Map Suite Products
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The Map Suite product line includes several products designed to meet the wide array of requirements when it comes to developing GIS applications in .NET. Map Suite is currently comprised of eight different types of products including Controls, Components, Servers, Cloud Services, Extensions, Source Kits, Starter Kits and Data Libraries.
Contents |
Controls
Map Suite controls are the most popular products and are best suited for applications that require user interaction through a user interface. For example, if your application requires the user to zoom, pan, identify, analyze, edit or interact with the map, then using one of the Map Suite controls is the best option. Writing code against the Map Suite controls will be very familiar to most software developers because the paradigm is the same as other common controls like text boxes, grids, and buttons.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| WPF Desktop Edition | WPF map control for developing .NET WPF applications. |
| Desktop Edition | Winforms map control for developing .NET Winforms applications. |
| MVC Edition | MVC map control for developing ASP.NET MVC applications. |
| Web Edition | ASP.NET map control for developing browser-based ASP.NET applications. |
| Silverlight Edition | Silverlight map control for developing .NET Silverlight applications. |
Components
Map Suite components are well-suited for backend applications that don't require a user interface or any real-time user interaction with the map. Some examples of these types of applications include web services, Windows services and console applications. Developing with a component is slightly different than developing with a control, the main difference being that a component has no reliance on being embedded in a form or on a page within your application like a control does. This means that once you have a reference to the component DLL, all of the APIs will be available to use within your application.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| Services Edition | A .NET component that allows you to render maps, do spatial analysis and perform geometric functions. |
| Geocoder | A .NET component that allows you to geocode and reverse geocode addresses or other types of data. |
Servers
Server products provide a higher level of functionality in order to perform a specific task for consumption by other applications.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| WMS Server Edition | OGC Compliant WMS (Web Map Service) server allowing you to serve your maps up to many client applications. |
| World Map Kit WMS Server | This product ties the World Map Kit SDK together with the WMS Server Edition for an offering similar to the World Map Kit Online that allows you to host everything on your own servers. |
| GPS Tracking Server | This product serves as a web-based GPS tracking platform that's intended to be customized, extended and/or integrated by .NET developers. It includes a wide variety of enterprise-class GPS tracking and location intelligence features and is designed to be hosted on your own servers. Source code is also available as an option. |
Extensions
Utilizing a Map Suite extension must be done in conjunction with any of the core Map Suite products, like a control, component or server product. The main advantage of using a Map Suite extension is that it allows you to easily plug-in additional functionality and capabilities to be used within your application. The possibilities for extensions are endless, but some of the more common types of extensions include functionality to read specialized data formats or data providers, perform specific tasks like generating routes or driving directions, or providing an out-of-the-box base map for the entire world.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| Routing | Generates routes and turn-by-turn directions based on your map data. |
| Spatial Data Extension | Adds the ability to read from ArcSDE 9.3 geodatabases. |
| World Map Kit SDK | Provides all source code and map data to render World Map Kit base maps. |
Cloud Services
Cloud based services leverage cloud computing technology to offer scalable and reliable solutions to be integrated into to your application seamlessly. Since all of the data and computing is done in the cloud, all you need to do is write a few lines of code to wire up the functionality inside your app.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| World Map Kit Online | A cloud-based WMS server that serves up the World Map Kit base maps. |
Source Kits
The Map Suite Source Kit provides source code to several of the classes inside the Map Suite products. This allows you to see what's going on under the hood and extend these classes for your own customized needs and API implementations.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| Map Suite Source Kit | C# source code to several of the Map Suite base classes. |
Starter Kits
Map Suite Starter kits are designed to show developers the best practices to use when building applications with Map Suite. Starter kits include source code, which gives developers a fast and easy way to start building their own custom application on top of what is already built. Do you have some suggestions for future starter kits? If so, please feel free to post your ideas on the Map Suite Discussion Forums.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| Vehicle Tracking Starter Kit | A starter kit utilizing Map Suite Web Edition to show best practices when building a web-based vehicle tracking application. |
Data Libraries
ThinkGeo's data library offerings are made up of raw datasets that can be used in conjunction with other Map Suite products or on a stand alone basis.
| Product Name | Product Description |
|---|---|
| Icon Library | A complete set of professional icons designed for a wide array of applications. |
| USA Map Data | A raw Shapefile dataset covering the United States. |
| World Data | A raw Shapefile dataset covering the world. |
Product Diagram
The diagram below provides a visual representation of how some of the different Map Suite products fit together and the different types of applications that they are designed for.
