Requirements of the Google Maps API

Introduction to Google Maps API

Google Maps is the most popular map application that users use on a daily basis for travel. Traveling from one location to another requires some essential information, such as the distance to be traveled in miles, an estimation of travel time, an optimal path based on traffic conditions, and driving directions. All these requirements can be achieved by interacting with different APIs of Google Maps. Designing an API like Google Maps requires an understanding of the internal working of its system because an API is a reflection of the backend system design. In this chapter, we'll first learn about the design of the API by going over the different services and interactions between them.

Note: An optimal path is not always the shortest one, but rather the one that works well in real-world and considers things like time, road closures, business needs, and so on.

Let's go over the functional and non-functional requirements for designing the Google Maps API.

Requirements

Let's understand the functional and non-functional requirements for designing the Google Maps API.

Functional requirements

The functional requirements are as follows:

• Map: The API should be able to return a specific map area as a snapshot based on the user's location.

• Route finder: The API should return the optimal path(s) with distance and the estimated time of arrival (ETA) based on the source, destination, and mode of transportation.

• Navigation: When the user starts navigating toward the destination. The navigation service takes the user's location from the global positioning system (GPS) and helps users to make correct decisions along the route. At the same time, the navigation service updates the ETA and distance.