Programming Mappoint in .Net: Creating Location-Based Applications

Do you want to develop a location-based application? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Chandu Thota, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that provides an integrated set of products, servers, and services that helps enterprises improve their customers' experience by applying mapping and location. Thota, begins by introducing the MapPoint suite of products and technologies, setting the stage by discussing the basics of each technology and usage scenarios. Then, the author covers programming with the MapPoint 2004 ActiveX control and MapPoint 2004 object model for rendering maps, finding places and addresses, and calculating routes. Next, he covers dealing with business data, rendering data maps, and adding thematic shapes using geographic data. The author then covers integration with GPS for obtaining real-time location and extending MapPoint capabilities by writing add-ins. He continues by introducing the basics of programming with MapPoint Web Service. Then, the author shows you how to create applications using the Find APIs of the MapPoint Web Service, including techniques for finding places, addresses, and nearby points of interest. Next, he covers programming with the Route APIs, such as calculating routes and getting driving directions. The author then covers programming with the Render APIs available with MapPoint Web Service, including rendering maps, routes, LineDrive maps, and polygons. He continues by covering the basics of programming with Microsoft Location Server and deployment scenarios. Finally, he covers programming with the Location Server Web Service to get real-time location using mobile phones. This most excellent book provides a jump-start for working with the preceding technologies, with in-depth discussions about the core concepts and sample code provided in C#. More importantly, this book covers the most common application development scenarios with the MapPoint platform.

OK, that's relatively easy to say since there aren't a whole lot of them. So why did I give Chandu Thota's book five stars? Because of both what is included and what isn't: - Breadth of coverage. The author manages to cover every single Microsoft mapping technology (of interest to the programmer), including the CD-based MapPoint 2004, the Location Server, the Web Service, and the new Virtual Earth control, and do so well. - Concise code snippets. They are plentiful, well explained, and never longer than a page or so. All of those I tried _did_ work. - No marketing fluff. Although Chandu Thota works for Microsoft, we don't see any of the "product brochure" type of language that maybe convinces execs but fails to impress developers. - Focus. The author assumes that we can program, know C#, and have at least a basic grasp of maps and such things as lat/lon, and spares us lengthy introductions on these subjects.

MapPoint by Microsoft (who else) is an outstanding tool to be able to use all types of geographic/demographic data in a myriad of different ways. Before the book 'Programming MapPoint in .NET' there weren't any good resources out there on the market for learning how to use this amazing bit of code, but now that has all changed. With this text you will quickly learn the ins and outs of MapPoint, from being able to generate maps in your own application to talking to MapPoint web services to be able to output driving directions, demographic data... whatever you can think of!!! It's quite clear that MapPoint is a tool that will be growing every day, and with the importance of up to date geographic data, it's a niche that Microsoft was smart to get into. My only "complaint" about this book is that it seems a little light in the source material (API calls, examples and such), but I don't think this is any fault of the author or the programmers. Simply MapPoint is still a fairly new tool and it will take time to document and create examples for all the cool stuff that this application can do. If you use MapPoint, you would be wise to pick up this book and read it cover to cover. **** RECOMMENDED

This is an excellent book on MapPoint that covers everything from architecture through advanced usage. The examples are solid, and the problems that the author chooses to solve are right on target. Not only does it give useful technical examples, it also provides inspiration for how you can use MapPoint throughout your product. This is a solid piece of work.

I enjoyed reading this book. It's been very helpful to me and a much needed addition to my collection of reference material.