Today we are announcing the release of several updates and new features in the Bing Maps REST web service, Bing Maps Web Control and the Bing Maps Account Center.
Bing Maps REST Web Services
Support for Multiple Image Formats
Previously a request for static images through the Imagery-API would have always returned results in the PNG-format. With the new release you have now the choice between PNG, JPG and GIF. While PNG provides the best quality, JPG gives you the best compromise between quality and size:
For more information see the online documentation at Bing Maps V8 Web Control - Bing Maps | Microsoft Learn
Ordnance Survey GB Maps
For our friends in the UK we have added support for the Ordnance Survey GB maps and the Collins Bartholomew style to our REST web service API. The Ordnance Survey Maps are available from zoom-level 10 to 15 and the Collins Bartholomew style is available from level 10 to 17.
To return static maps in these styles use the imagery map type OrdnanceSurvey as documented at Imagery API - Bing Maps | Microsoft Learn
Additional Languages for Driving Directions
In addition to the languages that we supported before:
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Japanese
- Norwegian
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Swedish
We are now also supporting the following languages for driving directions:
- Hungarian
- Romanian
- Slovenian
- Turkish
To return localized driving directions simply append the parameter “culture” or short “c” as documented at Supported Culture Codes - Bing Maps | Microsoft Learn.
Traffic Incidents
Previously we exposed traffic flow information in the REST Imagery API and as a layer in the web control. With the latest release we are now also adding traffic incident information through a separate API call in the REST web service, as documented at Traffic API - Bing Maps | Microsoft Learn
The result can be returned in either XML or JSON format. The latter is particularly useful, if you want to drop the response into the Bing Maps web control and you will find sample code for such an implementation in the interactive SDK at Add/Show traffic layer (bing.com) or at Bing Maps Samples (bingmapsportal.com)
Bing Maps Web Control
Aside from several bug-fixes the Bing Maps Web Control received support for touch events in Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 (Developer Preview).
Also new is an alternative style for the dashboard as well as a breadcrumb that resembles the look and feel of the consumer site. This new look and feel is implemented as an optional module.
For more information see the online documentation at Bing Maps V8 Web Control - Bing Maps | Microsoft Learn.
Bing Maps Account Center
The Bing Maps Account Center, www,bingmapsportal.com, is your one stop shop to create keys, generate usage reports and upload and manage data sources. The latter is only available for our licensed customers. In this release we introduce some changes in the user interface as well as bug fixes and additional reports.
Most notably is the changed behavior when you upload data sources that contain both address information and latitudes and longitudes. Before, this would have triggered a process that reverse geocodes all latitudes and longitudes and overwrites existing address information which was certainly not in the interest of those who want to upload an already geocoded data source, for example when migrating from Multimap or MapPoint Web Service. Note: if you only provide a latitude and longitude the upload will still start the batch reverse geocoding.
For those still using MapPoint Web Service or the Bing Maps Token to authenticate you will now find your usage reports in the Bing Maps Account Center as well.
Further improvements include:
- Support for pipe separated values in XML file
- Enterprise customers can now generate an unlimited amount of keys
- Validations on input fields for special characters
