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Map with directions in Windows Phone 8 (Featured Article)

Map with directions in Windows Phone 8 by pasi.manninen

This week we are featuring article about Map with directions for use in Windows Phone 8 applications. This article explains how to show route in map and get route directions with Windows Phone 8. The cool thing about this article is that the Map offers route directions in both textual and speech format.

Here are few screenshots of the code example in the article,

Map with Directions screenshot Map with Directions screenshot

Read this article and add Maps with route directions in your Windows Phone applications.

Compass (Featured Project)

2611-425751dbb371dfb313504bcb875c656bCompass is a Nokia Developer Windows Phone application that has been ported from Qt to Windows Phone 8. This application combines Nokia Maps with compass sensor. It also allows user to determine the bearing to the desired direction.

compass-2compass-1

This application has been tested on Nokia Lumia 920 and developed using Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Phone 8. To learn more on the project follow up on the wiki page.

– Somnath Banik (on behalf of the Projects Moderation team)

Drawing shapes with Windows Phone maps API (Featured Article)

Drawing shapes with Windows Phone maps API by symbianyucca

LumiaMaps.pngThis week’s featured article shows how to draw shape objects on a map in Windows Phone applications. Generally you can add polylines, polygons and MapOverlay objects onto the map, however there are no predefined shapes which could be drawn into the map.

The complete source code for the example illustrated in this article can be found from Windows Phone 8 Maps Examples project, the code used here is implemented for example in MoreMapContent example inside that project.

Please try out Windows Phone 8 Maps Examples project and let us know how you like it.

Windows Phone 8 Maps Examples (Featured Project of the Month December 2012)

project iconWindows Phone 8 Maps Examples is a collection of code examples demonstrating the basic Map uses cases on Windows Phone 8. The examples are an evolution/extension of work previously done for other platforms, hosted on the Nokia Developer Wiki.

The map examples cover the following use cases (to list just a few):

  • Basic map with kinetic panning and pinch zooming
  • How different events can be captured, and which events are generated with different map changes
  • Moving to predefined locations
  • Switching different animation modes (parabolic, linear, none)
  • Changing heading, pitch & zoom levels
  • Switching between map color (light/dark) modes & map types (road, Arial, hybrid, terrain)
  • Toggling pedestrian features & landmarks on/off
  • Setting multiple values with setview()
  • Add and remove Markers (MapOverlay), Polyline and Polygon to the Map.
  • Routing
  • Geocoding and reverse geocoding
  • Dynamic polylines
  • Map location and area selectors
  • And many many more …

The author has also created a number of wiki articles documenting some of these examples: Drawing shapes with Windows Phone maps API, Showing/Hiding map content with Windows Phone maps API, Fitting content into the view with Windows Phone maps API, Draggable markers with Windows Phone maps API .

The project and wiki articles are essential viewing for anyone working with maps on Windows Phone 8. If you have any questions or suggestions, please raise them on the project discussion board.

– Hamish Willee (on behalf of the Projects Moderation team)

Creating a Map Type Selector for the Maps API for Java ME (Featured Article)

Creating a Map Type Selector for the Maps API for Java ME by jasfox. This was a winner of the Asha Touch Competition 2012Q3.

A map selector is a UI component for choosing the type of map to display (e.g. street map, terrain, satellite view etc.) This article explains how to create a Map Type Selector for both full-touch and non full-touch Java ME phones.

MapSelectorTouch.png

An appropriate UI is dynamically created at run time to utilise Full Touch features where they are available. The code also demonstrates how to create a fallback option so simpler feature phones are also supported.

MapSelectorNonTouch.png

Please let us know how the article was helpful to you!

Pinch zooming with Gesture API for Maps in Java ME (Featured Article)

Implementing Pinch zooming with Gesture API for Maps in Java ME by bandarap

The Maps API for Java ME makes it possible to embed Nokia maps into Java ME applications. However, if these apps need to support pinch zoom functionality for  maps then they have to implement custom pinch zooming in their applications. This week’s featured article covers this pinch zooming implementation using Gesture API in Java ME.

The article has a buildable source code example available for download. If you plan to use maps in your Java ME apps – please try this out and let us know if the article was helpful.