Keith Kinnan's Blog

Bing Maps Silverlight Control – Streetside(TM) and Enhanced Birdseye Beta Now Available!

Last week we announced the new Bing Maps Beta website which showcased the Bing Maps Silverlight Control along with the power of Silverlight with Streetside (TM) and Enhanced Birdseye.  Today we are announcing the Bing Maps Silverlight Control Extended Modes Beta so you can now use the new Streetside (TM) and Enhanced Birdseye modes in your applications!

Here are some quick screenshots and sample applications:

Bing Maps Silverlight Control Enhanced Birdseye Sample

Bing Maps Silverlight Control Streetside Sample

Here are the steps to get started:

1. Sign up for a free developer account at the Bing Maps Portal and get a Bing Maps Key for your application development

2. Download the Bing Maps Silverlight Control 1.0.1 (which is file version1.0.12.300). (Note: this is an update to the previous 1.0 version of the Bing Maps Silverlight Control and is backwards compatible with 1.0). 

3. Download the Bing Maps Silverlight Control Extended Modes Beta from the Connect portal. This contains the Beta for Streetside and Enhanced Birdseye map modes.

For more information see Chris Pendleton’s blog post Adding Streetside and Enhanced Birdseye to your Applications

Have fun!

New Bing Maps Beta Available!

Check out the new Bing Maps Beta!  It leverages the power of Silverlight to provide a lot of exciting new features including Streetside, Enhanced Bird’s Eye, and Photosynth integration!  Here are some screenshots:

These are just some of the new features. Check out Chris Pendleton’s blog post for more details on the features. Have fun!

Bing Maps Silverlight Control PDC09 Session Video

If you missed the Bing Maps Silverlight Control session at PDC09:  CL36: Deep Dive on Bing Maps Silverlight Control, you can see the video online here:

The code samples are all listed here:

Bing Maps Silverlight Control PDC09 Code Samples

Bing Maps Silverlight Control Code Samples Available from PDC09

Thanks to everyone who attended my session CL36: Deep Dive on Bing Maps Silverlight Control at PDC09!  Hope you had a good time. 

Here is a link to the code samples from the session:

Download BingMapsSilverlightSamplesPDC09.zip 

To use the code samples locally:

1. Download and install the Bing Maps Silverlight Control
2. Download and Unzip the BingMapsSilverlightSamplesPDC09.zip file
3. Update the references to point to the MapControl DLLs (Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.dll and Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.Common.dll) for each of the csproj files
4. Go to the Bing Maps Account Center and sign up for a Bing Maps Key
5. Search for “Insert Credentials Here” in the project and replace it with your Bing Maps Key.  (They are all in the App.xaml files)

Have fun!

Bing Maps @ PDC Day 2 and 3

Thanks to everyone yesterday for stopping by the Bing Maps booth and meeting with us at the Ask the Experts session and the PDC Underground.  We enjoyed meeting with you and hearing your feedback and talking about Bing Maps! 

Today, you can see Chris Pendleton’s Chalk Talk on Bing Maps APIs at 10 AM in the Web Pavillion by the booth.   Also, I will be presenting a session: CL36: Deep Dive on Bing Maps Silverlight Control today at 12:45 PM in 515A. 

The Bing Maps booth and our “Hands On Lab: Develop Visually Engaging Applications with Bing Maps Silverlight Control” are also going on in the Web Pavillion today!

Hope to see you!

Bing Maps at PDC - Day 1

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Bing Maps booth yesterday at PDC09! We had a great time meeting with you.  Also, thanks to those who attended the Chalk Talk on Deep Dive on Bing Maps Silverlight Control yesterday!  If you missed it, don’t worry, you can attend the session CL36: Deep Dive on Bing Maps Silverlight Control on Thursday @12:45 PM in 515A.

Come see us today at the Bing Maps Booth in the Web Pavillion. You can also do the “Hands On Lab:Develop Visually Engaging Applications with Bing Maps Silverlight Control” in the Web Platform Hands On Lab Area.

Also, don’t forget about the Ask The Experts session tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 PM! See you there!

Learn about Bing Maps at PDC09!

Come learn about the Bing Maps platform at PDC09 next week in LA!  Here’s a schedule of events where you can meet Bing Maps team members and learn about developing with the Bing Maps platform!

We have a couple of chalk talks and sessions where you can learn information. Here are the dates and times:

Tuesday 11/17

Wednesday 11/18

Thursday 11/19

All week at PDC Tuesday 11/17 -  Thursday 11/19 you can stop by the Bing Maps Booth in the Web Pavillion and meet team members and get information.

