🧭 Smart & Effortless Route Planning with ORS API

July 24, 2025 by

Kawther Boukraa

Introduction

If your app involves routing, navigation, or distance calculation, the ORS Directions API is a robust, scalable solution to build on. Powered by OpenRouteService and enriched with OpenStreetMap data, this API helps developers build custom route-planning tools without vendor lock-in.

Whether you're building a logistics app, map-based UI, or delivery service, ORS via Deploily provides fast and reliable route generation across different transportation modes — all while keeping your data usage transparent and local.

🛠️ Use Case: Getting Directions Between Two Locations

Scenario:

You want to display the best route between two coordinates (e.g., start and destination) on your map, based on the selected transport mode (e.g., car, bike, foot).

How It Works:

The user selects a start and end location.
You send a request to the ORS API via Deploily.
The API returns the best route (as GeoJSON).
You draw the route on a Flutter map.

Benefits:

🚗 Support for multiple transport modes (car, foot, bike, etc.)
⚡ Fast route calculations
📦 Lightweight response in GeoJSON
📍 Ideal for map apps, delivery, mobility, or travel platforms

🌍 What Is the ORS Directions API?

The OpenRouteService (ORS) API provides high-quality routing powered by open data from OpenStreetMap. Through the /v2/directions/{profile} endpoint, it returns optimal paths between two geographical points based on your selected profile.

It supports:

Driving (driving-car)
Cycling (cycling-regular)
Walking (foot-walking)
And more...

📘 You can also read the full API documentation here : ORS API Docs

📍 Project: Displaying Routes Using ORS API

In this project, we demonstrate how to:

Calculate a route between two points.
Visualize it on a Flutter map.

Use a clean GeoJSON output to render polylines.

🔗 Clone the Project

git clone https://github.com/transformatek/flutter-examples.git

cd flutter-examples

📦 Install Dependencies

Make sure you have Flutter installed, then run:

flutter pub get

🔐 Get Your API Key from deploily & set in your code

'apikey': 'your_api_key'

⚙️ How the ORS Directions Service Works in Flutter

Let’s break down the logic of route calculation using the OpenRouteService Directions API (via Deploily) in a Flutter app.

🔐 The API key is added in the request header:

final headers = {
  'accept': 'application/geo+json, */*',
  'apikey': 'your_api_key', // Replace with your real API key
};

🚗 Get a Route Between Two Points:

final headers = {
  'accept': 'application/geo+json, */*',
  'apikey': 'your_api_key', // Replace with your real API key
};

final params = {
  "start": "${start.longitude},${start.latitude}",
  "end": "${end.longitude},${end.latitude}",
};

final uri = Uri.parse("https://api.deploily.cloud/ors/v2/directions/driving-car")
    .replace(queryParameters: params);

final response = await http.get(uri, headers: headers);

The API returns a GeoJSON object containing the full route.
The app extracts the coordinates.
The route is displayed as a polyline on the map between the start and end points.