I was looking at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26295161/ns/weather/ and noticed that the flash map is provided by bing and have a custom color scheme. I have a similar need to show maps with a black & white colortheme, is it possible using their api or have they made custom tiles ? (doesnt seem feasible to provide tiles for alls maps on all levels :)
If you are not wedded to Bing maps, you could look into Mapbox, which provide maps based on OpenStreetMap in any style that you desire.
This question is still not answered and even if it's kind of old, I think it matters.
In fact, they're not using different tiles or a custom tile scheme. You can see those in the network inspection tool.
Since they're inside a Flash application, they can easily change the color of the image using filter on image (ColorMatrixFilter) and changing dynamically on the client side the rendered colors.
Well now some years later you can: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt823636.aspx :-)
(I got here by looking for some sample styles and thought I add the link for anybody else finding this question)
Perhaps a custom tile skinner is that you need: http://rbrundritt.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/bing-maps-custom-tile-skinner/
In this example, the author changes the color of roads using ColorMatrix and ColorMap:
The two key methods used to transform the colors
consist of using ColorMatrix or a ColorMap. By
using a color matrix all the colors on the tile
can be changed within a couple lines of code. Using
a ColorMap allows you to change one color at a
time. This is useful if you only want to change a
few colors on the map.
Related
I am using Google maps in iOS using iOS SDK, letting users mark an area using few markers, creating a polygon.
I want to highlight that area and gray out the rest of the map, something like this:
Is this possible somehow?
You have to draw your own UIImage where you create the gray area, clear area, and polygon borders. After that add it as an overlay tile using GMSGroundOverlay. This will fix it in place for when the user scrolls.
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/ios/overlays
This is similar to how radar overlays are drawn for weather apps.
I would approach this problem using several steps.
1) collect your points from the user that will define your polygon.
2) send the collection of points to your server.(ajax post)
3) server side, dynamically create a grey image with a transparent hole in it that is your polygon.
4) store image on server, send back response with info telling browser how to retrieve it(url,id,whatever).
5) using javascript + google maps api, apply an overlay referencing your newly created image.
each step may have its challenges but the problem becomes manageable if you focus on the different steps.
1) and 2) will involve using javascript, capturing 'clicks' and having feedback to the user in the form of a line or something on the map. Once finished, the server call can be initiated by the user or by your programming.
3) I would use python with an image library(skimage, etc.) and a mapping library (gdal). Making an image is not hard but combining it with GIS and getting the right projection, etc. will take some fiddling.
4) shouldn't be a problem once you've got that far.
5) using zimmryan's comment about creating a ground overlay could be helpful for this step.
good luck!
I want to add a color picker control to a windows store App (using VB), I came to know that there is no standard control for that. So any ideas about what could be a good purchased or open source option?
So I started building one into WinRT XAML Toolkit here but never got round to finishing it. Mainly because I figured there would need to be very different designs for different platforms. The control isn't finished, but a lot of the components that are there you could use to build a color picker that fits your design. There's a ColorExtensions class that might help you convert between HSL/HSV/RGB models, there's a FromString() method in it that can parse a color string in the formats available in XAML (e.g. "Transparent" or #FFAA0080 or #FB0) and there's a WriteableBitmapColorPickerExtensions class that you can use to render a hue ring, 2D color selector bitmap or a 1D color bar. I'll probably create some usable controls one day to use all of these primitives, but for now - you have that power! :)
I've created a simple color picker for Universal Apps, you can read about it from this blog post...
I am building an app in which I have to highlight some countries dynamically in the world map.
In short I want to customize the whole view of ios maps as shown in the images.
can this be done using MapKit or is there any other method. Thanks in advance
You want to look into the Mapbox iOS SDK which will allow you to do this and more with a MapKit-like API. In particular, you will want to quickly make a custom map with TileMill using the provided Natural Earth data set for world country borders, enable UTFGrid interactivity so that the tapped regions can be identified, and use the RMShape class on an RMAnnotation onto the map view to add/color country polygons as needed. This sounds a little complex but the tools exist, are entirely free and open source, and I can help you with this process.
I would like to draw a series of maps in an iOS application. Preferably, without using any image files as a base.
For example, I want to draw a map of the United States with states and counties outlined. Does anyone know of a way to do this?
By draw, I mean draw the map in code. Maybe using Apple's Map kit API?
You might want to look in here
http://planet.openstreetmap.org
to get the data. Then you can use the 2d graphics libraries to draw it.
I want to create a Windows 8 Metro application that has a fancy "hub" page similar to the following:
http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-51-31-metablogapi/3482.landing_2D00_branded_5F00_thumb_5F00_287109A4.jpg
The key elements are: Horizontal Panorama style scrolling page but with "sections" that are data bound. I've had a look around for implementations and have come up short.
Seems to me it would be possible to do with a ScrollViewer that contains a Horizontal Stackpanel that has the elements that make up each section. But seeing as this is such a common Metro design pattern, I figure there is probably an easier / recommended way of implementing.
Just wondering if someone can give me some tips. How would you do it?
When you start using VariableSizedWrapGrid all things get their own relative sizes. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br227651.aspx
Set the ColumnSpan and RowSpan properties to make things double size, tripple size etc...
For me I make the first item in the collection double width, double height by setting ColumnSpan and RowSpan to 2. All other items get this ColumnSpan and Rowspan to 1, and it's getting a nice effect.
In addition to what Hans mentioned, I would highly recommend going through the existing Metro Style App Samples. Learning from working examples works better than any documentation.