ASP.NET controls for Virtual Earth (CTP)

At the recent Re-MIX 08 conference in Melbourne, one of the highlights of the day (for me) was to see the new ASP.NET controls for Virtual Earth.

I’d completed a project recently, and was lots of custom JavaScript, and XML to get layers to turn on/off – and co-ordinates, etc.

Having some “controls” in which you can simply set the properties is AWESOME – would have saved me days on the last project !

There is a new CTP release of the Virtual Earth control/s – with a video clip at Channel 9 (MSDN) to give a run-down.

…at long last we have released the Virtual Earth ASP.NET control (CTP Release).

I spent a few minutes with Angus Logan from the Windows Live Platform Team to show off the control and give a quick demo to get you started.

Click here to see the video clip @ Channel 9 (10:21)

The “Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008″ CTP contains a lot more than just the Virtual Earth controls :

…a set of control add-ins to make incorporating Windows Live services into your Web application easier with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express 2008.

Download the Community Technical Preview of Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio Now

The six controls included in this CTP release are:

• Contacts Control (reference)
• IDLoginStatus Control (reference)
• IDLoginView Control (reference)
• MessengerChat Control (reference)
• SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer Control (reference)
• Map Control (reference)

The reference links show the MSDN description for these controls, and some SDK style documentation.

Source : http://dev.live.com/tools/