The Garmin Developer website was announced Tuesday at the Where 2.0 Conference. This develop zone site is dedicated to software developers and content providers who want to make their website, applications and data content compatible with Garmin navigation systems. The Garmin Developer website provides both free and licensed Garmin resources and a library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), toolkits and web services in four main categories: Device Communications, Web Services, Smartphone/PDA Services, and Location Based Services.
Watch the announcement from Where 2.0, and hear Aaron Roller’s MotionBased story and why developers should start programming with Garmin Developer today.
The big news for the Where 2.0 crowd was the announcement of the Garmin Communicator Plugin API. It’s a browser plugin and JavaScript support code that allows developers to easily transfer location data to-and-from a website and Garmin device. Historically, this has been a pain point for developers that want to communicate with a Garmin device, but now with the Communicator Plugin API, it can be done with little development effort. Even better, it’s free and available to everyone. A simple registration process returns a ‘key’ that activates the Communicator Plugin.
The Communicator Plugin is already in action at MotionBased, a division of Garmin International Inc. It can be found on My Activities > Upload pages (account required), where it retrieves track log data for online mapping and performance analysis. The Communicator is currently in beta, and will eventually replace the MotionBased Agent for all device communications.
Geocaching.com has also integrated the plugin so that users can easily transfer selected geocaches (waypoints) to their Garmin device by clicking the ‘Send to GPS’ link. “The Garmin Communicator Plugin API has made it possible to transfer cache listings to a Garmin device directly from a web page,” said Jeremy Irish, Groundspeak’s president and co-founder. “This plugin drastically simplifies the process and saves time that is better spent on the trail.”
There was also a lot of excitement surrounding Garmin’s API announcement of Web Services, Smartphone/PDA Services, and Location Based Services. Developers can learn more about these offerings on Garmin Developer, or get a general overview from the press release - Garmin Publishes API Library and Opens Communication Between Third Party Websites and Garmin GPS Devices.