If you are a developer and want to take working with Virtual Earth to the next level then this event is for you.
The first session will comprise of a platform update to bring you up to speed on the latest version of Virtual Earth. Later, Johannes Kebeck, Tim Warr and Alexis Harakis will show how Virtual Earth interacts with other Microsoft technologies to create a powerful tool that can be used for much more than placing pins on maps.
Whether you need to analyse or display data, or create an immersive end user experience, this event will make you eager to get back to your PC to put the code you have learnt into practice.
- Event: Developing with Virtual Earth
- Date & Location: Thursday 19th March 2009 – Microsoft, Thames Valley Park, Reading
The agenda will include
- Introduction and What’s New
- Virtual Earth and Multimedia Integration
- Business Intelligence using Virtual Earth
- Virtual Earth and GIS
- The 3D World
- Ask the Experts
- Optional Pricing and Terms of Use Session
The day will run from 9.30am until 4.30pm and places are limited so if you do wish to register please do so asap by following this link:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=FF-BF-03-A1-51-58-EB-8E-F3-4E-92-D5-11-F3-56-F7&Culture=en-GB
Invitation Code: 3C27C2
Hey everyone. Mark Brown here. I uploaded my webcast into our SkyDrive service and have posted it here for your viewing pleasure. Check out my blog post from last week for the download details for the samples from this webcast.
Enjoy.
Hey everybody, Mark Brown here. I hope you enjoyed our technical webcast today. I wanted to provide you with the demos I showed during our presentation. These should give you a leg up in exploring the features from both the Virtual Earth 6.2 Map Control and our Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0.
Download from SkyDrive
Enjoy.
Available today is a new whitepaper, Developing a Silverlight Application Using Virtual Earth Web Services. In this first of the series for whitepapers on our new Virtual Earth Web Services we show you how to get started using these new web services and show you how to leverage these to build your own Virtual Earth application in Silverlight.
We hope you enjoy and we'll have much more technical content coming soon..png)
Hey everyone, Mark Brown here for Virtual Earth. Welcome to our new section of "What's Hot" for Virtual Earth. In this new section we'll work to bring to your attention any of the new things coming your way to help you learn about Virtual Earth and help you build great new applications.
Enjoy and have fun making Virtual Earth applications.
Since the "official" release of MapCruncher™ Beta for Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ hundreds of people have downloaded this tool.
If you haven't checked it out yet you should soon! MapCruncher lets you take nearly any drawn-to-scale map, align it with the Virtual Earth maps and create your own layer to add additional information important to your business or application. A large number of formats are supported and the help file within the tool provides step-by-step instruction.
More information on MapCruncher Beta.
Download MapCruncher Beta.
See a gallery of sample maps.
As you've no doubt seen v6.0 of the Virtual Earth Map Control is now available. You can check out the list of new features or see it at work in the iSDK and now you can register for a live webcast that will give you more information about what's new and improved, while still covering some of the basics.
Register now for the MSDN webcast: Learn How to Build Rich User Experiences with Virtual Earth 6.0 to be broadcast Wednesday, November 7 at 11:00 am PT.
If you've been trying to convince the decision makers in your organization to take a look at the Virtual Earth platform we have a webcast just for them. Have them register for: See How Virtual Earth 6.0 Provides an Immersive Web Experience (Level 100) to be broadcast Tuesday, November 6 at 10:00 am PT.
And finally, if you are a partner we have a webcast for you, too! Register for: Virtual Earth Briefing: What’s New in the latest VE Platform release, pricing, licensing, training resources, and the upcoming VE Data Visualization Specialization exam to be broadcast Monday, November 5 at 9:00 am PT.
We’ve continued to listen to your requests for improved accuracy, new tools, feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities, and we hope that you'll be pleased with the changes we've made. This page explains the new features on a high level. To see a complete list of the methods and properties that have changed and all of the Virtual Earth features, visit the browsable SDK.
Version 6.0 of the map control provides the following:
Multipoint routing
The new GetDirections API can take multiple points for a route instead of just the start and end points, allowing for more complex trip planning.
NOTE: The current GetRoute API continues to support start and end points only.
Enhanced Geocoding
We have created a next-generation geocoding engine in support of Virtual Earth. The engine combines results from multiple geocoders to get detailed and up-to-date results. Additionally, it takes MapView, ReverseIP and Culture into account in order to provide more relevant results for the end user.
