Earthware Blog

UPDATED: As recommend by SoulSoltions in the comments I have marked each wish by whether it should be in the core control or in a separate toolkit (IMHO)

We have spent the last month working with the current Bing maps Silverlight CTP control (formally Virtual Earth) to create the new Bing Maps World Tour application which has been a really great experience. The current Silverlight control opens up a whole new world of possibilities when creating rich mapping solutions but as always we want MORE!

Here is our top 10 wish list for features and tweaks to be in the final map release in no particular order:

1.     Custom map view animations – include in core
Being able to quickly customise the speed and style of animation the map uses when navigating between map views would be great and allow developers and designers to add their own unique touch to their mapping projects.

2.     A basic pushpin & infobox control – include in toolkit

The Silverlight control team have deliberately left the creation of pushpins and popups to developers and designers as this gives us complete control and flexibility which is great and something missing from the current Ajax control. However, we can see some good reasons to have a basic pushpin and infobox offered by the final control release.

Firstly for new Silverlight developers coding a pushpin and infobox that works the same as the Ajax pushpin control is not a simple task so having a basic control they can style or build upon would allow people to get simple applications up and running faster.

Secondly for experienced developers being able to inherit from built-in controls will save a lot of repeated coding in different projects.

3.     Easy to style navigation controls – include in core
You can currently style the navigation controls, but getting access to this functionality is not straightforward (hopefully we will blog a tutorial on this soon). Being able to just apply a style or custom template as for normal Silverlight controls would be brilliant.

4.     Bird’s eye imagery – include in core

It goes without saying that Bird’s eye imagery is one of Bing maps greatest features, we hope it will make it into the first official release.

5.     Clustering – include in toolkit
Having a basic but extendable clustering solution would again help new and experienced developers quickly get applications online.

6.     Built in routing – include in toolkit
Although routing can currently be achieved quite simply using the examples from the interactive sdk, having this functionality built-in would save a lot of time and effort and again make it more open to new developers.

7.     Real time zoom level range data – include in core
The CTP release improves on the Ajax control by restricting zoom levels when the higher zoom levels are not available at a location. This is a great start but the data for this is not very detailed and you will still often get the dreaded camera icon appear.

Being able to get more detailed data, ideally in real time would be an excellent addition to the control ensuring we banish the camera icon forever! 

8.     Drawing controls – include in toolkit
Something that has often been requested for the ajax control is an officially supported set of drawing controls allowing polyline and polygon drawing as on bing.com. Having these available first in the Silverlight control would be great especially as it should be easier in Silverlight than it is in cross browser javascript. 

9.     KML / GeoRSS support – include in toolkit
The ability to quickly load a georss or kml file into the ajax control has been a massive help to new users and those of us wanting to quickly generate a map from existing content. Having this in the Silverlight control would encourage people to use the new control more as mashups would be quick to create.  

10.  Modular design
One issue with the ajax control has been that you need to download all the control code even if you don’t want to use all the features in your project. With the current Bing Maps Silverlight control dll coming in at 489kb it would be good to be able to optionally include features by having different dll’s for separate parts of the control. Another option would be to support assembly caching for the Silverlight map control similar to that in Silverlight 3 for the core framework dlls.

It was actually pretty difficult to come up with 10 sensible wishes as the current control has so many great features already. It would be great to see these all release but I have no doubt they are not all, if any, on the release list. Hopefully those that don’t make it might become part of the new direction that the codeplex project DeepEarth is taking, by creating a collection of reusable map controls in Silverlight.

We would love to hear comments about your own suggested features to see what the community as a whole want to see developed, so please add your comments below.

The Microsoft Bing Enterprise Mapping team approached Earthware two months ago, with an idea to communicate their monthly imagery releases to clients and partners in a more visually engaging format.

With each month’s imagery release potentially covering hundreds of updated locations worldwide the current system of publishing a simple list of all the locations was not demonstrating the full impact of each release. Microsoft was also keen to use their latest Bing Maps Silverlight control, to create a visually rich interactive mapping application which could be both a showcase for the monthly updates, and the possibilities that Silverlight and Bing maps can offer.

