Integrating MapPoint Web Services with Bing Maps

Article
07/05/2016

Important

MapPoint Web Service is deprecated and will be retired November 18, 2011. For geocoding, imagery, and routing functionality, use the Bing Maps REST Services. Go to https://www.microsoft.com/maps/mappoint.aspx for information about upgrading to Bing Maps.

In this article we will look at how to use ASP.Net to access the MapPoint Web Service and display the results on a Bing Maps map. This article focuses on accessing data from custom data sources using the FindNearBy, FindByProperty, FindByID, and FindNearRoute MapPoint Web Service methods. The programming model we follow is the classic model, view, control model, where a front end component concerns itself with the user interface (view), a back end component concerns itself with making data requests (model), and a middle component mediates the requests and responses between the two (control).

Note that the complete listing of the source files developed in this article is available in the Source Listings section.

Getting Started

In order to make our application work, we will need to develop the following components, as illustrated in Figure 1.

A front end (view) component that uses a Bing Maps AJAX Control 6.3 and sends an HTTP request to the middle component for MapPoint data, and displays that data.
A middle (control) component that receives the front end component's HTTP requests, translates them into the back end component's MapPoint Web Service requests, and returns that data to the front end component.
A back end (model) component that receives requests from the middle component, converts those into MapPoint Web Service requests, and returns that data to the middle component.

Figure 1. The integration data flow

Creating the ASP.Net Project

Open Visual Studio (2005 was used for this article, so some minor differences may occur if you use a different version), select New, Project, then ASP.Net Web Application. Name your project MWSFind.

Creating the Front End View Component

The front end component consists of some HTML and JavaScript methods that make HTTP requests to the middle component.

Adding the Initial HTML

If Solution Explorer is not visible, open it by clicking View, Solution Explorer. Right-click MWSFind, select Add, New Item. Select HTML Page and enter Default.htm. If Visual Studio does not open Default.htm in the editor, double-click Default.htm in Solution Explorer and replace its contents with that in Listing 1.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head>
      <title>Integrating MWS with Bing Maps</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
   </head>
   <body onload="OnPageLoad('myMap')">
      <div id="myMap" style="position:relative;width:640px;height:480px;"></div>

      <br />  

      <input id="findNearBy" type="button" value="FindNearBy" onclick="FindNearBy();"/>
      <input id="findByProperty" type="button" value="FindByProperty" onclick="FindByProperty();"/>
      <input id="findNearRoute" type="button" value="FindNearRoute" onclick="FindNearRoute();"/>
      <input id="findByID" type="button" value="FindByID" onclick="FindByID();"/>
   </body>
</html>

Listing 1. Default.htm

Adding the JavaScript to Create a Map Control

Listing 2 creates a reference to the Bing Maps. Add this code to the HEAD section of Default.htm.

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ecn.dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=6.3"></script>

Listing 2. The Map Control reference in Default.htm

Listing 3 contains the OnPageLoad method through which we use to draw the map and defines some global variables that we use later. Add this code to the HEAD section of Default.htm.

<script type="text/javascript">
   var map;
   var datasource = "MapPoint.FourthCoffeeSample";
   var entityName = "FourthCoffeeShops";
   var searchRadius = 250;

   function OnPageLoad(element)
   {
      map = new VEMap(element);
      map.LoadMap();
   }
</script>

Listing 3. The OnPageLoad function and some global variables

Creating a Virtual Directory to Test Your Code

Once you have saved Default.htm, one way to test it is by creating a Virtual Directory in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) that points to your project. Open IIS (typically start, Administrative Tools, Internet Information Services), navigate to the Default Web Site, right-click the Default Web Site, and select New, Virtual Directory. Enter MWSFind as the alias, then the path to your MWSFind project to create a Virtual Directory that references MWSFind.

If you open https://localhost/MWSFind in a Web browser, you should see something like Figure 2.

Figure 2. The initial Web page

Adding the JavaScript for HTTP Requests

Add the code in Listing 4 to initialize an XML HTTP object.

var xmlhttp=false;

function InitXmlHttp() 
{
   // Attempt to initialize xmlhttp object
   try
   {
      xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
   }
   catch (e)
   {
      // Try to use different activex object
      try
      {
         xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
      }
      catch (E)
      {
         xmlhttp = false;
      }
   }
   // If not initialized, create XMLHttpRequest object
   if (!xmlhttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest!='undefined')
   {
      xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
   }

   // Define function call for when Request obj state has changed
   xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=SearchHandler;
}

function SearchHandler()
{
   if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
   {
      eval(xmlhttp.responseText);
   }
}

Listing 4. The HttpRequest code

Now we can make an HTTP call by initializing the xmlhttp object, and using its open and send methods. When the call is returned, it is automatically processed by the SearchHandler function.

