Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

One of the more interesting projects I have on my plate at the moment involves writing a monitoring application for a client.  One of the views that the client is requesting involves rendering a map with pinpoints showing the status of the "things we're monitoring".  I've looked around at a couple different components but as with any component its hard to know if its good or bad without using it.  Has anyone out in the blogosphere used a very slick mapping component.  My requirements are as follows:

  • Shows a plain jane map of a set of East coast states
  • Allows me to provide a set of locations via a data feed (latitude, longitude)
  • Allows me to choose the icon for the location so that I can swap out the icon to show the current status (red = problems, green = all good)
  • Preferably has a real nice zoom, pan feature
  • Allows near-real time update (Flash that pulls in a data feed every X minutes/seconds)

Can anyone offer any recommendations?

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Friday, November 19, 2004 5:47 PM by Homer    
Microsoft's MapPoint is most excellent. It meets all of your criteria. I'm talking about the desktop package, not the web service. Though, the web service might suit your needs too.

<a target="_new" href="http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/products/2004/default.mspx">http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/products/2004/default.mspx</a>

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Friday, November 19, 2004 11:29 PM by Jeff Lewis    
TerraServer is another option.

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Saturday, November 20, 2004 4:23 AM by John Rusk    
I used to work with the guy who wrote this mapping component: <a target="_new" href="http://www.tglobe.com/">http://www.tglobe.com/</a> It looks good. Only supports Delphi tho, IIRC.

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Saturday, November 20, 2004 5:12 AM by Jason Haley    
I second Mappoint. The class I TA for does 2 exercises using the Mappoint webservice. It can do all of what you asked for. I don't know the pricing though. If you are an MSDN universal subscriber I think you can get a free trial for a while longer than otherwise.. not 100% sure of that though.

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Saturday, November 20, 2004 5:17 AM by Steve    
MapPoint definitely has the features that I'm looking for but the price is more then the client wants to spend. And since we only really need a real basic map with the capability to have locations pinpointed its probably overkill.

# re: Looking for a really snazzy mapping component

Saturday, November 20, 2004 1:12 PM by Jeff Lewis    
As long as you can batch process maps, tiger.consensus.gov has a easy to use webservice as well.

The problem is that they are so overloaded that you need lots of time to generate a map.

Post a Comment

 
 
Prove you're not a spammer: 
8 + 7 =