Microsoft were also keen to host the new application on the Windows Azure platform to show the flexibility of combining Azure services with the Bing Enterprise maps.

Why Earthware?

Earthware already had extensive experience with Bing maps and the new Silverlight control after taking part in the closed beta program in early 2009. As part of this Earthware produced a Twitter map demo application which Microsoft demoed as part of the Bing Maps Silverlight control’s release publicity. The Twitter demo also used the Azure platform.

What did we deliver?

• A visually rich mapping application using Microsoft’s Bing Maps Silverlight Control and hosted on the Windows Azure platform.
   
• A secure back office administration area to allow the Microsoft team to quickly, and easily, add and update monthly imagery release information.
   
• A back end database built upon the Windows Azure table storage service.
   
• The entire first release of the Bing Maps World Tour application was delivered in less than six weeks and in time for the challenging May 2009 imagery release deadline.
   

Try the finished Bing Maps World Tour application for yourself on the Bing Maps Website or read more about the application at the official Bing maps blog. You can also see the reaction of the developer community to the applications release on twitter.

If you are interested in Earthware helping you to create similar interactive animated mapping applications for your products please visit our interactive mapping consultancy page.

We are a small, but fast growing technology company with two brands: ‘Earthware’ is a globally recognised interactive mapping specialist helping clients to bring their products and services to life using mapping. ‘The Technology Studio’ develops and manages websites (usually with both challenging back end and front end requirements) for clients across a number of industries including property, travel, media.

We are looking for an experienced (3-7) years ASP.net developer to join our creative and professional team to develop client facing websites for a variety of clients. Day to day activities would include planning, designing and developing websites (both back end and front end) from client pitch to final delivery and testing.

Applicants need to demonstrate the following essential skills:

• Strong, full life cycle, Asp.net C#
• Excellent CSS / HTML / Javascript
• SQL Server / TSQL

The following skills / experience would also be advantageous:

• Ajax frameworks
• XSLT / XML
• Any web mapping experience
• Silverlight
• Unit testing
• ASP.net MVC

In return we can offer on target earning of up to £35,000. We also offer the opportunity to be part of a growing company with a unique culture built around integrity, enthusiasm, initiative, playing as a team and having fun. We actively encourage your personal and skills development but also look for people that are a bit different and embrace being part of an entrepreneurial, ‘we are in this together’ culture. This is not the place for ‘also rans’!

If you think you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the position please email your CV to recruitment@earthware.co.uk.

All applicants must be registered to work in the UK.

NO CONTACT FROM AGENCIES

If you think you would be a great member of the team, we look forward to hearing from you.

As you cannot have missed in the news recently Microsoft has re-branded its search offering to be called “Bing”. This means Virtual Earth is now called Bing Maps for Enterprise.

Yesterday Microsoft automatically updated the Ajax Virtual Earth control to use the new Bing logo and you may have wondered why the Silverlight map control was not also updated? The reason is that the logo is a resource in the Silverlight control assembly and is not pointing to an external file.

So does that mean we have to wait for a new release of the Bing Silverlight map control before the logo will get changed? Well yes and no, if you want it to be automatically changed you will have to wait for the next release but there is nothing stopping you changing it yourself now by following the steps below.

Step 1 – Getting your project setup

If you don’t already have a Silverlight project setup with the Bing silverlight maps (Virtual Earth) control working see Chris Pietschmann’s excellent getting started tutorial.

Step 2 - Getting the new logo

You can download the new Bing logo from the url below:

http://www.bing.com/maps/i/logo_powered_by.png

Save this to a folder in your Silverlight project (for example Images) and then in Visual Studio ensure you include the new image in your Silverlight project and set it to be “Content” so that it gets included in the Silverlight xap file.