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MapView: Virtual Earth makes intuitive inferences for search queries based on the current mapview. If a user is hovering over Seattle and doesn’t enter the city name into address queries, Virtual Earth will automatically infer this information based on the map view.
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Reverse IP lookup: The map makes intuitive inferences for search queries based on the physical location from where the user is making a query.
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Culture: Users can configure culture settings on the map control. This can be used to restrict the results because the map control will return results based on the culture setting.
NOTE: This is available for GetDirections and Find-where calls. Microsoft will support Find-‘what-where’ at a later date.
Rooftop Geocoding
We have created a next-generation geocoding engine in support of Virtual Earth. The engine combines results from multiple geocoders to get detailed and up-to-date results. Additionally, it takes MapView, ReverseIP and Culture into account in order to provide more relevant results for the end-user.
NOTE: This is available for GetDirections and Find-where calls. Microsoft will support Find-‘what-where’ at a later date.
Safari support
The V6 Map Control includes Apple Safari 2.0 support. There is no route line functionality at this time. Safari will not be supported on Live Search Maps or on the iPhone.
Traffic Tile Overlay
The V6 Map Control now supports fetching of traffic tiles, for client token authenticated users, containing rendered traffic flow data. While the Virtual Earth Platform does not automatically offer incident information, users can query MapPoint Web Service to get this information.
Bird’s Eye pushpin accuracy
Bird’s eye pushpin placement accuracy has been enhanced for V6. In this release, when users convert pixels to latlong in bird’s eye, Virtual Earth will make server side calls for more accurate calculations taking into account camera metadata. When users add a pushpin in a road or aerial view, and switch to bird’s eye, the pushpin will still display in the correct location.
NOTE: Users must activate this functionality. A maximum of 50 pushpins will be supported for accuracy.
Customer Identification via Client Tokens
Client tokens can be obtained using production developer credentials and are used to identify transactions for reporting and billing purposes. Customers that use client tokens will have access to transaction reporting.
Transaction Reporting (beta)
Transaction reporting is now available in beta for Virtual Earth when customers implement the client token. These reports are available via the Virtual Earth platform Customer Services site. Customers are now able to see a preview of their billable transactions for the current month as well as their historical traffic for a given date range.
Localization
Users can specify a culture when calling VEMap.Find and VEMap.GetDirections and get localized results. Localization is supported in the following:
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English – United States, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese (JP Addresses Only), Norwegian (Bokmål), Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Chinese (within China only)
NOTE: This localization support is not available when using GetRoute to obtain a route or for labels on Map Tiles. This feature will be available end of 2007.
MapCruncher™ (Beta) for Microsoft® Virtual Earth™
MapCruncher makes it easy to publish drawn-to-scale maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control. Once you are familiar with the tool, it can take approximately ten minutes to generate a new tile layer. Just find five to ten corresponding landmarks on your map and on the Virtual Earth map view, and MapCruncher will register your map to the global coordinate system, warp it to fit a Mercator projection, and generate a set of image tiles that can be seamlessly layered on top of Virtual Earth map control's standard road, hybrid, or aerial imagery. It even makes a sample HTML page for reference.
MapCruncher accepts a variety of vector formats (PDF, WMF, EMF) and raster formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP).
Download MapCruncher Beta for Microsoft Virtual Earth from the Microsoft Download Center.
Infrastructure Improvements
New investments in the Virtual Earth platform and infrastructure have resulted in 99.9% availability.
Bulk addition of VEShape
The new V6 API allows users to add multiple pushpins in a single call with enhanced performance over adding multiple pushpins separately.
zIndex support for VEShapes
The API will allow the user to specify whether a VEShape object appears “above” or “below” the other VEShape or Tile objects. The current mapcontrol handles zIndexes automatically when shapes are added to the map. The V6 API will allow users to optionally override the z-index.
3D collection model
Mash-up users can upload a read-only collection with 3D models that they have built. Users can then add pushpins and models to collections. When a user switches from 3D to 2D, models will appear as pushpins.
Note: This feature will be available at the end of 2007.
Get/Set Altitude
Users can now choose to specify the altitude, in meters, of a VELatLong object in addition its latitude and longitude.
Virtual Earth v6 SDKs
A new version of the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK is available, demonstrating the new functionality of the Virtual Earth Map Control with ease. Go to the iSDK.
You may also browse the SDK in the MSDN Library or download the SDK for offline viewing.
Other Information
For more information about the Virtual Earth platform; how it can enhance your applications and websites; and strengthen your business see Microsoft® Virtual Earth™.
