was how I'd discovered the tile URLs in the original post (just realized the links broke though, I just fixed them)!

Is there any chance of getting the Bing Maps team to add metadata endpoints for these imagerySets?

The custom style angle is really interesting. I've tried a few variations, but haven't been able to sort out if there might be a way to use the custom styles to display the streetside availability layer - seems possible though! Definitely useful for the labels layer using the mapLayer angle! I hadn't seen that option previously either!

Quick question about licensing if you have another second - what about the Azure license is easier than the Bing license structure? It doesn't seem like they offer Streetside either, which is a pretty big downside since we may need to maintain accounts and licenses across both services in that case.

rbrundritt 15,386 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-11-02T23:46:17.9533333+00:00

Azure Maps doesn't yet offer Streetside imagery. But the Bing Maps consumer website (bing.com/maps) is using the Azure Maps Web SDK, and they exposed streetside there. So it's possible it will be available in Azure Maps in the future.

The Azure Maps licensing is very easy, especially if you already have an Azure account, as it's just another Azure service, simply start using it and its a month-to-month payment based on your usage. Bing Maps licensing requires going through a contract process, estimating your yearly usage and paying for that usage, even if you end up using less, or paying more if you exceed your estimate. With Azure Maps you can carry out a big analysis job one month, pay for that usage, store the results in a database in Azure, and never use or pay for Azure Maps again if you wanted. There aren't many map platforms that have that flexibility.
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Bing Maps - Tile metadata requests for undocumented tile types

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