Tuesday - October 2, 2009

MapPoint 2010 Released, MapPoint 2010 New Features and Articles, and More

Welcome to another issue of the MP2Kmag Update. Microsoft recently released MapPoint 2010 with significant new features such as the Map Setting pane. This new pane allows users to control the amount of detail displayed for 17 separate mapping layers and the ability to add more or remove labels from the map. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see examples of the new Map Settings options in action.

Several other very useful enhancements include the ability to Hide a pushpin set, import / export to .gpx files, a lot more Pushpin Symbols to choose from (basically everything from MapPoint 2006 and MapPoint 2009 combined), and of course updated mapping and place data. See Richard Marsden's article below which talks about and gives an overview of MapPoint 2010's new features. Also in this newsletter, we have provided a list of the MapPoint 2010 API changes for developers to take a quick glance at all the very welcome additions to the Object Model.

We have also assembled a number of links and resources for MapPoint 2010 on this page on MapForums - MapPoint 2010 Information.

MP2K Magazine is your source for independent news and information about MapPoint and Virtual Earth technologies and we also host the popular web forum for MapPoint users and developers (www.mapforums.com). 

This Issue's Contents at a Glance
 - Automating MapPoint with Excel VBA - Tutorial 7
 - List of MapPoint 2010 API Changes - New Methods, Objects, and Properties
 - MapPoint Consultants and Products Directories
 - MP2K Magazine / MapForums Twitter Channel
 - Get Published in MP2K Magazine
 - An Overview of the New Features in Microsoft MapPoint 2010
 - Using the New MapFeatures Collection and MapFeature Objects in MapPoint 2010

Happy Mapping and please forward this newsletter to anyone who would be interested!

Automating MapPoint with Excel VBA - Tutorial 7

This tutorial shows how to create Drawing Labels on the map based on a list of data in Excel. Earlier tutorials can be found here 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

In this tutorial a list of counties in Arkansas and labeled with some sample data. The list of counties in the Excel spreadsheet along with the code can be downloaded here. After you have downloaded and unzipped the spreadsheet, to Run the macro go to Tools | Macro | Macros and run LabelMap. The macro will open a new MapPoint map and display the labels. The resulting map can be downloaded here (MapPoint 2010 PTM file) or click on the thumbnail to the right to view the full map screenshot.

This first line declares the MapPoint Application object outside of the Subroutine. This allows MapPoint to stay open after the program has ended.

Dim MPAPP As MapPoint.Application
 
Public Sub LabelMap()

These next few lines instantiate MapPoint and defines the Map object.

  Set MPAPP = CreateObject("MapPoint.Application")
  MPAPP.Visible = True
 
  Dim objMap As MapPoint.Map
  Set objMap = MPAPP.ActiveMap

The next several line declare the variables used by the program.
 
  Dim row As Integer
  Dim state, county, szLabel As String
  Dim fLabel As Double
 
  Dim objLocation As MapPoint.Location
  Dim objPushpin As MapPoint.Pushpin
  Dim objFindResults As MapPoint.FindResults
  Dim objShape As MapPoint.Shape
 
  row = 2

The main portion of the code is all within a loop that works down through the list of locations (in this case counties) until it reaches a blank line.
 
  Do While Cells(row, 1) <> ""
    state = Cells(row, 1)
    county = Cells(row, 2)
    fLabel = Cells(row, 3)
    szLabel = Int(fLabel)

The next two lines find the country and gets a Location object at which to draw the label.
    
    Set objFindResults = objMap.FindPlaceResults(county & ", " & state)
    Set objLocation = objFindResults(1)

Draw the label and set the text and border weight.

    Set objShape = objMap.Shapes.AddTextbox(objLocation, 30, 30)
    objShape.Text = szLabel
    objShape.Line.Weight = 1
 
    row = row + 1
  Loop

End Sub

Everyone loves a good mapping utility! Hopefully some of you will find this script useful.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or enhancements you would like to share please post in the MapPoint / Excel VBA discussion thread. Keep an eye out for a continuation of this series in future issues.

MapPoint 2010 API Changes

The MapPoint Object Model has been updated significantly - the most since at least the 2002 version of MapPoint.