Adding the AddPin Function

Our middle component is going to return a string representing a set of JavaScript calls. Although we could have it return a set of map.AddPushpin calls, that creates too much of a dependency between our front and back end. Instead, we are going to have our back end call the JavaScript function AddPin, as shown in Listing 5.

function AddPin(lat, lng, title, description)
{
   try 
   {
      var shape = new VEShape(VEShapeType.Pushpin, 
                              new VELatLong(lat, lng));
      shape.SetTitle(title);
      shape.SetDescription(description);
      map.AddShape(shape);
   } 
   catch (err)
   {
      alert(err);
   }
}

Listing 5. The AddPin function.

Adding the Button Handler Functions

You probably noticed that the four buttons we created in the BODY section refer to four missing functions, FindNearBy, FindByProperty, FindNearRoute, and FindByID. We will implement these four functions in this section.

Adding the FindNearBy Function

The FindNearBy function shown in Listing 6 uses the center of the map as the center of the search. It sends the name of the datasource, the entity type name, and the search radius to the middle component for processing.

function FindNearBy()
{
   map.DeleteAllShapes();

   var ll = map.GetCenter();

   InitXmlHttp();

   var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindNearBy&Lat=" +
             ll.Latitude +
             "&Lng=" +
             ll.Longitude +
             "&DBS=" +
             datasource +
       "&ENTY=" +
             entityName +
             "&Dis=" +
             searchRadius;

   xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
   xmlhttp.send(null);
}

Listing 6. The FindNearBy function

Adding the FindByProperty Function

The FindByProperty function shown in Listing 7 uses the center of the map as the center of the search. It sends the data source name, the entity type name, an expression and a list of parameters to the middle component for processing.

function FindByProperty()
{
   map.DeleteAllShapes();

   var expression = "Subdivision = {0}";
   var parameters = "NY"
   var ll = map.GetCenter();

   InitXmlHttp();

   var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindByProperty&DBS=" +
             datasource +
             "&ENTY=" +
             entityName +
             "&Exp=" +
             expression +
             "&PRM=" +
             parameters;

   xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
   xmlhttp.send(null);
}

Listing 7. The FindByProperty function

Adding the FindByID Function

The FindByID function shown in Listing 8 uses the center of the map as the center of the search. It sends a comma delimitated string representing the array of entity IDs, the datasource name, and the entity type name to the middle component for processing.

function FindByID()
{
   map.DeleteAllShapes();

   var arrayID = "-11777,-11781,-11789";

   InitXmlHttp();

   var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindByID&DBS=" +
             datasource +
       "&ENTY=" +
             entityName +
             "&ID=" +
             arrayID;

   xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
   xmlhttp.send(null);
}

Listing 8. The FindByID function

Adding the FindNearRoute Function

The FindNearRoute function shown in Listing 9 uses the center of the map as the center of the search. It uses the new GetDirections method in Bing Maps to draw the route on the map. The route options are set so that it uses the MWS routing method. In our request to the handler we send the starting and ending coordinates along with MapPoint datasource name the route is being drawn in, the custom datasource the user is using, the entity type name, the route type and the distance from the route to search.

function FindNearRoute()
{
   map.DeleteAllShapes();

   var startLocation = new VELatLong(47.301036844193135, 
                                     -122.32933044433595);
   var endLocation = new VELatLong(47.441474801849466, 
                                   -122.24487304687503);
   var mappointDatasource = "MapPoint.NA"
   var distance = 5;
   var routeType = "Quickest";

   var options = new VERouteOptions;
   options.UseMWS = true;
   options.RouteOptimize = VERouteOptimize.MinimizeTime;

   var locations = new Array(startLocation, endLocation);

   map.GetDirections(locations, options); 

   InitXmlHttp();

   var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindNearRoute&sLat=" +
             startLocation.Latitude +
             "&sLng=" +
             startLocation.Longitude +
             "&eLat=" +
             endLocation.Latitude +
             "&eLng=" +
             endLocation.Longitude +
             "&mDBS=" +
             mappointDatasource +
             "&DBS=" +
             datasource +
             "&ENTY=" +
             entityName +
             "&RT=" +
             routeType +
             "&DIS=" +
             distance;

   xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
   xmlhttp.send(null);
}

Listing 9. The FindNearRoute function

Creating the Middle Control Component

The middle component is an ASHX page consisting of C# methods to mediate requests from the front end component and make calls to the back end MWS functions. This page has the following functionality.

