Virtual Earth

Virtual Earth

• Dr Neil
• 2:30pm
• 6.2 Release

 Agenda

• Overview
• Platform Differences
• Drilldown into new features
• Lots of demos!

 Session objectives and takeaways

• Understand the differences between VE control, web services and MapPoint
• Understand usage of the VE control
• Understand the VE web services

 Included in this Release

• Virtual Earth JavaScript Control v6.2
• Virtual Earth Web Services v1.0
• Updated 3D Control

 What’s New?

• Pushpin clustering
• Hints for route instructions
• Imagery metadata
• Base map disabling
• Support for other languages
• 3D model import

 Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0

• Imagery Service
  • Static Maps and Tiles
  • Image Metadata
  • Maps & Imagery for Mobile Devices
• Search Service
  • Map Collections
• GeoCode Service
  • Reverse Geocoding
• Route Service
  • Major Routes (one-click directions)

 New Features

• Routing Landmark Hints – Available for US and Canada.  Adds more detail to maps and routes by including names of gas stations and fast-food restaurants
• Localized Tiles – Localized maps of Western Europe.  This is addition to maps in English.  Supported in both desktop and mobile applications
• Pushpin Clustering – allows you to reveal multiple pushpins to your customers at larger zoom levels and either cluster or hide pushpins to maintain visual clarity at smaller zoom levels
• Imagery Metadata API – With imagery metadata of selected areas, user can now find out the relative age of a given aerial image.  This additional detail will help customer assess if the imagery is still relevant to their needs.
• Hiding the Base Tile Layer – Developer may now hide the Virtual Earth base map tiles for more granular control in applications that use custom imagery or overlays.

  3-D Control

• Weather Integration - Real-time weather data and cloud-rendering algorithms adds a new level of realism to the Virtual Earth 3D experience
• Simplified 3D Model Import – Instead of creating a collection to integrate their own 3D models into the platform, customers can now host them themselves and retrieve them from a model data file and merge them into the built-in 3D landscape & buildings

  Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0

• Geocoding & Reverse-Geocoding – the full power of Microsoft’s Geocoding engine is available through the new VE Web Services.  85 Million rooftop locations in the US, and many millions more locations around the world can be found with a simple server-side call.
• Static Map Generation – The new VE Web Services offers static map images from road and aerial maps in both standard and mobile-optimized forms
• Tile Metadata – With imagery metadata of selected areas, users can now find out the relative age of a given aerial image.
• Search Service – “One Box” and “What/Where” search services that include custom metadata filters allow users to search for businesses in ways that match their specific needs
• Routing – The full power of Microsoft VE routing engine, exposed through SOAP-based web services, expands the potential for powerful location based mobile applications or by letting server-side code work with routing data before it is sent to the user
• One-Click Directions – Allow your customers to get directions in one click directly from your Virtual Earth Web application.  Users instantly get directions from east, west, north and south without having to enter a starting address.  Route options include shortest time, shortest distance, or traffic flow.