Methods

The new methods for Microsoft MapPoint 2010 are:

• ImportGPX (Application and MappointControl objects)

• ExportGPX (Application and MappointControl objects)

• Reverse (Route object)

• UpdateConstruction (Route object)

• ZoomTo (Route object)

• BasicRenderingOnly (Map object)

• DefaultRendering (Map object)

• ShowInOnlineMap (Map object)

• SendToMobile (Map object)

• ExportToExcel (SelectedArea object)

Objects

The topics in this section give details about objects and collections by providing a graphic of the element's object model inheritance and an explanation of the object or collection. Also provided is a list of associated methods, properties, and events as applicable.

The new objects for Microsoft MapPoint 2010 are:

• MapFeatures collection

• MapFeature object

• GPSNavigation object

Properties

The new properties for Microsoft MapPoint 2010 are:

• ShowNavigation (Application and MapPointControl objects)

• LargeToolbarButtons (Toolbars collection)

• MapFeatures (Map object)

• GPSNavigation (Map object)

• PushpinsVisible (DataSet object)

• Application (MapFeatures collection, MapFeature and GPSNavigation objects)

• Parent (MapFeature and GPSNavigation objects)

• Name (MapFeature object)

• Index (MapFeature object)

• DetailLevel (MapFeature object)

• Navigation (GPSNavigation object)

• FullScreenNavigation (GPSNavigation object)

See the Help File for more details.

MapPoint Consultants and Products Directories

Find developers and experienced MapPoint consultants who can help you with your next project or program costum solutions helping to integrate MapPoint with your business processes. 

If you are a consultant who know MapPoint or Bing Maps, this is a terrific way to read our audience and share information about your capabilities, services, describe past projects, and communicate your availability. You are welcome to post your resume and keep your thread or profile updated periodically with references, new offerings, and contant information. Get started today by posting "New Thread" in the MapPoint Consultant Directory. Listings are free, but there is also an opportunity to become a sponsor for a more prominent listing and a link from the home page.
Similarly, about six months ago, we also started a new Products Directory for MapPoint Add-ins, Bing Maps tools, and related products. If you have a MapPoint/Bing Maps Add-in or tool, list it in here to get some great visibility and exposure for your product. To keep your product near the front of the directory, you can post periodically updates, tutorials, case studies, or other new information about your product.

MP2K Magazine Twitter Channel

Interesting news items and updates for MapElves, MapForums, and MP2K Magazine are posted to our twitter channel at http://twitter.com/mp2kmag. Here's the original announcement on MapForums regarding the launch of our twitter channel.

Get Published in MP2K Magazine

If you have a MapPoint presentation, neat programming technique, or would simply like to share the ways in which you are using MapPoint technology or any other ideas, contact us to discuss how we can turn your knowledge into an article and share your experience with the rest of the MapPoint community of users and developers.

Thanks to Marvin Hlavac for allowing us to use the picture on the right of his Maltese puppy eating from the MapPoint mug.

"As I write this, what is probably the most significant release of MapPoint since MapPoint 2002 is just beginning to hit the shelves. The release of MapPoint 2010, only one year after the previous version, also represents a break from the previous two year release cycle.

"MapPoint 2010 is also the first release since a recent change in emphasis of the development team from the consumer Streets & Trips to the more business-oriented MapPoint. With the emphasis on Streets & Trips, recent versions have added new features like improved GPS navigation but they have lacked a public API (Application Programming Interface). MapPoint 2010 includes a number of API changes which expose much of this functionality, as well as new features targeted at the desktop user."

   Full article text Discuss this story

Using the New MapFeatures Collection and MapFeature Objects in MapPoint 2010

"One of the most notable and asked for additions to MapPoint 2010, is the ability to switch different map features on or off. A dozen or so different features can have their graphical representations (aka ‘symbols’) and/or labels switched on (default), off, or to display additional detail. The ability to switch labels on or off has been frequently requested,  but this new feature goes further and provides a much finer level of control than was expected.

"This new functionality is also implemented in the API using the MapFeatures property and collection in the MapPoint Map object. This is covered in the documentation, although some of the documentation is incomplete. This article describes how to use this MapFeatures collection, and describes a couple of pitfalls. Examples are given using C#."

   Full article text Discuss this story 

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