Step 3 – Hiding the existing logo

You may be asking how we turn off the existing logo? Well luckily the current Silverlight control allows us to hide the logo using the “LogoVisbility” attribute. You can do this in the XAML code as follows:

   1: <UserControl x:Class="BingLogoDemo.Page"

   2:     xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 

   3:     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 

   4:     xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl">

   5:     <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

   6:         <m:Map x:Name="mainmap" LogoVisibility="Collapsed">

   7:             

   8:         </m:Map>

   9:     </Grid>

  10: </UserControl>

Step 4 – Adding the new logo

Now we need to add the new Bing logo. This is done by adding an image control and setting its “Source” attribute to point to the new logo file we downloaded in step 2. With a little alignment and margins we can get the logo to be in the same position as the original one. Below is the XAML showing you how to do this.

   1: <UserControl x:Class="BingLogoDemo.Page"

   2:     xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 

   3:     xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 

   4:     xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl">

   5:     <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

   6:         <m:Map x:Name="mainmap" LogoVisibility="Collapsed">

   7:             

   8:         </m:Map>

   9:         <Image Source="/Images/logo_powered_by.png" Width="93" Height="29" Margin="7 0 0 25" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" HorizontalAlignment="Left"  />

  10:     </Grid>

  11: </UserControl>

That’s it your all done.

Summary

Hopefully this tutorial has shown you just how easy this is to update. We could of course have used the online image file as the source of the image control, rather than including the new file in our application, but that might cause issues in future if Microsoft change the name of the file, or resize it. You can download a sample project showing the new logo below:

Google has announced the launch of the Google Tricycle. As the Google Street cars whiz through the larger roads of cities and towns around the world capturing 360 degree images of the area, there are some places they just can’t reach. This is where the Google Tricycle will come in handy: it can fit down those smaller streets around the towns and can even take Street View off-road!

Google launched their Street View imagery in the UK in March 2009 amid a storm of controversy. However, they were not the first. Earthware introduced the first customised Street Level View four months earlier in November 2008 for commercial property listings website, Novaloca.com.

One critisim of the Google Street View offering was it’s lack of coverage of minor roads. The Google trike will aim to solve this. It is currently being tested in Genoa and is expected to hit the UK shores this summer. In partnership with Visit Britain, the public will be able to vote for three landmarks they would like to see captured.  Justin Reid of Visit Britain said, “the new trike will enable us to showcase even more of Britain’s wonderful destinations and we look forward to receiving some great ideas from the public”.

The images taken by the trike will be stitched together to form a 360 tour of the location and be embedded in the existing Google Maps.

However, the Google trike is not the only technology available to develop this sort of imagery. With Microsoft’s Photosynth technology you can turn your digital images of a route, location or object into a 3 dimensional, navigatable image. Alternatively, Seety, the company behind the Street Level View imagery Earthware embedded in NovaLoca.com are offering their services for bespoke work. So if you can’t wait for the Google trike to make it to your favourite location there are a number of other options open to you.

If you could like to hear more about how Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth can help your business then contact Earthware.

Having released Photosynth for commercial use Microsoft  have now announced their commercial terms making it clear how this technology can be used.

Using Photosynth

As long as the synths embedded in a website comply with the terms of use, are publicly available and use under 20GB of storage they are free. If you want to make your synths private (not listed on the photosynth website) you can ‘unlist’ them but this comes with some restrictions. Unlisted synths are limited to 1GB of storage (it is 20GB for public synths) and synth views (when a view opens a synth) are limited to 500 per month. If the way you use photosynth exceeds or is likely to exceed these limits you will need a photosynth commercial license.

Benefits of a commercial License

• All the benefits of unlisted synths (not listed on the photosynth website or indexed by search engines)
• Unlimited synth storage
• Unlimited synth views

Synth views are counted as Microsoft Virtual Earth billable transactions. Microsoft track how many synth views are used and charge accordingly.

Photosynth has many applications in the commercial market. For example, Earthware client London Property specialists Residential Land are using it in the Virtual Earth property maps to give internal tours of their available properties.

Happy synthing!

