Thinking Out Loud

Is the WPF version hosting a WebBrowser control?

That's what we do when we need to show a map in our appications, but has the side effect that the map doesn't show up when we render the window to an image to make a screenshot.

Also, if you need a beta tester for the WPF version, let me know :)

Umm... you missed WinForms support didn't see the word XtraMapControl anywhere ;)

We utilise Mapping in our Business software to allow customers to schedule jobs being spatially aware of distances between jobs and obtaining driving routes/distances.

It is also used in a call centre scenario where staff can check where a town is quickly and identify the closest dealer to redirect the caller to.

Mapping is a great addition, however WinForm support for mapping is very poor and we are relying on a public open source solution which has some questions over it's use of copyright data.

Don't suppose DX could research the ability to host this control within a WinForms app? From the patchy bits I have read it does appear possible to host WPF controls within WinForms. However I must admit I haven't looked into it thoroughly.

Look forward to seeing more and as always great work guys.

I waiting for this a very long long time. Is nice if you create too a ASP.net Version

Openlayers already provide an excellent webbased mapcontrol with lots of possibilities.

If you wrapped this in a ASP.NET or MVC control you could deliver a very powerfull tool. OpenLayers is very JavaScript intensive but could become more .Net developer friendly if done like your Grid or similiar web controls.

Pitneybowses have done something a bit similiar with Stratus (in the link above) but is more of a packagedeal than a developer tool.

+1 for a WinForms version.

Google Maps ?

@Mateus Lopess

I too would love Google Maps as their coverage here in Australia is brilliant, whereas Bing Maps are behind in details. However the way Google operate the only way to interact with their mapping is via their Javascript library, any other decoding of their API's is against their license agreement. GreatMaps (a codeplex project) recently went through this process as they had cleverly worked out the api and rewrote it in WinForms .NET to build the correct URL's to build a map. Unfortunately it is against their licensing and was forced to be removed. MapSuite does allow for Google Imagery but it is a "hack", they grab a bunch of Google Static Maps and stitch them together to build a map meaning Google copyright logos all over the place.

I am hoping at some point Bing Maps will improve it's satellite coverage to other places outside the US (better Satellite coverage) and improve its road data.

@Michael

I agree, Bing and Open Street are crap compared to Google.

Their satellite resolution is close to unusable here in Austria - and I guess everywhere outside of the US.

+1 for Winforms

@Michael

re. GreatMaps: the code for Google is still there ;-)

+1 for WinForms version

@Robert.... Shhh.... "i dont use that control due to licensing concerns".....

I would suggest enabling touch on this control. Maps on touch systems are almost always a question of customers when it comes to develop touch based systems for exhibitions or corporate info systems.

> @Robert.... Shhh.... "i dont use that control due to licensing concerns".....

@Michael

I want to publically declare that I don't use this control either ;)

Other useful features would be:

Allowing Vector Elements (e.g. polygons etc.) to be loaded from a SQL Server database (using the Geospatial datatypes) in addition to shape files.

Ensuring that the map control can work in "offline mode" (i.e. that it does not always have to be contected to the internet to work)

@Ray: The only thing that springs to my mind that may be missing is something like  binding support to a collection of map elements e.g. MapLine or MapPolyline. That will allow to load routes from a data source and draw them easily.

@Sacha: We have plans to support touch screens in our Map control. Please look for our blog posts...

@Holger: We have implemented binding to a collection of map elements in our internal builds.

@Egmont: Thank you for your feedback - we will consider adding these features in the future!