Validate the request
Determine which method is being called
Call the method in the back end component and pass the response back to the function in the front end component.

Creating the File and Adding the Initial C#

Right-click MWSFind, select Add, New Item. Select Generic Handler and enter MWSFindHandler.ashx.

Once we have our basic handler, we need to modify the ProcessRequest method to meet our needs. We need to determine which find method is being called, check the parameters, create our MWSFindGenerator class, get our data, and write it back to the requesting page. Replace ProcessRequest with the code shown in Listing 10.

public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)

   context.Response.ContentType = "text/plain";
   MWSFindGenerator fnbg = new MWSFindGenerator();

   if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"] != null) 
   {
      if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindNearBy")) 
      {
         if (context.Request.QueryString["lat"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["lng"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["dbs"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["dis"] != null) 
         {
            double lat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Lat"]);
            double lng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Lng"]);
            double dis = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Dis"]);

            context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindNearBy(lat, lng, 
            context.Request.QueryString["DBS"], 
            context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"], dis));
         }
      }
      else if(context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindByProperty")) 
      {
         if (context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["Exp"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["PRM"] != null)
         {
            context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindByProperty(
               context.Request.QueryString["DBS"], 
               context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"],
               context.Request.QueryString["Exp"], 
               context.Request.QueryString["PRM"]));
         }
      }
      else if(context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindNearRoute")) 
      {
         if (context.Request.QueryString["sLat"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["sLng"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["eLat"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["eLng"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["mDBS"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["RT"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["Dis"] != null)
         {
            double slat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["sLat"]);
            double slng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["sLng"]);
            double elat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["eLat"]);
            double elng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["eLng"]);
            double dis = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Dis"]);
            context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindNearRoute(
               slat,slng,elat,elng,
            context.Request.QueryString["mDBS"],
               context.Request.QueryString["DBS"], 
               context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"], 
               context.Request.QueryString["RT"], dis));
         }
      }
      else if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindByID")) 
      {
         if (context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
             && context.Request.QueryString["ID"] != null) 
         {
            string tempString = (
               context.Request.QueryString["ID"]).Replace(" ", "");
            char[] sep = { ',' };
            int[] arrayID = ParseIntValues(tempString.Split(sep));
            context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindByID(
               context.Request.QueryString["DBS"], 
               context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"], arrayID));
         }
      }
   }
}

Listing 10. The ProcessRequest method

The FindByID function in the front end component sends a comma-delimited string to represent an array. Therefore, the middle component requires a function to convert this string into an integer array so that it can be sent to the MapPoint Web Service. This is done using the ParseIntValues method as shown in Listing 11.

private int[] ParseIntValues(string[] stringArray)
{
   int[] arrayID = new int[stringArray.Length];

   for (int i = 0; i < stringArray.Length; i++)
   {
      arrayID[i] = Int32.Parse(stringArray[i]);
   }

   return arrayID;
}

Listing 11. The ParseIntValues method

Creating the Back End Model Component

The back end component is an ASPX page consisting of a C# method for each of the front end component's Find methods (FindNearBy, FindByProperty, FindByID, and FindNearRoute). These methods all return a string consisting of a semi-colon separated sequence of calls to AddPin. To make this work, we need to do the following.

Create a Web reference to MapPoint Web Service
Create an instance of the MapPoint Find proxy
Create an instance of the MapPoint Route proxy
Issue a call to the appropriate MapPointFind method
Parse the results

We already have an ASPX page, Default.aspx, but you probably notice ProcessRequest creates a MWSFindGenerator object. We could just change the class name in Default.aspx, but that is confusing, so we next rename Default.aspx as MWSFindGenerator.aspx. Right-click Default.aspx in Solution Explorer and rename it as MWSFindGenerator.aspx.

Creating a Reference to the MapPoint Web Service

Right-click MWSFind and select Add Web Reference. Add the reference in Listing 12 to the URL text box.

https://staging.mappoint.net/standard-30/mappoint.wsdl

Listing 12. The MapPoint Web Service URL

Click the Go button. Under the Web services found at this URL text box you should see mappoint. Set the Web reference name to MapPointService. When you are done, the window should look like Figure 3.

