Windows Phone 8 - The new map tasks
With the release of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has added a new map control and related mapping tasks. Windows Phone 7 used the BingMapControl and provided a number of Tasks that provided access to the built-in maps app from within your app. I discussed the BinMapsTask and the BingMapsDirectionTask in a couple of previous posts.
While still available in your Windows Phone 8 apps, the Bing-flavoured map control and tasks are deprecated and should not be used for any new development.
Thankfully, replacing the Task is an extremely process and they provide the exact same functionality.
The Maps task opens the built-in map app at a specified location and can be used to search for local results, such as restaurants or coffee houses. You call this function in the exact same way as the old BingMapsTask.
//the old
//BingMapsDirectionsTask dir = new BingMapsDirectionsTask();
//dir.End = new LabeledMapLocation("Address", new GeoCoordinate(-27.3, 152.9));
//dir.Show();
//the new
MapsDirectionsTask dir = new MapsDirectionsTask();
dir.End = new LabeledMapLocation("Address", new GeoCoordinate(-27.3, 152.9));
dir.Show();
The Maps directions task can be called from your app and launches the built-in maps app to provide directions to a specified location. You call this function in the exact same way as the old BingMapsDirectionTask.
//the old
//BingMapsTask search = new BingMapsTask();
//search.Center = new GeoCoordinate(-27.5, 153);
//search.SearchTerm = "coffee";
//search.Show();
//the new
MapsTask search = new MapsTask();
search.Center = new GeoCoordinate(-27.5, 153);
search.SearchTerm = "coffee";
search.Show();