After more time that I had originally thought here's my second VE demo:
http://overlay.viavirtualearth.com/Overlay/DrivingDirectionsVE/
This demo demonstrates how to leverage the MapPoint Web Service (MWS) in order to do driving directions using the current version of VE. The upcoming version of VE will have driving directions built in but meanwhile you can use this application to get routes using the current version.
The demo should be pretty straight-forward to use, just enter an origin and destination address in the form fields and click the Get Directions button. A list of all the steps will appear below the addresses form. The map will also be updated with an icon representing each step of the directions. Hovering the mouse on one of the icons will show the text for the step as well as display the corresponding maneuver map, there are also back and forth links to get to the next or previous step. In the results table clicking the step number will pan to the corresponding icon on the map and display the corresponding maneuver info.
On the technical side, the application is fully dynamic and use XMLHttpRequest to make request to the MWS. The requests are actually made thru ASP.NET pages which act as a proxy to the MWS and returns corresponding results in XML and are parsed by the JavaScript once retrieved. If some are interested I can post the code for the ASP.NET pages.
As for my other demo any feedback is welcomed and should be posted as comments to this blog entry.
So, my first VE demo is finally up on the Via Virtual Earth portal at the following URL:
http://www.viavirtualearth.com/overlay/
Any feedback you have on this demo can be added as comments to this blog and will be valued.
Since I'm eventually ready to start my own blog I thought I would start by telling a little bit about who am I and what I've done and the reasons for starting this blog.
So, my name is François Joffre. I started working as a Web Developer for Vicinity Corporation a company specialized in mapping and location services back in January 1997. In December 2002 Microsoft Corporation acquired Vicinity and since then I've been a Microsoft full time employee of the MapPoint division. During these eight years I've been doing a lot of programming related to mapping. My specialty has been developing Store Locator applications for various customers but I've also been writing many internal applications, templates, helped developing processes and documentation.
While at Microsoft I also wrote some MSDN articles some might find useful:
Ever before my division launched Virtual Earth I've been very excited about it and its capabilities. It was all about I ever dreamed a web mapping application should be and I started developing with it.
This is one of the reasons I decided to start this blog, to talk about its possibilities, give hints and showcase some applications I wrote. Note that although most posts will be related to Virtual Earth (VE) I also plan to talk about other MapPoint technologies like the MapPoint Web Service (MWS) or the MapPoint Location Service (MLS).
Check back here often as I plan to update this regularly.