Figure 3. The MapPoint Web Service reference

Click Add Reference and save your work. You now have access to the MWS proxy classes. Just make sure the using statement for MapPointService includes the MWSFind namespace.

Creating the Find Methods

Our code-behind file must contain the following methods to perform all of our MapPoint work.

A constructor to instantiate the MapPoint proxy classes
A public FindNearBy method
A public FindByProperty method
A public FindByID method
A public FindNearRoute method
A private BuildPin method

Open MWSFindGenerator.aspx.cs and add the code shown in Listing 13.

public class MWSFindGenerator
{
   private MapPointService.FindServiceSoap findService = null;
   private MapPointService.RouteServiceSoap routeService = null;

   //TODO:  Change the following values to your username and password
   private String MPUser = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["username"];
   private String MPPass = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["password"];

   public MWSFindGenerator()
   {
      if (findService == null)
      {
         findService = new MapPointService.FindServiceSoap();
      }

      findService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(MPUser, MPPass);
      findService.PreAuthenticate = true;

      if (routeService == null)
      {
         routeService = new MapPointService.RouteServiceSoap();
      }

      routeService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(MPUser, MPPass);
      routeService.PreAuthenticate = true;
   }
}

Listing 13. The MWSFindGenerator class declaration

We start by declaring some internal constants for our user name and password (change these to your own values). We also need a member variable for our Find and Route Services.

Next, in the constructor, we create an instance of the MapPoint Web Service Find Service and Route Service. We also assign our username and password as credentials, and turn on pre-authentication to help speed up repeated requests to the service.

Adding the FindNearBy Method

This method is called with a latitude, a longitude, a custom datasource name, an entity type name, and a search radius. The FindNearBy method performs the following actions.

Creates a FindNearbySpecification object
Defines a datasource
Sets the latitude and longitude
Filters the results to only show results that match the entity type name
Execute a FindNearby call using the specified values
Parses the results

Add the code in Listing 14 to the class.

public String FindNearBy(double latitude, double longitude, string datasource, string entityName, double distance)
{
   StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

   try
   {
      FindNearbySpecification findNearbySpec = new FindNearbySpecification();

      findNearbySpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
      findNearbySpec.Distance = distance;
      findNearbySpec.LatLong = new MapPointService.LatLong();
      findNearbySpec.LatLong.Latitude = latitude;
      findNearbySpec.LatLong.Longitude = longitude;
      findNearbySpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
      findNearbySpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityName;

      FindResults foundResults = findService.FindNearby(findNearbySpec);

      foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
      {
         results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
      }
   }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
      results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
      results.Append(e.ToString());
      results.Append("');");
   }

   return results.ToString();
}

Listing 14. The FindNearBy method

Adding the FindByProperty Method

This method is called with a custom datasource name, an entity type name, an expression, and parameters. The FindByProperty method performs the following actions.

Creates a FindByPropertySpecification object
Defines a datasource
Filters the results to only show results that match the entity type name
Filters the results to only show results that match the expression
Executes a FindByProperty call using the specified values
Parses the results

Add the code in Listing 15 to the class.

public String FindByProperty(string datasource, string entityName, 
    string findExpression, string parameters)
{
   StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

   try
   {
      FindByPropertySpecification findByPropSpec = new FindByPropertySpecification();

      findByPropSpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
      findByPropSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
      findByPropSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityName;
      findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression = new FilterExpression();
      findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression.Text = findExpression;
      findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression.Parameters = new object[] {parameters};

      FindResults foundResults = findService.FindByProperty(findByPropSpec);

      foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
      {
         results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
      }
   }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
      results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
      results.Append(e.ToString());
      results.Append("');");
   }

   return results.ToString();
}

Listing 15. The FindByProperty method

Adding the FindByID Method

This method is called with a custom datasource name, an entity type name, and an integer array of entity IDs. The FindByID method performs the following actions.

Creates a FindByIDSpecification object
Defines a datasource
Filters the results to only show results that match the entity type name
Specifies the Entity IDs
Executes a FindByID call using the specified values
Parses the results

Add the code in Listing 16 to the class.

public String FindByID(string datasource, string entityTypeName, int[] arrayID)
{
   StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

   try
   {
      FindByIDSpecification findByIDSpec = new FindByIDSpecification();

      findByIDSpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
      findByIDSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
      findByIDSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityTypeName;
      findByIDSpec.EntityIDs = arrayID;

      FindResults foundResults = findService.FindByID(findByIDSpec);

      foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
      {
         results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
      }
   }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
      results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
      results.Append(e.ToString());
      results.Append("');");
   }

   return results.ToString();
}

Listing 16. The FindByID method

Adding the FindRoute Method

This method is called with a custom datasource name, an entity type name, the start and end coordinates of the route, the MapPoint datasource containing the route, the route type, and the distance around the route to search. The FindNearRoute method performs the following actions.

