Learning Bing Maps API

Bing Maps are a great resource and very versatile when you know how. And this book will show you how, covering everything from embedding on a web page to customizing with your own styles and geo-data.

Overview

• Display address information for any point on the map through the location-based REST services API
• Embed a map on a web page with a custom theme
• Geocode with Spatial Data APIs and display the information on the map

In Detail

Provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines, Bing Maps is a web mapping service powered by the Bing Maps for Enterprise framework. The need for geospatial data has increased dramatically in the last few years. Adding a mapping context to any location-based data is becoming more and more common, and businesses are embracing it to improve their user experience with new data richness.

Comprising of simple, follow-along examples, Learning Bing Maps API will show you how to use the many features of Bing Maps, from dropping a simple map on a web page, to fetching geospatial data from the Microsoft servers. Through the course of this book you will build a solid foundation for creating your own geo-applications.

Following the hands-on recipes of this book, you will build a different web app in each chapter as you communicate with different APIs provided by Bing Maps. You will build your own library of JavaScript modules that talk to the Microsoft Maps API.

You will create a custom theme for the map, with your own controls. Taking advantage of the global reach of Bing Maps, you will learn how to build a route scheduler for a delivery company in Madrid, Spain, and then you will discover how to create jobs on the Bing Maps servers for geocoding addresses in California, USA.

By the end of the book you will have learned everything you need to know to embed a map on a web page, with your own geo-data, or data obtained by the Bing Map Services.

What you will learn from this book

• Place a map on a page and customize its look and feel
• Perform a query using the coordinates of a point on a map
• Display a shape, polyline, pin, or infobox when users click on the map
• Query for route information between two or more points and show it on the map
• Parse the response to the API requests in JSON and XML formats
• Set up and monitor jobs for address geocoding, as well as parsing the response when the job is complete
• Fetch geographical information in the form of polygon strings for different levels of administrative areas, from postcodes to regions or countries
• Display user data on the map, such as electoral results, over a period of time

Approach

This is a practical, hands-on guide with illustrative examples, which will help you explore the vast universe of Bing maps.

Who this book is written for

If you are a developer who wants to learn how to exploit the numerous features of Bing Maps then this book is ideal for you. It can also be useful for more experienced developers who wish to explore other areas of the APIs. It is assumed that you have some knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. For some chapters a working knowledge of .Net and Visual Studio is also needed.