MapIt for non-developers

MapIt is a system that sends data about administrations and other location-related data in response to requests from a website or service. This is useful if you are building services that require these data, for example, to identify which ward a postcode is in, what the nearest postcode is to a point on a map, or what the boundaries of an administrative area are – and many, many others.

In technical terms MapIt is classed as an API which stands for Application Programming Interface. It allows an external service to query data held in a database and return results. This removes the need to build such a database yourself – you can simply use MapIt in your application or site.

Example applications

MapIt can be used for all sorts of websites and applications. For example:

Possible uses

MapIt can be used for the following:

Rate limiting

The service has an automatic counter that tracks the number of requests sent to it by a user, and limits requests if they reach a certain volume. This is set at an average of 1 call per second in a rolling 3 minute period. The reason to do this is to make sure the service does not get overwhelmed by huge requests volumes which could risk it going down for all users.

Where the limit is exceeded, the service will stop sending data until the average goes back within the set limit.