Creates a route object that is equivalent to the route in Bing Maps
Creates a FindNearRouteSpecification object
Defines a datasource
Filters the results to only show results that match the entity type name
Defines the search distance
Defines the route
Executes a FindNearRoute call using the specified values
Parses the results

Add the code in Listing 17 to the class.

public String FindNearRoute(double startLat, double startLong, double endLat, double endLong, string mappointDatasource, string customDatasource, string entityTypeName, string routeType, double distance)
{
   StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

   try
   {
      LatLong[] latLongs = new LatLong[2];
      latLongs[0] = new LatLong();
      latLongs[1] = new LatLong();
      latLongs[0].Latitude = startLat;
      latLongs[0].Longitude = startLong;
      latLongs[1].Latitude = endLat;
      latLongs[1].Longitude = endLong;

      SegmentPreference segPref = new SegmentPreference();

      if(routeType.Equals("Quickest"))
      {
         segPref = SegmentPreference.Quickest;
      }
      else if(routeType.Equals("Shortest"))
      {
         segPref = SegmentPreference.Shortest;
      }
      else    //PreferredRoads
      {
         segPref = SegmentPreference.PreferredRoads;
      }

      Route route = routeService.CalculateSimpleRoute(latLongs, mappointDatasource, segPref);

      FindNearRouteSpecification findRouteSpec = new FindNearRouteSpecification();

      findRouteSpec.DataSourceName = customDatasource;
      findRouteSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
      findRouteSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityTypeName;
      findRouteSpec.Distance = distance;
      findRouteSpec.Route = route;

      FindResults foundResults = findService.FindNearRoute(findRouteSpec);

      foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
      {
         results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
      }
   }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
      results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
      results.Append(e.ToString());
      results.Append("');");
   }

   return results.ToString();
}

Listing 17. The FindRoute method

Adding the BuildPin Method

This method processes each of the returned MapPoint result objects and generates a string calling the AddPin method. The most challenging part of this method is extracting the interesting properties out of the Location object. Since the MapPoint Location object's properties array is numerically indexed, we convert it to a Dictionary object so that we can extract values by name.

Add the code in Listing 18 to the class.

private String BuildPin(Location result)
{
   Dictionary<String, String> props = new Dictionary<String, String>();

   foreach (MapPointService.EntityPropertyValue prop in result.Entity.Properties)
   {
      props.Add(prop.Name, System.Convert.ToString(prop.Value));
   }

   System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

   sb.Append("'<table>");
   sb.Append("<tr><td>{0}</td></tr>");
   sb.Append("<tr><td>{1}, {2}</td></tr>");
   sb.Append("<tr><td>{3}</td></tr>");
   sb.Append("<tr><td>{4}</td></tr>");
   sb.Append("<tr><td>{5}</td></tr>");
   sb.Append("</table>'");

   Object[] pinParams = new Object[4];

   pinParams[0] = result.LatLong.Latitude;
   pinParams[1] = result.LatLong.Longitude;
   pinParams[2] = String.Format("'{0}'",result.Entity.Name);
   pinParams[3] = String.Format(sb.ToString(),
      new Object[] {props["AddressLine"], props["PrimaryCity"], props["Subdivision"], 
      props["CountryRegion"], props["PostalCode"],props["Phone"]});

   return String.Format("AddPin({0},{1},{2},{3});", pinParams);
}

Listing 18. The BuildPin method

The Find Results

Once you have saved your work and rebuilt the project to ensure you have no errors, click each of the buttons in turn. You should see something like the results shown in Figure 4 for FindNearBy, Figure 5 for FindByProperty, Figure 6 for FindNearRoute and Figure 7 for FindByID.

Figure 4. The FindNearBy results

Figure 5. The FindByProperty results

Figure 6. The FindNearRoute results

Figure 7. The FindByID results

Conclusion

Once you understand the basic process in place for making AJAX calls, you can easily link to other datasources. You can also easily expand upon these methods to include other MapPoint methods.

This article was written by Richard Brundritt. Richard is a software development enginner at Infusion Development.

