A interesting thread at : http://greatmaps.codeplex.com/discussions/252531
Apparently google has asked the developer to remove support for google maps from the open source API because it uses undocumented methods (which are obviously quite openly documented by third parties all over the internet).
Two questions:
Is there no legal way to make google maps applications without using the provided javascript / flex apis?
If so aren't there a lot of applications out there that do this illegally? (even mapinfo 10 has google maps support)
PS: Found the documentation for this : http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html
10.1 Restrictions on How You May Use the Maps API(s). Except as explicitly
permitted in Section 8 (Licenses from
Google to You) or the Maps APIs
Documentation, you must not (nor may
you permit anyone else to) do any of
the following:
10.1.1. General Restrictions.
(a) No Access to Maps API(s) except through the Service. You must not
access or use the Maps API(s) or any
Content through any technology or
means other than those provided in the
Service, or through other explicitly
authorized means Google may designate.
For example, you must not access map
tiles or imagery through interfaces or
channels (including undocumented
Google interfaces) other than the Maps
API(s).
So any application that doesn't either call the javascript / flex / webservice api is illegally using it UNLESS google approved the application (like the iphone maps application). This is bad for small time developers.
Based on my non-legal background, with some small experience working with the Google API, and google itself, I would say:
No there is no legal way, unless you can get Google to agree, which they won't.
Yes there are lots of applications which do this illegally, however there are also some which do so legally.
Related
I am developing a winform application.I want to provide support for Dropbox in my application. Since my application is .net 3.5 based. I can't use the Dropbox SDK. So, I will be using the rest API. But there are two sets of Dropbox API V1 and V2 for Dropbox. So, are V2 API's stable enough, so that I develop my application using them or should I use the V1 API's.
Answering your question is not that easy since you have to factor in a number of considerations you do not provide information on. Skill level, product time constraints etc all play a role here.
That being said, I have used API V2 but there are some teething issues at times and support / updates are not always lighting quick. API V1 on the other hand have plenty of examples and community support is readily accessible. So my answer would be to use V1 if you favor stability and support over being on the latest release. Even if you use V1 I dont believe you have to fear the API being depreciated very soon, Dropbox has in the past given plenty of notice before they drop support for a API version.
I am trying to run Google Earth in a c# application. I did some research and found that the Google Earth API will stop working on December 12, 2015, however, my c# application needs to work longer than that. Is there a way to import Google Earth into a C# Application without using this API?
There are several alternatives. As stated in this thread, you can use:
Cesium
D3js
Kartograph
Another alternative is Google Maps API.
These may not be a perfect match, but depending on your requirements, they may suit your needs well enough.
As to the C# aspect of it, you will need to dig deeper into whichever option you prefer, but I doubt it will be much more complicated than dealing with Google Earth API.
Note: The "Plug pulling" on Google Earth API happened due to security issues. For more info go here
Has anyone tried to integrate DISQUS into a Windows 8 store app? Or do we need to build around the DISQUS API?
We have an existing blog site that uses DISQUS and I'm currently building a Win8 app in XAML+C# that displays the same blog items (and have the comments functionality as well).
We haven't released this officially yet, but there's a public API wrapper that is compatible with Windows Store apps here: https://github.com/ryanvalentin/DisqusApiPortable
In general, there are a few things to think about when creating a commenting experience:
Authentication with the API - you need to have a server to receive the callback/request the access token. More information on that here: http://disqus.com/api/docs/auth/
Listing comments. The main limitation here is that there's no public API endpoint for showing threaded comments like you see in the embedded product. You would have to show a flat list of comments instead, sorted either oldest or newest.
Posting comments. This requires some care to make the experience pleasurable, including proper communication when a user encounters errors.
Additionally you can add comment voting, thread favoriting and almost anything else using the public API. This documentation covers general API usage that the wrapper enables: http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1104798
Lastly, you might consider using a web view control to load the standard Disqus javascript embed. For that I'd follow these instructions: http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/472096
I found one .net wrapper for google maps api v3 here.
But in that link it has not mentioned weather it supports API V3 or not.
Also can some one point me towards using this dll in asp.net mvc 2 application?
Not sure how useful this answer is but here I go.
I wouldnt choose any wrapper out there without doing some research about the same. From the url that you shared looks like there is only 1 contributor to the project, also the dwnld count on the latest api is 117 which I dont think is a great number to warrant its use, there have only been 3 issues reported so far and from the looks of it they are inquiries or feature requests (not sure if it means that there are no bugs in the project or it hasn't been used).
Anyways having said that there are commercial wrappers out there which support google maps. I can think of ThinkGeo for one. see if that is within your budget.
Now to your dll question. Just adding a reference in your web project should do the trick and then probably creating a seprate controller that serves your map. Is that what you wanted?
.NET wrapper libraries for the Google Maps API :
GoogleApi
google-maps
https://stackoverflow.com/a/61531795
I want to use one of this services for maps in my website. Which do you think I should go for provided that the application is writen in C#. Which is the best SDK for working with this services in C#.
use great maps api instead it is an open source project and very useful. You can change the maps from bing,yahoo to google maps.Of course you should take the api key for google and bing. The documentation is not enough but i think it is very easy to use. Hope this helps.
This is somewhat subjective; however, go for what you believe would provide the best service to your "customers" (whoever they may be). I would not let your determination be based on what "SDK is best" per se, as you can find a hundred examples out there to do both bing maps and google maps. As far as popularity, I would imagine google maps takes the cake:
Try this google maps example: here
I suggest taking a look at this:
http://www.jonasson.org/maps/
I had to make the same decision a couple of years ago, and when using this it was clear that Google Maps had much better satellite imagery, and road data than Bing Maps (specifically in the locations our customers would be using it)
The Bing Maps API is coded in a very familiar .Net fashion. Although its all JavaScript, the Google API feels more like a Java implementation (as you might expect). This take some time to get your head around, but shouldn't really be an issue.
I found the Maps Group on Google excellent as a resource for research and queries.
UPDATE:
Google released v 3 of their API recently and its supports street view as part of the maps API. Pretty compelling reason to use it.
For my needs (and yours may well be very different) the parts of the API I use are easiest to access via Javascript in both cases. The big win for me in the app I'm working on right now is the Silverlight control for Bing maps, and the ease of integration into a WP7 app.