For more information about licensing and pricing, contact maplic@microsoft.com
The Interactive Virtual Earth SDK has been updated to include the latest features and functionality available in Virtual Earth v5.0. The SDK is also available in the MSDN Library.
The new Virtual Earth platform
The Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services that combines unique bird’s eye, aerial, and 3-D imagery with best-of-breed mapping, location and search functionality. With ongoing investments in innovation that are driven by customer feedback, the Virtual Earth platform 5.0 continues to offer new tools, advanced feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities.
Improved Support for Feature Customization
- Virtual Earth Shapes. Easily customize and modify pushpins, polylines, and polygons with the new Virtual Earth Shape class. Customize line colors, widths, and transparencies of shapes, as well as add custom icons.
- Info Boxes. Shapes now have associated info boxes which can be shown and hidden as a response to user actions (e.g. clicking on the shape). The info box text and text style are completely customizable.
- Find Method. More customizable find method integrates the new Shape class to find locations and businesses easier than ever before.
- Keyboard and Mouse Events. Override almost any keyboard or mouse event, and use it to execute any Virtual Earth map action.
Rich End-User Experience
- Bird’s Eye Panning. Pan continuously across the map in bird’s eye view.
- Tile Over-fetching. Programmatically enable tile downloading to either increase panning performance or optimize page load time.
- Small Navigation Controls. New options for end users to customize the interface by utilizing two new options for smaller navigation controls.
- Mini Map. The mini map provides a small map legend, giving the user better bearings as he navigates.
- Compressed Map Control. The map control code base is now compressed, reducing the initial download size to around 25% of the original download.
- Programmatic Market Selection. Localized market support, beginning with Japan, which is now supported in the Virtual Earth API
New Level of Control and Flexibility
- Pushpins, Polylines, and Polygons. Once separately-coded objects, the new Virtual Earth shapes are now richer and easier to customize. Move shapes on the fly, show and hide them programmatically, and give them custom icons using your own image or your own HTML.
- GeoRSS Imports. Import pushpins, polylines, and polygons using the GeoRSS feed, which is becoming the de facto standard.
- Info Boxes. Shapes can now store HTML and CSS content for custom info boxes, which can be shown or hidden programmatically.
- Shape Layers. New and improved shape management capabilities allow grouping of pushpins, polylines, and polygons. Show or hide a group of shapes, or make changes to the individual shapes within them.
- Find Method. Easily customize search results with the updated find method which sends the resulting pushpins directly to a shape layer.
- Tile Layers. The tile layer interface, used for adding, deleting, showing, and hiding tile layers, is now more straightforward and easier to use.
The Virtual Earth SDK includes a “What’s New” section to get developers started with Version 5 of the platform API. For information on licensing email maplic@microsoft.com.
The Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services that combines unique bird’s eye, aerial, and 3-D imagery with best-of-breed mapping, location and search functionality. With ongoing investments in innovation that are driven by customer feedback, the Virtual Earth platform 5.0 continues to offer new tools, advanced feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities.
Version 5.0
Improved Support for Feature Customization
- Virtual Earth Shapes. Easily customize and modify pushpins, polylines, and polygons with the new Virtual Earth Shape class. Customize line colors, widths, and transparencies of shapes, as well as add custom icons.
- Info Boxes. Shapes now have associated info boxes which can be shown and hidden as a response to user actions (e.g. clicking on the shape). The info box text and text style are completely customizable.
- Find Method. More customizable find method integrates the new Shape class to find locations and businesses easier than ever before.
- Keyboard and Mouse Events. Override almost any keyboard or mouse event, and use it to execute any Virtual Earth map action.
Rich End-User Experience
- Bird’s Eye Panning. Pan continuously across the map in bird’s eye view.
- Tile Over-fetching. Programmatically enable tile downloading to either increase panning performance or optimize page load time.
- Small Navigation Controls. New options for end users to customize the interface by utilizing two new options for smaller navigation controls.
- Mini Map. The mini map provides a small map legend, giving the user better bearings as he navigates.
- Compressed Map Control. The map control code base is now compressed, reducing the initial download size to around 25% of the original download.
- Programmatic Market Selection. Localized market support, beginning with Japan, which is now supported in the Virtual Earth API
New Level of Control and Flexibility
- Pushpins, Polylines, and Polygons. Once separately-coded objects, the new Virtual Earth shapes are now richer and easier to customize. Move shapes on the fly, show and hide them programmatically, and give them custom icons using your own image or your own HTML.