Source Listings

The sections contains a complete listing for the three source files in this article, Default.htm, MWSFindGenerator.aspx.cs, and MWSFindHandler.ashx.

The Source for Default.htm

Listing 19 contains the source for Default.htm.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head>
      <title>Integrating MWS with Bing Maps</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

      <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ecn.dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=6.3"></script>

      <script type="text/javascript">
         var map;
         var datasource = "MapPoint.FourthCoffeeSample";
         var entityName = "FourthCoffeeShops";
         var searchRadius = 250;

         function OnPageLoad(element)
         {
            map = new VEMap(element);
            map.LoadMap();
         }

         var xmlhttp=false;

         function InitXmlHttp() 
         {
            // Attempt to initialize xmlhttp object
            try
            {
               xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
            }
            catch (e)
            {
               // Try to use different activex object
               try
               {
                  xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
               }
               catch (E)
               {
                  xmlhttp = false;
               }
            }
            // If not initialized, create XMLHttpRequest object
            if (!xmlhttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest != 'undefined')
            {
               xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
            }

            // Define function call for when Request obj state has changed
            xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = SearchHandler;
         }

         function SearchHandler()
         {
            if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4)
            {
               alert("Got the response text:\n" + xmlhttp.responseText);

               eval(xmlhttp.responseText);
            }
         }

         function AddPin(lat, lng, title, description)
         {
            try 
            {
               var shape = new VEShape(VEShapeType.Pushpin, 
                                       new VELatLong(lat, lng));
               shape.SetTitle(title);
               shape.SetDescription(description);
               map.AddShape(shape);
            } 
            catch (err)
            {
               alert(err);
            }
         }

         function FindNearBy()
         {
            map.DeleteAllShapes();

            var ll = map.GetCenter();

            InitXmlHttp();

            var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindNearBy&Lat=" +
                      ll.Latitude +
                      "&Lng=" +
                      ll.Longitude +
                      "&DBS=" +
                      datasource +
                   "&ENTY=" +
                      entityName +
                      "&Dis=" +
                      searchRadius;

            xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
            xmlhttp.send(null);
         }

         function FindByProperty()
         {
            map.DeleteAllShapes();

            var expression = "Subdivision = {0}";
            var parameters = "NY"
            var ll = map.GetCenter();

            InitXmlHttp();

            var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindByProperty&DBS=" +
                      datasource +
                      "&ENTY=" +
                      entityName +
                      "&Exp=" +
                      expression +
                      "&PRM=" +
                      parameters;

            xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
            xmlhttp.send(null);
         }

         function FindByID()
         {
            map.DeleteAllShapes();

            var arrayID = "-11777,-11781,-11789";

            InitXmlHttp();

            var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindByID&DBS=" +
                      datasource +
                   "&ENTY=" +
                      entityName +
                      "&ID=" +
                      arrayID;

            xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
            xmlhttp.send(null);
         }

         function FindNearRoute()
         {
            map.DeleteAllShapes();

            var startLocation = new VELatLong(47.301036844193135, 
                                              -122.32933044433595);
            var endLocation = new VELatLong(47.441474801849466, 
                                            -122.24487304687503);
            var mappointDatasource = "MapPoint.NA"
            var distance = 5;
            var routeType = "Quickest";

            var options = new VERouteOptions;
            options.UseMWS = true;
            options.RouteOptimize = VERouteOptimize.MinimizeTime;

            var locations = new Array(startLocation, endLocation);

            map.GetDirections(locations, options); 

            InitXmlHttp();

            var msg = "MWSFindHandler.ashx?&FT=FindNearRoute&sLat=" +
                      startLocation.Latitude +
                      "&sLng=" +
                      startLocation.Longitude +
                      "&eLat=" +
                      endLocation.Latitude +
                      "&eLng=" +
                      endLocation.Longitude +
                      "&mDBS=" +
                      mappointDatasource +
                      "&DBS=" +
                      datasource +
                      "&ENTY=" +
                      entityName +
                      "&RT=" +
                      routeType +
                      "&DIS=" +
                      distance;

            xmlhttp.open("GET", msg, true);
            xmlhttp.send(null);
         }

      </script>

   </head>
   <body onload="OnPageLoad('myMap')">
      <div id="myMap" style="position: relative; width: 640px; height: 480px;"></div>
      <br />
      <input id="findNearBy" type="button" value="FindNearBy" onclick="FindNearBy();" />
      <input id="findByProperty" type="button" value="FindByProperty" onclick="FindByProperty();" />
      <input id="findNearRoute" type="button" value="FindNearRoute" onclick="FindNearRoute();" />
      <input id="findByID" type="button" value="FindByID" onclick="FindByID();" />
   </body>
</html>

