I’ve entered myself into a new Windows 8 application contest.  I’ve come up with a wonderful idea which includes utilizing Bing Maps.  After an awful lot of research I’ve come up with something that works… Perfectly!!!

Since this is a Windows 8 application, I’m writing this in Visual Studio 11 express which utilizes an awesome multi-threading feature called async/await.  So I’ll be taking advantage of that here.

First thing I needed to do was acquire my Bing Map Developers key… Acquire yours free from:  https://www.bingmapsportal.com

Let’s start coding!!!

I followed the following MSDN article to setup my app for access to the Bing SOAP API’s.  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966738.aspx

Then added the following to the top of my code:

using HouseofRepresentatives.GeocodeService;

using HouseofRepresentatives.SearchService;

using HouseofRepresentatives.ImageryService;

using HouseofRepresentatives.RouteService;



private ImageSource _map = null;

public String Latitude = "";

public String Longitude = "";



public ImageSource Map

{

    get

    {

        if (this._map == null) UpdateMap();

        return this._map;

    }


    set

    {

        if (this._map != value)

        {

            this._map = value;

            this.OnPropertyChanged("Map");

        }

    }

}
I had two situations for my locations… in one case I knew the exact Lat/Lon, and in others I only knew an address… in my case a state name.  First I needed to turn that address into a Lat/Lon for passing onto the get map function.
private async Task<string> getLocationPoint(string address)

{

    if (address != null && address != "")

    {

        GeocodeRequest request = new GeocodeRequest();

        request.ExecutionOptions = new HouseofRepresentatives.GeocodeService.ExecutionOptions();

        request.ExecutionOptions.SuppressFaults = true;

        GeocodeServiceClient geocodeClient = 

            new GeocodeServiceClient(GeocodeServiceClient.EndpointConfiguration.BasicHttpBinding_IGeocodeService);

        HouseofRepresentatives.GeocodeService.Credentials t = 

            new HouseofRepresentatives.GeocodeService.Credentials();

        t.Token = "[[put your Bing Maps Key Here]]";


        request.Query = address;

        request.Credentials = t;


        GeocodeResponse response = await geocodeClient.GeocodeAsync(request);

        if (response.Results.Count() > 0)

        {

            return response.Results[0].Locations[0].Latitude.ToString() + 

                "," + response.Results[0].Locations[0].Longitude.ToString();

        }

    }

    return "";

}
Next I needed to actually get the Image from Bing.  Now let’s do that using the following function:
private async Task<string> GetImagery(string locationString)

{  //http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd221354.aspx

    string key = "[[insert your Bing Maps Key here]]";

    MapUriRequest mapUriRequest = new MapUriRequest();


    // Set credentials using a valid Bing Maps key

    mapUriRequest.Credentials = 

        new HouseofRepresentatives.ImageryService.Credentials();

    mapUriRequest.Credentials.ApplicationId = key;

                      


    // Set the location of the requested image

    mapUriRequest.Center = new HouseofRepresentatives.ImageryService.Location();

    string[] digits = locationString.Split(',');

            

    mapUriRequest.Center.Latitude = double.Parse(digits[0].Trim());

    mapUriRequest.Center.Longitude = double.Parse(digits[1].Trim());


    // Set the map style and zoom level

    MapUriOptions mapUriOptions = new MapUriOptions();

    mapUriOptions.Style = MapStyle.AerialWithLabels;

    mapUriOptions.ZoomLevel = 17;


    // Set the size of the requested image in pixels

    mapUriOptions.ImageSize = new HouseofRepresentatives.ImageryService.SizeOfint();

    mapUriOptions.ImageSize.Height = 240;

    mapUriOptions.ImageSize.Width = 480;


    mapUriRequest.Options = mapUriOptions;


    //Make the request and return the URI

    ImageryServiceClient imageryService = 

        new ImageryServiceClient(ImageryServiceClient.EndpointConfiguration.BasicHttpBinding_IImageryService);

            

    try

    {

        MapUriResponse mapUriResponse = await imageryService.GetMapUriAsync(mapUriRequest);


        if (mapUriResponse.Uri != null)

        {

            return mapUriResponse.Uri;

        }

        else { return ""; }

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        return "";

    }

}
Ok… now that I have my image Uri, it’s time to use it to load a picture:
public async Task<bool> UpdateMap(string address = "")

{

    if (address != "")

    {

        //then user is specifying an address instead of a specific long/lat.  

        //We need to get that info in order to proceed...

        string point = await getLocationPoint(address);

        if (point != "")

        {

            string[] p = point.Split(',');

            Latitude = p[0];

            Longitude = p[1];

        }

    }


    if (Longitude != "" && Latitude != "")

    {

        string uripath = await GetImagery(Longitude + "," + Latitude);

        if (uripath != "")

        {

            this.Map = new BitmapImage(new Uri(uripath));

            return true;

        }

        else

        {

            this.Map = new BitmapImage(new Uri(imageBaseUri, "Data/blank.png"));

            return false;

        }

    }

    else

    {

        this.Map = new BitmapImage(new Uri(imageBaseUri, "Data/blank.png"));

        return false;

    }

}
If you’ve stuck with me this far… you are a programmer… LOL.
In each of my functions I utilized the new async/await features.  This means when I call either of the two functions as below, it will load the image once the OS has downloaded and cached it.  The image will automatically appear when ready…
//calling the get-map function with an address

UpdateMap("Arkansas");


//or

UpdateMap("1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington");


//or i can configure my lat/lon then update

Latitude = "39.450000762939453";

Longitude = "-98.907997131347656";

UpdateMap();
If you guys have any questions or comments, be sure to post them below!