Surveying, Mapping and GIS

For developers using Virtual Earth, the Virtual Earth API version 6.1 was released a few days ago:

Official SDK Documentation: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb429619.aspx

Other discussion:

• Steve Lombardi's Blog (Microsoft) on 6.1 Enhancements: http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!14129.entry
• Chris Pendleton's Blog (Microsoft) on 6.1 Enhancements: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2008/04/11/new-virtual-earth-api-release-virtual-earth-6-1.aspx
• Johannes Kebeck's Blog on 6.1 Enhancements: http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!42E1F70205EC8A96!3858.entry

Overview of changes: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412561.aspx

Virtual Earth Map Control SDK, version 6.1

What's New in the Map Control?

Welcome to version 6.1 of the Virtual Earth map control. This page explains the new features for version 6.0 and 6.1 on a high level. To see a detailed list of the objects, methods, and properties that have changed, see the Version Changelist.

Version 6.0 and 6.1 of the map control includes improvements in the following areas:

• Enhanced accuracy
• Additional functionality
• Enhanced performance
  

Enhanced Accuracy

The Virtual Earth team is committed to constantly improving the accuracy of the map control. This release of the map control includes improvements in the following areas.

• Enhanced Geocoding. The map control integrates multiple geocoders and datasets to provide the most relevant and accurate results. You can perform these searches using the VEMap.Find Method.



• Rooftop Geocoding. Rooftop locations are the most precise geocoding results available in the United States today. Rooftop geocoding is now available through the map control VEMap.Find Method.



• Consistent Pushpin Accuracy. When switching between aerial and birdseye views, pushpin accuracy is maintained, delivering a more seamless experience. Use the VEMap.SetShapesAccuracy Method to get the accuracy you desire.

Additional Functionality

This release of the map control includes additional functionality in the following areas.

• Printing support. Use the VEMap.SetPrintOptions Method to enable printing support.



• Reverse Geocoding. Reverse geocoding allows the user to find places based on a specific point on the map. Use the VEMap.FindLocations Method to accomplish this.



• Traffic-based Routes. A new option allows the use of available traffic information in route calculations, enabling quicker routes and more accurate route times during heavy traffic periods. Use the VERouteOptions.UseTraffic Property to turn on this feature.



• Birdseye Map Style with Labels. A road label overlay increases the usability of the Birdseye map style. This map style is called BirdseyeHybrid and is a new member of the VEMapStyle Enumeration.



• Walking Directions. Provide users the option to walk to their destination by returning walking directions instead of driving directions. To return walking directions, set the VERouteOptions.RouteMode Property to VERouteMode.Walking.



• Multipoint Routing. A new method takes multiple points for a route instead of just start and end points, allowing for more complex trip planning. Localized directions are also available in this version. Use the VEMap.GetDirections Method to get a multipoint route.



• Bulk Addition of Shapes. A new method to add multiple pushpins in one call while maintaining high performance and avoiding performance slowdowns. Use the VEMap.AddShape Method to add multiple pushpins.



• Improved Shape Control. You can now specify how a shape object appears relative to other shapes or tile objects, providing greater control in viewing data and objects. Use the VEShape Class to create shapes.



• MapCruncher (Beta). MapCruncher Beta for Microsoft Virtual Earth makes it easy to publish maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control. See the MapCruncher Web page for further information.



• 3D Altitude Settings. Altitudes for three-dimensional objects can now be specified in meters.



• Updated interactive SDK. A new version of the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK is available, demonstrating the new functionality of the Virtual Earth Map Control. See the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK Web page for further information.

Enhanced Performance

Version Changelist is available here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412440.aspx

It's been a very busy few weeks, so I haven't had much chance to post... things going on with Virtual Earth, ArcIMS Route Server and GDT/TeleAtlas, survey-grade GPS data collection, emergency response, logistics, modeling and simulation, and plenty of other things flying around.

It's all fun stuff, but I always enjoy rolling the sleeves up and getting dirty... doing the AJAX thing, mashing various web services with Virtual Earth's V5 API via pure JavaScript clients as various proof-of-concept applications.

Here's one quick app: Virtual Earth and the NASA MODIS WMS server:

Here I'm showing the VE and MODIS side-by-side, both views refresh dynamically. The next step will be to explore the "Roll Your Own Tile Server" approach to seamlessly getting custom WMS content directly into VE.

The next one was even more fun: Virtual Earth and the MetaCarta JSON API:All pure Web 2.0, neogeo, slippy AJAXIAN goodness, "Look, Ma! No "SUBMIT" button!!" Type in your query, (searching for documents about toxic substances here...) and it fetches results from the MetaCarta appliance and sprays them back into the VE map view. Pan, zoom, and instantly you get new stuff popping up. All self-contained in a few k of DHTML, CSS and JavaScript, no Java, .NET, Ruby, Python or other infrastructure needed. Both written in a total of about 2.5 hours, just noodling around in the APIs without any real thought ahead of time.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I was just finishing reading one of the books in the "Head First" series that Kathy Sierra developed, namely Head Rush Ajax by Brett McLaughlin.

This is a fun read. It really makes Ajax very easy and accessible, with a fun dialogue, irreverent and entertaining style, and plenty of practical examples and online code to work with. I have been playing with Ajax code since around November of 2005, but largely just hacked my way through most of it, brute-force-style, without any coherent source of information, other than the school of hard knocks.

As such, I figured there might be a few areas where I might grumble through the but given there were a lot of things that I already knew, but on the other hand I still learned quite a few nuances and new things while reading this book.

The book presents Ajax in a good, progressive way, with bite-sized yet savory nuggets, which all contribute to a soundly filled tummy full of Ajax. Unlike many of the technical tomes I digest routinely, this one didn't put me to sleep. It was deceptively simple in how the book followed a linear progression, with each piece building upon the one before it - it's not at all written "reference-style" with disconnected globs of information as so many other technical tomes tend to be.

True, some parts of the book were still perhaps overly "nØØb"-oriented (for me at least) and overly rich with "greasy kid stuff" but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The way that the book tackled otherwise sticky topics, such as navigating and managing the DOM was nice, as were the ways in which a request is sent, processed and received. All in all, the presentation was quite robust, with no meaningful detail omitted.

The only downsides: 1. The emphasis on JSON toward the end. I have expressed my bias and concern regarding JSON before, mainly as I still cling to the paradigm of not only server-to-client communication via XML, but also server-to-server communication. 2. It had a PHP focus - I don't deal much with PHP, mainly .NET and Java.

As an aside, two things I'd like to see some objective study someday on:

• How truly bloated is XML, compared to JSON? Seems JSON can suffer from its share of bloat as well.
• How much is JSON supported on the server side. Not just libraries for generating JSON, but also libraries for parsing and processing JSON? What languages? Seems to me that generating JSON might be the easy part, even doable through XSLT transforms - but parsing?