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Python REST SDK Developers Guide (preview)

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The Azure Maps Python SDK can be integrated with Python applications and libraries to build map-related and location-aware applications. The Azure Maps Python SDK contains APIs for Search, Route, Render and Geolocation. These APIs support operations such as searching for an address, routing between different coordinates, obtaining the geo-location of a specific IP address.

Prerequisites

Tip

You can create an Azure Maps account programmatically, Here's an example using the Azure CLI:

az maps account create --kind "Gen2" --account-name "myMapAccountName" --resource-group "<resource group>" --sku "G2"

Create a python project

The following example shows how to create a console program named demo with Python:

mkdir mapsDemo 
cd mapsDemo 
New-Item demo.py

Install needed python packages

Each service in Azure Maps is contained in its own package. When using the Azure Maps Python SDK, you can install just the packages of the services you need.

Here we install the Azure Maps Search package. Since it’s still in public preview, you need to add the --pre flag: 

pip install azure-maps-search --pre

Azure Maps services

Azure Maps Python SDK supports Python version 3.7 or later. For more information on future Python versions, see Azure SDK for Python version support policy.

Service name  PyPi package  Samples 
Search azure-maps-search search samples
Route azure-maps-route  route samples
Render azure-maps-render render sample
Geolocation azure-maps-geolocation geolocation sample

Create and authenticate a MapsSearchClient

You need a credential object for authentication when creating the MapsSearchClient object used to access the Azure Maps search APIs. You can use either a Microsoft Entra credential or an Azure subscription key to authenticate. For more information on authentication, see Authentication with Azure Maps.

Tip

TheMapsSearchClient is the primary interface for developers using the Azure Maps search library. See Azure Maps Search package client library to learn more about the search methods available.

Using a Microsoft Entra credential

You can authenticate with Microsoft Entra ID using the Azure Identity package. To use the DefaultAzureCredential provider, you need to install the Azure Identity client package:

pip install azure-identity

You need to register the new Microsoft Entra application and grant access to Azure Maps by assigning the required role to your service principal. For more information, see Host a daemon on non-Azure resources. The Application (client) ID, a Directory (tenant) ID, and a client secret are returned. Copy these values and store them in a secure place. You need them in the following steps.

Next you need to specify the Azure Maps account you intend to use by specifying the maps’ client ID. The Azure Maps account client ID can be found in the Authentication sections of the Azure Maps account. For more information, see View authentication details.

Set the values of the Application (client) ID, Directory (tenant) ID, and client secret of your Microsoft Entra application, and the map resource’s client ID as environment variables:

Environment Variable Description
AZURE_CLIENT_ID Application (client) ID in your registered application
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET The value of the client secret in your registered application
AZURE_TENANT_ID Directory (tenant) ID in your registered application
MAPS_CLIENT_ID The client ID in your Azure Map account

Now you can create environment variables in PowerShell to store these values:

$Env:AZURE_CLIENT_ID="Application (client) ID"
$Env:AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET="your client secret"
$Env:AZURE_TENANT_ID="your Directory (tenant) ID"
$Env:MAPS_CLIENT_ID="your Azure Maps client ID"

After setting up the environment variables, you can use them in your program to instantiate the AzureMapsSearch client. Create a file named demo.py and add the following code:

import os
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential 
from azure.maps.search import MapsSearchClient 

credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
maps_client_id = os.getenv("MAPS_CLIENT_ID")
maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(
    client_id=maps_client_id,
    credential=credential
)

Important

The other environment variables created in the previous code snippet, while not used in the code sample, are required by DefaultAzureCredential(). If you do not set these environment variables correctly, using the same naming conventions, you will get run-time errors. For example, if your AZURE_CLIENT_ID is missing or invalid you will get an InvalidAuthenticationTokenTenant error.

Using a subscription key credential

You can authenticate with your Azure Maps subscription key. Your subscription key can be found in the Authentication section in the Azure Maps account as shown in the following screenshot:

Screenshot showing your Azure Maps subscription key in the Azure portal.

Now you can create environment variables in PowerShell to store the subscription key:

$Env:SUBSCRIPTION_KEY="your subscription key"

Once your environment variable is created, you can access it in your code. Create a file named demo.py and add the following code:

import os

from azure.core.credentials import AzureKeyCredential
from azure.maps.search import MapsSearchClient

# Use Azure Maps subscription key authentication
subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")
maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(
   credential=AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key)
)

Fuzzy Search an Entity

The following code snippet demonstrates how, in a simple console application, to import the Azure.Maps.Search package and perform a fuzzy search on “Starbucks” near Seattle. This example uses subscription key credentials to authenticate MapsSearchClient. In demo.py:

import os 
from azure.core.credentials import AzureKeyCredential 
from azure.maps.search import MapsSearchClient 

def fuzzy_search(): 
    # Use Azure Maps subscription key authentication 
    subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")
    maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(
        credential=AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key)
    )
    result = maps_search_client.fuzzy_search(
        query="Starbucks",
        coordinates=(47.61010, -122.34255)
    )
    
    # Print the search results
    if len(result.results) > 0:
        print("Starbucks search result nearby Seattle:")
        for result_item in result.results:
            print(f"* {result_item.address.street_number }   {result_item.address.street_name }")
            print(f"  {result_item.address.municipality } {result_item.address.country_code } {result_item.address.postal_code }")
            print(f"  Coordinate: {result_item.position.lat}, {result_item.position.lon}") 

if __name__ == '__main__': 
    fuzzy_search()

This sample code instantiates AzureKeyCredential with the Azure Maps subscription key, then uses it to instantiate the MapsSearchClient object. The methods provided by MapsSearchClient forward the request to the Azure Maps REST endpoints. In the end, the program iterates through the results and prints the address and coordinates for each result.

