The Spatial routing engine (often referred to as the routing engine) enables you to host an XML-based web service that provides the following features.

• Simple route requests return route information between the two locations.

• Simple multi-address route requests return route information between three or more locations. The ordering of the locations in the response is user specified and is not optimized.

• Traveling salesperson (TSP) route requests are a form of multi-address route request and also return route information between three or more locations. The ordering of some or all of the locations in the response can be reordered to optimize the overall route.

• Batched route requests are a batch of one or more simple or multi-address route requests. This can be a mix of simple, simple multi-address and TSP requests. Each individual request looks like a single request but is encapsulated in a <batch_route_request> element. The routing engine differentiates batched requests from batch mode requests when it finds a <route_request> element embedded in the <batch_route_request> element.

• Batch mode route requests return multiple responses, each with the same start location but different end locations.

For all requests, the start, intermediate, and end locations are identified by addresses, pre-geocoded addresses, or longitude/latitude coordinates.

Multi-address routes are explained in Routing.

The Oracle Routing engine is implemented as a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Web application that can be deployed in an application server such as Oracle WebLogic Server.

Figure 14-1 shows the basic flow of action with the routing engine: a client locates a remote routing engine instance, sends a route request, and processes the route response returned by the routing engine instance.

Figure 14-1 Basic Flow of Action with the Spatial Routing Engine

Description of "Figure 14-1 Basic Flow of Action with the Spatial Routing Engine"

This chapter does not include information about administering the routing engine. That information, which is for advanced users with specialized needs, is in Routing Engine Administration.

• Routing
  Routes are computed between location elements.
• Deploying the Routing Engine
  This topic provides an overview of deploying the routing engine.
• Routing Engine XML API
  This topic explains how to submit route requests in XML format to the routing engine, and it describes the XML Schema Definitions (XSDs) for the route requests (input) and responses (output).
• Location-Based Query Using the WSServlet XML API
  WSServlet is a routing engine servlet for performing lightweight location based queries related to speed limit and traffic speed.
• Data Structures Used by the Routing Engine
  Older versions of the routing engine (before Release 12.1) must have the following tables in their schema.
• User Data Structures Used by the Routing Engine
  The routing engine uses user data as well as routing engine data. Some user data, such as turn restriction user data, must be present in the routing engine schema. Other user data, such as trucking user data, is optional.