Geofencing GeoJSON data

The Azure Maps GET Geofence and POST Geofence API allow you to retrieve proximity of a coordinate relative to a provided geofence or set of fences. This article details how to prepare the geofence data that can be used in the Azure Maps GET and POST API.

The data for geofence or set of geofences, represented by the Feature Object and FeatureCollection Object in GeoJSON format, is defined in rfc7946. In Addition to it:

  • The GeoJSON Object type can be a Feature Object or a FeatureCollection Object.
  • The Geometry Object type can be a Point, MultiPoint, LineString, MultiLineString, Polygon, MultiPolygon, and GeometryCollection.
  • All feature properties should contain a geometryId, which is used for identifying the geofence.
  • Feature with Point, MultiPoint, LineString, MultiLineString must contain radius in properties. radius value is measured in meters, the radius value ranges from 1 to 10000.
  • Feature with polygon and multipolygon geometry type doesn't have a radius property.
  • validityTime is an optional property that lets the user set expired time and validity time period for the geofence data. If not specified, the data never expires and is always valid.
  • The expiredTime is the expiration date and time of geofencing data. If the value of userTime in the request is later than this value, the corresponding geofence data is considered as expired data and isn't queried. Upon which, the geometryId of this geofence data is included in expiredGeofenceGeometryId array within the geofence response.
  • The validityPeriod is a list of validity time period of the geofence. If the value of userTime in the request falls outside of the validity period, the corresponding geofence data is considered as invalid and isn't queried. The geometryId of this geofence data is included in invalidPeriodGeofenceGeometryId array within geofence response. The following table shows the properties of validityPeriod element.
Name Type Required Description
startTime Datetime true The start date time of the validity time period.
endTime Datetime true The end date time of the validity time period.
recurrenceType string false The recurrence type of the period. The value can be Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. Default value is Daily.
businessDayOnly Boolean false Indicate whether the data is only valid during business days. Default value is false.
  • All coordinate values are represented as [longitude, latitude] defined in WGS84.
  • For each Feature, which contains MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon , or GeometryCollection, the properties are applied to all the elements. for example: All the points in MultiPoint use the same radius to form a multiple circle geofence.
  • In point-circle scenario, a circle geometry can be represented using a Point geometry object with properties elaborated in Extending GeoJSON geometries.

Following is a sample request body for a geofence represented as a circle geofence geometry in GeoJSON using a center point and a radius. The valid period of the geofence data starts from 2018-10-22, 9AM to 5PM, repeated every day except for the weekend. expiredTime indicates this geofence data is considered expired, if userTime in the request is later than 2019-01-01.

{
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [-122.126986, 47.639754]
    },
    "properties": {
        "geometryId" : "1",
        "subType": "Circle",
        "radius": 500,
        "validityTime": 
        {
            "expiredTime": "2019-01-01T00:00:00",
            "validityPeriod": [
                {
                    "startTime": "2018-10-22T09:00:00",
                    "endTime": "2018-10-22T17:00:00",
                    "recurrenceType": "Daily",
                    "recurrenceFrequency": 1,
                    "businessDayOnly": true
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}