After finishing the program, run python demo.py from the project folder in PowerShell:

python demo.py

You should see a list of Starbucks address and coordinate results:

* 1912 Pike Place 
  Seattle US 98101 
  Coordinate: 47.61016, -122.34248 
* 2118 Westlake Avenue 
  Seattle US 98121 
  Coordinate: 47.61731, -122.33782 
* 2601 Elliott Avenue 
  Seattle US 98121 
  Coordinate: 47.61426, -122.35261 
* 1730 Howell Street 
  Seattle US 98101 
  Coordinate: 47.61716, -122.3298 
* 220 1st Avenue South 
  Seattle US 98104 
  Coordinate: 47.60027, -122.3338 
* 400 Occidental Avenue South 
  Seattle US 98104 
  Coordinate: 47.5991, -122.33278 
* 1600 East Olive Way 
  Seattle US 98102 
  Coordinate: 47.61948, -122.32505 
* 500 Mercer Street 
  Seattle US 98109 
  Coordinate: 47.62501, -122.34687 
* 505 5Th Ave S 
  Seattle US 98104 
  Coordinate: 47.59768, -122.32849 
* 425 Queen Anne Avenue North 
  Seattle US 98109 
  Coordinate: 47.62301, -122.3571

Search an Address

Call the SearchAddress method to get the coordinate of an address. Modify the Main program from the sample as follows:

import os
from azure.core.credentials import AzureKeyCredential
from azure.maps.search import MapsSearchClient

def search_address():
    subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")

    maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(
       credential=AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key)
    )

    result = maps_search_client.search_address( 
        query="1301 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98101, US" 
    )
    
    # Print reuslts if any
    if len(result.results) > 0:
        print(f"Coordinate: {result.results[0].position.lat}, {result.results[0].position.lon}")
    else:
        print("No address found")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    search_address()

The SearchAddress method returns results ordered by confidence score and prints the coordinates of the first result.

Azure Maps Search also provides some batch query methods. These methods return long-running operations (LRO) objects. The requests might not return all the results immediately, so users can choose to wait until completion or query the result periodically. The following examples demonstrate how to call the batched reverse search method.

Since these return LRO objects, you need the asyncio method included in the aiohttp package:

pip install aiohttp

import asyncio
import os
from azure.core.credentials import AzureKeyCredential
from azure.maps.search.aio import MapsSearchClient

async def begin_reverse_search_address_batch(): 
    subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")

    maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key))

    async with maps_search_client:
        result = await maps_search_client.begin_reverse_search_address_batch(
            search_queries = [
                "148.858561,2.294911",
                "47.639765,-122.127896&radius=5000",
                "47.61559,-122.33817&radius=5000",
            ]
        )
    print(f"Batch_id: {result.batch_id}")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Special handle for Windows platform
    if os.name == 'nt':
        asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy())
    asyncio.run(begin_reverse_search_address_batch())

In the above example, three queries are passed to the batched reverse search request. To get the LRO results, the request creates a batch request with a batch ID as result that can be used to fetch batch response later. The LRO results are cached on the server side for 14 days.

The following example demonstrates the process of calling the batch ID and retrieving the operation results of the batch request:

import asyncio
import os
from azure.core.credentials import AzureKeyCredential
from azure.maps.search.aio import MapsSearchClient

async def begin_reverse_search_address_batch():
    subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")

    maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(credential=AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key))

    async with maps_search_client:
        result = await maps_search_client.begin_reverse_search_address_batch(
            search_queries = [
                "148.858561,2.294911",
                "47.639765,-122.127896&radius=5000",
                "47.61559,-122.33817&radius=5000",
            ]
        )
    return result

async def begin_reverse_search_address_batch_with_id(batch_id):
    subscription_key = os.getenv("SUBSCRIPTION_KEY")
    maps_search_client = MapsSearchClient(credential=AzureKeyCredential(subscription_key))
    async with maps_search_client:
        result = await maps_search_client.begin_reverse_search_address_batch(
            batch_id=batch_id,
        )

    responses = result._polling_method._initial_response.context.get('deserialized_data')
    summary = responses['summary']

    # Print Batch results
    idx = 1
    print(f"Total Batch Requests: {summary['totalRequests']}, Total Successful Results: {summary['successfulRequests']}")
    for items in responses.get('batchItems'):
        if items['statusCode'] == 200:
            print(f"Request {idx} result:")
            for address in items['response']['addresses']:
                print(f"  {address['address']['freeformAddress']}")
        else:
            print(f"Error in request {idx}: {items['response']['error']['message']}")
        idx += 1

async def main():
    result = await begin_reverse_search_address_batch()
    await begin_reverse_search_address_batch_with_id(result.batch_id)

if __name__ == '__main__': 
    # Special handle for Windows platform 
    if os.name == 'nt':
        asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy())
    asyncio.run(main())

Additional information

The Azure Maps Search package client library in the Azure SDK for Python Preview documentation.