Listing 19. Default.htm

The Source for MWSFindGenerator.aspx.cs

Listing 20 contains the source for MWSFindGenerator.aspx.cs.

using System;
using System.Security.Authentication;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using MWSFind.MapPointService;
using System.Text;

namespace MWSFind
{
   public class MWSFindGenerator
   {
      private MapPointService.FindServiceSoap findService = null;
      private MapPointService.RouteServiceSoap routeService = null;

      //TODO:  Change the following values to your username and password
      private String MPUser = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["username"];
      private String MPPass = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["password"];

      public MWSFindGenerator()
      {
         if (findService == null)
         {
            findService = new MapPointService.FindServiceSoap();
         }
         findService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(MPUser, MPPass);
         findService.PreAuthenticate = true;

         if (routeService == null)
         {
            routeService = new MapPointService.RouteServiceSoap();
         }
         routeService.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(MPUser, MPPass);
         routeService.PreAuthenticate = true;
      }

      public String FindNearBy(double latitude, double longitude, string datasource, string entityName, double distance)
      {
         StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

         try
         {
            FindNearbySpecification findNearbySpec = new FindNearbySpecification();

            findNearbySpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
            findNearbySpec.Distance = distance;
            findNearbySpec.LatLong = new MapPointService.LatLong();
            findNearbySpec.LatLong.Latitude = latitude;
            findNearbySpec.LatLong.Longitude = longitude;
            findNearbySpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
            findNearbySpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityName;

            FindResults foundResults = findService.FindNearby(findNearbySpec);

            foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
            {
               results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
            }
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
            results.Append(e.ToString());
            results.Append("');");
         }

         return results.ToString();
      }

      public String FindByProperty(string datasource, string entityName, string findExpression, string parameters)
      {
         StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

         try
         {
            FindByPropertySpecification findByPropSpec = new FindByPropertySpecification();

            findByPropSpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
            findByPropSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
            findByPropSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityName;
            findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression = new FilterExpression();
            findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression.Text = findExpression;
            findByPropSpec.Filter.Expression.Parameters = new object[] { parameters };

            FindResults foundResults = findService.FindByProperty(findByPropSpec);

            foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
            {
               results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
            }
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
            results.Append(e.ToString());
            results.Append("');");
         }

         return results.ToString();
      }

      public String FindByID(string datasource, string entityTypeName, int[] arrayID)
      {
         StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

         try
         {
            FindByIDSpecification findByIDSpec = new FindByIDSpecification();

            findByIDSpec.DataSourceName = datasource;
            findByIDSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
            findByIDSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityTypeName;
            findByIDSpec.EntityIDs = arrayID;

            FindResults foundResults = findService.FindByID(findByIDSpec);

            foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
            {
               results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
            }
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
            results.Append(e.ToString());
            results.Append("');");
         }

         return results.ToString();
      }

      public String FindNearRoute(double startLat, double startLong, double endLat,
         double endLong, string mappointDatasource, string customDatasource,
         string entityTypeName, string routeType, double distance)
      {
         StringBuilder results = new StringBuilder();

         try
         {
            LatLong[] latLongs = new LatLong[2];
            latLongs[0] = new LatLong();
            latLongs[1] = new LatLong();
            latLongs[0].Latitude = startLat;
            latLongs[0].Longitude = startLong;
            latLongs[1].Latitude = endLat;
            latLongs[1].Longitude = endLong;

            SegmentPreference segPref = new SegmentPreference();

            if (routeType.Equals("Quickest"))
            {
               segPref = SegmentPreference.Quickest;
            }
            else if (routeType.Equals("Shortest"))
            {
               segPref = SegmentPreference.Shortest;
            }
            else    //PreferredRoads
            {
               segPref = SegmentPreference.PreferredRoads;
            }

            Route route = routeService.CalculateSimpleRoute(latLongs, mappointDatasource,
              segPref);

            FindNearRouteSpecification findRouteSpec = new FindNearRouteSpecification();

            findRouteSpec.DataSourceName = customDatasource;
            findRouteSpec.Filter = new MapPointService.FindFilter();
            findRouteSpec.Filter.EntityTypeName = entityTypeName;
            findRouteSpec.Distance = distance;
            findRouteSpec.Route = route;