You can also work on the  Hands On Lab:Develop Visually Engaging Applications with Bing Maps Silverlight Control” in the Web Pavillion Hands on Lab Area.

Hope to see you there!

Bing Maps Silverlight Control Available!

Today we announced some exciting updates to the Bing Maps Platform!  We are excited to announce the launch of the Bing Maps Silverlight Control along with other Bing Maps platform enhancements to improve performance and ease of use.

The Bing Maps Silverlight Control leverages the power of Silverlight to provide a powerful and rich platform for building mapping and location-based applications.   I want to thank you for all the great feedback from the Silverlight map control CTP release last March. We were able to incorporate a lot of your feedback into the control, and today it is version 1.0 and is production ready!

We are also rolling out performance improvements across the platform with improvements to our distributed data center infrastructure.  We are also making it easier to get started with the Bing Maps platform with the new Bing Maps Account Center where you can create an account and use a simple key to access the Bing Maps Silverlight and AJAX Controls and Web Services.  With the key you can try out the Bing Maps Platform for free and it is free to use for non profit, education, and small websites. 

Here is a list of some of the features in the Bing Maps Silverlight Control v1.0:

• Silverlight 3 including support for Out of Browser
• Road and Aerial Map Modes with and without Labels featuring Deep Zoom with the Silverlight MultiScaleImage control
• Position Silverlight UIElements on the Map including images, video, pushpins, polylines, and polygons with a few lines of XAML
• Data Binding with the MapItemsControl
• Use Bing Maps Web Services with the control for advanced Search, Geocoding, and Routing functionality
• World Wrap / infinite pan across the dateline
• Design-time integration with Expression Blend
• Scripting interface for coding with JavaScript
• Embed Silverlight (and AJAX) Maps with a single URL in a web page
• Online Interactive SDK with demos and sample code showing how to use the control

Here are some useful links to try out the new Bing Maps Silverlight Control:

• Download Bing Maps Silverlight Control
• Bing Maps Silverlight Control Interactive SDK
• Bing Maps Silverlight Control SDK
• Bing Maps Account Center

Try it out today and let us know what you think!

Bing Maps at PDC09!

I will be attending PDC09 this year along with other representatives from the Bing Maps team in Los Angeles from November 17-19.   Come learn about the Bing Maps platform.  Visit the Bing Maps booth in the Big Room and the Bing Maps table at the Ask the Experts session.  I will post more details about PDC09 soon. Hope to see you there!

Bing Maps

Microsoft Virtual Earth is now officially known as “Bing Maps”.  You can see the Bing logo on the Bing Maps website (formerly known as Live Search Maps) and on the Bing Maps Interactive SDK .  You can see the SDKs for the Bing Maps Web Services and the Bing Map Control 6.2. The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP will remain “Virtual Earth” for now since it is a CTP, but will be part of the Bing Maps platform when the next release is available.

For more details on the change from Virtual Earth to Bing Maps, check out this blog post from Chris Pendleton on Bing Maps which has a nice video discussing the new name and check out Bing!.

Bing Maps Interactive SDK

Bing Maps

(Note: This post is also available on the Bing Maps Platform Team Blog)

TechEd Sessions on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control Available Online

The session I gave at TechEd 2009 is now available for online viewing for TechEd attendees. Click on the link below to view the session if you missed it or if you want to watch it again:

WUX402: Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control

The Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform has grown immensely over the past year from our Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control to our new Virtual Earth Web Services and now our Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control which is now available as a public beta to developers. Come and join us as we take you on a tour of all the features and dig deep into the code to show you how to build your own Virtual Earth applications in Silverlight.

Download source code for this session.

Also, I did a 20 minute interview with Mark Dunn for TechEd Online to discuss some of the features of the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control. This video is available to everyone. You can see the video here:

TTK20: Microsoft Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control

The Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform has grown immensely over the past year from our Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control to our new Virtual Earth Web Services and now our Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control which is now available as a public beta to developers. Watch as Keith Kinnan and Mark Dunn talk about some of the features of the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control.

Thanks to everyone who attended TechEd. I enjoyed meeting with you at the sessions and at the Silverlight booth.  Don’t forget to download the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP, try it out, and  give us feedback!

(Note: This post is also available on the Virtual Earth Platform Team Blog)

TechEd 2009 – Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control Session – Links and Demo Source Code

Thanks to all who attended my session at TechEd 2009 today – WUX402: Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control.   I had a great time and I hope you enjoyed it! I wanted to post the source code to the samples I demoed and provide some relevant links.