- GeoRSS Imports. Import pushpins, polylines, and polygons using the GeoRSS feed, which is becoming the de facto standard.
- Info Boxes. Shapes can now store HTML and CSS content for custom info boxes, which can be shown or hidden programmatically.
- Shape Layers. New and improved shape management capabilities allow grouping of pushpins, polylines, and polygons. Show or hide a group of shapes, or make changes to the individual shapes within them.
- Find Method. Easily customize search results with the updated find method which sends the resulting pushpins directly to a shape layer.
- Tile Layers. The tile layer interface, used for adding, deleting, showing, and hiding tile layers, is now more straightforward and easier to use.
View the Interactive SDK to see all the new features.
Version 4.0
With version 4.0 of the map control, you can now display 3D maps on your Web site. Existing 2D maps will continue to work as they do in version 3 of the control, but now users can switch to 3D mode and view maps in an all-new way.
NoteVersion 4.0 of the map control also includes the latest updates to the version 3.2 map control.
3D Maps
The Virtual Earth map control now supports 3D maps. This is a very significant change, both in terms of user experience and in the way you develop your Virtual Earth applications. To view the 3D maps, each user must install the Virtual Earth 3D control and must have sufficient computer hardware to display the maps. The map control has been updated to provide the APIs you need to get started with the 3D maps. For more information on getting started, see Displaying 3D Maps.
Map View Specification
A new VEMapViewSpecification object has been added that defines the current map view, including the center point and zoom level. If the map is in 3D mode, the map view specification also includes the altitude, pitch, and heading of the view
URL change
The changes included in version 4.0 of the map control require a new URL. To start programming against the latest control, update your script reference to the following URL:
http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/v4/mapcontrol.js
Version 3.2
Location Disambiguation
New methods and properties have been added to the VEMap object, which allow you to develop your own custom location disambiguation methods. For more information, see Finding Information.
Version 3.1
Add Custom Tiles
The Virtual Earth map control now supports custom map tiles. You can generate the map tiles by using Working with Tile Layers.
Draw Polygons
A VEPolygon object has been added to the map control. It is very similar to the VEPolyline object, except that it includes a fill color. Using the VEPolygon object enables you to draw shaded polygons with varying degrees of transparency to your map. To learn more, see Drawing Lines and Polygons on the Map.
Disambiguate Addresses
A new VESearchResult object lets you work with returned addresses from a VEMap.Find method call.
Change the Map Scale Bar
A new VEMap.SetScaleBarDistanceUnit method has been added to the control. This method enables you to change the map scale bar units to either miles or kilometers.
The launch of Virtual Earth 3D makes the power of Microsoft’s new online mapping platform available to Web developers as well as Live Search customers. Virtual Earth 3D provides developers with an immersive 3D application environment to implement searching, browsing and organizing local information. At launch, 3D terrain models are available globally, and 15 major U.S. cities boast textured building models.
Web developers can implement Virtual Earth 3D applications by using the new features available in Version 4 of the Virtual Earth API. The Virtual Earth SDK includes a “What’s New” section to get developers started with Version 4 of the API and the 3D map control. The SDK and other tools and information for programming Virtual Earth and related Live platform applications are available here at dev.live.com. Additional updated information includes “How To” articles and a Gallery of VE applications. Also, be sure to check out our forum.
The Virtual Earth map control software development kit (SDK) consists of a set of conceptual topics about Virtual Earth and a complete set of reference topics that cover the Virtual Earth map control application programming interface (API). For V4, the map control has been updated to provide the APIs developers need to develop new 3D applications or update their existing 2D projects to the 3D platform. Either way, developers can program against the new 3D APIs in the same way that they use the 2D APIs because they share the same map control. Including the 3D maps in existing sites requires very little additional effort.
Dev.live.com also provides a Gallery of live web applications that implement Virtual Earth APIs. These serve as examples of the diversity of applications that are possible as well as sources of sample code that can help accelerate new implementations. The Gallery also includes the first application built using Virtual Earth 3D: My3DVistas.com. This application shows how web sites can use elevation data to take advantage of the 3D environment in addition to the previously supported 2D controls.
The best way to learn about the Virtual Earth Map Control is to work with the Interactive Online SDK. You can also browse the SDK in the MSDN Library or read some of the How-To articles.
The
Virtual Earth Interactive SDK allows you to interact with maps, and see source code for each of the task-based actions.