            FindResults foundResults = findService.FindNearRoute(findRouteSpec);

            foreach (FindResult fr in foundResults.Results)
            {
               results.Append(BuildPin(fr.FoundLocation));
            }
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
            results.Append("Alert('Error: ");
            results.Append(e.ToString());
            results.Append("');");
         }
         return results.ToString();
      }

      private String BuildPin(Location result)
      {
         Dictionary<String, String> props = new Dictionary<String, String>();

         foreach (MapPointService.EntityPropertyValue prop in result.Entity.Properties)
         {
            props.Add(prop.Name, System.Convert.ToString(prop.Value));
         }

         System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

         sb.Append("'<table>");
         sb.Append("<tr><td>{0}</td></tr>");
         sb.Append("<tr><td>{1}, {2}</td></tr>");
         sb.Append("<tr><td>{3}</td></tr>");
         sb.Append("<tr><td>{4}</td></tr>");
         sb.Append("<tr><td>{5}</td></tr>");
         sb.Append("</table>'");

         Object[] pinParams = new Object[4];

         pinParams[0] = result.LatLong.Latitude;
         pinParams[1] = result.LatLong.Longitude;
         pinParams[2] = String.Format("'{0}'", result.Entity.Name);
         pinParams[3] = String.Format(sb.ToString(),
            new Object[] {props["AddressLine"], props["PrimaryCity"], props["Subdivision"], 
                          props["CountryRegion"], props["PostalCode"],props["Phone"]});

         return String.Format("AddPin({0},{1},{2},{3});", pinParams);
      }
   }
}

Listing 20. MWSFindGenerator.aspx.cs

The Source for MWSFindHandler.ashx

Listing 21 contains the source for MWSFindHandler.ashx.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Web;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web.Services;
using System.Web.Services.Protocols;

namespace MWSFind
{
   /// <summary>
   /// Summary description for $codebehindclassname$
   /// </summary>
   [WebService(Namespace = "https://tempuri.org/")]
   [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
   public class MWSFindHandler : IHttpHandler
   {

      public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
      {
         context.Response.ContentType = "text/plain";
         MWSFindGenerator fnbg = new MWSFindGenerator();

         if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"] != null)
         {
            if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindNearBy"))
            {
               if (context.Request.QueryString["lat"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["lng"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["dbs"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["dis"] != null)
               {
                  double lat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Lat"]);
                  double lng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Lng"]);
                  double dis = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Dis"]);

                  context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindNearBy(lat, lng,
                  context.Request.QueryString["DBS"],
                  context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"], dis));
               }
            }
            else if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindByProperty"))
            {
               if (context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["Exp"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["PRM"] != null)
               {
                  context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindByProperty(
                     context.Request.QueryString["DBS"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["Exp"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["PRM"]));
               }
            }
            else if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindNearRoute"))
            {
               if (context.Request.QueryString["sLat"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["sLng"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["eLat"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["eLng"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["mDBS"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["RT"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["Dis"] != null)
               {
                  double slat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["sLat"]);
                  double slng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["sLng"]);
                  double elat = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["eLat"]);
                  double elng = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["eLng"]);
                  double dis = Double.Parse(context.Request.QueryString["Dis"]);
                  context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindNearRoute(
                     slat, slng, elat, elng,
                  context.Request.QueryString["mDBS"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["DBS"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["RT"], dis));
               }
            }
            else if (context.Request.QueryString["FT"].Equals("FindByID"))
            {
               if (context.Request.QueryString["DBS"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["enty"] != null
                   && context.Request.QueryString["ID"] != null)
               {
                  string tempString = (
                     context.Request.QueryString["ID"]).Replace(" ", "");
                  char[] sep = { ',' };
                  int[] arrayID = ParseIntValues(tempString.Split(sep));
                  context.Response.Write(fnbg.FindByID(
                     context.Request.QueryString["DBS"],
                     context.Request.QueryString["ENTY"], arrayID));
               }
            }
         }
      }

      private int[] ParseIntValues(string[] stringArray)
      {
         int[] arrayID = new int[stringArray.Length];

         for (int i = 0; i < stringArray.Length; i++)
         {
            arrayID[i] = Int32.Parse(stringArray[i]);
         }

         return arrayID;
      }

      public bool IsReusable
      {
         get
         {
            return false;
         }
      }
   }
}

Listing 21. MWSFindHandler.ashx