Microsoft has just announced the release of the latest updates to their Photosynth technology, which through an integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth means that the technology can now be used commercially.

What is Photosynth?

Photosynth ‘stitches’ together digital photos of any object or location giving the user a 3D, 360-degree, interactive experience of the space. You can navigate around the ‘synth’ to view the object or location from all angles (according to the number and position of the original photos) and zoom in to the images to see the detail.

What has been added to Photosynth?

The latest release of Photosynth introduces:

· Commercial licensing - businesses can now use the technology to give their customers an exciting new way to explore and interact with their products, whether that be a hotel room or a car

· Privacy controls - users can now choose how they share the synths by making them public or unlisted on http://www.photosynth.net

· One click highlighting – makes navigating through the synths much easier

What have Earthware been doing with Photosynth?

At Earthware we have been playing with photosynth for a while now, and with Microsoft’s latest updates we have now made live our new property photosynths map using Virtual Earth in London property consultants Residential Land displaying three of their properties using this new technology.

Residential Land users are used to seeing the great Aerial and Birds Eye imagery of property that is available with the Earthware Property interactive maps already available on the site, but now with the Photosynth map they can also see the inside of the properties. They can ‘walk’ around the space to discover how the rooms flow together and even zoom in to see what the cupboard door handles in the kitchen are like. Buyers/renters are able to see the property inside and out without actually needing to go there, opening up more properties to them and therefore increasing Residential Lands rental and sales figures.

View the photosynth map to see exactly how Residential Land are using photosynth and contact Earthware to find out how you could be using it too.

Using the latest technology from Microsoft we can plot live written information on a map. I expect you have now at least by now heard of Twitter. At the recent G20 protests in London, many people were communicating with each other via Twitter to share things such as which roads were open, where not to venture and even the location of public toilets.

We have been working on a demo which uses Microsoft’s latest mapping technology to integrate mapping with twitter to allow people to tweet their message and location and plot these on a map to show thoughts and details on a specific topic/event, for an international company, or for global issues. Here is a demo app we created that was used by Microsoft in the launch event for their new mapping product. It shows you the kind of things you can do with animation and mapping.

Contact Earthware for more information about social media mapping.

This isn’t the end of our playing and development, there are a couple more ways that we can help you can to use visual media to market your services on the way but these are still hush hush. Watch this space as we will be announcing them in the coming weeks.

Any of the concepts which I have introduced over the past few days can be used in combination with each other to generate a very rich interactive experience. For more information about social media mapping or any of our other marketing tools contact Earthware.

Last October we worked with an imagery partner to release Street Level View imagery of London in one of our client’s sites, Novaloca.com five months before Google launched Street View.

Our partner will take the pictures for a small area, route or for a whole city as is requested. They will edit them for privacy concerns and then we can add them to our interactive maps adding a new visual representation of a location. The images can be taken before an event to show the route/area or can be taken as the event is taking place to allow the participants to see themselves. The images can be embedded into maps along with local area information and important landmarks for the user to navigate through, or we can create a video of it.

View central London in Street Level View for an example of the imagery.

Read more about Street Level View or for more information contact Earthware.

Tomorrow… Social Media Mapping

Continuing on from yesterdays post we come to advanced interactive mapping.

You may have seen last year’s Tour de France had live GPS tracking on some riders with real time maps updating on their website and at the event on large screens showing each riders current position. The maps on the website were also used after the event by both the riders and the public to play the routes back to inform training and just for interest. This is one way of using advanced interactive mapping. During the event people are able to see and understand what is happening from anywhere in the world, whilst afterwards the data can be used to evaluate performance and inform future events.

This kind of application uses a combination of mobile phone GPS technology which tracks your position using satellite technology, interactive mapping on which to display the data in a visual and understandable format and custom software for displaying the maps on large screens at events. The technology is also cost effective: once it has been created, you can use it again and again at any event.

For more information about interactive mapping and advanced interactive mapping, please contact Earthware.

Tomorrow… Street level view imagery