Virtual Earth Mobile in CF application

[Lonifasiko]

Hi,

I'm dealing with the idea of showing the user in my CF application his
exact localization in a map.
I've read and downloaded Virtual Earth Mobile from
http://viavirtualearth.com/vve/Gallery/VEMobile.ashx .
I run the application in my Windows Mobilñe 2003 device but could not
connect to the GPS device. Always throwed me an error saying that
"could not obtain any GPS info" or something similar. In order to debug
the problem, and as my final purpose was to integrate this localization
capacity in my own application, I took a look at the source code
offered in the site. Downloaded it and tried to open the solution with
Visual Studio 2005 when the IDE prompted me:

"Error retrieving information from user datastore. Platform not
found.". After that first error, the second one says that "The project
could not be opened because it refers to a device platform that does
not exist in your datastore".

Has anybody experienced this problem when trying to take a look at the
Virtual Earth Mobile source code?
I would really like to digg into this source code to understand how the
application works. Then, the idea would be to add Virtual Earth
Mobile's functionality to my application.

I would be really grateful if anybody could give me any hints around
this concrete problem, Virtual Earth Mobile or any other possible way
to show the user in my CF application where he currently is.

Thanks very mcuh in advance.

 

[Peter Foot [MVP]]

The project is built with the Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK - if you install this
first you will then be able to open the solution.

Peter

--
Peter Foot
Device Application Development MVP
www.peterfoot.net | www.inthehand.com


Hi,

I'm dealing with the idea of showing the user in my CF application his
exact localization in a map.
I've read and downloaded Virtual Earth Mobile from
http://viavirtualearth.com/vve/Gallery/VEMobile.ashx .
I run the application in my Windows Mobilñe 2003 device but could not
connect to the GPS device. Always throwed me an error saying that
"could not obtain any GPS info" or something similar. In order to debug
the problem, and as my final purpose was to integrate this localization
capacity in my own application, I took a look at the source code
offered in the site. Downloaded it and tried to open the solution with
Visual Studio 2005 when the IDE prompted me:

"Error retrieving information from user datastore. Platform not
found.". After that first error, the second one says that "The project
could not be opened because it refers to a device platform that does
not exist in your datastore".

Has anybody experienced this problem when trying to take a look at the
Virtual Earth Mobile source code?
I would really like to digg into this source code to understand how the
application works. Then, the idea would be to add Virtual Earth
Mobile's functionality to my application.

I would be really grateful if anybody could give me any hints around
this concrete problem, Virtual Earth Mobile or any other possible way
to show the user in my CF application where he currently is.

Thanks very mcuh in advance.

 

[Lonifasiko]

Hi Peter,

I'm afraid it's not so easy.....I've got Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC
SDK installed in my PC, so, from what you say, project should be opened
and I still cannot open it with Visual Studio.

I've also tried to repair "Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK" installation just in
case, but no success again.

Finally edited .csproj file and notices that the applicatio targets
"Smartphone"! I think that's the problem! I'm now downloading and
installing Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone SDK. I'll post back when I
finish Smartphone SDK installation and try again to open the project.

Anyway, the Virtual Earth Mobile site says that "Virtual Earth Mobile
(VEM) is an application for Pocket PC 2003, Smartphone 2003, and
Windows Mobile 5.0 devices".

Thus, I should be able to debug in my Windows Mobile 2003 device to see
what's causing that error when executing the application.

Regards.

 

[Wolfgang Hauer]

Hi!

AFAIK the source would not run, because the source is old and MS has changed
its tile server logic.

Wolfgang

 

[Lonifasiko]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

Finally, after installing Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone SDK, I've been
able to open the project.

Then I've run into many problems with the source code, although finally
achieved to compile. How? Updated from CF 1.0 to 2.0, changed target
platform and other things.

Nevertheless, noticed that by code GPS functionality is disabled when
the device runs OS below Windows Mobile 5.0. My device runs Windows
Mobile 2003, so I suppose won't work never.

Main own experience with the source code and your post confirm my
thoughts: This source code is antique enough not to work anymore.

Then, do you know if anybody has continued playing with this code and
updating it so that the application can continue using Virtual Earth?
Or at least, would you be able to recommend me any other possibility to
show the user in a detailed map where he currently is, based on the
latitude/longitude values adquired from a GPS device? Would be nice to
hear somebody has done it!

Thanks very much.

 

[Lonifasiko]

Hi again,

After installing the .cab file of Virtual Earth Mobile in a Windows
Mobile 5 device, and after configuring properly my PDA and GPS
Bluetooth connection, I've been able to see where I was! Nice, really
nice!

Soft-reset the device, tried again and the application is not able to
"locate me" again. Why? It has worked before! I now see the message I
mention in my first post of this thread: "Unable to obtain a location
from a GPS device". Incredible but true!

Moreover, yet another test: I installed same software in my Windows
Mobile 2003 iPAQ. Of course, all I can see it's the same message. In
this case, could be because iPAQ uses Widcomm Bluetooth Stack and
Virtual Earth Mobile application cannot obtain nothing from the GPS
because it just simply does not even see it?

All this is related to the .cab file, that is, to the back box
application available for download. Therefore, if I'm having trouble
just with this "finished application", imagine with the source code!

I''ve tried deploying source code in both the devices but I don't see
anything positive!

I'm quite desperated with maps being showed in PDAs. It's horrible! I'm
sure somebody has displayed maps in a PDA. Virtual Earth, Google Maps,
don't mind the technology, don't mind if I must pay a reasonable price.
I just want to show a detailed map to the user.

Thanks very much in advance.