Bing Maps Migration to Azure Maps

Question

We have a Basic / Not-for-profit key for Bing maps that we use to get coordinates of addresses and distances/durations between points.

We use the distance matrix URL to get distances: https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes/DistanceMatrix?origins={lat0,long0;lat1,lon1;latM,lonM}&destinations={lat0,lon0;lat1,lon1;latN,longN}&travelMode={travelMode}&startTime={startTime}&timeUnit={timeUnit}&key={BingMapsKey}

For locations, we use: http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Locations/{locationQuery}?includeNeighborhood={includeNeighborhood}&maxResults={maxResults}&include={includeValue}&key={BingMapsKey}

Are we affected by the End of Life for Bing Maps Enterprise and do we need to alter our code to use URLs for Azure Maps?

Answer 1

Yes. All Bing Maps API's and services, including those on virtualearth.net domain are being retired (Virtual Earth was the previous name of Bing Maps). A migration guide can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/migrate-bing-maps-overview

For locations, you will likely find the Geocoding service the best service to migrate to as it uses the same data and logic behind the scenes as Bing Maps: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-geocoding?view=rest-maps-2023-06-01&tabs=HTTP

Note that the response format is different (uses an open standard data format called GeoJSON).

There are also several v1 search services in Azure Maps that provide similar capabilities, however this limited to just data from TomTom and doesn't have access to additional data collected by Bing:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-search-address?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-search-fuzzy?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP

There are also batch services for all of these:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/get-geocoding-batch?view=rest-maps-2023-06-01&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/post-search-address-batch?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/post-search-address-batch-sync?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/post-search-fuzzy-batch-sync?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/search/post-search-fuzzy-batch?view=rest-maps-1.0&tabs=HTTP

For distance matrix, Azure Maps calls this Route Matrix:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/route/get-route-matrix?view=rest-maps-2023-06-01
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/route/post-route-matrix?view=rest-maps-2023-06-01&tabs=HTTP
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/route/post-route-matrix-sync?view=rest-maps-2023-06-01&tabs=HTTP