You can download the Microsoft Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP at the Connect Portal.

Here are links to some of the demos using the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control that I showed at the beginning of the session:

• Earthware Silverlight Twitter Map
• Pitney Bowes Fire Locator
• Soul Solutions Polygon Demo

Here are links to the source code for all the code samples I showed:

• VirtualEarthSilverlightSamplesTechEd2009.zip
• VirtualEarthSilverlightWebServicesSamplesTechEd2009.zip 
• VirtualEarthSilverlightMapRotationTechEd2009.zip

Here are some notes about the code samples:

• The solution files are for Silverlight 3 Beta, however the code for everything except the Map Rotation sample should work within a Silverlight 2 solution.
• You will need to download and install the Silverlight Map Control CTP and make sure the MapControl project references are pointing to Microsoft.VirtualEarth.MapControl.dll on your machine to build these samples
• The samples using the Virtual Earth Web Services require Virtual Earth credentials. You will need to edit the Credentials.cs file in those projects to provide credentials. You can sign up for an evaluation account to try out the web services. See the following articles for more details. I have also added comments in the Credentials.cs files with links to these articles.
  • Developing a Silverlight Application Using Virtual Earth Web Services
  • Requesting a Virtual Earth Token
• The samples using Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control without Virtual Earth Web Services do not require credentials.

Have fun!

(Note: This post is also available on the Virtual Earth Platform Team Blog)

Learn about Virtual Earth at TechEd this Week!

Just a reminder that I’ll be out at TechEd this week in LA. Come see the Virtual Earth session on Wednesday at 4:30 PM to learn how to build applications with the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control:

WUX402 Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control

Wed 5/13 | 4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Room 408B

The Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform has grown immensely over the past year from our Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control to our new Virtual Earth Web Services and now our Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control which is now available as a public beta to developers. Come and join us as we take you on a tour of all the features and dig deep into the code to show you how to build your own Virtual Earth applications in Silverlight.

Also, I’ll be hanging out at the Silverlight booth Tuesday and Thursday morning this week. So stop by if you want to talk more about Virtual Earth. Hope to see you there!

Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP – Spinning Map with Silverlight 3

The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP is designed to work with Silverlight 2.  However, since Silverlight 3 is reverse-compatible with Silverlight 2, you can use it with Silverlight 3 projects also.

At MIX09, Joe Stegman demonstrated a nice Perspective 3D demo where he rotated a DataGrid in the X, Y, and Z directions using the new PlaneProjection offered in Silverlight 3.  I thought it would be fun to check it out and see how it works with the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP.  Check out the results! If you don’t have Silverlight 3 installed, you will see a page where you can install Silverlight 3.

Here is a link to the running application and some screenshots:

Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP / Silverlight 3 Spinning Map Sample

I made a couple of modifications to Joe Stegman’s original demo. I replaced the DataGrid with a Map and made it take up space of the whole Grid. I also updated the controls to have a Play “>” and Pause “||” button to start animations.

Click and Slide the Rotation X slider to manually control the rotation along the X axis. 

Click and Slide the Rotation Y slider to manually control the rotation along the Y axis. 

Click and Slide the Rotation Z slider to manually control the rotation along the X axis. 

Click and slide the Zoom Level slider to manually control the zoom level. You can also manually use keyboard and mouse input and the navigation control on the Map to control its view.

Click on the Play “>” button by each slider to kick off a repeated animation for that axis. Click on the “>” button for each axis to create a crazy rotation animation. Click on Pause “||” button to stop the animation for each axis.  You can also click the “Reset” button at any time to reset the Map back to its original state. With different combinations you can create some crazy effects with zooming spinning maps! 

I thought this was an interesting display of some of the amazing capabilities of Silverlight 3 with the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control. Have fun!

(Note: This post is also available on the Virtual Earth Platform Team Blog)

Virtual Earth at Tech-Ed North America 2009

Come learn about Virtual Earth and the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control at Microsoft  Tech-Ed North America 2009, May 11-15 in Los Angeles. I will be presenting a session on Virtual Earth and and the details are below. I hope to see you there!

WUX402 Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control

The Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform has grown immensely over the past year from our Virtual Earth AJAX Map Control to our new Virtual Earth Web Services and now our Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control which is now available as a public beta to developers. Come and join us as we take you on a tour of all the features and dig deep into the code to show you how to build your own Virtual Earth applications in Silverlight.